Crave Photography Giveaway

There's an awesome giveaway going on over at Crave Photography right now!!!

http://cravemyphotography.com/blog/business-jump-start-giveaway/

After A Long Break...

   Hello out there! I realize I've been really slack in my posting, but life has been busy! I just wanted to quickly thank my followers; you all keep me motivated!
   Anyway, I have lots of new pictures to upload! I've discovered I really really like HDR photos, and I've been playing with that a lot! Here are just a few. I'll try to post again really soon!

Random Photos

Here are a couple pictures that I took today for my photography course. I really like them!

A Contemplative Post

"It was the best of times,

it was the worst of times."

-A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

     No truer words were ever spoken. When I was younger, I used to wonder how that phrase made any sense at all: I used to see it as a contradiction. Now, however, I've come to find it perfectly describes my life at the moment.

     I love being a teenager. It's awesome to be able to meet my friend for coffee, drive myself to the store if I need something, or babysit. I even have a part time job at a local bakery. Independence is totally great, and I don't know how I ever lived without it.

     At the same time, I hate being a teenager. All of these new options are fantastic, but sometimes, when I'm pulling out of the driveway, and I see my Mom standing in the doorway, waving, I just want to run back into her arms and cry. I miss being little, and being able to curl up in her or my Dad's lap when I'm upset or tired. Things now days are complicated; back then, life was so simple.

     I know that as I get older, I'll be ready for more and more responsibilities. Eventually, I'll meet the guy God has for me, and I'll be ready to get married, move out, and have a family. But for now, I just want a little independence, with my Mom and Dad back home waiting for me.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,

for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6:34 NIV

New Obsession

    I have become completely obsessed with HDR photography. I'm not sure what it is about it that I like so much; maybe it's the shadows and highlights, or the way it looks like a painting, but I have completely fallen in love with it. If you haven't tried it already, you definitely need to.
   I've thought about doing a tutorial post on how to take an HDR image; would anyone be interested?

{HDR}

    Recently, I posted about HDR photography. Well, since then, I've purchased a software program that's designed to process your HDR images. It's called Photomatix, and I LOVE it!!! It's not terribly expensive, and if you use the Stuck In Customs' coupon code, the price drops. Here are some of the pictures I've processed with the program.

Random Things

    Hello everyone!! Sorry I haven't posted any pictures in a while! I've been very caught up in Christmas! While I don't have any pretty, snowy Christmas pictures to post (it was a not-so-white Christmas), I do have a photo that shows a technique I've been working on!

    I took this and turned it into an HDR photo. Basically, HDR is just taking multiple exposures of the same image, and them combining them all together to get a well exposed final image. Of course, there's a lot more detail to that, and if you want to find out more about it, here's a great article on it. I definitely want to experiment more with this technique!

   One last thing. I've been wanting to have another photo contest, but I'm not sure of a theme. Any suggestions? I'd love to hear from my readers!

{Improvements}

    Hello everyone! Sorry for the recent lack of posts! I promise to try and start posting more frequently! To make up for it, I may even do a photo contest! :)

     Anyway, I wanted to share an accomplishment with you all!! This is a picture I took last week, and I love the way it turned out. Now, the picture in itself is not the accomplishment, but the way I took it. But first, I’ll explain what it’s a picture of.

    It’s a large blast furnace. They used to be very popular for melting down steel and coal, but now they’re more or less historical sights. This one didn’t have bars across the opening, and I was able to lay down inside and shoot a picture up, toward the top opening.

    All in all, I think the photo turned out very nice. Somewhat abstract, but nice. This brings me to the point of this post: how far I’ve come as a photographer in these last six months.

    A few months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to take this photo. It was somewhat dark in the furnace, as you would imagine, and if I’d had my camera set on Auto, my photo would have ended up blurry and exposed for the light, not the brick. However, I’ve been stretching myself and trying new settings, and now I take all of my photos in Manual. Because of this, I was able to bump up my ISO to compensate for the dim lighting, and adjust the exposure myself to make the photo come out the way I wanted it.

    I said all that to say this: don’t be content with the photos the way they are. Six months ago, I thought my pictures were good. I’d take them, and then edit them to pieces in Photoshop Elements to get the exposure and color right. Now, I hardly have to edit my photos at all; sometimes I have to adjust the white balance or enhance the colors a bit, but I don’t have to do near the editing I once did and I think it shows in my pictures.

   Thanks for all of the wonderful support that you’ve given through your comments! I enjoy posting my pictures. Any critiquing or suggestions are loved just as much, too! And, like I said at the beginning, I may have a photo contest soon! Thanks for reading!

Camera+ Photos

I hardly ever buy by apps, but when I saw Camera+ I caved and got it. Although not incredibly expensive, it has some really awesome features and edits!! Here are a couple photos that I edited with it!!

Vacation {Southern Style}

   Hello everyone!
   My week is really busy, but I wanted to find time to post about my family's vacation last week; So, I found some time and here I am!
   My family and I normally take a week long vacation once a year, and it's normally in the fall. This year, we decided to go to Charleston, South Carolina! It was so wonderful, and we even took a few days to go down to Savannah. I took a lot of pictures, and I have plenty to share with y'all! (Too corny?)
   Anyway, here are pictures from the wallking tour that we did of historic Charleston. It took us two days to do this tour, and we still didn't even do a quarter of all of the stops that were listed.

  As part of the walking tour, we went down the boardwalk; the sky was SO beautiful, and it was a perfect day!

   After Charleston, we headed down to Savannah, and, while it wasn't quite as fun as the afore mentioned city, we did enjoy the Spanish moss and Tybee Island.

   Tybee was really fun!!!

   This is the view from the top of a lighthouse on Tybee. It was so gorgeous up there, and there was even a wedding on the beach! The view takes your breath away and the picture doesn't do it justice!

   And, to finish it off, a completely random picture, but one of my favorites!!

After A Long Break...

   ...I'm back!!
   I didn't take an intentional break, but it just sort of happened. However, now that the craziness of the first few weeks of school is gone, I've had time to take quite a few pictures to share with you all!!

   And my favorite...

   I have another round to share with you soon!!

Water Drops

   My family and I were getting ready to head to PE today, and on our way out the door, my eye caught these beautiful water drops on the rose's leaves that the early morning dew had left behind. I was completely struck by how gorgeous this was with the sun shining through the little drops. These pictures do not do it justice!

Amusement Park

   This last Saturday, my family and I went to an amusement park! Now, I don't do roller coasters, or any sort of ride which involves being in a small car 100 feet off the ground. So, I took pictures all day! We all had a wonderful time, and stayed a over five hours! We were all exhausted!

    After we finished at the park, we went out to dinner. There was a gorgeous sunset that evening, and I just had to take a picture of picture!!!!