Sunday, July 31, 2011

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWELVE

Day 212/365: The Drugs of a Product Junkie


product junkie [prod-uhkt, -uhkt] [juhng-kee]
noun Informal.

1. a product addict, especially one addicted to beauty products.
2. a person with an insatiable craving for beauty products to use and test
3. an enthusiastic follower; fan; devotee, especially of beauty products

I'm sure many women are very familiar with this term. I'm trying to kick the habit. I can actually count the number of products on one hand (ok, maybe two hands) that I use everyday but every time someone with similar hair raves about a product, I buy it. They're trying to make me go to rehab but I say no, no no!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Friday, July 29, 2011

Thursday, July 28, 2011

DAY TWO HUNDRED NINE

Day 209/365: Fiery Night


Tonight, I went to the beach to do some light painting and the incandescent lights all around town create a nice fiery color in the cloud cover. It was such a cool night. I love Santa Barbara cool nights.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

DAY TWO HUNDRED EIGHT

Day 208/365: To Kim


This is a magnet my sister gave me and of course it's on my fridge. Every time I look at it, I think of her.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

DAY TWO HUNDRED SEVEN

Day 207/365: Earrings from Ecuador


One of my friends just returned from Ecuador and surprised me with this beautiful set of earrings. And get this - the beads aren't actually beads - they're seeds!

Monday, July 25, 2011

DAY TWO HUNDRED SIX

Day 206/365: 11:35 PM

This picture was obviously taken at 11:35 pm but my EXIF data will say different. And that's how I found out that my camera's time is a bit off.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

DAY TWO HUNDRED FIVE

Day 205/365: Spoon


Feeling a bit uninspired today so I experimented with effects in the Camera 360 app on my Droid X.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

DAY TWO HUNDRED FOUR

Day 204/365: Chucks Rural


I got my first pair of Converse All Stars a few weeks ago and I had a shot in mind that I wanted to do with them but I decided the longer I wait, the dirtier they'll get. So I decided to go ahead and capture them now and execute my other idea later.

I hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Friday, July 22, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED THREE

Day 203/365: Overshadowed


This picture almost didn't happen tonight. My camera battery was dead and my cell phone's battery is still completely dead. I thought I charged my camera's battery earlier today only to go back to the charger to realize that I didn't completely push the battery all the way in the charger. Good grief! So I push it into the charger for 10 mins, took it out, popped it in my camera, and grabbed this pic.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

DAY TWO HUNDRED TWO

Day 202/365: Nissan 350Z

What do you do when you're waiting for your order? You take a long exposure shot of your own car's cousin - the Nissan 350Z.

While I'm not a fan of the body style of the Nissan 350Z, I admit that it drives like a beauty. The handling is amazing. I don't own one and will never own one out of principle until Nissan makes another sports car that's unlike anything else on the road.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

DAY TWO HUNDRED ONE

Day 201/365: I've Made My Decision...


I love buttons and t-shirts with funny sayings. Just in case I lose it, I've documented that I had it by taking this picture. I didn't put much effort into taking my 365 tonight because I was on the phone with a high school friend that I haven't talked to in a while. We were on the phone for 4 hours - I just love catching up!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

DAY TWO HUNDRED

Day 200/365: Caffeinated Soap


As someone who makes cupcake soaps, I can appreciate the niche soaps in the industry.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 24mm, full power, bare, 3ft high above soap, pointed at white background, fired with Alienbees Cybersyncs
- LP160, 50mm, 1/64 power on floor, laying on its back, slightly angled upwards toward the face of the soap, camera left, at ~20ยบ angle to the soap

View in LB. Press L.

Monday, July 18, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETY NINE

Day 199/365: The End of the Road


I am surprised I pulled off a shot that I was pleased with tonight. My eyes were rolling in the back of my head and my head was rolling around my neck like I was bobble head because I was so tired. But there's nothing like a passion to really get ya going! Now that the processing is over, I'm at the end of my road and I'm going to sleep (hopefully). :)

See the outtake for this shot. I couldn't decide which one I liked the best but I made the one you see here my front runner.

I like it better on black.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETY EIGHT

Day 198/365: Line Art with Canera 360


I have a few camera applications on my Motorola Droid X but rarely do I get to use them. My favorite is Camera 360. Tonight, I played around with its setting to create line art and I really like its rendering. It's a bit noisy but that's my fault. The subject wasn't lit well.

Can you believe it's about to be 200 days?

Saturday, July 16, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETY SEVEN

Day 197/365: Wall•E


Does this remind you of Wall•E too? This is straight out of camera (SOOC).

I bought a composition notebook to use as my lighting journal as well. Now I just have to remember to keep it somewhere I can find it and probably attach a pen to it since I can never find one when I need it.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 50mm, 1/16 power, bare, 90ยบ to right of subject, camera left, fired with Alienbees Cybersyncs
- LP160, 50mm, 1/4 power, bare, 90ยบ to left of subject, camera right, fired in optical slave mode

Friday, July 15, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETY SIX

Day 196/365: Hello Sweetness


Hello sweetness!

And I say that in my best impression of Carrie Bradshaw when she says "Hello Lover" to a pair of Manolos. (Reference)

I've told you before how much I love Rainier cherries and I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see them in our Costco for the past two months but today I went to Costco hoping that through some miracle they would have them and guess what...they did!

They actually had them for a while but they put them in a different section of the store and they only had 3 containers left when I finally found them among tons of containers of sweet red cherries. It was like finding a needle in a hay stack.


Strobist Info:
- SB-600, bare, 24mm, 1/4 power, 3 ft high, 2 ft away, camera left
- SB-600 fired with Alienbees Cybersync
- LumoPro LP160, 24mm, 1/4 power, 3 ft high, 2 ft away, camera right
- LP160 fired in optical slave mode

Thursday, July 14, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETY FIVE

Day 195/365: Under the Tree


This tree was light from the bottom by a fluorescent light (supplied by the hotel it's in front of) and the full moon.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETY FOUR

Day 194/365: Trails Through the Fence


I went to this bridge that overlooks a highway thinking that I would not get a shot that I was pleased with because of the fence. Then I decided, what they hay and went for it!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETY THREE

Day 193/365: Somewhere Between Breakfast and Snacks


Just doing some late night shopping and decided to take my camera with me. I just got the new ColorMunki Display today and used it on my monitor before post processing this photo.

Monday, July 11, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETY TWO

Day 192/365: There You Are!


Two weeks ago I was tearing up my place looking for a sharpie. I have a black one and a brown one and they are never where I need them to be when I need them. And then today lo and behold when I'm not looking for it, there it is on one of my tables. :/

Did you get your free slurpie from 7 Eleven today? I didn't. :/ Maybe next year.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED NINETY ONE

Day 191/365: Sunbelt Machinery


This is actually a pseudo HDR shot. I didn't combine multiple exposures. I just did some HDR toning on a single image. I used the Nikon SB-600 on camera to get this shot. I don't remember the setting of the flash so I can't share those. Sorry. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be on the road where this was so I stayed in the car in case someone came out yelling. I wasn't breaking any laws that I know of. It's a public road with a tiny industrial type building across the street but I still checked for no trespassing signs.

First, I applied a HDR Toning Image Adjustment in Photoshop using the More Saturated setting. Second, I duplicated the layer, changed the blending mode to Soft Light and applied a High Pass filter to bring out more of the detail. Then I pasted the original image on top as another layer and reduced the opacity to 50% and applied a Curves layer to brighten the photo a bit.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Friday, July 8, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY NINE

Day 189/365: A Place for My Thoughts


Even with all of the technology around me, every once in a while I still go back to the classic - paper and pen!

This photo was taken with the Retro Camera app on Android using The Barbl camera. The link goes to the free version but there is a paid ad free version as well.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY EIGHT

Day 188/365: Plums


My friend Mike gave me a bag of plums the same day he gave me the Royal Ann cherries. Tonight, I didn't know what shot I wanted to take (as usual) but I knew that I wanted to do some more experimenting with post processing. So I sat down in front of the TV with one of these juicy plums and with one bite, I knew I that I was going to photograph them and use my first texture in my 365 project.

Texture is courtesy of Cloak on Deviant Art.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 24mm, 1/2 power, thru shoot through umbrella, 6ft high, 3 ft away
- Flash fired with Alienbees Cybersync

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY SEVEN

Day 187/365: Royal Ann Cherries


Today, my friend Mike gave me a jar of Royal Ann Cherries! I'm not usually a cherry person. I only liked Rainier cherries at first but now I can add Royal Anns to my list.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 24mm, 1/4 power, thru shoot through umbrella, 1 ft away, 3 ft high, camera right
- Fired with Alienbees Cybersync

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY SIX

Day 186/365: Porsche Carrera GT


My Flickr friend Andrew (AndWhyNot) always has such amazing light painted car photography and his work inspired my shot tonight. Since I'm way too tired to go out and spend time light painting an actual car, I borrowed a friend's toy car and decided to light paint that instead with a small LED book light I got from the 99 cent store. Just so that Andrew knows, I'm not copping out. I will someday go outside and light paint a real car. The year's still young! :)

This shot is mostly SOOC. I had to clean up two small dust dots in the bottom of the frame.

Monday, July 4, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY FIVE

Day 185/365: Goleta Fireworks Festival


Tonight was my first time attending the Goleta Fireworks Festival and my second time ever attending a fireworks display. I didn't want to go at first but I promised myself that I would capture fireworks at least once in my 365 and since I believe it's illegal here to have your own fireworks, it was tonight or never.

Day 185/365: Outtake

Sunday, July 3, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY FOUR

Day 184/365: The American Flag


I took this photo using my Motorola Droid X with the Camera360 app using the Retro effect.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY THREE

Day 183/365: Candied Apples

I was in the mall and saw these delicious candied apples. They had a great variety of candied apples and they gave me a sample of a sweet Granny Smith apple covered with salty caramel and peanuts. I loved the sweetness of the apple but not so sure I like the combination of the two.

This is my 4th apple shot of my 365! Guess you can tell I love apples! To see the other 3, click here.

Friday, July 1, 2011

DAY ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY TWO

Day 182/365: A Gift of Precious Stones


I was pleasantly surprised to receive this lovely gift in the mail tonight. It's a bracelet of semi-precious stones. From its description, each stone is said to possess different properties to promote areas of life.

Clear Quartz - Master Healer
Orange Calcite - Cleansing
Jade - Prosperity
Sodalite - Meditation
Hematite - Self Esteem
Carnelian - Motivation
Aventurine - Perseverance
Amethyst - Spirituality
Rose Quartz - Unconditional Love

Setup:
I taped a white piece of paper to a piece of glass. I flipped a chair stool upside down and sat the piece of glass on bottom of the legs of the stool. I positioned the bracelet in the middle of the glass and used black construction paper to on the sides of the glass to prevent flash spill through the uncovered part.

Strobist Info:
- SB-600, 14mm, 1/16 power, bare, handheld below the bracelet, fired with Alienbees Cybersyncs
- LP160, 35mm, 1/2 power, thru shoot thru umbrella, camera right

I don't like that it's a little darker on the right side than on the left but through my 365, I hope to get better with my lighting skills.