30 Days of Photographs {Week One}

So here we are...week one! I've had a lot of fun with this project so far. So here we are...week one! I've had a lot of fun with this project so far. Since I really had no idea about my camera, I did a lot of reading online during the week, taking notes and printing tutorials. While I still have a really really long way to go, I think that I've started to understand some of the basics. I decided the best way to do this is show the picture with a little description underneath each photo. Some are raw, and some are edited. Right now I'm using Gimp, which is a free downloadable photo editor. I actually have photoshop 7.0 for Mac, but it doesn't have near the photo editing ability that the newer CS3 or CS4 editions have. I'm working towards purchasing that, but it's pretty expensive. And until I figure out a way to know which mode it was in, the f/stop, etc. I'll be leaving that part out. PLEASE feel free to comment or critique these. I want all the feedback I can get!

Oh, and yes, I already slacked and missed a few days, but I had a crazy week and not getting home until dark doesn't make for very good photos! Plus my subjects are limited, you'll see that later.

August 2 - Gulliver. Edited to black and white in Gimp. This is my parent's 11 (I think) year old yellow lab. Gulliver is pretty special to me. He is actually a retired guide dog for the blind. We raised him as a puppy and I took him to high school with me once a week. Almost a year and a half ago, my dad drove all the way up to San Francisco to pick him up when he was retired. I don't think there's a person in the world who doesn't love this dog. He made a great first day subject because he doesn't move around, literally. He will go 8 hours sleeping in the same spot. Thanks Gulliver for being the perfect model.

August 3 - Hawkins. Cropped and filtered in Gimp. This is a horrible photo, I know, but this is the kind of subject I get to deal with at home. And this was the best photo of the night. I think that should tell you something right there. He literally does not stay still for me. Chris manages to take the most amazing photos, but me? Oh no, I can't manage to take one good photo of that darn cat. I still love him though, even if he makes me look like a failure.

August 4 - Salt. Unedited. For some reason, I really like this picture. My mom was making dinner at her house, and I was looking around for different subjects. I actually bought this salt for my mom for Christmas and since I want to improve my food photography, I figured this was a good start.

August 5 - Roxy. Cropped and edited for color in Gimp. This is my mom's new cat, Roxy. I haven't blogged about her before, but my mom rescued her from going to the pound about 6 weeks ago. She is still pretty shy, but when she came out one morning I was at their house, I jumped on the opportunity to take her picture. She doesn't move nearly as much as Hawkins, so I took about 20 photos of her. This one is one of my favorites.

August 7 - Wedding flowers. Unedited. On Friday morning I flew up to Seattle for a college friend's wedding. That is a whole other post in itself, but I had some great opportunities to take photos. I wish my best photo for the day had been of people, but with the Seattle clouds and sunset, the lighting wasn't super spectacular. I don't know how I managed to get this shot, but I was pretty proud of myself for managing to get some good field of depth.

August 8 - Space Needle. Unedited. I'm sure that some of you are cringing at this photos right now. Yes the lighting is way off but I love this photos. It shows that I took the camera off auto and while I might have failed with the exposure, I tried. I love the greenery against the washed out Space Needle.