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Sunsets of Horseshoe Bay

May 19th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in Just My Art, Just My Life, Just My Photography

I took a break from the season finale of House (do not tell me how it ended!) to get a shot of the sunset.  It really wasn’t anything too spectacular but I figured it would give me a chance to try out HDR again.

I have never done too good of a job at HDR but here’s what I got this time.  Click it to zoom in a bit.

Sunset on Golf Course

The second picture I took was really about ten which I stitched together in Photoshop to make a panorama.  The file is 499 megabytes and some how converts to a jpeg to 2mb…  So that’s interesting.  How something goes from 6000×2300 and 8 bits into just 2mb, I have no idea.  Again, click to enlarge.

So while I was taking these pics some random guy in one of the houses started yelling at me to get off of the course.  It kinda really bugged me.  I had every right to be on the course.  My grandparents are members of the country club and own a house on the golf course.  They pay for the right for us to use the course.  Furthermore, it was after 5:30pm so actually anyone could go on the course.  Gah.  What a meanie.

I just ignored him, took more pics and continued my conversation with Ryan.

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Experiments in 1:1 Macro

May 12th, 2008 | 5 Comments | Posted in Just My Art, Just My Life, Just My Photography

Stranded, alone at my parents’ house in Houston today, I pulled out my Nikon D80 and that new 60mm Macro lens I recently picked up and went to town.

I started out, as I nearly always do, with a shot of a flower.  It seems every home my parents live in require at least one hibiscus.  This house is no exception.

The wind was pretty strong but I managed to get a somewhat decent shot between gusts.

 

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One thing that is so great about this lens, is the ability to get down to a 1:1 ratio.  Check out what happens when you do that on the pollen of this hibiscus.

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I thought that was just crazy!  Click here to see it full sized to get a real feel for how close this thing can get.

After the hibiscus, I moved on to a rusty metal butterfly.  Nothing special but I did enjoy the perspective and red-brown rust juxtaposed to the green grass.

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I went inside a bit do some a few lines of blow.

Not really, but I did grind up some salt in a Peugeot Salt Mill and pretend it was cocaine.  Come on, it’s kinda fun.  Especially fun if someone snorts up the salt haha.

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I scraped this mess up into a few lines and took some pics but… Meh.  

I pushed all of the salt into a spoon and then torched it like some heroin.  Not sure why I was so drug-centric today haha.  Looked awesome when I shot onto the salt.  Made this beautiful glow.  

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I sprinkled the super-heated salt onto some butter… again, why not.  Snap, crackle and sizzle.  It was pretty cool for being so lame.

Finally an “artsy” shot through a magnified window pane in our front door.  Focused on the hydrangeas on the front porch quite nicely.  Fun.

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This is another one of those shots that really needs to be seen full sized to get the picture.  Pun was totally not intended.

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No Smoke, Just Mirrors

I decided to dip my hand into this tight aperture (f-22 to f-36) on a mirror game, literally.

Hard to take a picture of your own hand…  Lesson = learned.

Next time I am going to spin that dradle, I bet it would make for a pretty awesome shot.

Looks like motor oil but it is honey.  Sweet, delicious honey injected with red wine to increase the golden color.  Thought up that one on my own ;-)

Learned how to double my money in a flash!

My prized Nikon F3.  I never use it, but I do prize it.  Click for a larger version.

I didn’t have any food coloring and corn syrup to make fake blood so I just tried some of that wine.  No go.  Just couldn’t get that blood look.  So here’s the pic sans faux blood.  

Funny story, after putting all of this stuff up, i accidentally cut myself and bled all over the mirror haha, damn the timing.

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Photography Project

I’m supposed to be working on this big project for my photography class.  The basis of it is experimental lighting to enhance a photograph.  I have done some quick and dirty examples of how doing some simple changes to your lighting and camera setting, you can turn a shitty picture into a great picture.

The first example is using a high aperture (f-22) along with a super bright light (650 watt) to light a scene versus using an automatic setting on a camera such as my Nikon D80.  First the auto setting shot.

All and all, it isn’t such a bad picture.  The problems are getting true whites and true blacks as you can see in the shot coming below.

Obviously better whites and blacks here.  Also, I manually set the white balance as opposed to the camera deciding what was white.

This next set is much more obvious.  I took a picture of my mother’s Aggie class ring on a mirror, a blush compact mirror at that.  With this shot I compared again, a 650 watt tungsten Arri light with the built in flash on my camera.  I again modified the f-stop to 22 on my manual shot.

As you can see, the flash blew out the color of the gold and the lower f-stop picked up all the light hitting the mirror.  It’s a plain old gross picture.  However, let’s see what happens when we set the aperture to f-22, pound the thing with 650 watts of light.

I swear, it’s like magic.  The silver mirror turns to black and the gold, which was previously washed to a pale yellow, is now a deep, rich 14ct gold.  Look at that reflection!  

These pictures are just the foundation of my project, showing how small changes in light can totally change a picture.  I intend to include emotive portraits and many other genres of photography in this series.  Here’s to hoping I can make it happen and make it something special, unique and captivating.

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Starbuckles & Company

March 16th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Just My Art, Just My Life, Just My Nerdiness

For Ryan

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Ummm… Amazing?

March 14th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in Just My Art, Just My Fabulousness, Just My Video

For real… that was amazing.  Did you see that shit?  She fell from the freaking ceiling into the splits as her intro.

Ok, so all you Missouri, and especially you Columbia, locals who think the drag queens at Club SoCo are worth anything.

Oh, and this is totally dedicated to Chadd.  It’s Bonnie Tyler - Waiting for a Hero, but of course, you knew that.

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Vote for Me!

Wired.com is having a competition for the best self portrait.  I’m currently in fourth place and that just won’t fly with me!

I mean, totally vote for who you think should win (me) and totally vote a thumbs down to everyone you don’t want to win (not me).  hehe

Click here to vote!

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New Rig, New Dig, No Job!

I’m Back!  (Once again)

New Computer Setup

My family has finally left the building.  For the past two weeks I have had either my mom or my grandmother with me, taking care of me, etc.  It was great to have them over, they were of infinite help to me, but a little space sure is nice haha.

My family has been very concerned about my health as of late.  With the seizures and extreme changes in blood pressure and pulse, I guess they have some reason to their paranoia.  Still, I wish they wouldn’t worry about me.  Despite being put through the ER three times in a week and then being put on a “toxic” dose of medicine on accident… I have been doing ok.  I missed about two or more weeks of school, much of the time I don’t remember care of Keppra, Depakote and Ativan.  Yay for perscriptions.

I haven’t seen much of Ryan during this time which has been the worst part of it all.  You really don’t what you’ve got till family comes in town and it’s gone…  Something like that.

Alley Lights

Either way, a wonderfully good thing came of the visit.  I came out to my mom, for the fourth (?) time.  This will be the last, we talked openly and things just really seemed to work out.  She understands now that it isn’t a choice, that I didn’t hide it from her/the family because I wanted to have a secret and… well, it just is no longer that big ol’ white elephant in the room.

Speaking of rooms…  I have been doing some remodeling at the apartment.  I have much more to do yet, new chair, new couch, new TV, new coffee table, new dining table and chairs.  Once I change out all that to smaller, thinner, sleeker items, the large livingroom will appear full sized again haha.

As you can see in the top picture, I have done a little re-arranging of my workstation.  I added an Epson Perfection V500 Scanner, a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet, two shelves for my photography toys and a new light.  The light made the biggest difference, I swear.  No longer do I get down sitting at the computer, it really, and literally, brightens up my day.

You might also notice the new laptop sitting next to the iMac.  Yep, I got a new Macbook Pro!  It’s so wonderful, I’m using it right now to write this post!  Got a stellar deal on it at the bookstore.  Chase and Ryan got one each as well!

Carnival

Now that I’m back to feeling better, hopefully I will be able to post more often and do more photography.  First, and unfortunately, I have to catch up on my class work and make my nearly thirteen doctor appointment.  Even more unfortunate is the sad story that I had to leave my job at the hospital in order to make these doctor appointments and catch up with my school work.

That means that I will be having a social life again, eventually, but also means I will be poor and won’t be able to buy all the things I’ve been wanting… Sad story!

But having friends and keeping them is more important that having fun toys, any day.

Time for bed.  Going to finish the load of laundry for Ryan.  He takes flight later today for Miami and then a cruise.  Lucky!

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Another Prank Voicemail

February 24th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in Just My Art, Just My Life, Just My Rant

I know who is sending these and while I actually kind of enjoy their humor, I do hope the people doing them don’t actually think I have ever fallen for the voicemail.  This one is from 314-757-1386 from Ladue Missouri

Anyway, I have gotten three or so of these voicemails and like I said, I enjoy them to some degree.  But… Let’s get real.  You dug through my dumpster to find my old discarded prescription medications.

Here’s the voicemail. 

And now a friendly message from Sister Maria

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Self Portrait

February 22nd, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in Just My Art, Just My Fabulousness, Just My Photography

I just have never really liked a picture of myself, let me like this one for a while ok?

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