Superbowl Sunday

I walked around for a really long time today.  I got up early and just walked.  I was surprised about the lack of people about today being that it is a sunny, beautiful 40 degrees!! But then I realized it's Superbowl Sunday. Of course. Silly me.  But it was nice.  Kind of a weird sort of calm that I don't normally find in this city.  Even jumping over puddles and trying not to do crazy stunts as I slip over ice and melting snow was kind of fun...or funny I guess.

Today was a fun picture day.  I meant to go to the rose garden.  I thought that would be an interesting feeling in the winter. I took some pictures there in the fall, and they turned out really interesting... almost eerie.  But when I went over there, there was no path to get into the garden.  If only I wore my huge boots!!  But it is in a nice area, so I took some sunny pictures! and pictures of ducks. lots and lots of ducks. 

The Sun!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Popular hang for both ducks and humans.

 He followed me everywhere :)  Zoom in on this if you can. He is beautiful.

Right now I am sitting at JP Licks uploading my pictures and about to do a lot of work on a paper.  But there is a couple next to me clearly in the first stages of meeting each other.  Asking a lot of questions which spark stories about trips to other countries their favorite music and art.  Sometimes meeting a person is one of the most fun stages of any relationship.  It's the part in a relationship where you start out not knowing anything about another person.  Anything can happen.  One time I went to a bar alone maybe about a month ago and met a group of people and had one of the best nights I've had since I moved here and knowing full well I'd never see these people again.  Meeting people is usually a time where you can be very genuine.  Start over.  Forget the ordinary.

There is something about a sunset... it's just simply beautiful.  Especially after a long day.

Tomorrow will be 40 degrees and sunny!!!! I am so excited. I'm going to bed early tonight so I can wake up early tomorrow and enjoy the whole day.  Funny how 40 degrees seems so warm in February.

Chocolate Covered Craaaanberries!

I promise I have been taking pictures.  Daily.  I've just not been getting anything I'm happy with :(  But here is something.  Seems like I'm into sunsets/sunrises lately?

I went to Trader Joe's the other day which I found out is the cool thing to do in big cities.  I was really happy with it and I got some great food.  It was insanely busy though.  Large crowds is something I dislike.  So next time I think I will go on a week day maybe during office hours.  But right now I am enjoying some Dark Chocolate covered Cranberries which are soooooo good!!! and would really recommend them.  Anyway...despite the crowds, and getting lost on the way home in the dark, and riding my bike past a urinating man on the bike trail.... it was a good trip!

Some recent photos

I have a couple photos to add today!

What I see on my way to school every morning.

Kind of a weird picture, but I like it for some reason.

Here Brian!! This one was actually me trying a new "technique."  Didn't reeaaaalllly turn out right and the colors got all weird.  But I'll keep trying.  

Picture Break

I was happy to have a couple walk into my picture.  This was, I believe, a 1/2 second shutter speed and a pretty high exposure.  The picture came out really bright and I think has a cool effect with the lights on the ice.

I always seem to come to this area.  I guess it's only a couple blocks from school, so it's easy.  But I also like the open space.  Must be the Iowan in me.

Took a walk in the middle of practicing today.  Sadly, the middle of practicing was a lot later than originally planned, but it was nice to try to get some night shots.  We have a couple sunny days this week so I will hopefully get some nice sunny pictures.   I had a lot of fun taking these pictures!

Live music! Everyone watch :)

Took some pictures outside but didn't really get any I'm thrilled about.  Sometimes I find it hard to find a good picture without a subject.  I think this weekend I am going to go on a walk to see if I can find some pretty wintry scenes.

TWO bands that Brian is in are playing in Chicago at the Elbo Room this weekend and I'm finally able to see them. Online. From Boston. Both bands have new music and being 1200 miles away, I haven't really had a chance to hear any of it since I moved so I'm super excited! Tonight is Koplant No and tomorrow night is Slip Silo.  Definitely check them out if you are up at midnight! (or in my case 1:00 EST.... maybe I should take a nap?).

I did come home today to mess around with come camera features with Stella and am really happy with some of the results.  All of the ones displayed here are pictures I didn't expect to get, but I was photographing a live animal.  But I ended up being way happier with these than the ones I kind of tried to stage.  Learning from this, it seems to look much more natural and interesting by just going with the flow.  Pictures that are staged, maybe usually seem staged.  We had a fun little photo shoot and it did seem like Stella liked all the attention.  She definitely likes to put on a show sometimes.

I have only slightly messed around with editing photographs.  These have not been edited at all.  I think that is the next thing for me to start learning.  I was kind of thinking about getting the program Aperture. It is a lot cheaper than Photoshop and I can download it right on my computer from the Apple App store.  Has anyone tried this or have any thoughts?  I would also appreciate thoughts on what you think should be done to make these pictures look any better than they are.  Either by editing, or what I could have done while taking the picture. 

Kiss.

This is the point where I stopped trying to get her to do what I wanted, but instead decided to work with what she wanted to do.

4 second exposure

Good ol' quesadillas for dinner?  Yeah, it has been awhile.

Thursday Rustday

So today, I brought my camera with me and it was a beautiful and SUNNY day, but unfortunately, I should have known I would forget the battery I left charging at home from the night before.  But it is good and charged now, and I will hopefully get some pictures tomorrow.  Supposed to get 5-8 inches of snow tonight! I'm walking to school super early, so maybe I can get some nice shots of fresh snow on my way.

Yesterday I said I don't really like to photograph man-made things because they don't necessarily interest me as much.  An exception to that are man-made things that have been affected by nature.  Like rust, or peeling paint.  

I'm pretty sure this is my very first picture taken with my camera the day I got it (aww)   

Did find a video I liked today that shows natural decay in an interesting way.  It is really fast paced, but the more I watched it, the more I liked it.  The end was unexpected and well done too.  I like the old ships in this video and even though it doesn't show you any shot for too long, it does give a thorough look at it.  And then the graffiti at the end with the lighting.  Super inspiring.  The music is awesome too.  Enjoy! 

ARAL SEA from Romain A on Vimeo.

Concrete and kitties

Super long day. Left the house at 7 in the morning, got back around 8:15 this evening.  Oh well, at least hopefully I will sleep well tonight.  I did get out to take a couple photos today, but it was so gross outside...I don't know. Nothing really grabbed me.  I managed to get one picture where I liked the lines and the repetition.  But otherwise seems pretty blah. I think normally I like to take pictures of nature and people. Things that are living.  This picture is a lot of concrete, bricks... I guess man-made materials which don't usually interest me as much.  But here it is!

I am so ready for some sunshine.


Almost ended my post like that. But then I thought that sounded depressing and I am so far from depressed! I am studying something I absolutely love from an incredibly inspiring teacher and mentor, Norman Bolter; I have wonderfully supportive, loving, and creative friends and family (check out my mom's awesome blog); and I don't know... life is too short and mysterious and amazing for me to be depressed or worried about anything for too long :) So on that note, I will include another picture I just took of my ridiculous, somewhat hefty cat.

LX3

I recently received a Panasonic Lumix LX3 and am so so so unbelievably excited! Now my obsessive picture taking can possibly produce some decent results. I think most exciting for me is knowing I have so much to discover about photography and my camera. I want to be able to capture moments in the best possible way.  Stella, my lovely and patient cat, is my #1 model; so she will pop up probably way too often. Please let me know what you think!  Tips and thoughts are greatly appreciated!

 Thanks to the birds :)