Tag Archives: Project 365

Photoblog, Project 365

Project 365 : Lonely Tree

This morning, we had a light snowfall in Da Lou. As if by telepathy, Casey and I both brought our kits to work, and decided to go looking for something to photograph during lunch. Our travels took us to the Katy Trail parking area at Matson. From here, you can look across a vast expanse of farmers’ fields, leading all the way to the bluffs at the river. I’ve photographed this area before, but never in the snow.

The lone tree in this field always fascinates me. When the fields are planted with crops, it seems like a guardian for the new growth. Today, it struck me as a sentinel, warning against entry to the acreage. It’s a very cool tree.

I made this series of images with my Canon 7D and 24-105/4L lens, brought them into Photomatix HDR, shuffled the final image through Nik Viveza and Lightroom, and brought it straight to you. 🙂

Family, Photography, Project 365

Project 365 : Watching

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Emma loves to look out the window at the birds and squirrels. With the afternoon sun shining through the curtains, I photographed her staring at something off in the distance. I love the look of her staring off at… something. She’s a great model, and she works for dog food. 🙂

I took this image with my Canon 7D and Canon 24-105/4L lens. I brought it into Photoshop CS4E, massaged the hot spots with Nik Viveza and applied my new favorite filter, Glamour Glow, from Nik Color Efex Pro.

Photoblog, Project 365, Weather

Project 365 : Bud Ice

After the snow Friday, we were left with a fleeting winter wonderland this morning. At sunrise, I took my Canon 7D and MP-E 65/2.8 macro lens out into the snow to see what I could see.

The gentle constructs of the snow and ice were still just clinging to our forsythia bush, and really attracted my attention. Along the top edge of the thin branches were really cool little ice constructs that were beginning to fall off due to the slight wind and the sun’s peeking from behind the clouds. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time before this ice was gone, so I shot a series of shots — handheld! — with this mammoth lens on the front of the camera.

I was having to capture this at f/8 for to widen the insanely tight depth of field on this lens. Unfortunately, that also meant really long shutter speeds, which didn’t work well when magnified like this in a light breeze, so that meant cranking the 7D up to ISO 800, which gave me a handhold-able speed of 1/320th. Still, I had to put the camera in high speed continuous shooting mode to “spray and pray” for a shot where my wobbling, the wind’s blowing and the lens’ depth of field all came together at the right time. I suppose I could’ve put the camera on a tripod, and used something to clamp the branch in place, but where’s the fun in that? 🙂

In the digital darkroom, I brought the image into Photoshop CS4E, reducing noise with Nik Dfine, adding a couple of control points with Nik Viveza, and finishing it off with the Glamour Glow filter from Nik Color Efex Pro. I’m really growing to like that soft filter look in some of my nature images, and it really seemed to work for this one.

Photoblog, Project 365

Project 365 : Sand Box

I returned to my pendulum today. This is the very center of the sand affected by the pendulum’s travels. It always makes this nice little box in the center, reminding me of a very, very small stadium, constructed of sand.

I photographed this with my Canon 7D and MP-E 65/2.8 macro lens, edited it in Photoshop CS4E, and used Nik Silver Efex Pro to both convert it to black and white, as well as apply some bluing to the sand.

Photoblog, Project 365

Project 365 : Pendulum Sands

A few years ago, Becky and I picked up a pendulum on the Turquoise Trail in New Mexico. It swirls about in a very fine sand, leaving behind nice square patterns. I put my desk lamp almost flat with the plane of the sands, creating big shadows, and squeezed off a few shots.

I shot this with my Canon 7D and 24-105/4L, and processed the image with Photoshop CS4E, along with a little black and white conversion through Nik Color Efex Pro.

Photoblog, Project 365

Project 365 : Lighted Top

I picked up this lighted top at Christmas, thinking it would be fun to play with in front of the camera. And it was! I got the room real dark, and took a bunch of images, spinning the top at various speeds to entice it to walk across the frame. I particularly liked this image because of the slight touches of green and blue at the edges, accenting the thick center area of red and yellow.

This image was taken with my Canon 7D and 24-105/4L lens. Postprocessing was done in PhotoShop, with a little High Key filter from Nik Color Efex Pro thrown in for good measure.

Photoblog, Project 365

Project 365 : Chess on the Brain

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Tonight’s shot comes from my light table and chess sets again. I put one of my grandmother’s chess pieces on the light table, while leaving the blue chess pieces set up on the light table, refracting through the head of the pawn. I love the way the blue set appears through the pawn’s head, pointing out the contrast between the smooth lines of the blue set and the handmade uniqueness of the pawn.

Once again, this was photographed with my Canon MP-E 65/2.8, finished in Photoshop CS4E, with the assistance of Nik Color Efex Pro.

Photoblog, Project 365, Weather

Project 365 : Ice on the Table

This morning, I awoke to the remnants of the very small snowfall we had late in the week. My favorite glass table on the deck had ice atop it, which prompted me to pull out my Canon MP-E 65/2.8 lens. The more I shoot with this lens, the more I love it… kinda. I mean, it is definitely a lens that takes a lot of practice to use well.

The biggest challenge I’m having with it is in getting the focal plane broad enough by ensuring that what I’m photographic is parallel to the film plane. Any slight angle yoinks the focal plane down to nothing. I’ve got some ideas about how to fix that… stay tuned!

Photoblog, Project 365

Project 365 : Letter Q

I’ve pulled out some old game sets to play with my Canon MP-E 65/2.8 macro lens. For some reason, I picked Q from the Scrabble tiles. Dunno exactly why — it’s rare, hard to use, and can be a killer if played right. I kinda like that.

I shot with a big desk lamp above and to the right, about four feet away. I cropped it, and applied a black and white filter in Lightroom to give it the look you see.

I think I’ll be playing with game pieces more in the future — stay tuned!