Photo-Off Challenge: Whimsy

As it turns out, whimsy is a difficult concept to force. I tried all sorts of staged conceptual photo shoots (and I found a really great new location, Mary, if you want to come up before we leave!) but nothing seemed authentically whimsical.

I submit, then, for your approval, this photo of Tres in the tutu she wore for two days straight. She thought she was soooooo fancy (and for half of the first day she walked around with sunglasses on because I kept saying, "Hey there, fancy lady!"). It's just a snapshot, and I could certainly wish away the distracting background, but Tres is nothing if not whimsical and I just love her cute fat tummy and her belly button. :-)



(Oh, and on a side note, can I just mention how completely adorable Tres's vocabulary and pronunciations are these days? My favorite is when she feels sleepy and tells me she's "tylered." I never correct her. In fact, I encourage the baby-isms. It always makes me so sad when kids learn the real words, lol.)

Anyway. Mary, your next challenge is (drum, drum, drum, drum, drum) texture. Have fun with it!


~RCH~

Photo-Off Challenge: Romance!

Mary challenged me to photograph romance this time. No ideas immediately sprang to mind, perhaps because I knew I couldn't photograph my girls for this theme, lol. So.... What to do? Kissy lovey romance? Mystery adventure romance? Nostalgia romance? Nature romance? Romance romance romance! I rolled the word around in my head for a few days and then started shooting, despite still having no clear picture of what I wanted.

Here are some of the better outtakes:



The photo I ultimately chose depicts a lifelong love of mine. I think of it and my bosom swells (yes, kids, my bosom, lol). My eyes dilate and my heart beats faster! I lose focus on all else -- on everything but this, the unexplored road:



They don't call it wanderlust for nothin'. ;-)

I don't know if it's the best photo I've taken in the last week -- though I do like the colors! -- but it's the one that speaks to me the most (it whispers something like this). Romance is, by definition, incredibly personal, right? So along those lines, I'd love to hear from you readers / lurkers: What says romance to you?

Mary, your next challenge is sort of inspired by this one, and also by the water challenge you gave me a while ago. I want you to photograph WEST. Have fun! :-)


~RCH~

Photo-Off Challenge: Portrait

My Photo-Off Challenge this week was to take a portrait -- which is my favorite type of photo, incidentally; I much prefer setting up thoroughly planned portrait shoots with my girls to random snapshots. So yay for that.

I asked DH if he would pose for me, but he refused. I thought about getting alternate models (maybe one of our babysitters, or random teenagers from the neighborhood) in case you're sick of my kids, but in the end ... well, I just didn't, lol. So here for your enjoyment, is a portrait of Dos among the weeds:


Exif info

Mary, for your next assignment I will see your portrait and raise you a self portrait. (Right? Is that how you say it? No wonder I never won anything in Vegas.) Yeah. So set that timer (or get a remote shutter release thingy) and look fiercely into the camera! Work both sides of the lens, baby. :-)


~RCH~

Photo-Off Challenge: Editorial

I thought long and hard about this week's challenge to tell a story with my photo. I don't even remember anymore all the things that went through my head, except that most of them involved elaborate props and professional studio lighting equipment, lol. In the end, I had to simplify things. I'm not 100% satisfied with the results -- still longing for that professional equipment (and know how), I guess, and adult models would have been helpful -- but let me know what you think:



The door says [No]one [Un]der 21 Al[l]o[wed] (because it's our local bar -- yes, I am the fabulous mother who took her kids to a bar ... or its parking lot anyway, though in my defense it shares a parking lot with the family friendly taco bus). The sign reads, "If you came to fight don't come in. There will be 0 tolerrance. Fights have to stop!!!" Ha-ha, right? :-P

Oh well.

Mary, your next challenge is Flickr Homage: Go through your Flickr favorites and find one that you'd like to interpret in your own way, then post both so we can see your inspiration and your result. I'm not looking for a literal copy, but something that captures the ambiance of the photo you chose. You've got a lot of very fun things in your stream o' favorites, so I'm excited (as always!) to see what you do. :-)


~RCH~

Photo-Off Challenge: Water

I was in the neighborhood anyway, bringing MIL back to the airport after 12 days of far-away-grandma fun, so I texted Mary and asked her if she wanted to head out to the Great Salt Lake with me to shoot this week's photo challenge. We brought my dad (who's always up for a drive) and Uno & Dos (who are always up for adventure) and ended up at Black Rock, just a little south (if I have my directions right) of Saltair.

I think Mary ended up with better shots than I did (post them on your plog, sis!), but oh well. Here are a couple of outtakes for your enjoyment:

Slap That Thing on Velvet, Stat!


Exif

Water, Water Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink


Exif

And now for my submission photo! I like it best with some seagulls photoshopped in (and the dust on my camera's sensor cloned out, ugh) but it's still nice and peaceful straight out of the camera:

Lost In Blue


Exif

I'd love to go back out to the GSL next time I'm in town. I think there are many more photographic opportunities to be had! Who's with me? (This time I'll even bring a tripod.)

Mary, your challenge for next week is the phrase, "One man's junk is another man's treasure." I know you'll rock the house with that one. :-)


~RCH~


[PS - Please send some prayers / positive thoughts in the general direction of my BIL, who was hit by a car yesterday while riding his bike to work. He will recover, but he's in a lot of pain right now and the driver still hasn't been found. I'm sure my poor sister Anna, his cute wife, would appreciate your prayers on her behalf as well.]

Photo-Off Challenge: Inside All Of Us is a Wild Thing

Frankly, this challenge scared me. We don't own a copy of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (we do have it on Scholastic DVD, but I haven't watched it) so my knowledge of the story is pretty basic: Kid imagines / dreams he's among monsters. And there are big palm trees, I think. In any case, I knew the story and its imagery are iconic, which made me nervous about how I could interpret this challenge in a way that would be true to the story without being too literal.

But then I had an idea: Rag curls! :-) It's funny how one mental image can reassure and get me going.

I tied up Uno's & Dos's wet hair in rags and let it set overnight, waiting for the afros that would surely erupt the next day. I planned to tease them as high as they would go and lacquer them up with stiffening spray. The girls took the rags out the next morning earlier than I would have liked, making the afros far less poofy than they should have been, but oh well. I did the best I could with my limited hairdressing (and later makeup) skills -- and then the girls did the rest:


On the night Max wore his wolf suit


and made mischief of one kind


and another


his mother called him "WILD THING!" and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!"


so he was sent to bed without eating anything....



The girls and I had so much fun with this shoot! (Though it's clear to me that Uno has been watching a bit too much of America's Next Top Model with me -- she's all about looking fierce / pretty, lol.) I've already done a little bit of post-processing; that last shot, in particular, looks much better converted to black and white and with the distracting background removed. So while the thought of this challenge gave me the heebie-jeebies at first, now I'm really glad to have done it. I feel like every shot is full of their personalities -- strong and brash and creative and sweet -- so I'm grateful to have these pictures that really capture them, my little Wild Things. :-)

Mary, your next challenge is: GREEN! I know you're with me when I say I need to see much more of that color than I have the last few months. ;-) Have fun!


~RCH~

Photo-Off Challenge: Eyes

The eyes are the windows of the soul, goes the adage -- and lucky me, my preferred models (Uno, Dos, and Tres) all have lovely eyes to photograph. Uno's have become a beautiful deep brown; Dos's are a rich green; Tres's eyes are dark bright blue. And they all lucked out with their father's long out-to-here dark eyelashes. Not that I'm at all biased or anything, but geez, I've got some beautiful children. :-)

Anyway! So I tried to capture some of this crazy beauty for my Photo-Off challenge. I sat them each down next to a lamp in an otherwise darkened room (more dramatic that way, you see) with a ghetto reflector in their laps (cardboard covered with reflective silver duct tape) to make up for the light that didn't quite make it to the far side of their faces. I took a few shots and then noticed that the side closest to the lamp was getting waaaay too blown out; the light was so bright on that side that the camera didn't register any detail but whiteness. So I used another of my ghetto, DIY tricks: I draped a piece of tulle over the lamp to diffuse the light.

Dos loved the look of the tulle and wanted to try it on herself. I acquiesced. Imagine my surprise when the best photo of the bunch -- in my opinion, the one that draws you most to her eyes and is most emotionally evocative -- turned out to be one in which her face is veiled. Huh!


Exif info

So there you have it. Mary, your next challenge is Landscape -- whether that means a horizontal photo, one without people, or something really naturey is up to you, of course. Have fun! :-)


~RCH~

Photo-Off Challenge: Taking a stab at the surreal

When Mary issued me her challenge -- things are not always as they seem -- a surrealist portrait immediately crystallized in my mind. I had the key ingredients already and picked up the rest over the weekend at a thrift store.

This shot is almost what I had in mind -- but it was cold and the animals had little patience for posing.


Exif data

If I'd had more time, I would have switched the tiger and bear.... The light was coming in from the left side of the frame, which meant that the white whiskers were getting blown out more often than not and the brown of the bear's fur was getting lost in shadow. If I had made them switch places, I think we could have balanced out that problem. Oh well. Live and learn.

Here's another one from that shoot. Simple girl-boy cross dressing, especially in our modern world, is hardly enough to qualify for the theme of this challenge, but I like it anyway. I'm having fun post-processing it (and will probably post that result on my plog later, if anyone cares).


Exif data

Which brings us now to my actual submission for this week's Photo-Off Challenge! I took this shot this morning. The pose isn't at all what I pictured when I began, but I like it better than what I pictured. Uno the Bear looks like she means business, lol, and the wide angle lens (which I used on all of these instead of my customary 85mm prime) distorts the size of the head / snout in just the right way. I could wish away the clutter in the lower left corner, but overall I'm very happy with my results. :-)


Exif data

On the off chance that I didn't get anything workable from my animals-in-suits idea, I did troll the web a bit for inspiration. Check out this link for a fabulous collection of optical illusions and trick photography.

Mary, your next challenge is ... Beauty in Chaos! Have fun with it. :-)


~RCH~

Photo-Off Challenge: Retro Chic!

Mary challenged me to photograph retro chic -- and then she was kind enough to model it for me! She curled her hair up lovely, painted on some bright red lips, donned a cute puff-sleeved sweater and print blouse and off we went with our train cases to capture that vintage vibe.

This shot is among my favorites; I love the little curl of her hair in the wind. If you wondered what I might do if I allowed myself to post process the challenge picture, you can find a similar shot (SOOC and tarted up in Photoshop) here.


Exif data

I also really like this photo below, but I'm not sure if it counts. I didn't mess with it in Photoshop, but I did make some alterations to the RAW photo file (the most obvious one is the desaturation; I also played with the tint of the shadows). Is that post processing or acceptable use of my digital dark room? Hmmmm...!


Exif data


And then there was a ghost!

I don't see it -- and maybe she doesn't now that it's not on a teeny, tiny screen -- but when reviewing the pics on my camera's LCD my mom swore she saw the ghostly image of a little girl in this photo. It was taken right outside the abandoned Rio Grande Hotel; the place must have plenty of history. Could something tragic have happened there? Or does the girl simply like to return to a place of happy family vacation memories?

In any case, let me know: Do you see her? I didn't on the small screen, and I still don't now. But perhaps I don't have "the sight" and some of you do! WoooOOOOoooo! :-)



Mary, your next challenge is MANUAL. Dig yours out and read up on how to change the aperture, lol. Or whatever! You can use your presets to evaluate the scene and take test shots, but your final challenge submission must be under your complete control. Manual all the way, baby! I know you can do it. :-* Can't wait to see what you've done!


~RCH~

Photo-Off Challenge: FAIL!

My challenge was to visually interpret this:

The night was clear and frosty, all ebony of shadow and silver of snowy slope; big stars were shining over the silent fields; here and there the dark pointed firs stood up with snow powdering their branches and the wind whistling through them.

-Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables

And I was so excited! I live in a rural area with lots of lovely fields and farms and meadows, with sky that's deep and wide and speckled with stars.... I had the end result of my photo in mind as soon as I read the quote above. It was going to be gorgeous. I did extensive location scouting; in the end I had about six places in mind: Expansive fields out away from town; flat fields; sloping fields; fields ending in a line of trees; some with street lights, some without.

I should get hazard pay for this assignment: At one point during the selection process I turned off the highway onto an unplowed country road to turn around -- the snow didn't seem all that deep -- but I only got my front two wheels into it before I realized I was in trouble. I put the floor mats under the tires for traction, dug snow out from behind the wheels with my bare hands, then hopped back in and tried to reverse ... but no luck. Apparently the Honda Odyssey is not meant for off-roading in the off season. (Who knew?) Our adventure (I say our because of course the girls were with me, lol) ended ~20 minutes later when a truck full of elderly hunters stopped to help. Three old men in camo jumpsuits and orange vests kindly gave us a shove and we were on the road again.

All that craziness aside, the biggest challenge for this assignment turned out to be the weather: It's been cloudy most days and every single night since last Wednesday. *Sigh!* But I did the best I could. Last night I trekked out with my camera, tripod, and remote shutter release and stood around in the cold trying to get a decent shot. I bumped the ISO as far as it would go (1600 in my camera's case) for maximum sensitivity (but also some noise/grain) and used my smallest (right? the highest number?) aperture (f/16) to get the star shaped streetlights.

It isn't the picture I had in mind when I first received the challenge, and I don't think it really reflects the quote at all, but on its own I guess it's not that bad. I hope.

In any case, I reserve the right to revisit this assignment at a later date. :-)


exif data

Mary, for your next challenge I want to see some complimentary colors! Can't wait to see what you come up with! :-)


~RCH~

Photo-Off Challenge: Backlight

My challenge for this week was backlighting. I had wanted to experiment with sun flares (I learned how to make them either round and blobby or spikey and star shaped, depending on the aperture) but the sun decided not to come out this week. Grrrrr. So instead I played around inside with diffused window light and household lamps.

I tried a few different subjects (mostly household knickknacks), and settled on this as my favorite. The first shot is Mary on plain white poster board (with a custom white balance set for a nice soft, soothing color). The light is behind her and to the side.... I wasn't sure if that counted as backlight, though, so for the second shot I stuck the lamp directly behind her with a piece of opaque plastic in between.


Nikon D70 - 85mm prime lens; 1/1000 at f/1.8; ISO 200


Nikon D70 - 85mm prime lens; 1/1000 at f/1.8; ISO 200

Isn't she lovely? Clearly I have holy envy, lol.

Mary, your challenge for next week -- which, if you got the same weather we did in the last few days, should give you ample subject matter -- is FROZEN. Have fun! :-)


~RCH~

Photo-Off: Food

This week's Photo-Off challenge was food. I wanted to shoot something warm and steamy -- tomato soup, or maybe hot chocolate -- but apparently steam is this whole big thing and is not (as I now know) as easy to capture as you'd think. My warm and cozy bowl o' soup photos turned out incredibly dull, and the steam didn't even bother to show up on film (or, um, in pixels).

I tried grapes next. After my soup failed so spectacularly, I spent some time studying up on the art of food photography. One thing I learned is that light kept low and behind the subject will produce more interesting texture in the final product. With that in mind, I stuck some grapes on top of Romaine lettuce leaves and put them on a chair in front of the open front door.

I should have remembered to turn off a nearby lamp; you can see the bulb's orange reflection in the grapes. If I allowed myself any post-processing in these challenges, I'd simply clone those out. I should probably also have spritzed the grapes with water throughout the shoot, but my spray bottle was in the room where Tres was napping and I didn't want to risk waking her. Oh well. Small details.


Nikon D70 - 85mm prime lens; 1/250 at f/2.2; ISO 200

So what's the verdict? Anybody hungry for grapes? Or a salad? ;-)

Uno turned six yesterday and received, among other things, a Fisher Price digital camera. She says she wants in on these Photo-Offs, too, so she's been taking food pictures all day. I'll post her results later!

Mary, your challenge for next week is to interpret [LDS scripture] D&C 93:36, specifically the phrase "The glory of God is intelligence." Drop by a school or library, photograph a stack of books or someone with really thick glasses (lol), or even submit a totally random photo for which you have learned a new technique. Whatever! Education, knowledge, intelligence, learning. It's all good. :-)

(Are you proud of me for remembering to issue your challenge this time, lol?)


~RCH~

Photo-Off: Portrait in Red

Let's say you wanted to take a self portrait (featuring the color red) in the snow. Unsure of how you'd go about it? Lucky for you, I did just that earlier this week and am eager to share the fruits of my experience!

First step: Set up your tripod on your covered back deck (not that it's currently snowing or anything, but it just seems like a good idea to keep the camera on level ground and out of the weather).

Now you'll need a point of focus, so look around on said deck to find something to use as your stand in. Tromp with your focus object around to the far side of the deck (which has mountains in the background rather than the neighbor's house) and plonk it into the snow. Tromp back to the camera to adjust focus.



Next you'll have to figure out the desired height of your tripod. Make a few trips through the snow and back before getting it right. (Discard shovel at some point during this step.)



Decide it might just be easier to climb over the deck railing (and hope it holds) than slog through so much snow so many times. Adjust manual exposure settings a few times before getting them right. Have trouble with the remote shutter release. Wonder if this is working.



Decide that no, it isn't. Or at least not with the hood on. It looked way better in your head than it does in real life.

Continue to try to get a decent shot, stopping every five or six frames to climb over the railing and check the camera. Repeatedly stand too far to the left or right of the frame. Dab snow on your nose, and then later pinch it vigorously, to accentuate its redness in keeping with the theme of your portrait. End up with something like this as your best result:



Decide that it's way more fun to photograph your children, and ultimately submit this as your Photo-Off Challenge picture.



:-)


~RCH~

Photo-Off: 'Tis the Season

I'm submitting two photos for my Photo-Off Challenge this week, because I am (as usual) indecisive like that. The first one is an abstract of our lovely Christmas tree, the first non-artificial one I've had since I was a kid (not that you can tell from the photo, but still).


Nikon D70 - 85mm fixed lens; 1/15 at f/5.6; ISO 1100

Kind of festive, right?

The next one is sooooooo close to being a fabulous shot ... but it isn't. It's of Dos looking at our tree with a priceless expression -- but the particular thing she's looking at (a gold ornament) is obscured by some very out-of-focus branches. It looks instead like she's gazing in wonder at a big green rectangular blob. I wish this were the sort of shot I could fix and recreate, but 4yo models don't take direction well enough for that. Or, at least my 4yo doesn't.


Nikon D70 - 85mm fixed lens; 1/100 at f/1.8; ISO 1400

The point of these challenges is to push myself, to break through the same ol' same old, and to learn new things about photography. One thing I've learned from this challenge, and from that second photo in particular, is that I need to prepare for those perfect moments far more carefully. I couldn't have known she'd make that sweet face, but I should have noticed the lack of lights and ornaments in that half of the shot. I should have put some extras on, or moved a branch or two out of the way. Fabulous pictures happen by luck, absolutely, but not just luck.

Your thoughts, class...? :-)

I do have another photo to share, but it required some Photoshopping (and then I really went to town with the Photoshopping, lol) so it doesn't count as a Challenge picture. But if I get a little time tomorrow, I'll try to post that one too.


~RCH~

Photo-Off Challenge: Architecture

I'm not very good at photographing buildings. I'm just not. I don't have that particular gift that can make the prosaic details (or even interesting ones on older buildings) worth a second look. I tried: I shot houses; the old ZCMI / bank / current hardware store in our town; "deconstructed" architecture in the form of abandonned, crumbling barns and farm houses.... Eh. Nothing.

When I asked DH if he knew of any interesting buildings or stone work anywhere, he suggested an old dam that's way out in the country north and west of here. So I loaded up the girls and we went for a drive! This turned out to be the most interesting photo of the week:

Dam It!



Those of you who can and do photograph architecture well, spill your secrets! I tried and tried, but I kept hitting that proverbial brick wall. Ha, ha. ;-)

Mary, your next challenge is ... lights! You should have plenty of holiday subjects, if that appeals to you, but feel free to go in a different direction if your heart leads you elsewhere. As always, I look forward to your results! :-)


~RCH~

Photo-Off: Contrast

Scene (and Herd)


Nikon D70 - 85mm fixed lens; 1/60 at f/4.5; ISO 640.

So I went with the technical interpretation of the theme: Black and white; it doesn't get more contrasty than that! I stuck these plastic zebras on a piece of white posterboard, propped against the living room couch, my ghetto version of a seamless background. Our large picture window provided the natural light, and voila. Zebras. LOL.

There's also this one, on which I went to town with shallow depth of field:


Nikon D70 - 85mm fixed lens; 1/60 at f/3.5; ISO 500.

Kind of random, but oh well! We were sick around here! ;-)

Mary, your Photo-Off challenge for next week is (*drum, drum, drum, drum, drum, drum*) Street. Have at it!


~RCH~

Photo-Off: Renaissance

Here's my answer to Mary's Photo-Off Challenge



It's not what I wanted. I think I could do better if I had any lighting equipment (at the very least an off-camera flash) or if I'd had better natural light (I have no North / South windows in my house, boo-hoo). I wanted to get crisp definition on the light and shadows of the folds of her dress, and I don't think I did that very well. Perhaps a smaller aperture (right? A bigger F-stop, anyway, for a less shallow depth of field) would have helped? And I think the column in the back is more distracting than I meant it to be. :-P

The pose, at least (based on my research), is pretty spot-on, lol.

Here's what I may have done if it were Spring. It looks sort of stupidly contrived as it is (I did, after all, dig up the grass and dandelion and transplant them to the dead leafiest place I could find), but oh well. It is, perhaps, a little more original than the portrait.... Eh?



So, your thoughts, readers? Which do you like better?

Mary's next Photo-Off Challenge should be fun for her: Pink! Yay. I look forward to what you come up with, seester! :-)


~RCH~

A Photo-Off

Mary and I have decided to challenge each other to a series of weekly Photo-Offs (you know, like the models' Walk-Offs in Zoolander, lol). I'll give her a concept or word or phrase and a week to interpret it photographically, then she'll post her results and issue a challenge for me. And back and forth and back and forth. I will also limit myself to no post processing; the point, for me at least, is to improve at getting the shot in the camera, not making the shot in Photoshop.

So, the first challenge: Zen moment.

Have at it, seester! I look forward to seeing your photo on this theme next Wednesday.


~RCH~