When I visited Jennilyn twice a week during our courtship, I always had a fun time photographing her cat. She is the loudest purring machine I have ever met. As we visited her folks for the weekend, I couldn’t resist taking a few new snapshots of our favorite feline.
I incorporated my father-in-law’s birthday gift certificate to Black Angus Steakhouse into his birthday card and wanted to share the final product.
I hadn’t explored my photography hobby for a while since we’ve got our new computer. I’ve noticed a pattern in my behavior that after I get a new computer, I’m into a season of video games.
I took a Photoshop course this past Monday that taught me a lot about RAW workflow, tone and color correction, and retouching techniques. I thought I knew a lot about Photoshop, but the instructor showed me many great techniques to put more “pop” in my pictures. Ben Willmore was a great instructor and I’d highly recommend him to anyone who wants to see how curves in Photoshop is truly used.
The picture of Jenni was originally shot as a test portrait at my workplace. I’m in charge of doing employee portraits next week, so Jenni was helpful (as always) and picked up some backdrops for me. We tested a green, blue, and black. I couldn’t help but snap a half-portrait with the black since it looked so dramatic. And the end result? An interesting but not terribly useful pseudo-spoof on the movie, Memoirs of a Geisha.
I remember seeing this dress from Jennilyn’s senior portraits where she leaned on a tree with her blue eyes looking intently into the lens. She chose the dress because it was her grandmother’s and she wanted to preserve it in a photograph.
As I took photos of Jennilyn in her grandmother’s dress, I was waiting for my camera’s buffer to emptywhen I looked up and saw her sweep her hand across the grass. It reminded me of simple mannerisms that I’ve enjoyed about Jennilyn—that, and she’s full of grace.
We had the opportunity to photograph a wedding a few weeks back, and when Jennilyn did post-processing to the photos, I was struck by the elegance and simplicity of black and white. As she changed some of the photographs to black and white, they transformed from an “okay” photo to a great picture.
Experimenting with the monochrome theme, I took a few photos of flowers and changed them to black and white. I chose a specific color to filter for— generally a red color, so that the reds will become whites. I also boosted the shadows so that the only flower is visible and the background disappears to darkness.
Most of the flowers in the pictures are tulips outside my workplace. I waited until the rain stopped for a moment and captured the raindrops on the petals. Sunlight peeked through the clouds gave good lighting for my transition to black and white.
The rose in the collage was taken on my apartment dinner table. I included it because it was the first flower I used the aforementioned technique. The difference is that I blurred the edge of the pedals.
One of the fun things to inspire creativity is to come up with a theme for routine tasks. I’ve read from a variety of sources that photographers spice things up by setting up a theme on a photo hunt. I believe there are times for freeform and exploration, but a theme can give a purpose rather than aimless shooting.
The weather was fairly nice in Beaverton in the afternoon, so Jenni and I took a light stroll near the Beaverton library with cameras in hand. While she was getting better acquainted with my digital rebel, I took the opportunity to photograph some patterns around me.
My parents, Jenni, and I visited the Portland Convention Center to see the festivities for Chinese New Year. There were many performances with children, musicians, and martial arts experts. The children were amusing and entertaining as they performed routines in colorful costumes. The musicians played traditional Chinese instruments like the two-string cello instrument, Chinese zither, and mandolins. I enjoyed the martial arts toward the end because they were impressively fast and the weapons they showcased looked dangerous to wield.
Our friend Leah recently adopted two new kittens to her household and they’re incredibly fiesty. Here, in this rare moment, Sophia is tired from entertaining guests, and nods off softly for the camera.
I got a few more pictures of Sophia napping, posing, and playing around—even in my shoes.
There are mornings where I drag myself to get to work, knowing I have a 25 minute walk to the MAX station. Although I know that the exercise is great to wake me up and maintain my health, sometimes it’s still a chore. Especially when it’s cold and rainy.
However, when it’s foggy, I enjoy looking around because it’s a whole new world. I’m only aware of my environment to a certain distance then it blends into a solid gray. At 170th and Elmonica, where the closest MAX (Portland’s mass transit) station is, I took out my camera to capture some of the foggy elements. I’ve often looked down the distance of the tracks and enjoyed the lines.
When I saw the stop sign, rather than reading it literally as a caution to watch out for the train when crossing tracks, I was reminded that in life, to stop and smell the roses on occasion.
And as life would have it sometimes, when you’re waiting for your train, it seems like the train going the opposite way comes frequently. Until you’re waiting for that train then the other train comes more often.