Jillian

Originally uploaded by kellygrape

I haven’t blogged in a really long time - so much for one post a day for the whole month of November. I do want to keep doing this - so bugger it all, I’m going to keep up with this blog, regardless of whether or not I post every day. Let’s try for once a week. That gives all you four people who read this blog a reason to add it to your feeds - don’t want to miss a post.

My cousin Suzanne got married on Saturday. It was a really wonderful wedding - the first in the family to get married, to a wonderful guy - and all the cousins (even the second-cousins from NC) came. I am one of 16 on that side, plus the 3 girls from NC (who quite wonderfully came to have Thanksgiving at our house!) - lots of relations! We’re all rather close in age, too, the bride and her sister the oldest, then a gap and the other 14 of us ranging in age from 26 to 18.

Photography-wise, this wedding was killer for me. This is why I don’t want to shoot weddings - I don’t have the skill or equipment for it yet, and I don’t have the money to get the equipment, and I can’t spend days worrying over the photos that just didn’t turn out right - I’d give myself an ulcer. I much prefer situations where I can control the light at least a little bit - or where I’m getting the light I need! Inside, in a dark dance floor - I can’t do it, not yet, not with the current gear I have. Anyone want to buy me a 5D, a super-fast zoom, and some gear that will take my flash off camera?

I did get some shots, however, that turned out brilliantly. Patience and lots of digital memory helped that. And my new glass. A lot of my shots were soft, which I’m not happy about, but I think it’s due to the fact that I was having trouble focusing … I may have to write about this later, because I’m starting to worry about if the $400 I dropped on this lens was worth it.

So, we had a Thanksgiving celebration at Angeli’s house tonight - and afterwards we were flipping through the channels.  A Walk To Remember came on, and because we are cheesy we decided to watch it.

I’d forgotten how I like a lot of the music in that movie.  Two songs that I absolutely love to little pieces - “Dare You To Move” and “Mother, I Just Can’t Get Enough” are in it - I really should get that soundtrack, or at least find all the songs that are on it (I already have the two previously mentioned).

I was having a night the other night - but now… it’s so good to be able to get together with my friends.  I’m really torn - I realized that I may not be able to make it to our annual Christmas party with my friends in Connecticut, as I have class that morning that will likely run till 3 or 4 and then if I was going to be going up to CT I’d take the train… which is going to run another good 3 hours at least…

But the holiday party may be the last time I see some of these people until the summer.  And I’ve always gone.  And I oh so bitterly miss them when we’re apart (although some of it I could really do without… that’s another story that I won’t be telling another day).  It’s just something I need to think about.

I’m thankful that this year was better than last year.

“Where do you run to escape from yourself?  Where you gonna go?  Salvation is here… I dare you to move.”

So I purchased something VERY exciting on Amazon.com this afternoon, and chose Super Saver Shipping (because I am nervous about money and spending $400+ on an item puts me in the realm of panicky already…) -

And I got an email from Amazon this evening that says my item has already shipped.

Oh, I love when Free shipping works in my advantage. 

“We get back to the fundamental issue… is this a quote-unquote Christian Nation?  And if this is a quote-unquote Christian Nation, then we should apparently prohibit the Koran in the *** [unclear].  But, when you raise the issue are we a Christian Nation or are we a nation that allows religious freedom and religious liberty and even freedomfrom religion, that’s a whole different matter.” - Jeff Hamilton, former OK Congressman, as quoted on NPR’s All Things Considered November 15, 2007

The above quote made me so mad when I first heard it, because I was unsure what Mr. Hamilton was saying (and the idea of someone being so idiotic to agree with the first side, and in Congress, scares me).  After listening to it time and time again, I think that he is really agreeing with the second viewpoint, that we are a nation that allows religious freedom.

In transcribing this quote I actually looked online to try to find the context, or to find more about the story - and I was frightened to find that some people actually really believe that the US is a Christian Nation.  Then again, you can also find people who believe that the United States is a pastafarian nation (and if you can’t then I’m actually a little disappointed)… but I’m just tired of the religious Right.  The people who say homosexuals should be reformed… that all  presidential elections should be decided on a basis of whether or not the candidate is pro-life…

I want to believe that there are actually normal people out there who run the middle ground, who don’t pretend that narrowmindedness can cure everything.  I really do.  But then I run across the fact that some people think this is a Christian nation and I just shake my head.

Anyway.  I don’t really like to get political.  But this interview concerned me.  Sometimes NPR makes me laugh out loud with some of the things people (not usually the hosts) say.

177/365

Originally uploaded by kellygrape

It’s really amazing how processing can change a photograph. Take this photo, for example. Three different ways of processing, and not a single photo is the same - they’re all good, in different ways, but they all feel totally different.

I am unsure as to which I like best. I may just leave it as a triptych, but let’s hear what you all have to say.

I went to see The Darjeeling Limited with Eric tonight. It was good, in the weird sort of Wes Anderson way. I did a paper about Wes Anderson in college. His movies are getting progressively more odd.

One of my flickr friends Sammy built a light diffuser based on instructions he found online. Keet and Sammy have to be two of my favorite people on flickr - she makes awesome things (that’s the blog she shares with Nini, look here for a really cool recent project) that make the crafter in me jealous and wish that I had knowledge of how to do crafty stuff like she does, and Sammy is an awesome photographer who creates DIY lighting stuff. Oh, and they live in the Philly Metro Area, which makes them doubly cool.

So, anyway, once I get my lens that I’ve been eyeing, and maybe procure a tripod (yes, I’ve admitted it, I do not own a tripod), my next plan of action is to get lighting. And then try some of the projects like what Sammy demonstrated. At this rate, it’s going to be like… next summer before that happens. But all in good time, my friends. All in good time. Perhaps now that Jeff is also getting into photography, he’ll want to start a business with me. How about it, Moosie?

I’m looking to get some new glass.

For those of you not into photography, glass refers to the lens. Often, the lens is what you shell out the big bucks on. I showed my brother a lens I was considering buying that costs somewhere around $450 - and that’s a middle-of-the-road price, really.

Currently I’m looking to upgrade my kit lens (kit lens is the lens that comes with the camera) as well as add a zoom to my current collection, as I am terribly crippled from my inability to zoom, and that just won’t cut it when I go to Ireland in March.

So, the currently kit-upgrade that I’m looking at is the Tamron (an off-brand - aka, Not Canon - lens) 17-50mm (that’s the lens length) f2.8 lens. It’s on sale used at B&H for $349. I could get something cheaper with a smaller aperture (the f#) but I do so love me some fast glass. I’m spoiled by my 50 f/1.8.

Vocab notice - “fast”, when referring to a lens, refers to the light the lens can let in. The wider the aperture (the closer the number gets to 0), the faster the lens.

I’m also looking to get a zoom lens (I’m mostly getting the 17-50 for the wider end). I have a few in mind - I’d like to not spend more than $200 on it. I take mostly portraits, and my 50 takes care of that, and I should be spending my money on the wider end. If I had a lot of money, I’d just splurge on a couple of super fast primes. Alas.

Another vocab notice - a prime lens is a lens that does not zoom. The lens is set to a certain length - if you’ve ever been around me taking photos and I’ve backed up, saying “I can’t zoom”, it’s because I was using my 50mm lens, a prime.

Looking at lenses, it’s kind of boggling to get through the terminology. A quick guide to the basics of different lenses:

Tamron Zoom Super Wide Angle SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical [IF] Autofocus Lens for Canon EOS Digital Cameras

Looks confusing, right?

Ok, let’s cut that down to “Tamron Wide Angle 17-50mm f/2.8 for Canon”. Wide angle means that the lens goes wide - that’s easy enough. See the 17-50mm? The lowest number is the widest the lens can go. I don’t know the standard, but I’d say that anything under 35mm is going to be considered “wide” - and the closer you get to 0, the wider it is.

17-50mm refers to the focal length of the lens. At the widest, this lens has a length of 17mm, and at the most zoomed it’s 50mm.

f/2.8 is the aperture. The closer that number gets to 0, the faster the lens. f/2.8 is good - pretty fast.

Tamron is the maker of the lens, and this particular one has a Canon mount. Off-brand lenses often have different mounts available, since Canon and Nikon lenses aren’t interchangeable.

So, that’s it for right now with the lenses. I reallly want that 17-50f/2.8. Anyone want to donate to help the cause?

Grain

You might not have noticed (and, I actually didn’t even notice until I looked at the larger size), but yesterday’s photo was rather grainy. I hate grain. I hate noise on my photos when I don’t intend it. Luckily, this wasn’t too bad, but I’ve had some really great ones ruined by noise.

Let me show you a closeup from another photo, also shot at 800:

See the colored noise on the photo? That’s grain - it’s a result of the high ISO at which I set my camera when I took the photo. Well, actually, it’s the result of the high ISO that I forgot to REset after I took my photo on the eighth.

Photography is very dependent on light. Light is (usually) your friend. If there is not enough light, a photo will turn out underexposed - to the point of being completely black. There are many things a photographer can do to change the amount of light entering a camera - well, at least, many things that a photographer can do in the scene, the most simple of which is to add a light by means of flash or other lighting.

However, it’s not always possible to depend on flash, or the ability to add extra light. In camera, there are three ways a photographer can change the amount of light.

The first is to change the aperture. I will discuss this in another entry.
The second is shutter speed - again, to be discussed in another entry.

The third is to change the ISO. This is the film’s sensitivity to light. Remember when you used to buy film in the drug store, and they would have different boxes for sports or night photography, or just general purpose? The different films all had different ISOs. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the film (or, in digital cameras, the sensor) is to light. So, if you’ve got the perfect aperture and shutter speed for the shot you want to get, and you still need more light, you can change the ISO to allow yourself to brighten up the shot.

The downside of changing the ISO is that the higher the ISO, the higher the amount of grain in the photo. Different films, and different digital cameras, all handle this differently - the highest ISO on my camera (1600) might give the same amount of grain as a 200 ISO on another, and the same amount as a 3200 ISO on a third. My camera handles 800 pretty well. 1600 is fine, too, but I really dislike grain and noise - so I try to stick around 100. (the scale typically goes …100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200..etc)

Now, grain (or noise) isn’t always a bad thing. I don’t typically use it, but I’ve seen it used in photographs to really enhance the mood.

I just hate running across it inadvertently, because I forgot to set the ISO. When I make my photographer’s checklist for going out on shoots, that’s going to be one of the items on it. “Reset the ISO.”

173/365 - Just think!

Originally uploaded by kellygrape

This might be a pool,
Like I’ve read of in books,
Connected to one of those
Underground brooks!
An underground river
That starts here and flows
Right under this bathtub!
And then–

Who knows?!

It’s possible!
Anything’s possible!

Saint Bernadette Players, one of the community theatre groups I belong to, is holding a bake sale on Sunday to raise money. Being the good little participant that I am, I decided to bake something for them. I wanted to try out a new recipe, and this was the perfect opportunity.

An old friend, Lisa, has a cooking (mostly baking) blog, Pittsburgh Needs Eated, and she often posts recipes online. Since she posted about ginger snaps last month, I knew I needed to try the recipe out.

(side note - her food photography? Rocks)

First lesson - spices are EXPENSIVE. I went to the store to stock up on ginger, cloves, and cinnamon, and shelled out nearly $20 for those, some brown sugar, and some molassas. The cloves and ginger were like $7 each! Happily, I went home and realised that we actually already have cloves and cinnamon (ginger too, but it was 4 years old), so I returned most of it. But still!

Secondly - the recipe was pretty easy. One thing that I’ll follow more closely next time - refridgerate the dough for actually at least 2 hours. One and a half doesn’t cut it. The dough gets very sticky, and not useful for rolling into balls. I used granulated sugar instead of raw, but I don’t think that had an adverse effect.

Third - they spread more than I thought. The cookies worked better when I made them slightly large - not crazy big, but the ones in the photo I posted are a good size. Also, I didn’t use parchment paper - not sure if that had any effect. The end result is a cookie that is very light - crispy and crunchy, with the one batch that turned out perfectly being just a little softer in the middle. They’re ginger snaps, though, so I’m actually glad they’re crunchy. They’re very very good.

I’m kind of sad I’m selling most of them.