Ciao!

Welp, I'm back from my trip(s) and so glad to be home! (My Louisiana home, not my Texas, New Mexico, or Italy home, haha.) I have thousands (literally) of pictures, the best of which I'll edit and post, hopefully sometime soon, once I get caught up on work and get over the sore throat/cold I picked up a few days ago. Some of my favorite pics have gone up on Flickr already, so you can check 'em out if you want. But, the strangest thing just happened, so I thought I'd share. I walked through my complex to get my mail, and what did I see but this:



Huh?!? My first thought was "Well, I've never lived anywhere with a pool, so maybe this happens all the time?" And then my second thought was "Um, there are a lot of hunters in Louisiana..." Lo and behold:



Dang. I was hoping it was real!

In other news, I took a Photoshop class today (how I love LSU and their free computer classes), so I can finally do basic things like, oh, load a picture, make a layer, apply a filter, etc., that I could never figure out on my own, and am hoping to play around with some of PW's tutorials in the future (on the school computers, which have CS3 - woo!). I'm also hoping I can figure out how to download her actions to a jump drive and play with those, as well. Anyone done that? Run actions off a jump drive? I'll keep y'all updated if it works! =)

One of these days...

...I'm going to learn how to properly slow down and relax. But not now! I finished the semester (all A's and I passed my Ph.D. qualifying exam!!!) and now I'm getting ready to head out on a trip with my research group. (Thanks in advance to Shannon, Mark, Mom, and Dad for babysitting my apartment while I'm gone!) I had grand plans to do a post on natural framing before I left, but that's just not going to happen. Too much to do before we leave, and long informational posts, unfortunately, do not help get my affairs in order or my clothes in my suitcase. ;) But I will leave you with one of the photos I was going to use as an example:



Gardenias are by far my favorite-smelling flower. They smell sweet and heady, especially in the still (aka hot and humid) night air of the Gulf Coast. They're not the prettiest, but oh goodness do they make up for it with their scent. And, if you catch 'em properly framed by their leaves, they're not too dreadful to look at, either.

And on that note, I'm audi. Don't know what the interwebs situation will be, but I'll definitely be taking pictures and hopefully be posting them sporadically! Ciao! =)

A Poll

Which do you like best?

Sun?


Or Shadow?


The pics are of two different sides of the old Arsenal at the Louisiana State Capitol Building (the New State Capitol, if you know the difference), which I visited with my parents when they came to visit over Spring Break. (Some more pics here.) I was really struck by the texture on the walls, so I took a bunch of pics, and these two were my favorite, but I can't decide if I like the more even lighting of the Sun one, or the more detailed texture of the Shadow one. What do you think? =)

Flowers!

Hi friends - I'm back! For a little bit at least...I may have to disappear again soon, but for now, I have a few days of relative freedom! Woohoo! So here are some pics that I took a while ago, to celebrate! Even when I'm super-swamped, like I have been for the past few weeks, I try to take a few pictures every week. It clears my mind and puts me in a good mood.

A few weeks ago, I went back to Texas for the weekend, and my dear friend Shannon kept an eye on my apartment while I was gone. When I got home Sunday night, I found these:



You may or may not have noticed, but I kind of have a thing for flowers. Kind of. So I was pretty psyched to come home to such bright, pretty, happy ones! A few days later, I was up early and the light was nice, so I brought the flowers out to the back patio and took some pics. I liked this one a lot:



Bright, colorful, in your face flowers. Love it! Then, in my current state of relative freedom, I figured I could have some fun with them. (Ok, ok, if you follow my Flickr, you know that I played around a little bit before the relative freedom hit, but I was desperately in need of a study break, haha. Most of the editing was done post-test, don't worry parents.) Anyways, I popped over to Picnik and went to town:


The "1960s" Effect


The "Orton-ish" Effect (To actually do an Orton photo takes a lot of steps. In Picnik, it's one click. Love.)


The "Posterize" Effect


The "Cross-Process" Effect (Real cross-processing info)

Fun, eh? =)

Only in Louisiana

Last night, I was thinking about how buried I am in schoolwork, and suddenly I had a brilliant post idea. I think of it as Louisiana + LOLGradStudent:



Luckily I live in a place where I happen to have quite a few swamp photos on my computer, and the ability to walk around the corner and get more if I really want. ;)

Happy Thursday! It's almost the weekend! =)

Aperture Study

I've been trying to sneak in a post for awhile, and Donna's comment encouraged me to up and write it already! (Go check her out; not only does she have her own wonderful site, but she's contributing to the new PW Photography. Sweet!) A while ago, Jessica asked about the blurry background in some of the flower pics I took on campus. She was absolutely correct that it was caused by the aperture settings on my camera. (Does anyone else always want to spell it aperature? I guess I just pronounce it incorrectly with a bit of a Southern flair and put that extra syllable in there.)

The aperture is basically the hole in the lens that lets light in. Normally it's closed, but it opens to a predetermined size when you take a picture. When you're using a dSLR you can control the aperture size in the Manual and Aperture-priority settings. The wider the aperture (which corresponds to a smaller f/ number), the shallower the depth of field. A shallower/smaller depth of field corresponds to a smaller in-focus area in the image. Here is a series of images I took at Avery Island to illustrate the effect a change in aperture can have:


f/25.0, the smallest aperture setting here, the largest depth of field


f/13.0


f/7.1, see how the background is getting blurry?


f/6.3


f/5.6, the largest aperture here, and thus the most shallow depth of field

In PW form, here are the first and last next to each other for comparison:


See the difference in the background, and even the leaves in the foreground?

A couple random things about aperture. As you might expect (or already know), the wider the aperture, the more light is let in. You can then use a faster shutter speed, letting you take crisper, clearer photos (although, blur can be good). Also, if you are using a zoom lens, your maximum aperture will change in relation to the focal length you're using. On my kit lens, the range of maximums is from f/5.6 when it's at 55mm to f/3.5 when it's at 18mm. The f/3.5 setting lets in more light, so it's useful in low-light situations. If you can't get the exact composition you want, you can always creatively crop. (Photo editing is your friend!)

Someday, I hope to get a macro lens and then really rock out the fun with depth of field, in photos like this:


Image by Flickr user ecstaticist, used under terms of CC License.

And with that, fun time is up. Time to get back to work! Hope y'all have a great week! =)

Hi friends!

So, I'm still around, and still taking pictures, but not having a whole lot of time to edit and post and blog about them...silly school... One thing I've been having fun with lately is focus, and taking the same picture with different focus points:



vs.



I like the second better, I think. Here's another fun comparison:



vs.



These ones, I can't decide. I lean towards the first one, but in the second, I love the in-focus Tobasco logo.

Speaking of Tobasco, all of these were taken at Avery Island, LA, the home of the world-famous Tobasco Pepper Sauce! We spent a day there a few weeks ago for my friend's birthday, and had a blast. Anyone visiting this state should definitely swing by Avery Island. In addition to the Tobasco Factory, there is a 250-acre Jungle Gardens and Bird City, which is beautiful. I took tons of pictures, some of which you can see here.

I probably won't be around much for the next few months. If I don't comment much, it's not because I don't love reading your blogs (I do!), I just love doing well in my classes and not losing my fellowship more. I know you understand, haha. Hope you have a great day! =)