Day 80: Lights

Ok, well my april fools joke is over, you've all seen it and read my comment. I hope. Anyway, I couldn't let a picture this unique go by without a decent description, so here goes: I told my mom at about 7PM that we should go to WallyWorld and get that new tripod I had been hinting at for the last month... so we did that, and came home. I found the tripod to be exceptionally sturdy and an idea popped into my head to get some use out of it. I had taken a picture from the exact same location the day before, but of course hand held because I didn't have a spiffy tripod yet. But now I did! So at 8:50 I told my mom that I wanted to go stand on the side of a street with a bunch of traffic in my black coat in the dark. after quite a bit of convincing, she let me. I had to be driven out there, and we had walkie-talkies... Once I got out side, and set everything up, I told mom to drive by in both directions a couple of times, and I got a few pictures from that.... but then I saw 3 cars coming from behind me!!! so I set my aperture open a little more, so that it would let in just a bit more light than in my previous pictures (in which the sign was too dark) and this little change caused the red lights to over expose and turn yellow-orange as they went by! which is what makes this picture so unique. yay.

Originally Posted on April 1st:

This will be the last picture I post from my D80, if not the last picture I post for awhile... It's ironic that these things always happen just before April 1st... I dropped my camera. I was out taking this picture last night, and I took it off the tripod, thinking only about trying to get back in the car and get warm... I didn't think about putting the neck strap on at all, and then I just let go, not thinking... I stuffed it back in the camera case, so my mom didn't find out, and i got the card out and showed her the pictures. The camera is screwed though... the lens shattered, and the metal ring that the lens attaches to on the body some how like snapped off, the screws broke from the force of the lens hitting first I guess... I freaked out. Anyway, I'm going to clue my parents in here sometime today. I hope they don't freak out too bad. oh, who am i kidding? the camera that i have had for only 4 months is RUINED. Well, i guess its my Steve's Project 365 80... i should change the URL to sp80.blogspot.com...

well I'm off to tell my parents...

Day 79: Cone

Well this will most definitely be my last pine-anything picture for awhile. I hope I haven't bored you all with pictures of trees! Anyway, today was the last day of Spring Break and I spent all day out taking pictures, on roads, in the backyard, and even in Monument. It was a wonderful last day. School tomorrow...

Day 78: Radial Captivation

This was a hard one. a really hard one, I even employed kelsey to help me choose which picture to use, and I think she made a great choice. I still regret not posting the other one from today so make sure to visit my other blog "Experiments In Photography" for the other one...

Anyway, I took this while talking on the phone today, which i won't do again, it turns out that out of a hundred i only got 2 good ones, but i really can't complain, i don't do that much better off the phone... anyway, i seem to be captivated with pine needles recently, hence today's and yesterday's pictures. Ice cold yesterday, sunny today. I love Colorado!

Day 77: Icicles

I took this today. Amazing icicles eh? I love freezing weather. Contrast adjusted, Desaturated, Darkened, Resized for web. Leave comments and tell me what you think...

And according to Laura, its definitely worth the full view, so click it!

Day 76: Feathered Friend

This is my contest entry for this week on DPChallenge.com! oh, and my membership was finally confirmed today... so I took this yesterday, this was a free-roaming peacock and i ran into him twice or thrice throughout the day. I really like the bokeh (Soft round background highlights, for those of you who aren't photography jargon literate)and the colors match nicely.

Day 75: Meerkat Manor

Yes, this is a Meerkat, and I wonder what he was thinking as I took this picture. I went to the zoo today and I must have taken about 800 pictures, which filled up BOTH of my 2Gb memory cards! As I write this, I am waiting for all 4Gb's of pictures to copy to my computer so I can post the one I have picked for today. I hope I get a chance to use a few others, because I have a lot I want to share! 3 minutes left for the first card... then I can post. Well while I wait, I'll remind you all to please leave me comments. I added the new note on the sidebar of my website (somewhere over there -->) to let everyone know why I always want more comments, so read that and then leave me a comment. or two! two is better! Speaking of the devil, 2 minutes remaining. I'm off to get a sandwich, I'm hungry and I just got back from a day at the zoo... Ok they are finished. Good sandwich too... well then the picture is uploaded, I hope you like it!

Day 74: Fire Flower

This flower was particularly well lit in the mall today, so I took a picture. Its unedited and I think it looks pretty good. This flower is for Laurion Kristin Rachel Maddie Kelsey, my one true love!

Day 73: Boose

I wonder how many extra hits I will get because of the title of this post....

Anyway, I took this in Texas Roadhouse today. They don't have particularly enjoyable food aside from the peanuts... Me and neon signs, we're tight.

Yes, my typo rhymes with "moose"

Day 72: Ma' Peeps

Happy Easter!

Well, I just missed the 24 hour speed challenge on DPChallenge.com by 1 minute. It was a members only challenge, and my registration as a member didn't go through fast enough :( Oh well, its a great site, and if you are at all interested in photography you should check it out. It's a great place to learn and talk with other avid photographers. Anyway, these are some peeps, in their natural habitat. They are rarely captured in their natural habitat, because people usually eat them before anyone can get a picture. This was taken in my light box, I had to buy to huge bags of those chocolate eggs, so i know what ill be eating the rest of spring break! I did quite a bit of desaturation and resaturation and levels adjustments to get the overbearing redness out of the shadows behind the peeps' heads.

Day 71: Laser

This was taken in my room after I found out that if I shined my laser pointer through one of those decorative glass pebbles it made an awesome pattern. Its unedited.

Day 70: Good Friday

Well then, this is a bit out of character, but its all I took today. I wrote "good" and "Friday" on two strips of paper. I then hung the paper from the ceiling using string and wall tack, and aligned them in relation to the work light to make their shadows a cross. I'm ok with the final result, although i would have liked to use a different angle, my tripod is short and kind of limited though...

Day 69: New York

Ah, time enough for creativity at last! Goodbye dreadful homework, and Hello Spring Break! This picture is part of the first set of many many pictures I hope to take this week. We're planning on a trip somewhere in Colorado this week. I won't tell you where, I'll let it be a surprise when I post the pictures. Anyway, I felt like coming up with something out of the ordinary today. So i took about 50 pictures of an old broken computer motherboard that turned out awesome, but those are for another day. This is a picture of New York City! In its condensed and portable form of course. But what makes it so awesome is the lighting. Can you guess how many lights I used? Better yet, can you guess which things I used for the lighting? Stop reading here and leave your comment.... I'll wait. ...ok, now that you have left a comment guessing how it was taken (which you have right?) I'll tell you... I used a flashlight. Just one flashlight. And a 17.1 second exposure. It was a lot of fun, and I took about 20 of 'em in total. I moved it around at different speeds from different directions and ended up with some pretty wacky looking pictures. It you look at it from a standard snapshot point of view it's really confusing. I like best how the light drops off toward the back of the picture, but yet the light on the statue is perfectly even. I can't wait to take lots more this coming week, and I'll have all the time I want now!

Day 68: Swirl

This was taken three days (day 65) ago, When it was really icy. This picture was a complete accident but i love the radial blur through the whole picture. I think its just really captivating for some reason... The full view makes the blur more drastic, so click it.

Day 67: Almost Full

Well, I felt like I owed it to you all to actually get a good moon picture. The one from the eclipse was kind of cloudy, the other one during the day was grainy... and I got rid of it. But now I have this one! I pulled out mom's old 27-200mm or effective maximum 300mm(1.5x DX crop factor on my D80) lens, originally for use on an old Nikon film camera. There is no auto focus on the lens so this is as perfectly in focus as it gets when I'm in a hurry, which is pretty good. I tried playing around with showing the fact that there actually was a blue sky when I took this one as well, but it was just too dark outside to get the moon not to overexpose while getting enough light in to show blue. I spent about an hour editing this one, and I should probably get to homework around now.... So I hope you like it. and I also hope its the last moon picture I'll do for awhile.

Day 66: Some Snowday!

We had the first snow day of the whole year today, but by noon all our snow has melted. ironic isn't it? This picture demonstrates my despair. It was originally going to be me sledding down the hill as a blur, but once the snow melted I couldn't really do that, so I had the bright idea to use our family cars to light a night picture. I'll admit the lighting turned out nicely, but it ran one of our car batteries dead... was it worth it?

Day 65: Ice

It was freezing today. there was so much fog in the city I couldn't see past 20 feet when I drove... It was also my first time driving in fog. It was scary, mom freaked out. After we got home I decided to go out to the backyard and take some pictures, and what do ya know, I got exactly 2 good ones out of 127. So heres the best of those two! This one is definitely worth the full view click. The shallow depth of field really adds a lot of feeling to the whole picture. I love that the background matches the colors of the subject. It also matches the color theme of my blog! Only 300 days to go!

Day 64: Silhouette

This is a picture I took today on my deck. It's of the sun in broad daylight... pretty cool. It was a very fast exposure. I really like the smoky feeling it has, it is also in keeping with my monochromatic feeling for some of the past few days. Its unedited, just cropped. And, yes i changed it, it used to be a blurry moon picture. They were taken within minutes of each other. I just like this one better....

Day 63: Oh Bloo'y 'el!

ya know I've heard that "bloody" is actually offensive in Great Brittan. DISCLAIMER: I was in no way trying to offend Brits with the title for this post. In fact, i think the English have the best accent on earth. END OF DISCLAIMER. I really liked that the plastic cover dealeo on the ground and that it says "oh EL!" which instantly occurred to me as a British person cussing. what can i say, i had to take a picture. Now that i think about it its probably some construction worker code for "plastic cover dealeo." I ramped up the contrast to make it so awesome. You're welcome.

Day 62: Red

This is the last picture i will put up from day 56, the hill hike. I really like this one, and i tweaked it alot, which is why it looks like fire. Since today's theme is "red pikes peak" (and i don't know why) i think i will post a video of an animation i made today. It's red. So move on over to my Experiments in Photography Blog and Check it out!

Day 61: Abstract Expressionism

He held the eaten banana. She kicked it. I took a picture. Then i desaturated everything but the banana, and posted it here for your enjoyment!

Day 60: Deep Blue

This is another from that day on the hill. day 56... But Now its day 60! and I'm just getting started! Who's excited for 305 more eh?!? I AM!

This was really boring. so i cropped it. then i turned it black and white, then i turned the black to blue, then adjusted tints and saturation. and then i adjusted the contrast and VIOALA! its deep blue! i really like the unnatural contrast between the blue and the white. after all, photoshop is half of the photographic process. i just cant imagine doing this in a dark room 100 years ago. i thought 20 minutes was long....

Day 59: Fire & Green

Because i couldnt think of a good name for a green stone. im sorry. This is a certain friend. she couldnt get the red kool-aid out of the right half of her hair.... Taken with the HP

Day 58: Brick

Yes, Its a brick. This is another picture from the hill behind UCCS. I really like the shadows. This was taken about 5 minutes before day 56's.

Day 57: Whirly-Gig

This picture was REALLY blurry unedited, so i sharpened it, then desaturated it, then sharpened again, then unsharp-masked it (phototshop term). and after all that, its still a little blurry, but i think i have achieved the effect of motion of the wheel that i was going for.... and it adds to my theme of low saturation pictures this week!

Day 56: Fungi Cloud

I guess the name is a pun on the mushroom cloud that is created when an atomic bomb detonates. I think that is kind of what this picture looks like. There was no editing at all, other than some levels adjustments and removing dust remnants. This is what happens about 2 seconds after the whole sun disappears behind the horizon. I got pictures of little slivers of the sun as it went behind pikes peak, and i took this right when it disappeared. Ya know in the Pirates of the Caribbean III: At World's End? When the sun goes behind the horizon and theres that big green plume-lightning deal? well this was like that. only much cooler since it was real. aywy siqmgu *replaces batteries in keyboard* ah there we go, it was skipping keys there for a second... now where was i? oh right, so i spent about 3 hours on top of the huge hill behind CSCS and UCCS today, i hiked all over it. it was great. I took about 500 pictures, so ill try to post more in the days to come. assuming i don't take even better pictures.

Day 55: Smoke on the water

Well, It looks like this one is black and white two. maybe this can just be monochrome week! Sorry for the nerdy picture name. Its actually smoke on the dry ice and water..... in a vinegar bottle. Moments after this was taken, i capped it. It sat on the deck for about 5 minutes getting bigger and bigger, and then (because the cap is just loose enough to come off before the bottle explodes) it shot about 20-30 feet straight up into the night sky and came back down within five feet. It was great. Ah, the magic of frozen carbon dioxide.

Day 54: Monochrome

This was taken this evening (after dark obviously) in the walmart parking lot. It's a lamp post while the snow was coming down. The snowflakes were huge! some of the biggest i have ever seen. The compression kills the texture of the snow, so please click it to view full.

Day 53: Crushed

100w Light Bulb: $0.80
Metal Spoon: $1.29
Plastic Sandwich Bag: $0.20
Wasting a 100w light bulb just to break it with a spoon and take a picture for your PhotoBlog: Priceless!

Well this one was fun! i do cherish the opportunity to destroy light bulbs... I think the name is creative too. My creativity is rather limited on weekdays because of homework, but this one is once of my better ideas. execution however, could have been better. I used the night sky as a background...

Day 52: Focus

As many of you know, I am the proud owner of a Nikon D80, and thusly, (haha, I love that word) I could not resist showing it off. I think this picture applies to my life very well right now, as I spend a lot of time behind that viewfinder. It was taken with an exposure of 21.9 seconds, hence my blurriness and transparency, both of which were purposeful to direct focus to the camera. I switched the light sources a couple of times to get the lighting just right. I really like the way the lighting finally turned out. In fact, my favorite part is probably the orangish tint of the photo and the complete lack of harsh shadows on my beloved camera. I know this is kind of a break from my usual pattern of nature pictures, but I hope you like it anyway!

Day 51: Candle Light

Click on it! you know you want the full view eh? yes, yes you do.

I think I have Frostbite. Its hard to move my cold fingers as i type this. I just got back from taking this picture five minutes ago. I must have wasted upwards of seventy matches. It took about a half hour, and a lot of wiping snow off the candle, but i finally got it! I got the picture i wanted! how often does that happen eh?

So heres the story:
It snowed today, and i woke up at noon. Typical Sunday. My parents were after me all day to finish my homework, which i finally finished at 5:45PM. After that, i looked outside, saw the beautiful blue post-sunset light, and thought to myself, "hey wouldn't the yellow-orange light of a light bulb look great in contrast to this blue light on a snowy day?" The answer: heck yes it would. But as usual, mom shot down my rather risky idea of plugging in a lamp in the snow, despite my argument that putting it on a piece of plastic would protect it. Which it likely wouldn't anyway... So i asked her if i could use a candle instead, since it was snowy and i doubted snow could light on fire. She agreed reluctantly. I grabbed my coat, boots (day 31), mini-tripod, and camera. I now regret that i didn't grab my gloves, but nevertheless, i ran outside with my camera, almost tripped in my excitement, and when i got to the top of the rock in our backyard i set up my camera, set exposure and readied everything, then went back to grab the camera and matches. I then hiked back up the hill to the rock and set the candle down, took another test picture and it looked superb. Then the difficult part began. It was windy, cold, and still snowing. I was soaked, and already had semi-numb hands. So i started lighting matches. Lucky enough, the first one lit and so did the candle (i guess they were all still dry and warm at that point), but not for long. It went out too quickly for me to get a shot of it... So I then proceeded to relight matches, one after another. It got to the point where i was quite frustrated, so i used two matches side-by-side, which worked perfectly. I got it lit again and this time got off 3 shots before it went out (the second of which is the one above). After that i lit about 25 more, trying to locate my self in all manner of positions as to block the cold snowy wind... none of which worked. i only got one more shot with the candle lit, and my leg blocked half of it. I decided it was about time to head back, so i grabbed all the burnt matches and brought everything down, soaked my hands for a minute or so, grabbed my camera card, reviewed the pictures on the computer and here i am now.

So thats my epic story. The longest one yet i do believe, and my hands are definitely starting to feel better. Thanks for reading. Enjoy the snow!

Day 50: Chapel

Well, today marks the day that my day numbers no longer correspond with the date they were taken. you see for all of February my picture number day was exactly the current date + 20. it isnt any more. how sad.

anyway this is from the Air Force Academy chapel. It was taken just after sunset.