Quiet Week

This past week has been pretty quiet, so I thought a quiet blog might fit the mood.  Keeping busy buying props for upcoming newborn photo shoot, preparing for a photo shoot with my Dad's band and figuring out a better way to display my photos online.  Not happy with my photoshop portfolio - not user friendly!  If you have any ideas, please let me know!  Working on a website over the next month as well!

For now here are a few photos from the past few weeks...

Outdoors

 

The Pups

 

Food

 

 

Maternity/Family Photo session

Foodie

 LOVE food...buying it, cooking it, most of all eating it - it's all good stuff.  This week Jay's decided that he wanted to make a roasted chicken (YES!) so I thought, let's document this deliciousness.  First up, our chef Jay:

So handsome!

I helped this project by making a trip to Wegmans...if you haven't been there, make sure you visit on your next trip to Rochester - it's heaven. 

Though it's a bit more expensive, I try to eat as much organic/free range food. It's worth it - read Jane Goodall's book Harvest for Hope, it'll change your views I promise.

I wasn't thrilled with the outcome of my photos, but through all the boiling, chopping, seasoning and cursing came these photos:

 

Needless to say this was an awesome meal!  We made chicken broth with the bones for upcoming meals next week.  Y-U-M.  I'm going to order a tripod that might help me out with food shots...so hopefully we'll see some improvements in over the next few months.

Bye!

Sassin' with Graffiti

First off, I just want to say that I'm a bit disappointed with myself for not keeping up with this blog lately...I haven't done my Project Sunday or Walking Wednesday since the first week I started.  Instead of doing a Project Sunday tomorrow, since it's Easter, I'm doing it today. So here we go!

GRAFFITI!  I LOVE it - I don't care if some people say it's garbage on a wall, if it's done tastefully I think it's a form of art.  I mean, look at it! It's amazing!  I've been doing a lot of research on places in Rochester that have good graffiti and although most seem unsafe, the water tanks at Cobbs Hill are covered in graffiti and completely safe.  People walk their dogs around them and there's a path that leads you there so it's legal.  There is also a spot in Fairport that I'll be checking out in the next few weeks with amazing graffiti on the sides of trains...can't wait!

I've wanted to try graffiti photos for a long time and finally this past weekend everything came together.  A couple of friends from work agreed to be my Sassy models, and they were great!  We had a blast looking at the art and taking fun photos.  Can't wait to get back out there to shoot some different angles.  Here are a few of my favorites:

These photos were taken at about 11 (by the time we made it to the tanks!).  VERY bright and sunny so some of the photos had a lot of shine on them.  Every time I try something new there's always something I learn, and every time I review my photos I get more ideas for the next shoot and always come up with a few things I should watch out for (like glare from the sun).  Jillian and Pat were so much fun, perfect duo for this outing.  I initially wanted the photos to be edgy and have attitude, but after looking through them, my favorites were the photos with the biggest smiles...I guess graffiti backgrounds are good for achieving both feelings - edgy and playful!

Thanks to you both for being my models! Miss Sass you are my official Sass Master :) Can't wait to set up another shoot.

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Walking Wednesdays

Ok so obviously today is not Wednesday...I got a bit antsy and am doing this entry a day ahead of schedule.  Since I'm starting theme days (Project Sunday) I decided to add Walking Wednesday to the week.  Every Wednesday I am going to walk through Highland Park and report on new things that are in bloom (very exciting for me, the park is so beautiful!).  I figure this will be easy enough since March-Spetmeber there is always something new blooming.

So to be honest, today my goal was to run outside for an hour.  I thought that this wouldn't be too difficult since I've reached my goal of running for an hour on the treadmill at the gym.  Not the case, my friends.  I ran for 20 (ok 10-15) minutes and was in more pain then I have ever been on the treadmill.  AND I got my new sneaks all muddy b/c I had to take the shortcut home (pathetic)!  This didn't put me in the best mood...so I grabbed my Nikon and walked to the park.

The first thing I noticed were the smells!  It smelled like spring - fresh air, warm sunshine and some delicious smelling flower was somewhere...Down the path a ways I came across my first sign of spring

Squirrels are everywhere!!  So are the robins, unfortunately my camera doesn't have a great zoom so the photos weren't great.  I also saw a chipmunk but he was too quick for me!  As I mosied down the path I came across the second sign of spring

The tulips and some other little white flowers are popping up! And they are everywhere - can't wait for them to bloom. Next I passed the Japanese Maples, nothing much going on there until fall; and then came to my favorite section - the magnolias.  Right now the new fuzzy buds are hanging out just waiting to bloom in a few months. The lighting was beautiful the way it lit up the fuzz - here are a few shots

SO beautiful...I think I was mesmerized by the light for 15 mins or so before I pulled myself away. I can't wait until these bloom, I'll be sure to post photos.  As I dragged myself away from the magnolias I noticed this weird smell...and I mean STINK-Y.  I couldn't put my finger on it until all of a sudden I remembered "Which Hazel!" I turned to my left and there it was...the Which Hazel tree was in bloom!  PHEW what a smell for such a beautiful tree.  The funny thing is that Which Hazel blooms in yellow, orange and red.  The yellow tree reeks (rotting garbage) while the orange and red smell really goood (sweet)!

I can't get enough of those colors!  Then I came across something that made me a bit sad, as well as thankful in the same though...

Such a thoughtful thing to do. This was off the normal path and one of the few benches that haven't been graffitied on (don't get me started).

I think it's safe to say Goodbye Winter!!

Project Sunday

So I have dedicated Sunday's to be my "Project Sunday".  It's perfect - I spend all day focusing on 1 or 2 photography projects, whether it's just getting to know more about the camera, coming up and working on a new project I have in mind, or updating my blog/portolio...the day is mine to experiment with!

Today I decided that I needed to do all of the above (because focusing on 1 thing is too difficult!).  I have really wanted to play around with water and fire.  (To be honest I had forgotten that I had wanted to do these types of shots until I heard the "drip, drip, drop" coming from the kitchen.  Once again I hadn't switched off the water all the way!)  Another goal of mine was to do this without having my camera on Auto - it needed to be in Shutter or Manual Priority modes.  This way I could really see how the camera works and get the practice I needed.

First Project - Water drops from the faucet (Shutter Priority).  

I started out by setting my camera up on Shutter Priority.  I've been waiting for spring so I can catch runners, kids and dogs running around in the parks, but though hey! water works just fine for the time being.  The first several shots I swore I was hitting the shutter button at the exact moment the water drops were falling...not so much.  I had to first focus on the actual facuet, shift my lens down so that it would catch the drop mid-fall, and then snap the photo just before the drop was released from the faucet head.  Also a factor - I had the shutter speed set at 1/200 ...too quick! I slowed it down to 1/100...still not getting what I was looking for...finally after about 30 mins I found the perfect speed - 1/60.  I realize I have no sense of how quick tenths and hundreths of seconds actually are...I'll have to keep a notebook for subjects and their best shutter speeds.

It took me several shots but here's what I ended up with:

Not the best, but better then I was expecting - great shutter experience too!  As I was taking the first few photos I noticed they were coming out blue...I played around in the camera trying figure it out until I realized that the White Balance was set incorrectly.  I snapped a few shots on the different settings and became more familiar with whole new set of setting options.  A quick switch and I was back in business!  So in this project I was able to learn more about shutter speed as well as timing (drops) and White Balance!

Second Project - Flames (Shutter and Manual)

Well, unfortunately this project didn't go over as well.  I had lit a candle and wanted to catch the flame so that it was sharp and clear...I must have played around with the shutter speed for ages.  No matter what I did I got a somewhat blurry shot.  Nothing came out like I wanted.  To be honest, I got pretty frustrated after about 45 mins and started playing around with the Manual Mode.  I still wasn't able to get the flame to be crisp but I was able to get some good shots by adjusting the Shutter and Aperature levels.  I played around for about an hour and I'm sad to say that this is the only decent flame photo I came out with (only looks cool b/c of the effect)

After I gave up on my flame dream I decided to play around with a few other items in the apartment:

I also took some time to update my portfolio (www.EricaHansford.photoshop.com) and do some planning for future Sunday Projects.  Not bad at all...only 6 more days until my next experiment...DUN DUN DUN! Any suggestions??