School was a lot to get used to last semester. This time around, it's still weird. I'm not used to being around people, I guess that's why I become a recluse when I get here because, outside of class, I don't really want to deal with people. Maybe it's connected with the reason I choose to be behind the camera instead of in front of it. It is much nicer back here and the lights aren't as bright.

Zach snuck this photograph of me while we were at my grandpa's for Thanksgiving. (The trickster!) My brother's girlfriend Michelle had straightened my hair and Zach wanted to make sure he could capture the moment in case it never happened again.

Adobe Photoshop... Ooooo... Take II

The blogger is still having some trouble loading these images, probably because they are jpg, but not quite the same as the blogger is used to. I hope you like them.


Here I wanted to bring out the water in the leaf. In the original, you had to look closely to find them.
Here I increased the contrast and lightened the petals in the black-eyed-susans, giving them this frosted look. I like it, though it looks more like a painting than a photograph.
In the original, the entire image was light ans airy. I wanted to darken the background, and have the birdbath stand out more. I hope I succeeded.
This one only has a tiny bit of lightening on the been to bring her out more. Not major editing, just a little dodging.
This is the second version of this image I did. I wanted the tiny ant to be more of a focal point than in the original. I tried dodging with too much of a crisp edge to my tool, making it obvious what I had done. I found another brush that was speckled and left a more gradated edge to the area altered. It looks, to me, like just that place where the ant was got direct sunlight.

Adobe Photoshop... Ooooo...

For Christmas, my Dad and Marybeth gave me Adobe Photoshop. I decided to do some editing on the program, to get used to it and get to know the tool available to me. Here are some of the final images.

I'm sorry, I was not able to load the images because of this error:

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I don't know how to talk to someone about this problem. It also will not autosave at all. If you can help, that would be great.


Fun in the Sun?

Yesterday was the first day of classes here at SUNY Oswego. My roommate left school at the end of last semester and the only friends I had in this wing of my building were kicked out and had to go to different halls. I was kind of reclusive last semester, and it looked like I would be even more so this semester, until my friend Andrei appeared in my Geography lecture. She came back to my room after class, then dragged me outside, into the snowy tundra called the ice pack on the shoreline. I brought my camera because, looking out my window, the wind was down and the sun was out, for once. We trudged through the snow, or as Andrei put it, "trundling." *shrugs* Andrei is Andrei. Here are some of my favorite shots from that outing.
Wonderful, unbroken snow.
I decided to break from the path Andrei was taking. She was pretending to be some guy that climbed Mt. Everest, thus choosing the icy mounds that are the hardest places to walk on, especially with camera in hand.
Yes, I know... I took a picture of my feet.... I'm sorry.
Look at that beautiful sunlight!!! Yay!

Beautiful Things

A few days before I returned to school, Zach and I went to his grandmother's house. I wanted to photograph her decorations, besides work on chain mail. She has so much stuff, she calls it junk, it's nuts, but it is so festive and uplifting to see such joy, even in all the crazy nick-nacks.

Christmas and the Coldest Day

Christmas day was hectic and frantic. First, Zach and I were at my mother's, then my father's, then his parent's house. The night before we went to my father's because we didn't know if we would have enough time, though we did. It was nice to see everyone all at once; Matt, Dad, Marybeth, Michelle, and Robbie. It was really nice and everyone was glad to see us.

Then we went to Zach's parents to have Christmas with Zach's parents, grandparents, and uncle. It was more grown up, more importance to the presents, not just sheer number as at the other two houses. While there, I saw a candle set-up and was captivated by the beauty of the burning flames reflected in the glass.

A few days later, on the coldest day of the winter so far, Zach went snowmobiling on the Tug Hill Plateau and I stayed home, taking photographs and, silly me, decided to do some watercolor painting outside. It worked out well, except when the water in the paint would begin to freeze. There is a skill to having just enough water, though not too much to clog the brush with ice crystals. It is interesting, however, the effects that are created by the splayed-out brush and the thinned paint. I would recommend it.

Here are some photographs I took later that day when the white snow and sunlight continued to beckon.

Winter Comes

Christmas Eve my mother insists on putting up luminaries and such, even though the Christmas spirit is lacking in my house ever since my parents divorced and were not able to stay in a parenting relationship for my brother and I. It kind of killed the homey and loving feeling that used to come with Christmas... Well, I took picture of her decorations outside that night, like she asked, as well as put out some of her luminaries by catching the bag on fire! It was fun. I had to capture the fleeting flames.