Goals

Hi All!
It's been a good Wednesday. My goal this quarter is to get in shape (I always say this). In order to do this, I hope by the end of the quarter I'll have the stamina to run from Ellensburg to Thorpe.

Tonight's photo is another cool macro shot. Hope you like it!

First Day

Hi All!
Had my first day back today, and I believe it will be a good quarter.

Sorry about my lack of photography tips. Tomorrow I'll look into something that I can put up.

Tonight's photo is from my recent macro series. Hope you like it!

Back!

Hi All!
Sorry for my Hiatus. I've had a couple busy days here at the end of Spring Break. Back to class in the morning!

Tonight's photo is from my old High School. Hope you like it!

Yesterday

Hi All!
Sorry I missed last night. I was just too tired to think of anything good.

To check out more of my photos, go to my deviantart page: northwestphotoman

Today's photo is a reverse macro. I plan on going more into macro coming up this week, since Spring is the perfect time for it. Hope you like it!

Rain

Hi All!
Yesterday was so nice, 75 degrees and sunny. Today was a complete 180, rainy, cold, just plain yuck. Oh well, hopefully this weekend will be nice.

No photography tips for tonight, but I'm formulating some new ideas I can bring to the blog. So stay tuned!

Tonight's photo is another HDR that I took the other day. Hope you like it!

Psst, weather be better so I can get out and shoot!!!

Keys

Hi All!
Had a fun day going through stuff and found some awesome old keys. I'm sure Stephanie will have fun with them as she loves antique keys.

Continuing with HDR photography, when processing, having a good post-processing program is key. I've tried several programs, a free program, Photoshop and Photomatix. Photomatix was by far the best program that I used, and I fully recommend it.

My other piece of advise is when post-processing your HDR, don't feel that you have to make it look like how someone else thinks it should look like. Some think that HDR's should resemble exactly how the scene looked like in person, while others enjoy a more 'artistic' look. So enjoy the process, and you will enjoy the outcome!

Tonight's photo is not of an HDR, but of a macro shot that I took yesterday. Hope you like it!

Auto Exposure Bracketing

Hi All!
Another nice day of Spring Break.

When taking an HDR. It is important to have an Auto Exposure Bracketing feature on your camera. The other important piece of equipment to have is a tripod. Having a still setting is important when you post process your picture in order to align everything properly.

When setting up your Auto Bracketing feature, a good setting is -2, 0, and +2. Or for those of you with more stops, -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2. This setting will allow you to get the most light from the scene.

Tonight's photos are examples of yesterday's different exposures.

IKEA

Hi All!
I had a fun day going to IKEA with my wonderful girlfriend.
Also had the opportunity to take a few pictures today as well.

Tomorrow I plan on showing examples of the different exposures that go into an HDR.

Tonight's photo is from today, it's of the wonderful sunset that occurs over Puget Sound. Hope you like it!

HDR Intro

Hi All!
Tonight I plan on giving an intro to HDR.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. What HDR attempts to do is incorporate all the proper light levels in a given scene. A camera can only expose for one 'stop', whereas a person's eyes can expose for multiple 'stops'.

Tomorrow I will continue my talk on HDR.

Tonight's photo is an HDR I took a couple weeks ago. Hope you like it!

Home

Hi All!
Had a good day running around.

Tonight's photo is from Thanksgiving. Hope you like it!

Exercising

Hi All!
I've decided that over spring break I need to get into shape. So today, I managed to do the Meadowdale Beach Trail, Jogged the track, and I ran some stairs. I think that's a good start.

A quick photography tip is on ISO. ISO is the sensitivity of film or in my case, and most others digital film sensor. In my case, my camera has a range of 100-3200 ISO. The lower the ISO, say 100, the slower the shutter speed needed to get a correct exposure. The upside to this is, the less 'noise' there will be in the picture. As the ISO gets higher, you can take faster and faster exposures, but the quality of the picture will become worse. Anything past ISO 800 will probably be too bad to salvage.

Tonight's photo is an HDR of the woods. Hope you like it!

Spring Break

Hi All!
Spring Break has officially begun for me today! Whoot!
Now I can get out and start taking pictures!!!!

Tonight's photo is one of my first HDR's. Hope you like it!

And then there was one

Hi All!
A little stressed about my final tomorrow. But overall I think I'll be fine. Ultimately I'm just happy to nearly have another quarter done and over with.

Here is an example of a reverse macro technique. I will go into more detail on this technique at a later date. Hope you like it!

Whew

Hi All!
Well I'm nearly there. One online test and my Econ Final to go and then I'm done with Winter Quarter! So yay.

Tonight's photo was originally going to go up yesterday, but here it is today. I took this shot at the Ellensburg cemetery, I was trying to go for the eerie look. I think if I try for earlier morning or later in the evening it may come up better. Hope you like it!

Two To Go...

Hi All!
Hope everyone has had a good day.

Originally I was going to post a picture I took today, but my internet connection here at school is very slow. So instead I'm posting another personal favorite of mine, The Ferris Wheel. Hope you like it!

One down.....

Hi All!
Well I got my report done, yay!
Now I pretty much just have tests the rest of the quarter.

Tonight's photo is a popular cliche one (for obvious reasons). But I like it, and I hope you like it too! (Love you babe!)

Moving

Hi All!
Well I've had a good day. Helped my friend Alison move to her new apartment. Afterwards I started on my Analytical report for my Business Report Writing class. Tomorrow should be "fun" getting it all done.

Again, I feel like I'm not getting enough variation in my pictures every night. Definitely need to get out and do some serious shooting over the break.

Tonight's photo is another example of a relatively slow shutter speed. This is the North Fork of the Wallace River up near Goldbar Washington. The aperture was f22, shutter speed of 1 second and an ISO of 100 (I'll go over ISO sometime this week hopefully). Thanks for viewing!

Roses

Hi All!
Well I finished that Anthropology paper. Now it's time to get my Business Report paper done.

Tonight's blog is a quickie since I've done tips the last two nights. I'm finding out that I want to have more "quality" photos. That being the case, I'm definitely going to get out over Spring Break and do some serious shooting!

Tonight's photo is of the roses out front of my dorm. I took the photo with my 50mm at f1.8. Hope you like it!

Shutter Speed

Hi all!
Nearly done with that paper, should have it done by tomorrow morning.

Tonight's photography tip is about shutter speed. First off, to take a correct exposure, you must have the right balance between aperture and shutter speed. The general rule is that the higher the aperture (low f-stop), the more light is being let into the lens, allowing for a fast shutter speed. While a low aperture (high f-stop), makes for a slower shutter speed. (Remember, all these "speeds" are relative; a fast shutter speed might be considered 1/250 of a second, where a slow shutter speed may be 1 second).

The photo I have up tonight is a perfect example of a slow shutter speed and a low aperture. It was taken at ISO 100, f11, and 30s. Hope you like it! If you want more information on night photography, let me know!

Aperture

Hi All!
Still working on my Anth paper, I should have it done by tomorrow.

Ok, photography tip for the night. Aperture, which is as I described before, how open the lens is to allowing in light (remember the eye example, your pupils). In photography, the aperture is measured by f-stops. The lower the f-stop, the wider the lens can open and let in more light, and vice versa. Lenses themselves are measured in f-stops by their largest f-stop. For example, I have a 50mm f1.8 lens and a 18-55mm f3.5-4 lens. The 50mm f1.8 lens has a larger maximum opening over the 18-55mm.

The other important thing to know about apertures is how they work with focusing on a subject. The larger the aperture (smaller the f-stop), whatever you have focused on in the foreground will be in focus, while your background will be more out of focus. The smaller your aperture gets, the more in focus your whole picture becomes. So depending on what you're shooting, you will want to choose how you want your exposure to comes out.

Next time I do my photography tips, I will discuss shutter speed.

Tonight's photo is an HDR of the Beverly dunes. Hope you like it!

Late...again..

I really don't like posting my blog late. But oh well, sometimes it happens. Still working on getting my Anthropology paper done. A couple days behind schedule, but I felt I got a good start on it today, tomorrow I should be able to get a good chunk done.

Yeah, I know I keep putting off my photography tips, but considering what all is going on, I have to prioritize.

Tonight's photo is one of my personal favorites. It's of a small pond in Ellensburg, in winter. Hope you like it!

Motivation

Whelp, the next week and a half should be busy. Got two reports to do, as well as studying for finals.

Tonight's photo is an HDR I took yesterday. Hope you like it!

Long Day

Just got back from a day trip with my Dad. I was able to get some cool shots in, I'll try and get around to processing them tomorrow as well as getting some more photography tips up!

Tonight's photo is a cool profile of my cat. Hope you like it!

Beautiful Day in Washington

Hi all!
The last couple of days have been absolutely gorgeous outside. I was able to start taking some pictures of the early blooming spring flowers.

Tonight's picture was taken on the Wallace Falls trail last summer. Hope you like it!

Another quickie

Here's another quickie blog, late by a couple minutes too. Oh well. :-P
Had a wonderful day though being with my wonderful girlfriend! So I believe that makes up for this being late and quick.

Today's picture is from my Ellensburg series, I had a lot of response to it. Hope you like it!

Through the looking glass

Another late night. Should be back to "normal" blogs by Sunday....
That being said, tonight's photo is of an out of focus oncoming car. I really like how the light 'dances' around. This technique is called Bokeh. Hope you like it!

Well that's a lot of money

So I attended a presentation by Seattle University, which is really where I want to go for Law School. Just found out that it costs 38k a year, or just shy of 120k for all 3 years. So I have a lot to think about and get accomplished right now.

Sorry about the delay on photography tips. I'm thinking I'll try to do 2-3 a week, instead of everyday.

Today's photo is directly correlated to the main topic, Money!!! Hope you like it!

Behind Bars

Quick blog tonight. Super tired from a long day.
The picture I have up is of a cool alley in Ellensburg. I like how the different elements of foreground and background interact. Hope you like it!

A New Week

Hi all!
Well I think I will start the week off with some basic photography information.

Properly exposing your pictures is the number one most important thing to do in photography.
Most digital cameras now have automatic settings to do this for you. But if you wish to make your photographs stand out, then you need to know when to use the correct settings.
The two settings that are mainly used in properly exposing a picture is the aperture and the shutter speed. The aperture is how open the lens is to letting in light. An example of this you eye, it dilates in dark places to allow more light to enter. The shutter speed is how fast the mirror of your camera stays open to allow light in. Combining these two elements together properly will give you what is considered a properly exposed photograph.

Tomorrow I will go into more detail on the different "looks" you can get from changing both the aperture and shutter speeds.

Today's photo is an example of what you can do with a 'relatively' slow shutter speed. I call it the Ghost Flag. Hope you like it!