48 in 24

Well, this 48 images in 24 hours has been less frustrating, but no less hectic. We're all stuck in the craziness of constantly changing stories from our broker and our realtor. Things have been dragging and dragging and dragging. There have been a lot of drawn out moments of tense stillness: staring out of windows and lying under apple trees. These are interspersed with flurries of activity: trips to the barn and the grocery store.

Everyone's nerves are short. The barn is relaxing, and the ice cream parlor is fun. The grocery store is a nightmare, and the library is hectic. We make do and give apologetic hugs as we play outside in the monstrous heat.

Everywhere I go I take my camera. It's my new mission in life. Take it. Use it. Click, click. People are glaring. I smile at them. They still glare. I hesitate and let them dissuade me. I regret that later. Practice. Practice. Oh well, next time I'll smile and take a picture of the glare.

48 pictures . 24 hours





And these two are my happy compromises between exposure and composition:

Again, Michealle? Really?

Today's lecture helped soooooooo much. And, as I've looked on the assignment sheet and the finished project appears to be due on the 8th and not today as I thought, I think I shall redo it! Bwahaha.

I hope people start participating more in class. There's some non-emergency version of the bystander effect at work here and it's making me chomp at the bit. RAR!

Here's another of the ones I liked from my last attempt. I'm trying to keep an image per entry. Consumerism fascinates me on so many levels.

48 in 24

Keeping things in my 50mm was an exercise in and of itself. Most everything was coming out over or under exposed. I kind of like the resulting images in some cases. Well, after I turned the exposure up or down, anyway.


This is a picture of the Krishna statue that I keep in the livingroom. It's a good two feet tall. I have it tucked against the wall and the barrister's bookcase to keep it safe from rampaging children and animals (and hey, in this house, sometimes adults). I believe that my uncle obtained it sometime in the 1970's.

First I converted this image to grayscale, then increased the exposure and increased the contrast to bring more of the noise to the surface. You loose some of the detailing on the piece itself, but I like the texture.





This is Sol Skugga. We call her Skugga. My wife and I took the horses out for a nice two hour trail ride before it got too hot today, then turned them out while we mucked stalls. We left them there while Amanda exercised Eagle. I snapped this shot of Skugga foraging between shots of the Eaglebeast.

This image was clearly overexposed. It was so bad that even the horse looked mostly white. I brought the exposure down and left it that way. I like how it bleached the color out of the dirt and rails.

I'm looking forward to class tomorrow, but before that I need a nice long night's sleep. Target on the last weekend before summer? What was I thinking?!?!

I guess I was thinking I had to get all the school supplies I'd just found out about. Yeesh. I wish those elementary teachers would tell us sooner!

False starts

My stomach ache turned into the stomach flu. And, fascinating as my twisting gut seems to find the inside of my toilet bowl, I do not think that it would make for a very entertaining 48 photographs. I'm starting over this evening. Still somewhat ill, but the vomit seems to have subsided.

I was kind enough to share with my poor husband. This picture of his hand is one of the images that I shot before succumbing to the urge to just curl up on the sofa in a cramped ball of misery. He gave in far before I did, and slept for near the entirety of the afternoon. All things considered, I envy him being able to sleep through the bulk of it.


The kids have been very good about entertaining themselves. Lore has scattered cars and trains all through the house, and it has made every headlong trip down the hallway an adventure in and of itself. Imala took to unpacking and redecorating her bedroom. I snatched up my camera during one of my better few minutes and leaned in through her door to snap a quick picture. She was indignant, as she tends to be anymore when it comes to my taking pictures. Letting the children use my camera to take their own pictures seems to have cut back on their retaliatory responses to seeing my lenses pointed at them. Maybe I'll pick them up some inexpensive ones for the holidays this year.

I'm dreadfully excited about this class. Now if only I can get over my frustration with never seeming to get my exposure right. Even when my meter says it's spot on, the images are coming back over or under exposed. Yarg! These two I knew would be underexposed when I shot them, but there was a decided lack of light and I was going for the moment moreso than technical proficiency. Oh well. I'll get this figured out eventually.

48 in 24

Our first assignment is to capture 48 images in 24 hours. My initial response was, "Hey, no problem. I can get 48 in one hour, let alone 24." I am finding that, in practical application, it is another thing entirely to stretch that one hour out into twenty-four.

Not only this, but this assignment is an exercise in intimacy and risk. It is a documentation of my life, and it requires that I -gasp- take my camera out of its lovely controlled setting. It's not my precious baby that I need to protect and keep in its wrapping. It is a tool. I should take care of it, but not freak out about the notion of taking it to the grocery store. Besides, I live in a nice enough environment these days that I don't have to worry about getting a knife in the kidney so someone can rip it off of my neck.

I keep taking pictures and being unhappy with them. I can't believe how reliant I've become on my programmed mode. I keep telling myself I'll start the 48 with the next one, no, the next one, no, the next one. All blurry. Too dark. Too bright. White balance is off. Etc.

Well. I made myself stick to it. Around 5 this evening I took the first in the series. They're not pretty, but they're real. An escape from the idyllic and a venture into the mundane. There was more I wanted to say, but I've got a monstrous stomach ache, so it can wait.