concrete and steel

The photography seminar was jam packed with information. First we took a look at our photographic roots, from the camera obscura to the Daguerreotype, and even into speculation of what the future holds.

.

There was a portion covering equipment, and a large chunk of time was given to post production, but it was all using an expensive editing program that I do not have, and do not intend to purchase any time soon. It was informative, nonetheless.

.

I came away from the seminar seeing that I was already using some of the techniques for better photography, but wishing that I had a fast (f 2.8) telephoto with built-in image stabilization. That fancy editing software and some of the latest hardware wouldn't hurt, too. For now, I plan to use my tripod and flash more, and look around at garage sales to see if I can buy $200,000,000 worth of Ansel Adams glass plates for $45.

.

The seminar's location was downtown, on the campus of the University of Chicago. Between sessions, I hurriedly took a snapshot of this rock pigeon. I like it, because concrete and steel and pigeons are good representations of the big city... and so is hurrying. Here is one thing that I did not expect: Attendees were informed that we needed to bring our camera, then surprisingly, we did not do any hands-on camera work for the seminar. Gotta go now... lots of work to catch up on.

playing with poseidon

S2 asked for help because he wanted to enter a LEGO® contest. The object is to build something based on a scenario and then submit a picture of it. This one is a robot with a trident and some other tool in his right hand. Somehow or other, this thing helps police catch thieves in their getaway cars.

.

I asked a few questions and tried to coach him in such a way that he ended up with his own concept, and promised I would help him take pictures. Hopefully, they are not looking for pro stuff or expert photos.

.

He really, really wants to win this thing, but I don't want him to hang all his hopes on the company's prize. If he is too fixed on that prize, he misses out on so much. Don't get me wrong; I want him to try to win, but not at the expense of missing out on the rest of the experience. I told him to enter, and even come up with multiple entries if that is allowed. I'll keep taking pictures and we can have fun together so that he finds a way to play like a winner, regardless of the outcome.

.

This idea of living in the moment is what a former pastor referred to as having the mindset of a "sojourner" versus "settler." It is not always easy to be fully engaged in the here and now, especially when a fixation with the destination consumes our vision. I hope he can learn this lesson.

.

(thinking) A trident for a robot?? He really likes that Greek Mythology game on the computer!

a very good day

Some of you know that the Craver household home educates our children. Most of what we do is home based curriculum, but there is a science camp up in Wisconsin that we use for Biology. It is a neat supplement to our educational program. I volunteered there as a camp counselor many moons ago. We went up to this place Saturday so that my daughter could dissect a frog. That meant that my son and I had from 8AM to 4PM to wander around on a perfect day.

.

S2 just received his first camera from a friend. It is a used, low-end compact, which is perfect for a starter camera. He is having a good time snapping pics of all kinds of stuff, so we decided to use the day for a photo safari of sorts. We both loved it!

.

We took pics of horses, birds, flowers, trees and bugs. The camp director is my friend, so I was given a special visitor's pass and roaming privileges camp, even though there were other programs going on at the same time.

.

It was pure delight to walk around with nothing to do but take random photos under blue skies. But it was over the top when my son said how much he appreciated what we were doing, and thanked me for getting him interested in photography. How cool is that! I am so glad that he and I can hang out together and enjoy similar things.

clepto clickery

I wonder how paid wedding photographers deal with other people taking pictures while they are on the job. This guy didn't seem to mind it. I wanted to capture a photo of the photographer, and so I approached them. He assumed I wanted to take a picture of the couple as he posed them, and told me it was okay. No; I just wanted his permission to take a picture of him taking a picture of them.

.

I could not presume to interfere with this person's work and snap a shot that he hopes to sell. That smacks of thievery to me. Any thoughts from you on this?

.

On the other hand, I am not at all opposed to the wedding guests bringing their own cameras to click away at whatever else captures their attention. After all, we use this time to catch up with friends and relatives who we might not have seen in a while. Those mini reunions may merit a megabyte here and there, but can't expect to be included in the formal wedding album.

Keep driving, Dad!

On Halloween, S2 went trick-or-treating with my Mrs, as I drove D2 to a friend's house. She wanted to get there as soon as possible, and during the drive, heard me thinking out loud about the moon and Venus and pulling over to set up the tripod. "Daaaaad... NO!" She sounded like someone admonishing their pet. (Good grief, where's the rolled up news paper or spray bottle?) I stayed the course, and resisted the urge to stop and take a few snapshots of the unbelievable sky scape. I only captured this image, because the car was stopped, so quickly, I rested the camera over the open window and hoped for the best.

.

It is a good thing too, because I don't think she could appreciate how much that meant to me, plus my old camera's disc drive was full, and it would have been worse to think I was carefully recording pictures and then find out that they weren't saved to the mini CD Rom.

.

Here is an earlier picture of that sky. It was probably 5 or 10 minutes after this shot, that I saw the most expressive colors over a large field with an unobstructed view.

Sky Watch Friday!

Saturdays are for sleeping in

...

sometimes.

.

The guys called a meeting, and we chose 7AM, because it is less likely to interfere with all of our schedules... except when that schedule involves sleeping in.

.

On the way to the meeting, I passed the field where we hold our soccer practices. There was an eerie mist hovering low on the pitch. The sky displayed soft, subtle, dreamy pastels, so I pulled over and snapped away a few "frames." (Can we still call them frames with digital photography?)

.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining about getting up for a 7AM meeting. I like the idea, even though I didn't get to sleep in. In fact, I had already been up and about that morning. My son, the barista had an opening shift that day. That means that I was up at 3:30 to wake him up and then drop him off for a 4:15 start time. Trying not to waste the starry opportunity, I set my camera lens-up on the asphalt at its longest exposure, and used the timer to attempt a photograph of the stars. (Sorry; I was too tired an lazy to identify any constellations.) In post-editing, I tried to make the image lighter, but it gets grainy and weird if I mess with it too much. I hope you can see it alright. [click on photos to enlarge]

.

(yawn) Would you care to divulge any experiences with astronomical photography at zero-dark-hundred?

.

Check out Sky Watch Friday by clicking on the badge.

.

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

.

parhelia

Driving home last Friday, I noticed what looked like a rainbow in the Western sky. It was much brighter in one spot, and I couldn't believe there weren't more people reacting to it. This phenomenon remained in my view the whole drive, and I pulled over several times to attempt a better shot. I think this event was visible for about 45 minutes! I couldn't wait to get home to show the kids, even though it might be hard to see through the trees at that time. I didn't know how to explain it to my Spanish speaking neighbors, except to point and say arco-iris (rainbow), even though I was sure this was something special, and not a common rainbow.

.

At one point, I pulled into a gas station and stood in the shadow of their big sign to capture the image without the sun's glare. People looked at me kind of funny until they saw what I was aiming for. The attendant even came outside to find out what was going on. It is not a rainbow, but a sun dog. I think this was the first time I ever saw one. I sure am glad to have captured a few images!

.

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/notabow.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/ice/sd.rxml

happy graduation

The Picassa™ photo editing program has an effect called Graduated Tint. I haven't used it much before, because I want my photos to look as much as possible like the whatever I saw, rather than a filtered or manipulated appearance. Aside from sunbursts, which are somewhat beyond my control, I hope to produce true-to-life images. But sometimes, our eyes can adjust to the clouds AND the darker subjects below as well. The camera can not.

.

You can see how the sky's details got bleached out of the original photos at the top of this collage. The Graduated Tint is over-done just a bit to accent its effect, but if we put just a touch of it into these photos, they would look more like the skies that my eyes beheld on those particular days.

.

What do you think? How do you feel about post-editing your photography? What have you found that works for you?

copper frog

A frog telephones a psychic hotline and is told, "You are going to meet a beautiful young girl who will want to know everything about you."

.

"Great," says the frog, "Will I meet her at a party?" "No," said the psychic, "Next year - in biology class." ...

(Arcamax joke.)

.

Back in the middle of June, I was taking pictures of the sky, and a friend walked up to me, pointed to this lawn ornament and said, "Take a picture of that." So I did. The sun was already going down; it was tricky to get the copper color right.

.

Is it bad that I think it's hideous? The decoration has nothing to do with anything. Somebody saw a patch of turf and decided that a copper amphibian, standing upright, holding a bucket of tiny flowers would be just the thing for this spot. Now if we had a copper theme, or a frog theme...

.

Anyhoo, this is where I was aiming the camera when this episode started:

.

Um... that's copper, right? Not bronze? 'Cause if it's bronze, that changes EVERYTHING!

Sky Watch Friday!

moving picture

It is probably wise that we do NOT get snap-happy, shooting photographs from behind the steering wheel of a motor vehicle. Can we agree to that?

.

...Unless of course, you just pulled up to a stop light and your spouse points and says, "Ooh, you should take a picture of that!"

.

(Cue Indiana Jones theme music and begin slow motion.) I opened her (pwr) window with the left hand and unbuckled the camera bag with the right, simultaneously slinging it up onto my lap. I grabbed both zippers in the middle and pulled them back to the corners. As quickly as I lifted the lid from the camera bag, one fluid move reached in the bag, grabbing the camera firmly, pressing the power button with my thumb, and picked it up to aim it while the other hand removed the lens cap.

.

(Stop music & slow motion) Let's go already, you digicam-a-saurus! This camera boots up so slow! Come on, come on, hurry before the light changes... YESSS! It's ready!!

.

(Resume music) Presets all good, aim, click, off, zip-zip, clip... the camera is stowed away again. The light turns green, and I'm completely done and ready to drive. My Mrs. and I glance at each other. Yup... we're gooood! (Music continues as we drive away--into the sunset.)

.

Big family reunion this weekend... I'll check back in when I get a chance.

.

New Sky Watch location:

Visit HERE to enter this week's Sky Watch Friday

perspective

This was D2's idea. I liked her picture so much, I snapped my own photo. I told her how much I liked the idea, but also that she could find something that would make an interesting shot. This hamster is only a few weeks old, but it looks huge because of the tiny furniture. It's a matter of perspective.

.

Naturally I have a Western mindset, since I was born and raised in the USA. This morning, I read something from a man who's world view is distinctively Eastern. I loved it!! He is from Korea. His main principles were familiar, but the way he communicated them was so different. I was able to gain a fresh understanding as if through somebody else's glasses.

.

Looking from where you stand, do I see what you see? Can I learn anything new about an objective truth by taking a different, subjective angle of sight?

.

Perhaps you have heard the Indian parable about the blind men and the elephant? Since they each only felt one part (leg, tail, side), their descriptions were completely distinct. I have heard people say that they were each right. My own opinion is that they were all wrong. The elephant is not like a tree. It is not like a rope. It is not like a wall. Sure, each of those descriptions has an element of truth. Nevertheless, they each fall short of the complete picture. These blind men need to learn from each other's perspective, if they want to get it right.

.

[Soapbox: Multiple perspectives is not universally beneficient. Some sources will be more reliable than others. God's self-revelation (i.e., Jesus & the Bible) for example, is not equal to my opinion, or anyone else's opinion. His statutes cannot be improved or changed by popular consensus.]

.

Anyway, the point is, that generally, it is helpful to listen to other people, because we may learn from them. Just like I learned of a cute technique from my own daughter.

.

Can you name something that you learned from someone else? Anything that was illumined by a different perspective or somebody else's experience?

greater craters

Have we used this photo yet? I do not recall.

.

This week, we will have a spectacular view of the moon. It's called the solstice moon. Long story short, is that we will have the illusion of a larger-than-usual moon as it rises above the horizon. The Chicago area will see the event at around 9PM. That link I provided has a few other time zones marked. You will have to search the web if you are not in the United States.

.

My photo is a fake, by the way. I was just having fun with post editing and double exposures. I look forward to this week's sky watch, as there will likely be a few good moon shots.

.

No guesses on the song or artist from the title of the previous post?

It was Luther Vandros' Here and Now

heron now

Egrets, I've had a few... but then again, too few to mention.

.

It seems like I've been chasing this bird for the longest time! I never had the camera with me or ready to shoot when seeing one flying over or even standing still.

.

Yes, I know this shot is terribly blurry, but this is the best I have for now. If the place that I caught this one is a regular resting place, maybe I'll bring a tripod next time.

.

Last night, I did not go out with the intention of photographing a heron, (also known as an egret). I wanted to test a new fishing hole for about fifteen minutes, right after soccer practice. I always bring a camera when I go fishing, just in case I catch something. Two of these beauties were wading in the shallows on the other side of the water. For lack of time, plus fear of scaring them away, I did not make the trek around the pond. I have this crazy zoom on my camera--it says it can go 20x!! So, I zoomed all the way, snapped the shot, and then from the view/play mode, zoomed in even more on that.

.

As I drove away, I thought I saw one more around the bend that had a darker coloring, but there were no convenient spots to pull over and I had no time left, so I drove on. Maybe next week I can try again.

ufo

Oooh look! A UFO speeding away into the night sky! Methinks they abducted me and experimented with my brain, 'cause I had a whopper of a headache Monday. It hurt so bad, I left my friends' house before dessert! I'm all-better now though; thanks.

.

Sunday night we went fishing for one and-a-half hours. I STILL haven't got a nibble, but the scenery was magnificent. I'm saving that photo for Sky Watch Friday. Yes... to date, I have never, ever caught a fish!

.

Beautiful landscapes, candid portraits, baby birdies, pretty flowers, UFO's that look remarkably identical to CD-Roms... It's very rewarding to always carry my trusty old Mavica digicam.

exposed

This worm in the grass was photographed at 11PM. Yes, POST meridian, and it was pitch black outside, too. After a hectic and rainy day, I went to sit out in the cool night air, and after my eyes adjusted, I noticed the worms on the sidewalk. Using a penlight, I found this one in the grass, manually focused, and turned the flash on. Voila! "The darkness has seen a great light!"

.

Speaking of exposure, I was talking to my chiropractor friend. He said that during x-rays, women wear a smock, but his gentlemen patients forego the modest attire because they think it looks like a dress. I told him it should be plaid. That way, they can pretend they're wearing a kilt! Aye Laddie!

.

[Click to enlarge the photo and see if you can find a second worm. I did.]

Leftovers!

• Don't we have nice water towers?
• "Facing" Rt. 53 (a.k.a. Bolingbrook Drive)... Do you see the face?
• Forsythia!
• a good dad making family memories

.

Leftovers! is a new feature. Feel free to group recent miscellaneous remainder shots to share YOUR leftovers and please insert my link in your post. It is intended to enable more of us to enjoy some of your photos that might not otherwise be posted.

goal

Our team played their first soccer match this weekend. It was a great time. They ran hard, followed instructions well, played fair, and smiled the whole game. All of those are higher goals for us than scoring against or beating the other team.

.

(Today's note is a bit rushed... Sorry for that.)

.

This photo is from last week's practice. I hope to collect some nice pictures for the whole team as a keepsake at the end of the season. (The boy with the green hooded pullover is my son.) This effect was done through Photobucket's editing program.

vanishing act

As you can see, I'm learning how to make myself invisible. Now, before a silly person tries to explain how they THINK I did it, let me tell you that I did not take two separate shots without moving the camera, and I did not use the Picasa program's collage function to create a multiple exposure.

.

No. My technique involves concentrating on something very, very dull and uninteresting. That, plus some pixie dust, and you can do the vanishing trick as well!

.

The reason I want to be able to turn invisible, is so that people don't tense up when I approach them as photographic subjects. Plus, it's awkward when I take a long time to set up a shot. But if they never see me hovering with the camera, it doesn't matter, does it?

.

I hope you don't mind that I am so casual and frank about telling you my thoughts on this. We have gotten to know each other a little bit, and I feel comfortable enough with you by now that I think I can be "transparent."

Sky Watch Friday!

"Motion" Pictures

Kinetic photography. It's loads of fun to experiment, not knowing exactly how motion will affect each attempt! (I shudder to think of the kind of money that was wasted back in the film era.) On this particular day, our dusk sky was cloudless. We were under a monochromatic dome... a very, very plain azure hue. I thought it was too subtle and understated for pure sky to yield an interesting photograph... so I took one picture from a moving car, and the other by twisting the camera. The first recording is a pageant of robust neon from a fast food eatery, but that's obvious, isn't it. The golden arches give it away. In the second photograph, it may look like the car was speeding, but it wasn't; trust me. I would NEVER take that kind of risk with our dinner (pizza) in the passenger seat.

•

Click on link to participate in Sky Watch Friday!

night traffic

There is nothing of consequence to say at the moment. Things are very busy at work, home and church. But last night, I was fiddling around with my pictures on the computer and for no reason at all, I superimposed the moon and a splash of purple on this otherwise plain photograph.

.

Shallow? Maybe, but I kinda like it.