Photo 52 Project - Week 8 (Autumn) & Week 9 (Favorite Disney Picture)

I guess I should be a little stricter about keeping these weeks in a row.  LOL!  I'm still just getting started with Photoshop Elements.  I haven't been using my DLSR much in the last two months, but I have plenty of pictures from previous excursions to choose from.  Right before Halloween, I went on a bus trip to Sleepy Hollow and toured the cemetery.   Our tour guide was great, and I took tons of pictures.  I would love to go back again, because there's just so much to see!  We also saw The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze, which was really cool.  If you ever have an opportunity to do either one, I highly recommend them.

I took this first picture at a park by my mom's house.  There's a nice pond to walk around, in addition to everything else.  I took my DSLR with me when we went for a walk.  I love the fall foliage and took this picture looking up into one of the trees.  I tweaked the color a bit

in Photoshop, and I think it came out pretty cool.

One day I hope to be able to take my DSLR on a Disney trip, but I didn't this time around.  My Canon PowerShot is light and easy to fit in a smallish purse, plus it has an awesome zoom on it.  When we went in 2010, I took quite a few great closeups of the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom.

On the trip we took in November, I didn't feel like I took as many pictures, but I took over 1,200!  I couldn't believe it.  I had about 300 of my favorites printed to put in photo albums.  This picture is my favorite Cinderella Castle picture.  We had a nice spot on the Hub in front of the castle.  It wasn't the best spot for taking pictures of the fireworks, but we did get to see the Celebrate the Magic show really well.  We had a nice view of the fireworks as well, but if I was really serious about taking pictures, I would have chosen a spot further back.  Anyway, timing is

everything, and I think this one came out really nice.  The castle looks so pretty with the Dream Lights, too.   I'll try to post a few more pictures of my Disney trip when I can.  I'd like to post a few pictures of the Sleepy Hollow trip as well.

Photo 52 Project - Week 7 (Black & White)

So I've been a little lax these last few weeks.  I haven't stopped taking pictures, but for the last few weeks, they've been mostly pictures of my family.  I did take some pictures over the last few weeks that I might post soon, but probably not part of my weekly challenge.

Now that we're getting into my favorite season, I'll be taking my camera out with me even more.  I have a bus trip to Sleepy Hollow coming up at the end of October.  I'm very excited about that one.  I've always wanted to go up there but haven't gotten around to it.

Today I decided to start shooting in RAW.  My camera has the option of shooting in both RAW and JPEG at the same time, so it's like training wheels for me.  I downloaded a trial of Photoshop Elements, and I spent part of tonight playing around with a couple of pictures.  Here's one of my cat, Felix.  I adjusted the white balance and changed the file to black & white.  I have to say that I was surprised at what a big difference playing with the white balance made.  I thought the picture looked nice as it was, but when I changed it around a little, it looked much nicer.
Tomorrow night I'll play around with a few more pictures to see what else I can do.  I can't wait to see what other options the program has.  

Photo 52 Project - Week 5 (Self-Portrait) & Week 6 (Portrait)

Two weeks ago we took our two older nieces to the Long Island Children's Museum.  They've  changed a few things around, and for their rotating exhibit, they have Alice in Wonderland, which was pretty nice.  The most popular exhibit all around is the bubble exhibit, of course.  Even my husband and I like playing with that one.  ;-)

Unfortunately, there was a birthday party going on, so when we went upstairs we couldn't check out the indoor beehive.  They do have some cool mirrors up there too, so we checked those out.  I took a few pictures with one of them, and I decided it would be a cool idea for a self-portrait.  The glass was a little dirty in parts, but I couldn't help that.

Afterward my brother-in-law and youngest niece came over for dinner.  For whatever reason, my nieces to play in our front yard over the back.  So after dinner I went to the front yard with them to play.  When the baby came out, I settled down on the grass next to her and started taking pictures.  The older girls wanted to recreate some Christmas pictures they had two years ago, where they were lined up on top of each other, but the baby wanted nothing to do with that.  LOL!

The baby is fascinated with planes.  Every time she hears one, she has to point it out.  I took a cute picture of her from behind pointing at a plane.  This is the best portrait I can post here at the moment, but I plan to 

keep working on it. 

I'm not sure what subject I'm going to choose for this coming week, but I'm studying my list.  

Photo 52 Project - Week 3 (Clouds) & Week 4 (Nature)

 My long weekend was so busy that I didn't have time to post Week 3, but I did take plenty of pictures!  Most of them were of my nieces, which I won't post publicly, but I did see some amazing clouds during sunset on July 4th.  My picture didn't capture exactly how beautiful the clouds were, but I thought it came out close enough when I considered how unprepared I was.  If I had more time, I probably could have used my tripod and set a slightly longer exposure to catch the color in the clouds more accurately.

This morning I took a class for Canon camera owners.  It was a basics class, and it was to take the user away from the "Basic Zone Modes" (automatic) and use the "Creative Zone Modes" (more manual control.)
We received a really nice workbook and covered most of it.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to the last few chapters, due to time constraints.  The instructors really took their time and wanted to make sure we understood each topic before moving on, so it was understandable.  There's also an intermediate class, and I'm hoping to register for that in the Fall if they offer it.

On the way home I stopped by the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery to test out what I'd learned.  If it seems like I take a lot of pictures there, I do.  We have a membership there, and we take my nieces there quite a bit when it's nice out.  There's a marshy kind of area (I think) that runs along the side, and I saw quite a few of these Herons there.  I took quite a few pictures before I went up to the church in back and took pictures of the swan family in the water there.  I was mostly practicing selecting my auto focus points and playing with Aperture Priority.  It was a whole different experience being up there by myself.

I kind of like nature photography, although it can be frustrating to get a good shot of the subject.  I also had a good unintentional photography session with one of my nieces last weekend.  She's 7 years old, and once you start talking and joking with her, she kind of forgets about the camera and goes about her business.  She also is quite a ham when she's in a good mood.  She's currently the most cooperative one out of the three.  We bought her an archery set from the Disney store for her birthday, so I took some pictures while she practiced in my front yard.

I'm going through my list sort of randomly, so I'll have to study it to figure out what this week's goal will be.

Photo 52 Project - Week 2 (What makes me smile)

Week 2 is What Makes Me Smile.

Last weekend we took our nieces to the local carousel.  I was dying to play with my new 50mm/f1.8 lens, and I think I got some nice shots.

These pictures make me smile for two reasons:  we always have so much fun when we go on, and it reminds me of my childhood.  (I think the carousel from my childhood is better though - http://www.forestparkcarousel.com/ - Mainly because it's not just horses.)  This is Nunley's Carousel.  It's been moved a few times, but its current home is by the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Museum Row.

I also went to Old Westbury Gardens last week while I was on vacation.  I plan to post a few of those pictures soon.  I wasn't entirely happy with them, because I feel that some of them are too bright.  It was a cloudy but bright out, and I think that I should have played with the white balance a little.  I'm still learning about that, though.  I want to experiment with shooting in RAW, since I'm learning that it would make adjustments like white balance easier.    I was happy with the way most of the flower pictures came out, though, so that's probably what I'll post here.

Photo 52 Project - Week 1 (Pets)

 After some research, I've come up with 52 (plus a few) ideas for my project.  I don't plan to number them, because I don't feel that forcing myself to come up with a picture is going to help me stick with it.  This offers me a little more flexibility with my plans.  My goal is to use my Canon Rebel most of the time, in order to learn the features better.  Sometimes that might not be possible, but I'm going to do my best.

So the topic for Week 1 is Pet(s).  This is my cat, Felix.

  As I was having my lunch yesterday, working on my list, my cat was napping in his bed, as usual.  He got up to stretch and decided that napping on his scratching box looked better.  To get my shots, I got down on the floor near him and started shooting.  I think I disturbed him, but  he was posing for me after a minute.  I even got some pictures of  him in his "cute mode," where he shows us his belly before he got bored and went back to napping.

The second picture I took with my Canon PowerShot.  One of my topics for the project is "sun flare," and I decided to fool around with the PowerShot in Manual mode.  I took a few shots of flowers back-lit by the sun, and when I was reframing the shot, my camera focused on the reflection of my neighbor's skylight.  I thought the effect was pretty cool.  

New Beginnings

I've been doing research for my 52 Week Photo Project, and I think I'm going to compile my own list.  This way I can tailor it to suit my own interests and problem areas.

Since the weather has been so cool for June, I've taken advantage and done a lot of gardening.  It's amazing how quickly weeds can grow, while the things I've planted take so long to fill out.  I was able to trim most of my rose bushes this year, except for a few in a back area that needed major weeding.  I'm still not done back there.  I call that area the "Grandma Garden," because it seems to have mostly flowers that kids give their grandmothers on holidays, like Easter and Mother's Day.  There are some hyacinth and lilies, along with some irises.  The irises are in dire need of transplanting, which will have to wait until I decide where to move them.  The roses in that area are English roses, and they haven't been in great shape since I inherited them when we moved in.

I took a general DSLR 101 class with my friend Jean at a local camera store.  They're also having a Canon class in July, which I am considering.  While I know the basics of photography, this time around I would really like to learn what all the dials and options on my camera can do.

I took this picture of the roses in my front yard after it rained the day before my class.  Unfortunately, it's been raining here for most of the week, and I haven't been able to get outside and practice.  This week I plan on going to a local botanical garden with Jean to get in some camera time.  I should be sharing that experience at the end of the week.