365 | fifty

{one}

I snapped this really quickly on this morning when I looked down and saw that the temperature was 1 degree.  It's out of focus and all kinds of things wrong with it.  And it's like the third time I've used my phone instead of my big camera like I had planned.  But the context was perfect for the prompt and I wanted to remember how cold it was that morning - which is actually deceiving since it's always warmer in the garage and the temperature reading in the car always dips down after we start driving.  I'm sure it was in the negative digits.

{technicalities}

f/2.4

1/20

iso 80

4.12mm (iphone camera)

flashback to fourth grade

Air quotes

Apparently it's the "cool" thing in 4th grade.

Or at least with this 4th grader.

At least

There is rarely a conversation with him that does not involve the appearance of this face and hands to illustrate his point.

365 | twenty-eight thru forty-nine

I've been trying to catch up with the 365 images by posting a few a day, but I'm realizing that even at that pace, I am so behind that I will still probably be posting snow pictures in May.

So I'm posting a big catch-up post here without all of the dialogue...just images.

And then I will try to be better about keeping up and posting more detailed versions in the future.

You're good with that, right?  Awesome!

Also, I really do keep up with it daily on Instagram, so follow me there if you want!

Here we go.

28 | 365

{number}

29 | 365

{keepsake}

30 | 365

{i made this}

31 | 365

{saturday morning}

32 | 365

{on my table}

33 | 365

{comfy}

34 | 365

{starts with p}

35 | 365

{pink}

36 | 365

{old school}

37 | 365

{walk}

38 | 365

{accessory}

39 | 365

{chaos}

40 | 365

{write}

41 | 365

{curly}

42 | 365

{pattern}

43 | 365

{my view today}

44 | 365

{love}

45 | 365

{valentine}

46 | 365

{macro}

47 | 365

{makes me happy}

48 | 365

{dessert}

49 | 365

{hidden}

365 | twenty-seven

{workspace}

I spend a good amount of my time here.
Editing photos
Answering emails
Working on lessons for children's ministry
Scheduling for children's ministry
Budgeting
Paying bills
Planning and organizing
Juggling calendars
And many other tasks required to run a household.

Note the roll of film on the desk.
Found that in a camera that I doubt had been touched since 2005.
Trying to decide if I want to try to develop it or not.
Crazy.


{technicalities}

I really like this image and the soft tones.  My favorite part of it, though, is that you can see the light and the blue sky from the window reflecting on the monitor.

f/2.8

1/200

iso 400

35mm

365 | twenty-six

{what inspires me}

It's actually what inspires Elliott.
He loves creating music.

{technicalities}

I like the composition and placement of the focus so that Elliott is out of focus but you can still tell that he is working on the computer.  Also happy with the way the camera angle of the Machine creates leading lines to Elliott.  I do wish that the angle showed more of what the Machine looked like from the top instead of just from the end, but I liked the leading lines better.  I also like the contrast of the blue in his sweatshirt with the black on the Machine and the green on the walls.

f/2.8

1/100

iso 400

50mm

365 | twenty-five

{sweet tooth}

{technicalities}
I don't remember if I focused-recomposed with this or not, but I most likely did and think that I should have toggled the focus point instead since I was shooting with such a wide aperture.  I don't like the glowing highlights on the wrapper and feel like the focus is very soft because of the wide aperture.  I was probably shooting this very late afternoon and would have been better to just wait until the next morning.

f/1.8

1/160

iso 400

50mm

365 | twenty-four

{a selfie}

I like to hide behind the camera often.

{technicalities}
This image is nothing spectacular to me.  The focus seems pretty good, but the composition is nothing to write home about.  Subject right in the middle of the frame.  I do think the white balance isn't bad for having a few different lighting sources in a very dark bathroom.  I wish the background was more simple.

On a side note, I can see in this picture why I have an issue with images being crooked - the way I'm standing with one shoulder up definitely makes it so easy to do that.  I can even see that the camera is crooked in this image.  Hold it straight, lady!

f/2.2

1/100

iso 400

50mm

365 | twenty-three

{frame}

One of our good friends is helping Brian finish the basement.
And I believe they are having an awesome time doing it too.
So thankful for them.

{technicalities}
I tried framing several different things around the house for this prompt.  Then when the guys left to go get more supplies for the basement I snuck down there and knew I wanted to frame the saw with the ladder.  I loved the light that was coming in through the window, and it was a bonus that the ladder was blue to complement the yellow in the saw.  What I love most of all is the story that it tells about finishing the basement.

I'm happy about the sharpness of the saw, so I think I did well with the focus.  I'm trying to slow down and really be careful with that.  The exposure is good too.  A couple things I would change....I wish you couldn't see the white on the box on the left of the image, and I am also distracted by the label on the ladder.  I would try to clone those out or maybe decrease some exposure in those areas to create a bit of a vignette to hide those in the shadows so that the focus is more on the saw.  I did try to crop the white of the box out, but it was cutting off the top of the ladder and losing an important part of the story.

f/2.8

1/125

iso 400

35mm

365 | twenty-two

{weather}

gray winter skies

{technicalities}
The bare trees and gray skies definitely give me the feeling of winter.  I think it might look even more wintry if the white balance was cooled off a bit.
The biggest thing that I learned from this image was that I have tons of dust on my camera sensor!  All of the dark gray spots in the image right above the trees are dust spots that are only evident at narrower apertures (f/11 and higher is what I've noticed).

f/11

1/160

iso 100

70mm (24-70)

365 | twenty-one

{looking down}

books full of favorite photos and memories

{technicalities}
love the perspective and the simple colors and tones here.
And of course the selective focus

f/2.8

1/160

iso 800

50mm (24-70 lens)

365 | twenty

{light}

finding interesting light in our house during the winter

{technicalities}

I like the interesting light pattern created here, but I'm not sure I like the composition of the image.  I feel like my eye isn't really sure where it's supposed to be looking.  I like the contrast of the tones.

f/2.8

1/640

iso 160

70 mm (24-70 lens)

365 | nineteen

{in my cup}

chai tea
everyday

{technicalities}

Really like the color and contrast here and how the tea really pops.
I feel like the white rim of the cup is very soft, so I would stop down the aperture a bit to increase the depth of field to include the rim of the cup next time.  It's not bad, though.

f/2.2

1/125

iso 250

50mm

365 | eighteen

{relax}

At the end of the day, this is usually my spot on the couch.
Although, as I'm sitting here typing this, Brian is in this spot and I'm in his.  Something is not right about that.
That blanket is my favorite one to curl up with right now.

{technicalities}

I think this image is still very underexposed.
The color is a little off, also.  It looks like the overhead light might have been on, so that is probably messing with the white balance here.

f/2.2

1/100

iso 400

50mm

365 | seventeen

was supposed to be {leading lines}

but I was too busy enjoying this little guy's first birthday!

{technicalities}
My favorite image from this birthday.
Absolutely love the expression on his face and the frosting-covered bow-tie.
There's not much I don't like about this.

f/2.2

1/250

iso 200

50mm

365 | sixteen

{shoes}

a sign that my hubby is home

{technicalities}
I'm not a fan of the angle of this shot.  It makes the shoes look much larger than they really are.
I do like the simple colors and tones in the image.  Next time I would use the 50mm lens so that I could open the aperture wider and decrease the ISO.  The high ISO is causing way more noise than I would like.

f/2.8

1/160

iso 1250

58mm (24-70 lens)

365 | fifteen

{to-do}

does the list ever end?
I started a new little system this year that is really working for me so far.
I will elaborate in a later post, but it involves a binder, Google calendar and printed calendar pages.

{technicalities}
Again, much in love with the selective focus.
Wish you could see more clearly what is on the to-do list.
I also like the color that the items in the background bring to the image.

f/2.0

1/160

iso 250

50mm

365 | fourteen

Oh my goodness, I'm so behind in posting these.

I have been keeping up on shooting and editing daily and uploading to Instagram, but epic fail on keeping up with the blog!

{kindness}

kind words from a friend today

{technicalities}
I like the selective focus on the top of the phone.
I find that I'm using this in most of my photos.
I would have focused more on the text message, but I wanted to retain some privacy since it would be on a couple different social media sites.

f/1.8

1/100

iso 400

50mm

365 | thirteen

{three}

My grandma's crystal.

I really do not have any memories of this crystal, because Grandma never used it.

She started collecting it right before she was married, but she was always afraid it would break so she never used it.  I can totally see her saying this, too.

We have used it a few times at our house, and I, too, find myself fearing that it will break.

{technicalities}

I really like the composition of this - how the glasses are lined up, leading the eye across the image.  My other favorite part of the image is the placement of the focus and the shallow depth of field causing the pretty blur of the front and back crystal glasses.  

I also love the light and how you can see the reflection of the glasses in the table, which doesn't seem to have an end.

I do not like how the edge of the curtain seems to cut the image in half.  Next time I would either pull the curtain back more or close it so that there is not the harsh intersection of dark and light in the middle of the image.

f /2.0

1/125

iso 160

50mm

365 | twelve

{starts with j}

Well, this was somewhat uncomfortable.

I wanted to get a shot of myself, because that rarely happens.

Being the only one here, though, I had to set up the tripod and use the remote, which was actually much easier than I thought it might be.

The most difficult part was setting the focus.

Since I wasn't sitting in the place that I wanted to focus on when setting everything up, I had to find something that would work in place of me.

I came up with this setup

It looks like me right?

That worked for a while, and I was able to get these images.

They're not spectacular, but I can say I don't have any like them!

But then I moved a bit and this happened

Some out of focus cheesiness.

So I went in search of some other home decor to be a stand-in

The chair worked better, because I kept leaning forward when I would take the picture, but the camera was still focused on where the frame was (behind me).

Because focus falls back, I needed to have something closer to focus on.

I couldn't move the frame closer, because it didn't have anything to hold it up and kept falling over.

The chair worked perfectly.

 These are the end results

 A pretty genuine, typical smile I think.

 Not my favorite pose.

I think I look like I'm up to no good, but I love the light.

It had been a very overcast morning, so there was very soft diffused light coming from the window, and then all of a sudden the sun broke through for a few minutes and cast this light pattern through the blinds.

And I just wanted you to be able to laugh with me over the fluffy hair in this one.

I promise it was not windy in my living room.

Not sure what happened there!

Setting up this shoot was a great learning experience.

I don't know that it's ever comfortable to have your picture taken.

I don't mind if someone else is in the shot with me, but there's just something uncomfortable about having one taken by yourself.  It's definitely been good for me to get in front of the camera and remember what it's like not to always be behind the camera.

And as strange as it seemed to be sitting in my living room taking pictures of myself, it's way more unsettling to actually share them here.  Definitely stretching myself here!

This process was also a great refresher in using the wireless remote, and a great reminder to use it more often.  It had been a long time since I had used it, so I had to kind of relearn, but that thing is awesome!

The shot I actually chose for the 365 project

{technicalities}

Specifically to this shot, I like the shadows and depth created by the side light from the window.  It's much more interesting to me than flat light - although I do love that also.  However, I think I would have turned my head a little more toward the window so that the right side of my face had a little less shadows.  I also would have moved that piece of hair that is causing a shadow on my left eye.  The crazy hair on my right is bugging me too.  I like that I decided to lean in toward the camera.  It's almost as if I'm having a conversation with the viewer.  I'm not sure about the straight-on camera angle though. Next time I would turn my shoulders a bit to keep them from looking so broad.  Of course, this probably would not bother me if it were anyone else :)  

Overall, the images in this shoot have shown me that I still need to pay better attention to shadows and catchlights as well as practice getting the most flattering pose.  I do like the simplicity of the background and the single pop of color with the sweater.

f 2.0

1/125

ISO 320

50mm

365 | eleven

{my favorite thing}

I have a deep love for Lightroom.

It's the perfect marriage of my love for organizing and my love of photography.

{technicalities}

Again, I like the top down perspective of this shot.  I also like that the monitor looks like it's angled a bit, encouraging your eye to look through the image from left to right.  I can still see a bit of purple fringe in places and need to work on eliminating that.  This also makes me wish it was fall again :)

f 2.2

1/80

ISO 400

35mm