Gloomy Sunday

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Haven’t got a chance to go shoot pictures yet. Maybe tomorrow if it’s not raining. Cleaning day yesterday for company today. Although I dread company, it’s actually a great opportunity to do a good, thorough cleaning of the house. I would not have the motivation otherwise and would rather do something that interests me than cleaning the house. And it feels good afterwards when you know everything is just dusted and wiped, like getting into bed with freshly washed sheets.

So today, I just put the camera on the tripod and pointed it to the lake and started experimenting the f stops and the ISOs and the shutter speeds.

This one was shot at 400 ISO, 98mm, f/5.6 1/320 sec

This one was shot at 400 ISO, 98mm, f/5.6 ad 1/200 sec

Although the second one is lighter and seems clearer on the web site, I like the first one for its color. Maybe that’s where HDR comes in. So I went back to the camera, put it in the bracket mode with Apature priority, used the interval timing to take the 3 shots and threw them into Photomatix and got this one.

Without photoshop, it is already making the color pop. The grass is greener and the overall brightness does not suffer. It could be even better if I do some more post processing in photoshop.

So many variables, getting them just right would take some time for sure. Trey Ratcliff is an expert on this kind of thing. HIs pictures come out artistic and yet real. But he can also paint and draw. So I will never be as good as he. I can be as good as I can be though. And I’m just getting started. Love this means of getting in touch of my artistic side. I know I can’t paint or draw, but the camera can take a snapshot of the pictures I see without my hands getting in the middle. Can’t wait to go out and shoot more pictures and play with them.

Videos and photos and …

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Since Riccardo and Yulia’s show, I’ve been playing with videos, iMovie, iDVD a LOT.   It’s very nice to have a project to learn a software.  Sony Handycam produced some very good quality videos for me.  and I wanted to learn iMovie and iDVD anyway.  So this is the perfect opportunity. 

However, it’s very time consuming.   You need to transfer the videos from the camcorder to the computer.  You need to watch the videos to pick the part you want and trim off the beginning and/or the end, compose the project with different videos, save it in the proper format you want to display and possibly do the whole process over and over again until you find a final product that is the most agreeable in the end. I can’t say ‘good’ yet as I am still learning.  However, I found out how to put transitions between clips, supress the audio and add a different one in, more to learn though.   Uploaded some to the studio’s youtube account.

http://www.youtube.com/letsdancecleveland

And got a few compliments on the DVD I made from the dance videos.  A pat on the shoulder, he he.

On the photo side, I finally ordered the quick release fittings for the tripod.  So silly buying the tripod and not realizing that I need to buy the fittings too.    And instead of the three legged tripod, I also got a single pole tripod for photos.  I can be more mobile with this one.   There is a halloween party tonight at the studio, I will try it out.  Desperately trying to read up and learn the F-stops, the shutter speed and the lingos that go along with them and how to pair them to get better pictures in low light settings which is often at the studio.  With no memory cell working properly, it’s so hard to remember what settings I should use.  It’s frustrating. 

Finished the socks I was knitting and getting ready to start on the Christmas stocking kit I got from Knitpicks.  Hope I can finish them before Christmas.  Can’t wait to do this, it’ll be my project to learn stranded knitting.  Perfect.

Just learned from C that you need pet clipper instead of human clipper to do pet hair.  Little did I know.  Maybe that’s why the hair wasn’t coming off very easily for Benny when I did his.  But I think I aleady recovered the cost of the clipper after 3 haircut for him and lots for Leo.  maybe I can invest in the correct clipper for Benny so he and Leo don’t have to share the same clipper.  🙂

So many things to do, so little time….

Picture quality

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It’s amazing if you just live in your own world and don’t poke your head out. I just went to ‘colorsknits’ site. Man, those pictures are fantastic. Then I come back to my site, wo, did I say the quality of the pictures was not bad? I take it back. It’s horrible. I’ve got to use a real camera to take pictures. The pocket PC phone is very, I mean, very convenient. You take a picture and send it directly to the blog. But they look aweful, fuzzy and dingy.