Stern Views

As I reflect back on another week of photos I feel more growth in understanding the concepts of composing and framing images. I’m getting much faster at recognizing ways to make a photograph more interesting, and also even more about producing photographs that I like. I hope you enjoy this week’s photos. Come back again next Sunday for more.

9/14: KU Campus. The University of Kansas campus is absolutely beautiful and I’d love to have a few days to walk through it and take photos. From the parking lot outside the Education building (Joseph R. Pearson Hall), I was able to capture this view.

9/14/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/8 | ISO 400 | 1/250 exp.

9/15: Tea. If you get a chance to check out Teavana tea (there’s one in Kansas City) I highly recommend the Samurai Chai Mate. Here’s photo of the container I got when I purchased some tea earlier this year.

9/15/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 400 | 1/50 exp | Flash Used

9/16: Keyboard. My mind needed a break while I was writing a paper on Wednesday, so I grabbed this shot of my computer’s keyboard.

9/16/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/30 exp.

9/17: Chico. Last week I featured Maya in my 365 so I figured it would be nice to feature my other dog, Chico as well. This is in my top 10 favorite pictures of Chico, perhaps in the top 5 even.

9/17 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/40 exp.

9/18: Sunrise: On my walk from the parking lot to my work the sunrise was too good not to capture. I just had my iPhone with me so it will have to suffice for this day’s photo. Note to self: always bring camera.

9/18/09 | Apple iPhone | f/2.8

9/19: New Lawnmower. I bought a new lawnmower this weekend at Home Depot. It is a Homelite cordless, electric lawnmower with a 24-volt battery. I cut the grass on Saturday but before I got started I decided that I needed to immortalize this inanimate object first.

9/19/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/3.2 | ISO 200 | 1/100 exp.

9/20: Azalea. I have a couple azalea bushes growing out in my backyard. The flowers of this bush are only going to be around for a few more days so I captured this one before it was too late. I took lots of pictures of this flower but this one is my favorite of the set.

9/20/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/1250 exp.

See you next Sunday.

The second week of my 365 project was a long one. Though my work week was only four days I felt as though I worked non-stop, which didn’t exactly lend itself well to taking photos on a regular basis. As you’ll see, two of the photos this week were taken from my iPhone, which may give you a clue as to how much I had going on.

All of this aside, I’ve started to notice myself really wanting to draw out colors more and more. The past few months I’ve been more or less “addicted” to letting the camera’s meter tell me how fast my shutter should be depending on my aperture but I’m in the process of moving away from that habit in order to see what kinds of effects I can get when I follow what I think would look good rather than the camera. Its been interesting and I’ve had some mixed results, but the images this week really represent my push to bring into the photographs what I want to see. Enjoy the photos and come back next Sunday for more.

9/7: Neglected books. Being in graduate school full time means that I’m reading textbooks and other assigned readings rather than the literature I would be reading in my free time. This first photo is an ode to the books I’m not reading right now.

9/7/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/125 exp. | Flash used

9/8/09: Study Aide. I am in love with my french press whether I’m making coffee or tea. I needed something to sip when I was studying on Tuesday so I made some tea. To get the lighting effect here I used my flash off-camera and bounced the light off the kitchen table into the glass of the french press.

9/8/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/25 exp. | Off-camera Flash

9/9/09: Snow Leopard. I’m a true mac nerd so when Snow Leopard came to my desk at work for my laptop I got pretty excited to get it installed.

9/9/09 | iPhone | f/2.8

9/10/09: We have a tree growing right outside the front door with these delicate pink buds. If you have followed my photographic “style” throughout all of my posts on this blog you know that I’m a sucker for macro photography. I took a few photos of the tree buds and this one was my favorite.

9/10/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/100 exp.

9/11/09: Dessert. Amelia and I went to the Scarlet Orchid here in Lawrence for dinner and got this fried banana dessert after our meal. The bananas are partially frozen, coated with coconut and batter, then deep fried and served with chocolate dipping sauce. It was absolutely delicious.

9/11/09 | iPhone | f/2.8

9/12/09: Maya. This is our female, yorkie-poodle we know as Maya. She spends lots of time atop the couch watching our neighborhood and letting us know when anything changes (a leaf blowing in the wind, squirrels, birds, people, rabbits…you get the idea). She is an absolutely adorable dog, as this picture shows well.

9/12/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/20 exp.

9/13/09: Flowers. The front yard of our house is very overgrown with plants and flowers and as I was searching for interesting things to capture today I spotted these small purple flowers very low to the ground.

9/13/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/200 exp.

As usual, please leave critiques of the photos in the comments section for me so I can learn to improve. See you next Sunday.

On Tuesday, September 1st, I officially started my first 365 Photos project. If you missed my intro post about this project, I’m using this blog to post my favorite photos from the week as well as share some thoughts as to what I’m learning as well as why I chose the photos posted here. You can also visit my Flickr Page to view more pictures.

This past week has been interesting in so far as remembering to bring my camera with me wherever I go. On the positive side of things I feel like I’ve begun developing an eye for things that would make an interesting photo and also have learned more about framing. I’ve also begun to do a little bit of work with editing my pictures in Photoshop. Here are the photos from Tuesday through today along with a brief description. Check back again next Sunday for more photos.

9/1: Campus photos. I had quite a bit of time between work and class on Tuesday so I took my camera on a little tour through campus. This Jayhawk statue outside of Strong Hall (where Helium’s existence was discovered) caught my eye. I did a little post-processing in Photoshop around the edges with the Burn tool.

9/1/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/2.8 | ISO 200 | 1/2000 exp.

9/2: No time to make coffee. This photo was taken around 6:45 AM on my way to work. I had to stop for some coffee on my way in because I ran out of time at home. I’ve always loved the sign outside of La Prima Tazza so it made for a perfect photograph.

9/2/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/2.8 | ISO 400 | 1/30 exp.

9/3:  Seeing the quotidian. Every day I walk past a very interesting, old building where the Reuter Organ company used to be located. And every day I notice new quirks about the building that catch my eye. However on this day I finally stopped to capture the character of the building, especially the exposed brick from the hole in the stucco.

9/3/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/50 exp.

9/4: The hard drive that ruined my day. This hard drive, one of 7 in a RAID array, decided to stop working and take the other 6 with it. In the end I was able to fix the problem but I could think of nothing better as a subject for a daily photo.

9/4/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/25 exp.

9/5: University of Nebraska drumline warmup. For those that don’t know, I marched in the University of Nebraska marching band during the first 3 years of college. I played the cymbals in the drumline each of the three years so the opportunity to watch the drumline warm up was a welcome opportunity. It was also one that brought back many great memories.

9/5/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/5.6 | ISO 200 | 1/80 exp.

9/6: Cone flower in the garden. My wife, Amelia, and I are visiting my parents in Grand Island, NE this weekend. My mom has always tended a beautiful garden, and she still had a couple cone flowers with petals still attached. I’m kind of a sucker for macro photography, especially with flowers, so I couldn’t pass this one up.

9/6/09 | Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/320 exp.

Come back next week for another series of photos. I hope to hear some critiques of these photos so I can continue to improve my photography skills.

Starting today I’m beginning a 365 Project: 1 photo per day for 365 days. I’m starting this project to help me as a photographer and also to document a year in my life. The plan at this point is to take multiple pictures everyday, upload them to my Flickr Page weekly, and choose the best 7 to post here on Sundays. I’ll give the usual details about the photos, this time including date taken, and write a brief summary of the week and how the project is going. I’m excited to see my skills develop as a photographer over the course of this year. I hope to hear feedback on the photos in the comments section, so check back each Sunday from now on to see new photos.

I’m happy to announce that I have been accepted to the Graduate Licensure Program at the University of Kansas. Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about and there are others who are very surprised by this. Whether you are in the former or the latter group, here are some details.

The Graduate Licensure Program takes students with bachelor degrees and puts them through a program of education which will end in licensure for K-12 education in their area. For me, this means that at the end of the program I’ll be licensed to teach K-12 Spanish.

So, starting August 20th I’ll be attending graduate school full time at KU and keeping my current Desktop Technician job at The World Company full time. It is probably pretty close to committing social suicide, but I think I’m ready for it. I’m looking forward to being a student again and to see where life will take me over the course of the next 2-3 years as I go back to class and then move on to teaching.

Here’s hoping the ride will be adventurous and well worth it.

One thing I love about my wife is that she continually inspires my photography. The other day I was talking with her about how I should be out taking photos but I didn’t really know what I wanted to photograph. We both are dog lovers (we have two of our own) and by the end of the conversation we had our great idea. My next photography project will be a series of photos of everyday objects as seen from the perspective of a dog. They’ll include fire hydrants, patches of grass, human ankles, etc. and they’ll be titled in ways that a dog would recognize it, perhaps with a fun modern twist.

A quick call to my veterinarian informed me that dogs see the world in color, however the colors are duller than what we see as humans. I’m willing to take suggestions from you, my readers, about whether I should process the digital photos in such a way that the colors are dull or if I should make them more hyper-realistic to express the joy of a dog. Also, if you have any suggestions for subject matter and or titles, please leave a comment. I hope to take the first couple photos this weekend so I can get started on this project. Watch for updates on Twitter and Facebook or check back here for future posts.

A group of my friends have been dreaming up a project to help bring fresh clean water to Limpopo, South Africa. The project has been named River to Well and it is a photo contest. Being that this weblog is highlighting photography (albeit all of my own), I thought this would be a perfect place to get the word out. This contest is available to photographers at all levels (amateurs, students, professionals) and all entry fees will go directly to building a well to bring fresh, clean water to Limpopo. If you consider yourself a photographer or would like to donate directly to the cause, please visit the website for River to Well to find out more information.

Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend my wife and I traveled to Omaha to visit my family and during our stay we visited the Henry Doorly Zoo. I particularly enjoyed the following photos from our visit to the zoo.

Nikon D50 | 105mm | f/2.8 | ISO 400 | 1/60 exp. | external flash used

Nikon D50 | 200mm | f/5.6 | ISO 400 | 1/60 exp. | external flash used

Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 400 | 1/400 exp.

Nikon D50 | 155mm | f/3.5 | ISO 400 | 1/400 exp.

Nikon D50 | 200mm | f/2.8 | ISO 400 | 1/640 exp.

As I mentioned in the last post I have a multitude of plants growing in my backyard. The last post was all about the Iris so this one is all about the Peony. I really like this plant because the sprouts start out looking like giant asparagus shoots, and then they open up, develop richly colored green leaves and then form tiny little flower buds. These buds have a waxy covering on them and right before they are about to bloom you can witness a bunch of small ants crawling on the surface of the buds. Being that we view ants as pests, may wish to get rid of these ants from the peony blossoms, but they provide a very crucial role in the survival of the peony flowers. They consume the waxy covering from the blossoms which enable the flowers to open up and display the beauty that has been hidden. So without further ado, here are two of my favorite photos of the peony bushes and flowers that I took last Friday.

Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/3.5 | ISO 200 | 1/320 exp.

Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/3.5 | ISO 200 | 1/500 exp.

Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/3.5 | ISO 200 | 1/800 exp.

As I mentioned in a previous post I love spring and how new life pops up all over. In my back yard I’ve been blessed with Iris, Peony, Spearmint, and a large number of other plants that have kind of taken over. Not that I’m complaining, it is quite the beautiful display. This post is all about the Iris.

Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/3.5 | ISO 200 | 1/320 exp.

Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/800 exp.

Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/500 exp.

Nikon D50 | 50mm | f/1.8 | ISO 200 | 1/2000 exp.