Photo-a-day

Pumpkins!

Just a display at the store, but I'm liking the colors and shapes available these days.

October is over, I have successfully taken (and posted) every day for a month.  I learned a few more things about my camera and I just took it more places, therefore getting more pictures.  It's definitely a fun exercise, that I'd recommend to others.

Photo-a-day

Today, I played around with light-painting.

This is a 15 second exposure; I held the light on my face for 5 seconds and then started making the star shape with the light.  Felt a bit silly in my mom's yard, but it was pretty fun.

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From a walk around the neighborhood.

Just a little bokeh for the weekend.

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Playing more with manual settings and some editing.  Probably should have polished the silver, but at least I dusted it.

f/5
1/3 second
ISO 800

Used Pioneer Woman's Action Sets for the editing.
Used sepia toned and slight lighten,

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Today, I started playing with Inkodye, and I'm hooked.  My little cousin and I made these.

It's a really fun process and surprisingly, not that messy.  They dye doesn't have much color until it gets in the sun, so clean up isn't a huge problem.  And it's so fun to see the color develop and surprise you once it gets in the sun.

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On our way home from New Orleans, we stopped at Nottaway plantation to see a bit of the Old South.

This is some of playful wickerwork from a ladies' parlor.

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Today, we went to Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 in the Garden District.  I really wanted to see all of the raised graves.  It might be the best place to play hide and seek in all of creation.

Then we headed over to the French Quarter to see the Old Ursuline Convent.  The oldest building in the Mississippi River Valley.  This is a picture of the door to the adjacent church, it was built later, in the 1800's.

We leave tomorrow, so much left to see, but I'll be glad to get back to San Antonio.

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Another day in New Orleans.  This pic is from day 2 of the WWII Museum, yesterday was the movie, today was the exhibit.  Grandpa has thoroughly enjoyed both days.

A knot that was displayed on the Higgins Boat.

And here's a pic of my awesome Grandpa, he was a medic in the war.

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Today was a full day in New Orleans.  Afternoon tea, WWII Museum, walking around the French Quarter, the Gumbo Shop and pecan pie.  I couldn't pick just one picture, but I judiciously kept it to two.

We saw this Mardi-Gras costumed man near Jackson Square.

And this was the underside of The Royal Praline Company's porch.  Fairly iconic of New Orleans, in my opinion.

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Day 1 in New Orleans.  Here's a shot of Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter.

I can't wait to see it all during the day.

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Today, I decided to start messing with semi-manual settings.  I used this article on understanding aperture.

This picture uses an f-stop of 13, a 1.3 second shutter speed and an ISO of 800.  I manually focused this one and had the camera resting on a stationary object.

This picture has an f-stop of 5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/25 of a second and an ISO of 800.  It was on automatic focus and still resting on that stationary object.

I finally have a grasp on how to create different depths of field.  Maybe I should have played with the manual settings back when I took that photography studio in college.

And thanks to this gal for leading me to the tutorial website.

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The weather has been cool and lovely here in Texas.

Perfect hammock weather.

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Today, my sister and I made this cake.

It was almost perfect, but I think we messed up our water bath.  We placed the pan directly in the water and I think it's supposed to be placed directly above the water on a rack.  The bottom turned out denser and the top was light and airy perfection.  Definitely going to try again.

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Here's today's photo...

It's the table at the local Chili's here in Texas.

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I was in Austin today visiting college friends.  None of us live in Austin, but we occasionally have a chance to meet up there.

This is a wall of the patio cover at Home Slice on SoCo.

I'm happy to report that the weather was fine and the pizza was delicious.

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My grandpa won this piano in a church raffle.  It's a player piano from 1924.

I can remember turning it on and dancing to it when I was younger, watching the paper roll spin and the keys magically move all by themselves.  Neatest thing ever.

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Went to a family reunion today!  Fun to see all the kiddos playing.

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I'm visiting family in Texas, so today's picture is my little cousin...

being awesome!

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Today's picture is of the husband.  I was showing him the picture before posting for his approval and this is what he said...

"I can see why an architect would like my face", to which I replied, "yeah, your face has planes in it".

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I went out for a little walk tonight and caught these fall leaves with a streetlight beyond.

Then a bug got stuck in the neck of my sweater and I raced back home.

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Today was farmer's market day again, and I spotted this setup at my favorite fruit stand.

Got got some great stuff!

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Yesterday, my aunt and uncle took me to a bead show in Santa Monica.  Here's some of my loot.

I tried to backlight, but I don't have a lightbox.  So this is a glass baking dish with paper in the bottom and Christmas lights underneath.  Not ideal, but it helps to show some of the patterns in the agate.

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I was up at 4:15 this morning to make it for a 7:00 a.m. race start.  The upside to this was that I got to see the sun come up.

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Today's photo is brought to you by a palm tree on the LMU campus.

Loving the texture.

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I headed down to Long Beach today to pick up my race packet for a half marathon this Sunday, and I have to say, it was kind of nice.  I haven't made it down to LBC yet, and with clear, crisp air all around, I had a pretty great walk around the marina.

I took a lot of fun pictures down there today, but I settled on this one.  It was just cute.

And I have to throw in one more.  The air in SoCal has been amazing after it got cleaned out by a day of rain.  Unfortunately, the street drainage has also been cleaned out...right into the ocean.  This is where that stuff that gets thrown out in the street goes, bleh.

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Today's picture is brought to you by The Wall Project.  The Wende Museum puts pieces of the Berlin Wall up around Los Angeles, and this piece is on Wilshire in the Museum District.

In other news, I had an ice cream sandwich from Cool Haus for dinner!  Bourbon pecan pie ice cream, with a chocolate chocolate chip cookie.

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It rained in So-Cal today...

That is all.

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Today I headed to the Culver City farmer's market to pick up veggies for this week and I came across this guy.

Culver City downtown has officially been INVADED! 

I love public art.

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Let's just call this one a placeholder.  It's not very inspired, but I liked the light through the cup.

And neon pink never hurt anyone.

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Today's photo is brought to you by the new California Design exhibit at LACMA.  Lucky for T and I, today was  free day at the museum.

This brooch was made by Margaret De Patta and it's beautiful.

The exhibit had everything from toys to architectural drawings, and all of Charles and Ray Eames' living room.  I highly recommend a visit.

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One item on my 30-b4-30 list is to take at least one picture a day for a month.  October 2011 is going to be it.  Here's October 1st:

I volunteered at the opening of Eames Words today.  It's the new exhibit at the A+D Museum, here in Los Angeles.  It's got some great insight into their thoughts on the beauty of function.