Purple Explosion

Hello blog-o-sphere!

It’s been a while, I know.  Between buying a house and flying out to Ohio for my Uncle’s wonderful wedding, schedules have been a little tight.  But, I’m back, re-charged, and ready to continue capturing the world!

Ohio is gorgeous.  Seriously, why doesn’t everyone live in the midwest?  Maybe most of you guys know already, but there are these massive things that shoot out of the ground all over the place over there.  I think someone called them “trees”.  Amazing!

Anyway, I made sure to bring my camera along for a day of photography before the wedding.  Taking pictures outside was such a rush.  The place we stayed at had a garden full of flowers I hadn’t seen before, so of course, I spent a good deal of time snapping away in there.

Here’s one of my favorites:

New background picture for my computer?  I think so!

Tea Time

While my husband was out golfing, I decided to have my own “tea” time.  There’s nothing like sitting back with a nice cuppa after a long week of house hunting, work, and general craziness.

So how did I pull of this shot?  Super easy.  I used my dusty old light box (you can find the tutorial for it on my old site here), turned off all of the lights in our dining room, and flipped on my retro desk lamp.  To cover my bases, I try to take three shots with different exposure settings.  Something that might show up at a perfect zero on my camera’s meter might not give me exactly what I’m looking for.

Happy tea time!

DH Day Farm

It’s been a little while since my last update and for that, I’m sorry.  Unfortunately, this 112 degree heat wave has made it incredibly difficult to find the will power to trek out on photo-walks.  How do you Phoenician photographers do it in the summer?!

I plan to go out for a shoot around dusk this weekend, but until then, here’s a gem from ye olde Michigan vacation file.  The DH Day Farm is whimsically beautiful and one of my favorite landmarks!

Waiting to Dock

Happy Sunday!

The dock where this was taken was incredibly small.  I can’t imagine that there are many boats that could tie off here, but it made for an interesting shot.

Across the Lake

Just hanging out by the lake near my church.  How I envy the people that live here!

Luscious Lantana

Mid-week update!

I couldn’t decide which Lantana shot I liked best, so I’m posting them all!

Let me know your favorite in the comments below!

Fiery Red Bird of Paradise

Praise the heavens!  I finally cleaned my image sensor and now my pictures are coming out better than ever!

For those of you who have had the same trouble with dirty image sensors, I would highly recommend “Digital Survival Kit” by Photographic Solutions.  It’s fast, easy, and affordable (unless, of course, you want to drop $65 by sending it to your local camera repair shop).  I got mine from Amazon for $25 – what a deal!

Yesterday, after watching five documentaries on Britney Spears (what do normal people do on Sundays?), I decided to take a walk around the lake by my church.  Since I had procrastinated for so long, I didn’t get there until around 5:00pm.  Turns out that that was the perfect time to go, since the sun wasn’t as intense and colors seemed to pop more.

Check out this dazzling Red Bird of Paradise.

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Male Mallard

Breaking news #2: I finally ordered a legitimate image sensor cleaning kit!  So long, crappy $4 kit from Fry’s Electronics.  I could’ve spent that money on four McChickens…

So, while I’m waiting the 3-5 business days for my equipment to arrive in the mail, I decided to sift through my hard drive to see if there were any rough diamonds worth polishing.  I found this little guy in a folder marked April 2012.

How did I miss him?  What a cutie!

Rose Garden

What a busy weekend! From having picnics with friends to working on graduation announcements for my boss’s son to re-arranging the entire apartment, I finally have a chance to “stop and smell the roses”.  These shots were from my walk last weekend, since I haven’t had much time to explore.

My image sensor is still dirty (tried to clean it myself and failed miserably), but luckily the dark background hid the blemishes nicely.  Anything that showed up on the petals could be easily removed using the clone brush or the object removal tool in Paintshop Pro.  One of these days, I’m going to need to either cough up the $70 to get it professionally cleaned or find a cleaning kit that doesn’t suck.  I should have known that  $4 kit from Fry’s Electronics wouldn’t yield very good results.

Spring Blossoms

Lovely Palo Verde blossoms enjoying the last remnants of cool weather.  We’re supposed to hit 100 degrees today – hello, summer!