I Spy

Sometimes I wander around my house taking pictures of random things. They aren't necessarily beautifully carved furniture pieces or delicate figurines, just everyday objects. This is how you understand the true measure of a photographer. Can everyone take a stunning picture of a fork? No, but an experienced photographer can. We find beauty in the simplest objects, and many times others don't notice it until we capture the object with our fancy cameras.

Imperfect Beauty

People are beautiful. None of us are perfect, and yet God loves us all the same. Some of us may not be physically attractive, and some of us may not be internally attractive. There are parts to each and every one of us which shine through and reveal our beauty anyway. Pictures are the same way. Have you ever heard someone refer to a picture as "grainy?" This applies to the quality of a picture and the clumping of particles in the emulsion. "Noise" is applied also to imperfect photos, but it refers more to a variation of image brightness or color information. Some of these pictures, though imperfect technically speaking, are still beautiful. The same thing applies to blurriness in some photos when captured in an artistic way. Take a look at these examples. Do you see what I'm sayin'?

Hedgehog Adventures

I've posted a couple of pictures of my little Sonic, but I think it's about time for a full-blown post about him. When we first got Sonic, I noticed one of his eyes was a sort of milky blue. Now that we've been playing with him for a few days, I'm pretty sure he's blind in that eye. His bright blue eye helps him fit right in our family-both my husband and I have blue eyes. Sonic finally got used to drinking from the water bottle...he no longer bites the long, metal straw. My parents-in-law have a dog named Eddy whom we have been pet sitting, and he follows Sonic everywhere. Good thing, too, 'cause that goober is speedy. He decided to explore a hole under our kitchen cabinets, and we had to pry open the baseboard to get him out. He loves to snuggle (yes, even spiny hedgehogs are cuddly), and he burrows into anything he can find. Since he can't see well he's relying greatly on his sense of smell. Though we were scary stinky strangers at first, Sonic is now learning Tim's and my scents. We've had him for 3 days now and are looking forward to having him around for years to come.

Airplane Window Seat

You know those weird people who take photos out the window? I am one of them. If I had a superpower, it would be the ability to fly. Since I don't have a superpower, I will stick to these man-made machines. Being 35,000 feet above the surface of the earth brings up the opportunity for aerial photos, and many of them are simply brilliant. Now it's hard to get a good photo through double pane glass with tons of glare, but I take enough photos that eventually one will turn out great.

Skies

One of my little sisters is fascinated with the sky. Everywhere we go she's got a camera pointed straight up at the clouds. I sort of caught the bug as well. I'm constantly taking pictures with my phone to send to her, and I'll stare at the sky for hours on road trips. Okay, I exaggerate, but not by much. After you see these pictures you'll know why. You may even look at the sky more often from now on.

Merry Christmas

My dear little Sonic wants to wish all y'all a very merry Christmas! Drink lots of hot chocolate, eat lots of Christmas cookies, and have a blessed time with your friends and family. And never forget that Jesus Christ is the reason we even have this holiday.

High School Black and White

I hope all of you have pursued something long enough that you've gotten better. Even couch potatoes get better at channel surfing and video games, so what's your excuse? My pursuit, if not obvious already, is photography. I've been taking pictures for as long as I can remember, using 110 film in a cheap camera. I started taking photography seriously my sophomore year of high school when I switched out of drawing into photography classes. I stuck with it until my senior year of high school. Though many of the photos were not wonderful, I did manage to take many of which I am still proud.

 Sepia

 Hand Colored

 VASE Silver Key Award

 Water Tower Place, Chicago

Sonic

For several months I have seriously wanted a hedgehog. Seriously seriously. For Christmas, my wonderful husband decided to gift me one. He is a 6-week-old pinto. And yes, his name is Sonic. He is the cutest little bugger ever, and I will very much enjoy taking pictures of him. You'll see my favorites on here from time to time. Here's the first for starters.

Expert Timing

You know how sometimes you take an innocent picture of...say...a flower, and when you load the image onto the computer there's a butterfly hiding in the picture? Some would call that luck. I call it expert timing. This kind of thing happens every once in a while, and it is highly satisfying. You show off that picture, and you're always sure to point out that captured moment like you planned it all along. You think to yourself "booyah!" and go on your way until it happens again.

Enlargers

In the olden days, people used to develop film and photos themselves in these mysterious places called "dark rooms." Fortunately for me, two of my schools-both high school and college-still went back to these old ways. I love developing my own film and photos. It makes me feel much more involved with the process, and it also helped me procrastinate from other classes. Sometimes it takes hours to get the image right.  When developing your own images, you use this fantastic machine called an enlarger. Enlargers are basically fancy contraptions that provide light for turning negatives positive. Another fun thing to do with an enlarger is put down a piece of light sensitive paper and place objects on top of that. You can create photographs without ever using a camera, and it's interesting to see how different materials appear once the paper is developed.

Time Lapse/Stop Motion

Have you ever thought of movies as photographs? Many artists have. That's why we have entire schools dedicated to filmography. It's an art form. I got to pursue this thought for a while when I was assigned a project having to do with time lapse or stop motion. I chose stop motion. We were to create a video of sorts by compiling a great many pictures. You don't wanna know how many. It also took a long time to get the timing right...we were told to create a movie no longer than a minute and a half or something like that. It's been a while since that assignment. I was in a wheelchair at the time due to a car accident, so I took a video from a handicapped view. I also took a video of food...so what if it was vegetables? I was hungry. Our tripod contraption was interesting too...we used my crutches and a slab of wood to hold the camera. It was well worth it after we saw the finished product.

Alternative Cameras

Chase Jarvis, an American photographer, said "The best camera is the one that's with you." He even published a book by that name which he filled solely with photos from his iPhone. Now, not everyone has an iPhone, but there is an easy way to capture the beauty around you without a fancy camera. Again, my amazing photography professor came up with an idea. He based it this time on Jarvis's work. We were to take pictures using something besides our regular DSLR. Sure I went for the iPhone pics, which are the first set below. However, I also wanted to branch out and do something I've never done before. I took pictures with my scanner. That's right, your scanner is a camera. Mind blown. So sit back, relax, and enjoy these alternative camera works.