Category Archives: PhotographyI had a great idea – pictures in the orchard when it was in full bloom. The only problem – I live forty miles from the orchard, and I never know when it’s in bloom. I drove down one day with high hopes – after all, everything else was in bloom – only to find it dull and lifeless still. So we went to the castle up the road. And the kids played, and I conned them into sitting for a few pictures against the beautiful rocks of the castle.
 Ring on my tree - 68mm f/3.2 1/320  Ring on my tree - with reverse lens 50mm applied. f/3.2 1/320  Look at how shallow the depth of field is! I was reading today on the internet (as I am want to do at times) – and I stumbled across a phrase I had never heard before: “Shoot through my lens backwards.” Never fear, Google is here! But that yielded little results. I tried a few different ways of putting it, and finally “reverse lens macro technique” did the trick. Obviously I read a couple different tutorials about this sweet little trick, but I thought I’d put my own out there, under “shoot through my lens backwards” in case anyone is looking.  Two pennies on my piano bench. 70mm focal length.  One penny with reverse lens trick applied. In the case of the penny pictures seen above, neither picture is cropped. The first picture shows the maximum frame coverage of the pennies (how close I could get to them) while keeping them in focus. The second shows how close I can get with the backwards lens macro technique. Nifty, I say. Again, notice the DOF on that penny! So basically, here’s the rundown – you need TWO lenses for this technique. I used one zoom lens (Canon 24mm-70mmL) and one prime (50mm), but I suppose you could use any combo of lenses you chose. One lens is mounted to your body (I left my default 24-70 on), and the other is pushed up against the first lens backwards (so your back glass is actually facing out away from the camera body). Make sure both your lenses are set to “Manual Focus” -there will be no more focusing than the minute movements of moving back and forth, closer and further from your object of photograph. Also, on my off body lens (my 50 mm in my case) I made sure it was wide open (1.8). The on body lens was set to “manual” so I could adjust aperture and speed manually. Because you are shooting macro, high speed is a must to ward off camera shake. I shot most images at f2.8/what ever speed I could get away with. That’s it. Now just point your lenses to some object, get in close (sometimes within an inch or less!) and be ready to click. This technique (perhaps particularly with the lenses I used) has SUCH A SHALLOW DOF! It was amazing to me! Just breathing could bring one thing out of focus and another in. This means I took two or three shots to get the focus point I wanted. But it yields some gnarly results (can I use that word?) Try it! PS – Notice the excessive amount of vignetting on the macro images? This is due (I imagine) in large part to the fact that my lenses are two different circumferences. The 24-70 is very large with a 77mm diameter. The 50mm 1.8 is only 52mm. So part of the frame was literally black, not looking at anything but the ring (and my hand) as I held the second lens up.  Glitter Snowflake  Glitter Snowflake Macro  Nutcracker  Nutcracker Macro  Fly in the windowsill (ew, I know).  Fly macro  Winter Ice  Winter Ice Macro  Olivia  Olivia Macro Hi Jill and Alan, I know I said I’d get these to you a few days ago . . .Time never goes as planned.
Hi Larry and Karen, Here she is. Isn’t she lovely? But then, you all ready knew that. Love, Anj
The internet community is full – CHALK FULL, I say! – of amazing creators of amazing things. Every once in a while I get lost on a tangent and find the most amazing people making the most awesome things – and sharing. Creative people on the world wide web, this is my THANK YOU to you.
Here is a little snowflake I created in AI – uh oh. Now you know what my Christmas cards are going to look like I’ve set it up as PSD file WITH a custom shape (snowflake) so you can scale it/change it’s color to what ever your little heart desires. This could be cute for cards (if you don’t think so, don’t tell me – my christmas cards, remember?)
or a template for cut outs or background paper or christmas ornaments or gift tags or anything else you creative people can think of. If you do use it, would you please send me a pic of how/what you used it for so I can see. It would make me happy. And now – for you: Wynn and Heidi, here are your family pictures from – goodness! Almost a month ago. Well, here you are. PS – Olivia wants Alea and Weston to come to her birthday party this weekend. But she understands if you can’t make it PSS – See the rest of your pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25017151@N06/sets/72157625110993615/
 Night Sky at a Barbeque in July
Adventures came in spades in the month of July. There were picnics and barbeques and parades and parties. People and places and things were happening! Each day was like a diaper – started out empty, full and squishing out the sides by the end. How’s that mommy metaphor for ya? I catalogued each day in my head for later blogging. But that’s the thing about adventure – if you’re having it, there’s not time to sit in front of the computer and take notes. What’s a girl to do? Plus, let’s just be honest here, I got a little mentally overwhelmed by it all – and confused. Now what day was which? So . . . rather than catalog adventures of August (five days in, so many stories!) I am going to resist the urge. Instead, I will be doing a photo project: One picture a day. Oooh, there could be lovely photography. Or not. It could be an out of focus, grainy shot of a dirty face. Because I have PLENTY of those moments to capture. We’ll see what happens. The hard part (I can already tell) will be narrowing it down to just ONE picture. This means some adventures will never be documented. Some will be left in the card reader, to be forgotten as the years come. And then years and years from now, the kids will look at the other pictures, and say: what were we doing here? And I will say I don’t remember. And they will scruch their faces and wonder why I didn’t just write it down. The project will be called – Beneath an August Sky
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