Safari: Long Journey, A Kids Drawing...

Safari, for all the kids I have ever known, means animals. It NEVER means hunting. In fact, that would be unthinkable. The worst, totally wrong in every way. But the animals, well, they are loved. Click the image for a much larger version.

With a really LARGE roll of paper, I invited a 10 year old to draw BIG, anything she wanted to draw. She picked SAFARI. I added in that we all had to think up what animals lived in the classic African safari lands. No cheating, you can not look the animals up, this is about memory for both adults and kids. When that memory is totally exhausted, then and only then, can we look stuff up. We finally did look some up, but only added 4 animals from that search effort.

"I keep thinking of the jungle and I have to think of the Africa desert instead!"

Camera Tethering In Linux Using A Canon 5D...

Tethering allows you to shoot an image with your camera and have the image download to your computer automatically. To take that further we would like to have the image display on screen right after the image is snapped.

"To instantly see the image on the big screen is an exciting feature for most any photographer "

Bees Wax and Wine Magic - Still Life Study

We have been having fun taking still life shots and learning about them. What does it takes to make a great still life photo?
From the last post we are working with some of the ELEMENTS listed below. At this point we are not focusing on post production of the images. It can be fun to play around with post production to get an idea of how things look though so dig in if you want to.

ELEMENTS

• Subject or subjects
• The background
• Shadow
• Light - the overall amount of light, the color of light and what is lit or not
• Composition
• Angle
• What is in or out of focus
• Placement - staged or not staged
• Evenly spaced, random or overlapping
• Barrel Distortion
• Contrast
• Color vs black and white (grayscale)
• Being close or more distant
• Eye motion
• Unusual angles
• Level of detail
• Splash Of Color
• The Look
• Everyday sights

"If you work with only what you have to take the shot, and you are willing to get creative, you can take some very pleasing photographs..."

Since the theme is "Some Of Our Favorites" we used bees wax candles and red wine. Today we are featuring Parducci Petite Sirah. Normally we buy Organic sulfite free wines but in a pinch we like the rich taste of Parducci, plus they are 100% green power carbon neutral and use sustainable farming practices and earth friendly packaging. In other words, they are into it. We are also featuring an InfusionFibers.com bag, hand made bees wax candles and some teak bowls. The apples are organic from the Yager's (Greenfield Farm). There are also linen napkins and a slab of bees wax in the background of some shots.

Seasons Last Harvest - Still Life Study

We have been having fun taking still life shots and learning about them. What does it takes to make a great still life photo?
From the last post we are working with some of the ELEMENTS listed below. But do you really have to worry about all these factors? We listed them to help stir some creativity so it is really up to you and your process. At this point we are not focusing on post production of the images, but it is fun to play around with post production to get an idea of how things look.

ELEMENTS

• Subject or subjects
• The background
• Shadow
• Light - the overall amount of light, the color of light and what is lit or not
• Composition
• Angle
• What is in or out of focus
• Placement - staged or not staged
• Evenly spaced, random or overlapping
• Barrel Distortion
• Contrast
• Color vs black and white (grayscale)
• Being close or more distant
• Eye motion
• Unusual angles
• Level of detail

"If you had a teddy bear all your life and took a picture of it - looking at the image of the teddy bear would have a different meaning to you than most any onlooker. So ask others what they see..."

Since the theme is "Some Of Our Favorites" we invited our viewers to throw some images our way and here are some of the images that came our way. This one titled "Seasons Last Harvest" is from an "everyday sights" and is a beautiful splash of color.