More Old Pictures

I took these while I was doing my Evidence assignment. They weren't for the assignment just extras that I took. The second picture is my favorite mostly because of the warm colors and the shadows.

More Star Trails

Another old picture. This one might be from January or February. Not as old as the last one! I think my favorite part of this picture is how the trees are all lit up from all of the lights. I still haven't figured out how to get rid of the light spots in the corners. Maybe a lens hood could fix that?

Benji

I took these a long time ago... maybe October when I got my new camera. I like them better now than I did before and thought I'd share them.

Centered Composition

My centered composition picture was originally a picture taken indoors but this one turned out much better. The bottom of this branch starts on 1/3 line but it ends up exactly in the center, so I think it counts. I forget what these are called but my aunt ALWAYS wants to go find them so she can use them in her house for decoration. I think for this picture I was using my 70-300mm lens and standing far away which is why only a tiny bit of the branch is in focus.... not for sure though.

Derivative

It doesn't match perfectly but the subjects are very similar. The bottom picture is the one I was trying to copy the one on the top is mine. The one on the bottom seems to be in a field or open area. Mine was in the woods and shaded by all of the trees.

California Girls by Denise!

My cousins are on vacation in California for two weeks. She has been posting pictures on Facebook almost every night. I took a few of them and edited them and really like the results! She has taken some very awesome snapshots and a large amount of them turned out to be good photography photos. With the help of iPhoto an Pixelmator I fixed them up just a little. 

These pictures I took using my new ND (neutral density) filter. It helps to balance out exposure so that the sky isn't over exposed while the ground is underexposed or the other way around. It can also make the colors better contrasted so they don't turn out too gray. I like the little bit of vignette effect it gives a picture!

Seeing Differently... Close up!

This assignment was pretty easy to do since macro photography is one of my favorites. I used my close up filters to take these which helped to get closer to the subject. I think I was supposed to take pictures of  objects inside my house or something but this was much more fun!

Evidence

Evidence of spring: Unfrozen edges on the river, water droplets dripping from the tree, and buds on the maple trees. I am so looking forward to spring and summer so I tried to have most of the pictures in color  and look bright and warm. 

Evidence of animals: Deer trail, Tracks across the river, Woodpecker "holes". I thought for sure the wood pecker picture would turn out the best out of all the animal evidence pictures but I like all of them. The wood pecker is different though!

Baby Keagan

Four day old Keagan was so easy to fall in love with. He was sooo tiny. I babysit for his brother and sister (Emerson) and now him too! His mom asked me to come take pictures of him at the hospital but they were there for no more than a day before they were sent home. So on my day off of school I went up to their house and took a few hundred pictures. These were my favorites. The 3rd picture I like because you can compare the hands to him and kind of see how small he was!

Shadows

My pictures for the shadow assignment actually turned out better than I thought they were. Short on time, again, I took a few quick pictures hoping at least one turned out. The top one I was sure wasn't going to look good at all but its simple and the shadow behind the plant definitely makes the picture look better. The bottom picture is a picture of the flowers my mom got for me from BRF competition this past weekend. By the way, I actually didn't do to horribly at competition. Placed 3rd in a group that was higher than what I skate. Anyway I took a few pictures of the flowers before I went to school. We'll see if the next assignment I can actually take time to take some pictures!

Karles and Lexers

Babysat the girls a few times this past week.  These pictures are from Valentine's Day....We had hamburger helper for dinner and lexa put it all into her hair. So I put her in the bath tub, and karli too of course. Alexa had no fear of the water and it was getting everywhere on everything. Afterwards I'm pretty sure the entire floor was covered in water.

Nothing a little fresh air can't fix!

Where to begin? Well last night I started to get sick, sore throat, coughing, and hot hot hot. It was about 11:00 then. I started watching a movie thinking I'd probably fall asleep in the middle of it or something, but I guess not. So I opened my windows and I wasn't so hot anymore. Finally around 1:00 I fell asleep. Today was about the same thing as last night except I was at school. I refuse to take medicine unless I have to have to have to. I feel like its better for it to just go away by its self instead of covering it up with medicine...  Anyway, after school I decided if I just sat around I'd probably not feel any better and I still had to get my three mile run in for the day. So got a few shirts, shorts, skating pants, my good-grip shoes and iPod and ran out to Jenna and Dylan's. At a few points during my run I felt like my legs were moving but I was not moving any further since the wind was blowing so hard. I think that it helped a little.. at least I hope. Tomorrow is BRF competition and I'm competing in a higher level so the odds are definitely against me without even competing in a higher level but we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Different Light

The last time I did this assignment it was fall and I took pictures of an acorn. This time it is pretty much the middle of winter and took a little bit of searching to find something. Since I wasn't finding what I was looking for I figured leafs are always nice. t=The first picture I took was the 12:00 picture, then the 5:00. By the next morning (8:00) the leaf had absorbed some of the water from the snow and was flattened out. It didn't help that it was in shade either because you cannot see the light.

Animals!!

 My miniature schnauzer Benji. We saved him from a dog pound in Sparta about 5 years ago... going on six! Benji is about 7 years old now but still acts like a puppy!

 Here's Spike! He's my hedgehog that I got from a lady in Green Bay. On her way to Minnesota in July she dropped him off at my house. He was seven weeks old and little. Now he's a lot more weeks and fat.

Peach is my chocolate chip starfish. I used to have an anemone, clown fish and a crab but while I was in Maryland for 2 weeks last april somehow my tank went "out of whack". My guess is whoever was taking care of them at the time didn't do something right or just didn't do something. 

Lines

This weeks assignment was lines: curved, leading, diagonal and then Rule of Thirds. I have been so busy lately that taking pictures is basically "out of the picture" but I did manage to take a few for this assignment.    The goldfish in the curved lines picture were a little blurry since they were taken in very low light and there had to be a very slow shutter speed but it works. The rule of the thirds and diagonal lines are pretty much the same picture. One is just tilted and does not have the salt and pepper in it. Leading lines is an alright one, I think I could have found something better or different though. We'll see what I get for pictures this weekend when I'm back in Minnesota!

Time for Summer!

As fun as school is..... Summer should come around very soon. Summer is just nice especially when  I don't have much to worry about or get done and I can just go about my day. I can go outside without getting a billion layers of clothes on and there is a lot more to do without going 10 or more miles away from home to find something to do. The first picture was from the day that and friend and I took the golf cart and drove around the golf course just before the sunset.. thats about all there is to that story but I do surely enjoy being able to do that! Fishing is another thing I loveeee to do. Sometimes we go up to the cabin and fish but usually I go kayaking on the river and bring the fishing pole along. The spider picture I posted earlier, I think?. Most people HATE spiders but I don't mind them. They are actually very interesting. In the summer I find hundreds of them just crawling in the grass, like this one. I'm hoping to get a macro lens soon and will be able to take super close pictures of spiders and other bugs this summer! 

Winter Nature

I can't believe I actually got two "alright" pictures from the eight pictures I took this weekend. We were in Minnesota all weekend and didn't get back until 8 p.m. sunday night. When we were about 5 miles out of town when we were leaving I decided I should have brought my camera but I knew we werent going to be turning back to get that. So I didn't have much time (this morning) when I took my pictures but I got a few.. or eight.