Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Snap of the month: September, 2014



Background: Climbing trip to Yosemite brings unexpected opportunities.

Thoughts: I've always wanted to get a good reflection shot and I was finally blessed with the opportunity in Tuolumne Meadows. I could not have asked for a better day. Moments like this are why I am more than happy to add the extra weight to my backpacking pack and bring my big camera. The sacrifice is nothing compared to the reward.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Snap of the month, August 2014


Background: Went to Burning Man again this year. This was The Temple.

Thoughts: When shooting someone else's art work, I feel like I'm almost cheating. It feels as though all of the hard work has been done for me already! For example, here I just rolled up on a sunny day and BOOM! the picture presented itself. When shooting artwork, it feels important to find a new angle or a new take on it that others haven't. I say, find the angle that best expresses what you see in the piece. For example, The Temple to me is a very spiritual place; it is beautiful and full of emotion. This photo I think expresses a lot of happiness and the beauty of the place. I'm sure hundreds if not thousands of others captured The Temple from a very similar angle, but the way I chose to edit and the exact angle are all mine and are my expression of what the temple means to me.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Snap of the Month: July, 2014


Background: Mountaineering trip to the Bugaboos in British Columbia over the Fourth of July.

Thoughts: If you are going out to play in nature, make sure that at least some of your shots do your journey justice. This photo is exactly what it appears to be.  He was precariously perched on the top of a large rock that was on the way up to the summit of Pigeon Spire.  Wind howling in our ears and threatening our every move piled on top of the crazy 500 foot drop on either side of this rock, but look at that view!  Make sure that if you're out in nature and enjoying its sheer awesomeness, that you snap at least one or two pictures that demonstrate that.  This picture was taken with my point-and-shoot and I couldn't be happier.  Yes, it could be technically better but I think it definitely does justice to our surroundings and the activity that put us there.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Snap of the Month: June, 2014



Background: I love backpacking.  It's my favorite outdoor activity.  What I love about it is that it provides me with ample opportunity to take as many pictures as I want of whatever I want.  I like shooting plants and landscapes, but what I really love shooting is animals.  Bugs, reptiles, large mammals, you name it and I like to shoot pictures of it.  Yes, even the creepy, scary, disgusting stuff; it all has something to offer.

Thoughts: In order to get a really decent animal shot, you need to stabilize your camera.  If you have a fancy camera with detachable lenses, then the option exists for you of purchasing lenses with image stabilization built in.  If this is not an option for you, making your own "tripod" is a great practice.  Most people have point-and-shoot cameras that dictate how quickly an exposure is made by your camera for a particular situation.  You need a little cooperation from the animal in question (i.e., for it to not be running everywhere) and all you have to do is set your camera on a rock, set the camera on the hood of your car, or squat down and become your own tripod.  Any of these options will help your photos to come out sharper because the camera will be steadier for longer.  It helps to eliminate as much motion from your end as possible since the animal will be moving around enough for the two of you.  So, the next time you're out and you see something interesting, try to stabilize your camera on whatever you can; legs, rocks, ground, chairs, car, etc.  It will help to improve your image quality without buying a better camera.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Snap of the month: May, 2014


Background and Thoughts: There is a tulip garden in my neighborhood and I had never noticed it until I was walking around on a Friday night pondering none of life's big questions.  It was right upon my normal strolling route, but for some reason I'd bypassed it all these years.  This spring, however, I finally noticed it and took advantage of some early morning light.  I used my telephoto lens to capture this shot because using tele- lenses for shots like this (includes portraits) achieves a very nicely blurred background with the subject in sharp focus.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Snap of the month: April, 2014


Background: So, I'm technically cheating because there are two photos here and one of them I took on May 1 but it helps to illustrate a point.  I've been attempting to rely more on my phone camera for spontaneous pictures.  I can't have my large camera on me at all times, so I've embarked upon a quest to get better pictures from my phone.  I have what is now considered an "old" Android phone (it's almost two years old).  The camera on it is five megapixels and your standard phone camera.

Thoughts: I've been attempting to get better photos out of it by understand its strengths and weaknesses.  For example, it's pretty good for really close-up shots.  Because the lens is a wide angle lens, it works well for small details, as evidenced by the flower photo below.  Also, understanding that I can change the focal area by simply clicking the spot on the screen that I would like to be the main focal point is a seemingly minor thing, but I think it's something a lot of people, including myself, neglect to do when we're taking pictures with a phone.  Finally, I've started editing on my phone a bit but always wait to see the final product on a desktop screen before publishing to anything.  Pictures that look great on my phone are going to look a bit different when enhanced on a desktop screen. This means patience and the ability to dissuade a trigger happy finger but it's well worth it.



Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Snap of the month: March 2014


Background: My goddaughter was born in November but because of work I hadn't had a chance to meet her yet.  I decided to take my camera along to help document the experience.

Thoughts: While I don't wish to be pigeonholed as a baby photographer, after working with her I can completely understand why people do it.  Babies are not only cute but if you get a great one, like my goddaughter, they are tons of fun despite all the spit up and drool. 

A lot of people who do baby and kid photography mostly work from studios.  I don't like working from studios because, to me, it's impersonal.  Photography is absolutely a work of art and people express that in different ways.  The way that I choose to practice is by going into someone's home or place of their choosing and shooting there.  The pictures not only are more personal that way but they help to solidify that moment in time.  It is still art but a piece of art that someone has a stronger connection to because it incorporates the place(s) they spend so much time and the place(s) where so many memories are created.  For example, this photo was snapped on my friends' couch.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Snap of the month: February 2014


Background: For the past year, I have been plotting a trip to the south island of New Zealand with three of those nearest and dearest to me who also happen to be climbers.  February was go time.  We climbed two peaks and fell 100 feet short of a third.  This photo depicts our first base camp set up around the Mueller Hut and in front of the heavily glaciated face of Mt. Sefton.

Thoughts: Camping in front of an incredibly active glacier was a new sort of psychological challenge for me, especially since we were preparing to summit a neighboring peak.  Mt. Sefton's face would crack, rumble, and fall at regular intervals all day every day.  It was a vicious looking face and since it was high summer, crevasses were rearing their ugly heads.  It was an incredible location for base camp, one in which we caught all the action and had an unbelievable view.  However, for my sanity, I think it would be in my best interest, and therefore my climbing partners' best interest, for us to camp somewhere that is not within earshot of a glacier that is so active.

Friday, January 31, 2014

Snap of the month: January 2014


Background: It's been a horrible January in Chicago.  Extremes of snow, cold, and the color grey have me more than ready to move on to another season.  But, earlier this week I awoke to find the sun finally gracing the sky with it's presence from behind the clouds.

Thoughts: This almost made me happy to be up for work.  I got up and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise without having to get up at an obscene hour or leave my cozy dwelling.  It was easily one of the best sunrises I've seen, and as such it starts to make up for how crappy of a month January has been weather-wise.  This picture alone just makes me feel warm and with the colors I feel like a moth drawn to a flame.  I could lose myself in it for hours happily contemplating the many shades of purple, orange, and yellow.  This photo is my equivalent of a comfy chair.


 

Friday, January 3, 2014

Snap of the month: December 2013

Background-- I was in Kenya for work this month.  I was sick basically the whole time but I fought through it to be productive and then rewarded myself with lots of drug induced sleep over the weekend.  The Sunday that I was scheduled to fly back to Amsterdam, a team member of mine in Nairobi took me and one other America-based team member to see the Rift Valley.  It was worth the entire day in the car.

Thoughts--I have so many conflicting feelings about this sign.  On one level, it's just a sign.  On another level, I've allowed it to come to represent everything that I believe to be wrong with the world, whether those things are actually problematic or not.  I would like to make some overarching blanket statement about how Kenyans have an amazing spirit (they do) and how much I learned while there (more than I could ever possibly hope to share) but that comes across as shallow and incomplete to me.  Because I travel so much, people often ask me what a specific place is like.  Until this moment, I've felt more than comfortable passing complete judgement on European countries that I'd visited for an incredibly brief time but when it comes to people asking me about Kenya, I hesitate.  I found myself more often than not attempting to disengage from the conversation when someone asks me what Kenya is like because my circuits overload.  It's such a loaded question!  Yes, I can tell you that the wildlife is amazing.  Yes, I can tell you that there are slums in Nairobi, just like there are fancy hotels.  But none of this paints a picture of what it is actually like.  I find myself wanting to refer people to specific news articles, books, films, photos, and websites about this place because my brain is too small to have fully processed everything after being home for only three weeks.  I also hesitate to make any comments on it at all because I feel the desperate need to contextualize the shit out of everything having to do with Kenya.  And this extends beyond just Kenya; this is what the whole of the whole world outside of Western Europe and North America is like for me (I am really hard on Western Europe and North America simply because I feel I should be, even though I do enjoy those places).  I have so much white-girl guilt/liberal shame/desire to be the new generation of human that I think I've overwhelmed myself.  If this was Europe/Canada, I would've said something *hopefully* witty and amusing by now.  But, it's not.  Everyone's been so curious about what it's like in Africa and all of a sudden I've become the resident expert when I've only, briefly, visited two countries.  I think my problem is this: being a white girl and choosing to go to Africa seems unfathomable for most people who are not African.  Yet everyone is dying to know what it's like.  So, just get up and go!  Just do it!  I'll be here, processing my experiences for at least the next few lifetimes, especially since I have every intention of going back.