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Jeremy  > Photo Diary > My 40th Year
This gallery is a complete chronicle of my 40th year, starting on my birthday in 2008. I posted one photo each day for a year. The photo-a-day project continues in this gallery here.
Gallery pages:  <<  <  36  37  38  39  40  41  >  
< 343 of 365 >
Jeremy > April 10, 2009; Day 343.

It’s In His Tattoo.

This is my friend Jeff, officiating at tonight’s “leather night” which turned out to be a really informative and entertaining evening.  Even I donned a leather vest and boots tonight to be in the spirit of things.  Jeff tattooed the names of his sons on his arms so naturally I shot him from his better side.  :~)

This is strictly ambient light.  There are two sources here, the very blue overcast skies that you can see on the wall to the left, and the incandescent floods overhead.  The camera’s auto white balance corrected for the blue lighting which made Jeff very orange.  I think if I had set the white balance from a gray card then he would have been much cooler.  Personally, I do like skin tones to be a little warm.

Raw: Color Temperature: 3300K; Tint: +10
Raw: Fill Light: +20
Raw: Saturation: +6
PS: Curves adjustment for additional contrast
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > April 11, 2009; Day 344.

Resurrection.

One of the assignments for week 1 in the Joy of Photography class is to photograph something you rarely photograph.  I admit it, I’m not big on outdoor flowers.  But now that I’ve taken the close-up photography class, I am interested in the little flowers that are weeds. (They keep on growing even though I mow over them each week.)  This was the first week to find such flowers growing in my yard.  So I got on my belly and crawled hither and yon.

I’m not going to submit this photo to the class because I need to fix a few mistakes.  That blue petal from the out-of-frame flower on the left is too distracting, as is the flower on the right. Also, I need to bracket a few more stops of aperture to see if I can get any more depth of field without ruining the smooth background. Also, I may take a spray bottle of water with me and see what kind of mischief I can make with that.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Raw: Color Temperature: 4650K; Tint: -15
Raw: Blacks: +19
Raw: Brightness: +24
Raw: Contrast: +45
Raw: Saturation: +6
PS: Curves: Linear Contrast preset
PS: Lab a channel adjustment: “Soft light” at 50% opacity
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > April 12, 2009; Day 345.

Kinetic.

I bet Peter that I could land one of these dominoes in his lap without getting out of my chair.  This is his “Can I get out of my chair now?” look.  :~)

Peter’s mom treated us to a ham for Easter dinner and served it with four kinds of vegetables. Yum. She has absolutely perfected the art of cooking ham.  After supper we played dominoes and watched Tiger Woods on TV.  Not quite the same as watching the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving, but I am starting to sense that sports and holidays really do go well together.

Sadly, this is much too far away from the action to deliver any sense of motion.  I’ve added it to the growing list of subjects to reshoot someday.  In the meantime, when I see what the window lighting is doing to the side of Peter’s face, I really can’t wait to try my hand at portrait photography this way.  That should be fun.

For those of you who know Peter, yes, he's sporting a brand new goatee which looks great on him. I hope he keeps it.

Click here to see the photo in color. All post processing was the same except for the sepia step.

Raw: Color Temperature: 4500K; Tint: -2
Raw: Recovery: +100
Raw: Fill Light: +10
Raw: Saturation: +8
PS: Curves adjustment for additional contrast
PS: Healing Brush to clean up the table
PS: Hue/Saturation: Colorize; Hue: +37; Saturation: +25 (Sepia)
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > April 13, 2009; Day 346.

Sise Inn.

Portsmouth is once again a wondrous place to be on a Monday night.  The biting chill of the evening is gone, and the dusk sky lingers a little later each night.  Sadly, although the dusk remained around until after 8 p.m. tonight, I was stuck inside the church until 9.  Thus, I had to go in search of well-lit, smaller spaces that didn’t abut the sky.  I only had to drive a quarter of a mile before I found this building and pulled over.  It’s clean, colorful, and well lit, probably because they have vacancies.  I’ve never been inside but I imagine it’s a smorgasbord for photography.

When I use my widest lens, I really should think about whether I want a particular plane to be horizontal or vertical, since all the remaining angles will be all over the place. Here, the doors should probably be vertical. They're close.

This is lit solely by the incandescent bulbs you see in the image, plus some additional light from another porch across the street.

Thanks to Kashaaf’s latest round of splendid comments, I have to put a subject or two back onto my “re-shoot” list.  I love that!

Raw: Color Temperature: 3100K; Tint: 0
Raw: Recovery: +100
Raw: Fill Light: +30
Raw: Saturation: +8
PS: Lab a channel adjustment: “Soft light” at 50% opacity
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > April 14, 2009; Day 347.

The Case for a Lens Hood.

For the first time, I set up both of my external flashes and fired them via the built-in flash’s commander mode.  I wanted to see if I could get different levels of light based on the proximity of the flash.  The SB-900 is in the 11:00 position and serving as a “hair” light.  It’s also producing the bit of green flare which the lens hood would have taken care of.  (I had the hood with me, too.)  The SB-600 is being held in a high 4:00 position about twice as far away as the first flash.  The difference between the lights is a little much for this shot so there will be plenty of practicing with this again soon.

This lion is a bookend that I retrieved from a shelf of my friend Bill.  He has all kinds of fun subjects and I enjoy spending time there.

Raw: Exposure: +1.0
Raw: Recovery: +100
PS: Curves: Medium Contrast preset
PS: Lab b channel adjustment: “Soft light” at 50% opacity
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > April 15, 2009; Day 348.

Valves at Sunrise.

Sometimes the light just grabs you and makes you take notice.  These valves are in my kitchen and I hadn’t paid them much attention until this morning when I noticed them in the glow of reflected golden sunlight.  Right now the sun’s position is such that for a few minutes each morning, the light streams through the window on the east side of the kitchen and lights up the wallpaper on the west side.  I was struck by the diffuse golden light and knew just what I had to do.

I wasn’t expecting to like this angle best, so I didn’t worry this morning about the dark corner.  This is probably the shadow of my toaster and there's also some of the kitchen countertop showing there. Cloning won't fix this. I could crop it into a squareish frame, I suppose, to the chagrin of 2x3 purists and/or pixel maximists. For now I’ll just live with it as a reminder to me to always examine everything in the viewfinder!

If you'd like to see what the curves adjustment below is doing, you can compare it to the same shot processed with the much less intrusive "Linear Contrast" Curves preset, here.

Kashaaf asked me why I didn’t just use a reflector rather than 2 flashes to light the lion on yesterday’s shot.  Simple: I have some small amount of experience with a reflector, but I hadn’t yet tried commanding two flashes in the same shot before.  With two flashes I have better control over the individual direction of the lights.  I figured a reflector at the 5:00 position wouldn’t give me enough sidelighting to bring out the texture of the lion’s face.  Did I at least try it?  Of course I did!  However, that was not taken with my normal reflector.  I used a white napkin which worked fine.  Still, I liked that I was able to create better texture with a more side-lit second flash.

Raw: Color Temperature: 3250K; Tint: 0
Raw: Exposure: +0.3
Raw: Saturation: +6
PS: Lab a channel adjustment: “Soft light” at 50% opacity
PS: Curves adjustment to give the effect of developing E4 slide film in C41 chemicals
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > April 16, 2009; Day 349.

The Basics.

Today I embarked on a real, 10-week photography class.  By real I mean in an actual classroom, rather than online. Shown here are most of the students enrolled in “Camera 35” taught by the continuing education department of Concord High School.  Since I did not grow up here, this was the first time I have been in this building.  For some reason, CHS is punishing their art department by showering them in fluorescent light and giving them only hard stools to sit on.  I think I’ll be bringing a little pillow to the remaining 9 classes.

You may wonder why I spent money on a starter photography class.  First, there’s no such thing as too much motivation to get out there and shoot.  Second, as you can see, Peter’s in the class too, and I’m hoping that he’s going to pick this up as a hobby.  He’s using my D80 throughout the class.  On the right side of the frame are our friends Steve and Alex.  The four people in the middle I didn’t know before tonight.  The guy with the sourpuss on his face is actually pleasant and he even let me fiddle with his D40 for a minute.  Anyway, I’m in the class because I want to be there to watch Peter, Steve, and Alex get excited about photography.

The class almost didn’t happen.  The instructor (Joanna) was more than 40 minutes late due to being stuck in a grueling job interview (she sadly was laid off not long before the class).  By that time one of the students had gone home.  Once class was underway she had to rush through it, forgetting to define certain important concepts like depth of field, highlights, shadows, etc.  While helping us explore our cameras, she said that you could tell which number was shutter speed and which was aperture by looking for the one that had the decimal point.  Knowing that both can have a decimal point, I quickly pointed out to the unquestioning students that they could also just look for the one that had the F in front of it; it surely must be the aperture.

Our first assignment: Take 36 shots (the equivalent of a full roll of film), any subject matter, and come back with 8 prints for critique by everyone. She encouraged us to select the 8 best shots, or 8 worst shots, or any combination. Since I don't have a photo printer I may ask her for permission to bring in a projector and "Power Point." I'm a geek.

As for the fluorescent lighting in this room, Joanna assured us that these were “full spectrum” lights. That I need to check into.

Raw: Color Temperature: 3850K; Tint: +15
Raw: Recovery: +100
Raw: Fill Light: +10
Raw: Saturation: +8
PS: Curves adjustment to give the effect of developing E4 slide film in C41 chemicals
PS: Hue/Saturation: Hue: +5; Saturation: -5
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > April 17, 2009; Day 350.

Pasta Makers Do It In the Well.

Tomorrow I’m hosting the second of my two pasta parties this year.  I really wish I had time to host four.  I could easily fill the house twice over and not have any repeat guests.  Alas, I’m in two photography classes and it’ll soon be time to get biking and kayaking on the weekends.  Yet hosting these have been important because Peter and I have been remiss in thanking the folks who have welcomed us into their lives so warmly.  We also were quite overdue for a spring clean of the house.  I’ve rather enjoyed the two week gap between the parties during which I must keep the house as pristine as possible.

In this shot I’m about as close as I can get to the well of flour with my wide lens.  The lens itself is actually casting a faint shadow making the flour look a little dirty.  If I weren’t actually responsible for this pasta I’d have found a way to move this light source so that the lens was not in the way.

This is the first of seven batches of pasta I made today.  The flour mound is a cup of all-purpose flour and a cup of semolina pasta flour.  In the well are 2 eggs, 1 egg yolk, ½ cup of fresh basil, sage, and chives minced in a coffee grinder, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and ½ teaspoon of salt.  This will yield enough pasta to serve 3 adults.  The cups at left contain the key ingredients for the remaining batches of pasta: a second herb batch, two batches made with coarsely-ground dried porcini mushrooms, and two batches each made with 4 cloves of severely crushed garlic in olive oil.  The scent from the kneading of those batches is still on my hands 8 hours later.  Yum.  The seventh batch was a pasta without any special extra flavor added.

Essentially, these are the same flavors I made two weeks ago.  Tomorrow I’ll make essentially the same sauces.  When your guest list completely turns over, your menu need not!

Peter and I decided that the flavored pastas are fine but a bit of a hassle.  Next year we may try mixing up the flours: regular, whole wheat, chestnut, cornmeal, and maybe buckwheat.

Raw: Crop: 9.8MP
Raw: Color Temperature: 3300K; Tint: 0
Raw: Exposure: +0.2
Raw: Recovery: +38
Raw: Blacks: 2
Raw: Brightness: +48
Raw: Contrast: +59
Raw: Saturation: +8
PS: Curves: Medium Contrast preset
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > April 18, 2009; Day 351.

Second’s the Charm.

Tonight’s pasta party was one of my more relaxed parties. I was relaxed because I had just had one two weeks ago and I remembered my mistakes and was sure not to repeat them. Thus I didn’t repeat those mistakes but instead made all new mistakes. One of the pastas was surprisingly undercooked. (I now know why…I depleted one pasta flour and the replacement had a different texture, and evidently needed longer cooking time.) Another was surprisingly under-seasoned. Since the pasta was the focal point of the party, I was nostalgic for the earlier mistakes! Still, a lot was eaten and this crowd had fun watching YouTube reactions to and re-enactments of an advertisement released recently by the National Organization for Marriage.

This is strictly ambient light; there’s natural light coming in from the overcast sky outside and there’s four incandescent bulbs in the fixture overhead.

Raw: Color Temperature: 2650K; Tint: 0
Raw: Recovery: 100
Raw: Fill Light: 15
Raw: Saturation: +8
PS: Linear Contrast preset
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
April 10, 2009; Day 343.

It’s In His Tattoo.

This is my friend Jeff, officiating at tonight’s “leather night” which turned out to be a really informative and entertaining evening. Even I donned a leather vest and boots tonight to be in the spirit of things. Jeff tattooed the names of his sons on his arms so naturally I shot him from his better side. :~)

This is strictly ambient light. There are two sources here, the very blue overcast skies that you can see on the wall to the left, and the incandescent floods overhead. The camera’s auto white balance corrected for the blue lighting which made Jeff very orange. I think if I had set the white balance from a gray card then he would have been much cooler. Personally, I do like skin tones to be a little warm.

Raw: Color Temperature: 3300K; Tint: 10
Raw: Fill Light: 20
Raw: Saturation: 6
PS: Curves adjustment for additional contrast
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
 > April 10, 2009; Day 343.

It’s In His Tattoo.

This is my friend Jeff, officiating at tonight’s “leather night” which turned out to be a really informative and entertaining evening.  Even I donned a leather vest and boots tonight to be in the spirit of things.  Jeff tattooed the names of his sons on his arms so naturally I shot him from his better side.  :~)

This is strictly ambient light.  There are two sources here, the very blue overcast skies that you can see on the wall to the left, and the incandescent floods overhead.  The camera’s auto white balance corrected for the blue lighting which made Jeff very orange.  I think if I had set the white balance from a gray card then he would have been much cooler.  Personally, I do like skin tones to be a little warm.

Raw: Color Temperature: 3300K; Tint: +10
Raw: Fill Light: +20
Raw: Saturation: +6
PS: Curves adjustment for additional contrast
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
April 10, 2009; Day 343.

It’s In His Tattoo.

This is my friend Jeff, officiating at tonight’s “leather night” which turned out to be a really informative and entertaining evening. Even I donned a leather vest and boots tonight to be in the spirit of things. Jeff tattooed the names of his sons on his arms so naturally I shot him from his better side. :~)

This is strictly ambient light. There are two sources here, the very blue overcast skies that you can see on the wall to the left, and the incandescent floods overhead. The camera’s auto white balance corrected for the blue lighting which made Jeff very orange. I think if I had set the white balance from a gray card then he would have been much cooler. Personally, I do like skin tones to be a little warm.

Raw: Color Temperature: 3300K; Tint: 10
Raw: Fill Light: 20
Raw: Saturation: 6
PS: Curves adjustment for additional contrast
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Camera: Nikon Corporation (Nikon D700) |
More details: exif |
Original size: 2832px x 4256px |
Current: 200px x 300px |
Other sizes: Small • M • L • O |
Share photo: links, forums, blogs |
Keywords: leather tattoo concord handheld cgm 90mm d700 jeffrey albair
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