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

365 | ten

{warm}

I'm not sure how my feet stayed warm in the winter before riding boots came back into style.
My perpetually cold toes are incredibly thankful.

I love them.

{technicalities}
I like the perspective of looking down at the boots and that the top of the boots are out of focus.  I'm not thrilled with the centered composition, but I'm not sure what I would do to make it more interesting.  I'm sure there are plenty of things....I'm just at a loss as to how to make it something I want to look at more.  Maybe a different background.  And I do like negative space, so I think I might be happier if the boots were more to the right or lower right.

f 2.2

1/100

ISO 100

35mm

snowy skies

This was a beautiful end to our first snowy day.

I said on Instagram today that my ideal winter would include one good snow.

One where sledding was possible and fun.

One where a day off of school was necessary.

One where I could watch the snow fall from my window.

Today met all of those criteria

(although they were out of school anyway today).

And this sunset was the icing on the cake.

Now let's move on to spring!

365 | nine

{circle}

This is my favorite picture so far.

I was taking pictures of the prescription bottle for my Tamoxifen at the kitchen table, and I just happened to look up and see the circles made out of the bottom of this light fixture.  That's one of the things I love about this project.  I am more and more seeing everyday mundane things around my house as art.  

{technicalities}

I love the tones in this photo.  The contrast of the bright white and the dark shadows, but a bit muted at the same time.  I really love the composition also. Again, I feel like my eye is drawn from the upper left to the lower right and left with the feeling that there is more since you can only see part of the remaining lights. And this was not intentional, but you can see the line of breakfast room windows reflected in the glass.  I'm even pretty happy with the focus and sharpness, which is rare for me.

f/2.0
SS 1/250
ISO 320

365 | eight

{simple}

Probably the simplest way to get healthier is to just drink more water.

Should be so easy.

I'm on a good path thanks to some encouragement from a friend, so I have hope that it will continue.

{technicalities}

I like the composition of this.  I like that your eye starts with the faucet in the upper left corner and is then drawn to the water in the lower right, connecting the two.  I also like how the water is really the only thing in focus.  I'm not super happy with the focus - I don't think it's super sharp.  I'm finding that it's getting more difficult to get really sharp photos in low light with my camera.

f/2.0
SS 1/100
ISO 500

my favorite cowboy

Did I ever share pictures from our trip to Yellowstone almost two years ago?

I don't remember.

Last week I was looking for some landscape images to use in a class I'm taking and came upon this photo again.

It is easily one of my favorite shots from that trip - possibly even my most favorite.

And it was taken with my iPhone.

I love love love my big camera, but the fact that my phone will take these kinds of shots is really awesome.

This was at a lodge in the Tetons.

We only stopped here because we needed a bathroom break.

Those views....so beautiful.

Now I need a vacation :)

365 | seven

{perspective}

I originally thought I would satisfy this prompt by literally shooting from a different perspective than just straight on.  But then I read this article Nothing is Wasted and it made me think about how I see things through different lenses - both literally and metaphorically.

I have three different lenses right now.

One is a 50mm lens.  That lens is supposed to "see" things how they actually are.  No distortions, not closer than they are, not wider than they are.  Just how they are. (this isn't really true for me, because it's a full-frame lens on my cropped-frame camera so it really sees a little more telephoto, but for the sake of this post, we're going with it).  I use this when I want a true-to-life, here and now, in-the-present view of things.

The second lens is a 70mm-300mm lens. This means that it "sees" things in the frame closer than they really are. (and much closer on my cropped-frame camera).  I love this lens for capturing close-ups of things that are seemingly far away.  I can sometimes see little details that would have otherwise been missed with a different lens.

The third one is a 35mm lens.  This is considered a wide angle lens.   It "sees" the forest, you might say.  I use this when I want to capture more of the environment in the image, when I think the things around the subject are just as important to include in the story.  It also distorts the scene a bit, making the center of the image a little more prominent than the edges, almost as if you are looking through a fishbowl.  The wider the lens, the more the distortion.  

So after reading the article, and thinking about these lenses, I started thinking about how they are very representative of how I (and probably everyone else) look at life and the world around us.

Sometimes I like to have the 50mm view.

Everything is just as it seems.  Whatever I see is exactly how it is.

This is the ideal to me, if things were always as they seemed.

But although I love this in photography, it doesn't help me much in life, to not look beyond what is right in front of me.

A lot of times I have the 70-300mm view.

I inspect things at a much closer view, study all the details.

Sometimes that is helpful.

Sometimes it's a hindrance.

I can easily get caught up in the details and miss the big picture.

Which brings me to the 35mm view.

The big picture view.

I think this one is the most difficult for me, but I don't know why.

I actually love this perspective in photography the most.

I love how it documents more of the story and gives that photojournalistic feel.

But for some reason, in real life, it's easier for me to look at things close up, one at a time, rather than a broad view of many things.  Maybe my right brain can multitask, but my left brain is lacking in that area - who knows.  But rest assured, I have plenty of people around me who help me out with this :).

I think each perspective is needed - both in life and photography.

And if you see my husband, you can let him know that I might need more perspectives in my arsenal.....like a 28mm or an 85mm or a 105mm.....

{technicalities}

I like this picture, especially how the background has a good blur so that you can focus on the subject, which is the lens.  I think the exposure is a little off - more light would have helped.  And I feel like the bright blurred spot in the upper right area (probably a reflection from a silver picture frame) is a bit distracting.  My eyes struggle with whether to look there or at the lens.  I wonder how it would have turned out if I had moved a bit so that the light was more at a 45 degree angle to the lens instead of 90.  Things to ponder :)