DAY ONE HUNDRED TWENTY

Tonight, I wanted to try out my new 24" softbox. I had some flowers and two flashes and I knew exactly what lighting setup I wanted. Same lighting setup as Nick's but a totally different look.

I purchased this rose from my friend Elizabeth, who owns Elizabeth's Garden. I put on my high heels to shoot from above the rose. This shot is SOOC.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 35mm, full power, thru softbox, above camera
- LP160, 35mm, 1/4 power, thru translucent cutting board (the floppy kind), below camera

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETEEN

I was out tonight and noticed a crowd of people gathered around in a circle. I went over to see what all the commotion was about and I found these two outside of Andersen's Pea Soup going at each other's throats. As a good citizen, I stopped the fight by asking them if I could photograph the brawl and surprisingly, they agreed. After I wrapped up, I asked them what the fight was all about and they said that they were fighting over who would get the last spoonful of the pea soup.

Thanks to my wonderful friends Allen & Bea for kicking butt (each other's) for my photo tonight and for such a wonderful evening!

I met up with them for dinner and to share pictures from our last few vacations and I ended up taking home groceries!  How does that happen you ask?  Well, when your friends take you to a grocery store where you can make your own peanut butter, make your own flour, and has a huge variety of sodas, you've got to grab a few to take home!

I do use my flash for this shot but I don't remember the settings.  I used my SB-600, bare, 70mm - I think.  I tried to apply a cinematic effect in post using this tutorial.

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN

Strobist Info:
- LP160, 105mm, 1/32 power, 2ft high, 2 ft away, camera right

DAY ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN

Tonight was the opening of the Santa Barbara Fair where the theme was the "Land of Ahhhs." If you dressed up as one of the characters from the movie, you got in free and could enter the best costume contest.

I cropped the original shot, applied a Curves layer, and added the border and text in Photoshop.

DAY ONE HUNDRED SIXTEEN

...mixed with a bit of exhaustion. I would love to get out and shoot my city but it bores me in that area. Nothing changes here like in a big city.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 35mm, 1/64, 6ft high, 4 ft away from subject, camera left, in front of subject
- LP160, 24mm, 1/64, 4ft high, 6ft away camera right and behind subject

DAY ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN

Every time I go to In & Out, I'm never in and out. Perhaps its because I go thru the drive through. I was told today that's a rookie mistake but I just don't want to get out of the car so I enjoy the view from the parking lot in the line that stretches the length of the parking lot.

DAY ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN

This shot was inspired by this photo.

It's also how I felt today while using the computer since Safari crashed every 10 mins or so.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 35mm, 6ft high, 3 ft away & directly in front of subject
- Flash triggered using 1/8 Inch (3.5mm) cord and two hot shoe universal translators

DAY ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN

Today, I am extremely exhausted. I didn't go to sleep until 5 am but I worked on this picture tonight until my shoulder started to go numb. I still didn't get the shot I wanted in one exposure so I had to merge two photos together in Photoshop. The ice was actually dripping down my should in one shot but I was not sitting on the stool the way I wanted to be.

Strobist Info:
-SB-600, snooted, 85mm, 1/16 -0,7 power, camera right, 6 ft high and 3 ft away from subject
- LP160, bare, 50mm, 1/32 power, 3 ft high and 2 ft away from subject, camera left and in front of subject

DAY ONE HUNDRED TWELVE

Keeps the doctor away. :) I picked up 3 of these cute baby apples at the store the other day. I didn't even know they had baby apples. haha

The other day I scored Joe McNally's The Moment It Clicks and The Hot Shoe Diaries from Borders for 40% off each. Tonight, I wanted to create a shot using his technique. Up until now, I've mostly shot in Manual mode. It wasn't a pride thing. "Oh I only shoot in Manual!" I was forcing myself to learn how to control all the settings of my camera for myself and to be able to guess a starting exposure. McNally says that his camera is mostly in Aperture Priority mode 90% of the time and other professional photographers have told me the same. He said having your camera in Manual all the time is like having a Ferrari and driving like Miss Daisy. I'm paraphrasing of course but it was something to that effect.

So tonight, I put his techniques to work. To get this shot, I put my camera in Aperture Priority mode and connected my flash to the camera using my SC-29 sync cable. I shot the first few shots moving around the apple and firing the speedlight from my hand to see which photos would create the shadows I liked the best. Then I positioned the speedlight on my light stand and secured it with a ball bungee cord and adjusted the exposure compensation to my liking. Next I turned off all the lights, grabbed a cup of water, and made a mess of my floor. At least I got a good shot out of it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 50mm, diffused with homemade stofen diffuser, camera left, 3 feet high, positioned downwards at the apple

DAY ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN

Thank you so much to my friends Ede and Zach for my photo of today. I can't wait until she learns how to play the theme from the movie Up which is one of her favorite songs. I love that song time. From time to time, I'll just watch the first part of up just to hear the music. If you haven't heard the song, watch the movie first and you'll always associate such sweet sentiment with the song.

Strobist Info:
-SB-600, 85mm, 1/32, camera right, 6 ft high, 1 foot away

DAY ONE HUNDRED TEN

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 35mm, 1/16th, diffused with homemade Stofen type diffuser, camera left

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINE

There a few things you must do when you visit San Francisco:
- Visit/drive the Golden Gate Bridge
- Go to Alcatraz
- Drive/walk Lombard street
- Ride a cable car

Unfortunately, I missed out on the last one.

I wanted to work on post processing tonight so I grabbed my music box cable car for some post processing fun and I enjoyed the nice melody it played as it spun around on its base.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, thru shoot thru umbrella, 35mm, 1/8 power, camera right, 2 feet high

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHT

I had a somewhat long day and by the time I got home, I was a bit hungry and not energetic but I really wanted to finally participate in a theme for the 365:the 2011 edition group so here goes.

Yes, I'll admit it. I am wearing this funny sock and shoe combination but I am not standing in the grass. A girl's got to draw the line somewhere. :)

Strobist Info:
-SB-600, 35mm, 1/2 power, thru shoot thru umbrella, directly in front of subject, 3 feet high

P.S. The grass picture is this shot was supplied by FreeExtras.com.

DAY ONE HUNDRED SEVEN

This is the first collage of photos of my 365 Project. This is a glimpse into Earth Day at Alameda Park in Santa Barbara. Earth Day reminded me a bit of a minor Woodstock and so I choose cross processing for these photos. The Banh Mi sandwich in the top left photo was so delicious! It was a nice event and I had a good time. I noticed today while I was working with my photos in Adobe Bridge that photos taken in Shutter Priority mode where listed as Auto in the EXIF data. Luckily, I didn't change the mode on my camera for the rest of the afternoon so I was confused by which mode the camera was in and if I popped my card back into my camera, it showed the right mode.

EXIF for each picture:
Top Left: Exposure: 1/125 @ f/9.0, ISO: 400, Mode: Manual
Bottom Left: Exposure: 1/200 @ f/9.0, ISO: 400, Mode: Manual
Right: Exposure: 1/200 @ f/9.0, ISO: 400, Mode: Shutter Priority

DAY ONE HUNDRED SIX

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 35mm, 1/8 power, snooted, camera left
- LumoPro160, 70mm, 1/8 power, gobo'ed with black cardboard

DAY ONE HUNDRED FIVE

I really don't need another cookbook but I'm a sucker for pictures with every recipe. I'm currently working on a photo idea that will hopefully become a photo in my 365. It kept me busy all night.

Have a great weekend everyone!

DAY ONE HUNDRED FOUR

Strobist Info:
- SB-600 and LumoPro160, 35mm, 1/64th power, bare, right and left of drops

DAY ONE HUNDRED THREE

Here's my take on the classic cherry in the mouth photo. Tonight I had a very refreshing cherry limeade soda and it was so good! It came with 3 cherries. :) I decided to use the cherries for my photo today! I so envy the people who can tie a knot in the stem of a cherry - not that it's going to look good on my resume or anything - but it just looks so cool to be able to do!

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 35mm, 1/4 power, thru shoot thru umbrella, right of my mouth
- LumoPro160, 85mm, 1/64 power, left of my mouth, directly in front
- Two daylight balanced fluorescent bulbs lighting the white wall behind me

DAY ONE HUNDRED TWO

Kane drained the high rise of heat and took possession of my reflection in the mirror, causing my reflection to act independently of my physical counterpart.

Do you understand the movie reference?

Hint: It's an 80s film.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 85mm, 1/64 power, snooted, right of subject
- LumoPro160, 24mm, 1/2 power, directly behind me

DAY ONE HUNDRED ONE

Shooting tonight's photo was rather difficult and post processing it was even more difficult. First, I could verbalize the shot that I wanted but I could not imagine it in my head. Usually, it's the other way around. It was really weird. I got my hands on some dry ice and really wanted to play around with it before disposing of it.

The first problem with this shot was that I couldn't get the lighting on the background the way I wanted it to be. The second was getting the glass to overflow. I narrowed it down to two photos but even those photos were not my best in camera work so I really had to go to work in Photoshop. I'd rather have a great shot in camera and only enhance it in Photoshop. Tonight, I had to create a miracle.

After processing, I had two shots to choose from for my Project 365 - the one above and the one below.

I liked everything about the first shot except the glass was not overflowing like I wanted. Then I thought about the appeal of the glass without it overflowing. If someone handed me a glass that was overflowing, I wouldn't want to drink it until after it stopped but if someone handed me a glass like the one I chose, I would be more eager to drink it. It could just be my impatience.

I went back to the camera and the setup to get the second shot and I still had the problem of crummy lighting on the background but I couldn't fix it in post because I would lose the overflow that I tried so desperately to get. Even with cleaning up the background a little, there are still some problems around the bottom of the glass. I probably could have done more work in post to fix that but it still didn't have the clean look of the first one.

Now you know my thoughts, what do you think?

I finally just combined the two shots to create this one:

P.S. If you're going to try dry ice, research it before using. It can be dangerous stuff.

DAY ONE HUNDRED

WOW! It's day 100! Before I started this project I was praying that I wouldn't flake out on completing it and now I have no doubts. Today was a very interesting day. I've been thinking of this day and what I would shoot for the past two weeks. Yesterday, I told you I was wrecking my brain and it didn't get any better today. I had a shot in mind but it was not going to come together so I went out to scout other locations. After scouting locations, I stopped by McDonald's for a snack (bad, I know) and as the guy handed me the drink in the cup holder, the drink fell out of the holder and all over me and the inside of my car. Luckily, I grabbed it before all of it poured out.

After that I got into an argument which kept taking my attention away from photography. I jumped in my car, took a calming drive up the 101, and listened to soulful R&B in my iPod. Before calling it an evening, I stopped by Haskell's beach and took in a breath of peace and let out a sigh of relief.

DAY NINETY NINE

It's day 99 and tomorrow will be day 100! Obvious statement but I've been saying this over and over in my head all day while tossing around ideas of what to shoot tomorrow to "celebrate" day 100. This is how I usually look when I'm thinking about something. I can't look up and think because I get distracted by all my eyes can see.

Today's not any different from any other day. I have no idea what I'm going to shoot from day to day. I'm hoping for a spectacular photography day tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 24mm, 1/4 power, thru shoot thru umbrella, camera left in front of me
- LumoPro160, 35mm, 1/2 power, thru reflective umbrella, camera right, back left of me

DAY NINETY EIGHT

This little guy definitely had his eyes on me. He probably was upset because I disturbed his nap.  I had to get over the squeamish factor before getting a good shot.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 50mm, 1/8 +0.7 power, mounted on camera bracket above camera, diffused with homemade Stofen-type diffuser

DAY NINETY SEVEN

I just had to have them both!

I've started to get into post processing techniques and I really wanted to try cross processing today. I followed this tutorial by Ashley McNamara.

Strobist Info:
SB-600, 24mm, 1/4 power thru shoot thru umbrella camera right

DAY NINETY SIX

Did you know there's a Global Handwashing Day and National Clean Hands Week? I didn't know! It looks like my camera didn't record the settings from my SB-600 and I didn't write them down but I'm pretty sure these are the settings below.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, fired from on camera, 50mm, 1/16 power, diffused with homemade Stofen type diffuser

DAY NINETY FIVE

A little while ago I bought HDR software for my windows PC because it did an amazing job on a couple of my photos but Photomatix has always been in the back of my mind since so many people use it. So tonight, I decided to give it a shot on a very simple subject just to play around with the software interface and features. If you've used Photomatix, what are your thoughts? Did you buy the full version, the light, or the plug-in?

DAY NINETY FOUR

The inspiration for this picture is an untold story. At times, the slightest thing happens, which can be tucked away in your mind, and sparks creativity.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 70mm, 1/64, snooted, camera right at about a 10 degree angle

DAY NINETY THREE

I know what you're thinking - how can she go from pictures of a beautiful vacation to this? Well, if you've ever flown on an airplane and dealt with any of our many "wonderful" airlines, you completely understand. Frontier and United Airlines took it upon themselves to change my first itinerary so that I would have a 5 hour layover on one leg of my flight without my approval. Expedia kindly accepted the change for me without asking also. I love how they just know I'll be alright with their changes. Any who, I called them and get them to change my flight. Of course, the attendant assures me that the 59 minute layover he's changed me to is a valid connection. By valid connection, he meant I would be able to get on the plane but my luggage would still have to endure the 5 hour layover. So I arrive in Bozeman with no luggage to speak of but they did deliver the bag to me promptly.

On my return flight, they schedule me for a 30 minute layover which means I have just enough time to uh, do nothing, except get myself to the next gate ASAP. Of course, my luggage doesn't get on the plane with me either and now, they have no idea when my luggage is going to arrive or where the 'H' it is. Excuse, the 'H' I'm kind of ticked even though I'd love to keep the blog G-rated.

So I talk to an attendant who assures my bag will arrive tonight which turns into, it might arrive tonight, which then turns into "Oh yes ma'am, the bag is already here." Then that turns into, "Well, you can't actually go pick it up from the airport because I can't guarantee that the bag's at the airport" to "Well, the airport closes at 8pm." Keep in mind, a flight just left SBA at 9:06 pm from the same airline that has no idea what's going on with my luggage.

Airlines. Should they all just change their names to something else? Like United could be Divided with a slogan of "We'll make sure to divide you from your luggage?" Or Delta. Well, Delta could keep their name and change their slogan to "We're going to overcharge you, but we're keeping the delta." I won't jump on them all because I really should wrap up this rant. My blog is supposed to be about photography but photography is sometimes my therapy as is evident in this photo.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

DAY NINETY TWO

Today, it started snowing in Big Sky! I thought that was a great thing because since I've been here the heat has made the snow slushy but I found out that along with the snow came some pretty nasty thunder & lightning. It forced the chair lifts, the tube park, & all the other activities to come to a screeching halt. On the plus side, the snow made it much easier to walk around outside the resort.

On 4/3/2011, this photo was replaced. The only changes that were made were spot removal and a crop in PS. The original file is located in the comments.

DAY NINETY ONE

Here is one of the views from the top of one of the mountains here in Big Sky. This was right before some other people & I tore through this beautiful snow on our snow mobiles. It was so much fun!

Yes I do need to get my sensor clean but couldn't get it done before my trip.

Happy April Fool's Day everyone!

This photo was replaced on 4/3/2011 to remove two spots from a dirty sensor. The only edit to this photo was a crop done in camera.