but it pretty much says it all!
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Saturday, December 26, 2015
2016 Photo Challenge
The 2016 Photo Challenge begins in ONE week! Are you ready? All challenges will be posted on the Montana Magic Photo Challenge page on Face Book. One new challenge will be posted each week, usually on Saturday (although that may vary slightly, depending on my schedule). This challenge is open to anyone, regardless of photographic skills or abilities. You do not have to have a fancy camera or lenses to participate - any camera (including those on cell phones), will do. There are some rules however, please read on:
This is open to anyone interested in taking photos, whether you’re a beginner or have been taking photos for a long time. Each week I will post a challenge subject to shoot for the next seven days.
You are not required to post every week – this is not a contest and there are not prizes; it’s just something fun for anyone who wants to stretch their creativity. Your photos will not be used for any purpose other than this page. If you know of anyone who might enjoy participating, please feel free to invite them, and please “like” and share. Most of all , be creative – be wacky – be off the wall – and HAVE FUN!
This is open to anyone interested in taking photos, whether you’re a beginner or have been taking photos for a long time. Each week I will post a challenge subject to shoot for the next seven days.
You are not required to post every week – this is not a contest and there are not prizes; it’s just something fun for anyone who wants to stretch their creativity. Your photos will not be used for any purpose other than this page. If you know of anyone who might enjoy participating, please feel free to invite them, and please “like” and share. Most of all , be creative – be wacky – be off the wall – and HAVE FUN!
•You must be the photographer of any photo(s) you post
•Post only ONE photo per person per challenge (unless otherwise stated in the challenge)
•Photos must not be larger than 600x800
•Try to take new photos for each challenge, instead of posting old photos you’ve already taken. Remember – this is to stretch your creativity!
•You may post challenge photos at any time but if you are posting late, please tell us which challenge your photo is for.
•A few challenges will have specific rules, but other than that you may interpret the challenges any way you like.
•No manufactured photos. Some creative or fun manipulation is fine, but you must actually take the photos with a camera (including cell phones), for this challenge.
•KEEP IT G-RATED! I cannot stress this enough. There may be young people participating; anything deemed inappropriate will be deleted.
•POSITIVE FEEDBACK ONLY! If you don’t like it – don’t post comments. Negative or rude comments will be deleted. Anyone who continually posts negative feedback will be blocked from the page.
•This is not a debate page. if you must "argue" about something via your posts, please do so on your own pages. Offensive posts will be deleted.
Get your cameras ready and your creativity warmed up!
•Post only ONE photo per person per challenge (unless otherwise stated in the challenge)
•Photos must not be larger than 600x800
•Try to take new photos for each challenge, instead of posting old photos you’ve already taken. Remember – this is to stretch your creativity!
•You may post challenge photos at any time but if you are posting late, please tell us which challenge your photo is for.
•A few challenges will have specific rules, but other than that you may interpret the challenges any way you like.
•No manufactured photos. Some creative or fun manipulation is fine, but you must actually take the photos with a camera (including cell phones), for this challenge.
•KEEP IT G-RATED! I cannot stress this enough. There may be young people participating; anything deemed inappropriate will be deleted.
•POSITIVE FEEDBACK ONLY! If you don’t like it – don’t post comments. Negative or rude comments will be deleted. Anyone who continually posts negative feedback will be blocked from the page.
•This is not a debate page. if you must "argue" about something via your posts, please do so on your own pages. Offensive posts will be deleted.
Get your cameras ready and your creativity warmed up!
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
December Featured Photo
Once I got the photos for that day on the computer I almost deleted this one, but decided to play around with it first, just to see what would happen. Sometimes I turn them into black & white photos and sometimes I push the limits of what the computer can do with them. Adobe Photo Shop has all sorts of filters, some that replicate what you can - or used to - do in a darkroom (such as solarizing, or high contrast), and others that are just fun and funky. This one ended up with "Glowing Edges", and I added some red for color. As it turned out, this became one of my favorite shots. It seems that quite a few of my favorite photos are ones that were almost deleted.
Monday, November 30, 2015
My Introduction To Photography - An Ongoing Process
Photography is my passion. I’ve been
shooting photos as far back as I can remember; when I first learned that simply
by pushing that little button, the camera makes a picture! I remember my
grandmother’s old Kodak Brownie Box – no viewfinder, but a little box that
created a mirror image that you could faintly see your subject’s face in, and I
wondered if they ever considered that folks would be shooting scenery instead
of just people.
My own first camera was also a Brownie, but an Instamatic – a gift from my grandma when I was six years old. No focusing, no adjustments; just aim at what you wanted a picture of and press the shutter. Simple and quick! Much to my parents’ chagrin, I could go through a roll of film in a very short time. When I was about 11 or 12, I graduated to a more “sophisticated” Kodak Instamatic, which of course didn’t use any less film than the old Brownie.
In high school I signed up for a photography class, and one of our first assignments was to make a camera from a tomato sauce can. Really? After emptying out and washing the can we painted the inside with flat black paint and punched a hole at the closed end with a small nail. The lid that had been cut off was also painted flat black, and would act as our film plane. Once our “cameras” were finished we took them into the darkroom, attached a 1x1 inch piece of photographic paper to the loose lid, and taped it shut with black, electrical tape. Over the punched hole we placed another piece of the tape, and our camera was light tight. Now for the fun part.
Our entire photography class – all 17 of us – marched outside with our pinhole cameras, found a subject that appealed to us, pointed our cameras at the subject and lifted the tape that covered the nail hole. After a count of 15 to 20 seconds the hole was covered back up and we went into the darkroom to see what developed. Tiny photographs drifted up from the blank pieces of paper; basketballs, trees, classmates, cars, and a wide variety of other subjects. Miniature photos – from a tomato sauce can! I was amazed, and where previously I had simply enjoyed taking photographs, now I was completely hooked. No, I was addicted!
For my high school classes I had used one of the school’s cameras, but as I entered college I decided that I wanted a “real” camera, with all (well, some), of the bells and whistles. I chose a Canon AE-1, which had been on the market for a while and was one of the most popular cameras of its day. You could use the automatic settings, like a point and shoot, or you could override the auto settings for manual ones – and that is what I wanted to learn; film speed, aperture and shutter speeds. I was making payments on the camera but the seller let me take home the user guide so that by the time I paid off the camera I would be familiar with the camera and its settings.
As I walked into the darkroom on the first day of my college photography class, I noticed a long strip of film stretched above the door. On it someone had hand written, “Negative thinking taught here”. I knew at that moment I would love these classes.
Some years ago I jumped into the digital age with a Canon Power Shot. How glorious it was not to have to pay for film and developing, to see the photos instantly, and simply delete them if you didn’t like them. My little Power Shot however, while great for general photos (and takes amazing macro shots), was more than frustrating for photos of birds and wildlife. Somehow those critters knew exactly how far away they had to stay to be out of the range of my lens. In early 2011 I finally decided to take the plunge; I spent more than I probably should have at the time and bought a Canon EOS 7D SLR camera.
It felt so good to have a “real” camera in my hands again! But oh my stars, it weighs six pounds with the 18-135 zoom lens I’d bought to go along with it. A slight bit more than the Power Shot. But it presented me with a most amazing photo of an Osprey in flight on my way home from the camera store, and as I did a “happy dance” right there on the side of the road I knew I’d made the right decision. Yep, eight frames per second will definitely get the job done! Five years later, the camera has paid for itself and I haven’t once regretted my decision to buy it. My next purchase is going to be a professional zoom or telephoto lens that is as big as my car – and will probably cost just about as much.
Over the years I’ve learned a lot about myself and how I see my world, and about photography in general. I’ve discovered that I love the play between light and shadow, I’ve learned how to create a great composition, how to “see” what the photo might look like before I press the shutter. I’ve followed all of the rules and have broken every one of them, and I've learned how to take photos that reveal who I am as a photographer.
I’ve been asked many times what my favorite subject is, and I have to answer “everything”. It’s not a lie, I do shoot everything: scenery, wildlife, portraits, flowers, birds, clouds, leaves, bugs, still life (not only flowers and fruit, but vegetables, food and kitchen utensils), absolutely anything and everything that is available to shoot. In the past few years I've discovered that everything I look at, I see as a photograph. Even though I don’t consciously think about it, my mind is secretly composing pictures. I'm rarely found without my camera, so I guess you could say that I truly do live, eat and breathe photography…
My own first camera was also a Brownie, but an Instamatic – a gift from my grandma when I was six years old. No focusing, no adjustments; just aim at what you wanted a picture of and press the shutter. Simple and quick! Much to my parents’ chagrin, I could go through a roll of film in a very short time. When I was about 11 or 12, I graduated to a more “sophisticated” Kodak Instamatic, which of course didn’t use any less film than the old Brownie.
In high school I signed up for a photography class, and one of our first assignments was to make a camera from a tomato sauce can. Really? After emptying out and washing the can we painted the inside with flat black paint and punched a hole at the closed end with a small nail. The lid that had been cut off was also painted flat black, and would act as our film plane. Once our “cameras” were finished we took them into the darkroom, attached a 1x1 inch piece of photographic paper to the loose lid, and taped it shut with black, electrical tape. Over the punched hole we placed another piece of the tape, and our camera was light tight. Now for the fun part.
Our entire photography class – all 17 of us – marched outside with our pinhole cameras, found a subject that appealed to us, pointed our cameras at the subject and lifted the tape that covered the nail hole. After a count of 15 to 20 seconds the hole was covered back up and we went into the darkroom to see what developed. Tiny photographs drifted up from the blank pieces of paper; basketballs, trees, classmates, cars, and a wide variety of other subjects. Miniature photos – from a tomato sauce can! I was amazed, and where previously I had simply enjoyed taking photographs, now I was completely hooked. No, I was addicted!
For my high school classes I had used one of the school’s cameras, but as I entered college I decided that I wanted a “real” camera, with all (well, some), of the bells and whistles. I chose a Canon AE-1, which had been on the market for a while and was one of the most popular cameras of its day. You could use the automatic settings, like a point and shoot, or you could override the auto settings for manual ones – and that is what I wanted to learn; film speed, aperture and shutter speeds. I was making payments on the camera but the seller let me take home the user guide so that by the time I paid off the camera I would be familiar with the camera and its settings.
As I walked into the darkroom on the first day of my college photography class, I noticed a long strip of film stretched above the door. On it someone had hand written, “Negative thinking taught here”. I knew at that moment I would love these classes.
Some years ago I jumped into the digital age with a Canon Power Shot. How glorious it was not to have to pay for film and developing, to see the photos instantly, and simply delete them if you didn’t like them. My little Power Shot however, while great for general photos (and takes amazing macro shots), was more than frustrating for photos of birds and wildlife. Somehow those critters knew exactly how far away they had to stay to be out of the range of my lens. In early 2011 I finally decided to take the plunge; I spent more than I probably should have at the time and bought a Canon EOS 7D SLR camera.
It felt so good to have a “real” camera in my hands again! But oh my stars, it weighs six pounds with the 18-135 zoom lens I’d bought to go along with it. A slight bit more than the Power Shot. But it presented me with a most amazing photo of an Osprey in flight on my way home from the camera store, and as I did a “happy dance” right there on the side of the road I knew I’d made the right decision. Yep, eight frames per second will definitely get the job done! Five years later, the camera has paid for itself and I haven’t once regretted my decision to buy it. My next purchase is going to be a professional zoom or telephoto lens that is as big as my car – and will probably cost just about as much.
Over the years I’ve learned a lot about myself and how I see my world, and about photography in general. I’ve discovered that I love the play between light and shadow, I’ve learned how to create a great composition, how to “see” what the photo might look like before I press the shutter. I’ve followed all of the rules and have broken every one of them, and I've learned how to take photos that reveal who I am as a photographer.
I’ve been asked many times what my favorite subject is, and I have to answer “everything”. It’s not a lie, I do shoot everything: scenery, wildlife, portraits, flowers, birds, clouds, leaves, bugs, still life (not only flowers and fruit, but vegetables, food and kitchen utensils), absolutely anything and everything that is available to shoot. In the past few years I've discovered that everything I look at, I see as a photograph. Even though I don’t consciously think about it, my mind is secretly composing pictures. I'm rarely found without my camera, so I guess you could say that I truly do live, eat and breathe photography…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)