Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Crafts Man

craftsman

Coffee Tastes Better Outside:
I'm determined to eat my breakfast and drink coffee outside in my backyard before it gets to be 1,000 degrees outside. So, today I built a picnic bench for my backyard.

Digital Photography School
I've used Digital Photography School (DPS) as a resource for help and interesting articles for a long time. Today I participated in my first "Weekly Assignment".

Picnic Table + DPS = The photo you see above.
The weekly assignment for DPS was "Construction". So, I had a great photo opportunity in my own back yard.

My Process:
Are you ready for me to reveal my secrets? I had NO IDEA of what I wanted; no clue of what would make a good 'construction' photo. So, I just started taking pictures. I took approximately 50 shots. I was looking for some spark, some inspiration... it wasn't coming to me.

I walked all around my work bench and took photos from above, from below, I whipped out the wide-angle and nothing looked promising until I got the bright Idea to pull out the macro lens. Ah ha! The Macro provided that "something" that I was looking for.

The only thing that I did to this photo in photoshop was to use "auto adjust" on the levels and I cropped it at 5x7 inches.

I liked the colors right out of the camera.

I don't think this is particularly an outstanding photo. It looks like it should be in a Craftsman Catalog or something (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). One thing I don't like about it is all the space in the upper right side of the image.

Anyway, it turned out much better than my "Class with Dave and Dave" assignment that was due today.

Check it out here.

Pour the Sugar

3 comments:

Angela Christenson said...

Ok, I think that the space in the upper right corner is just what you need to show a little more than just a flat surface. I like the blur because it brings your eye right to the craftsman tool. I think you did a fabulous job. Keep up the great work and I cant wait to see more.

I have a ?....your blog banner...is that a picture that you took yourself? If so....when you went to put it on your header what were the size dimensions that you had to use? Also did you need to put it in photobucket first to get a code for it? I want to change my banner this weekend and put a picture in its place. Maybe I will even make a scrapbook page. But I need a little heads up on how to do this process. If you could help that would be greatly appriciated.

Divine in the Daily EJPhotography said...

thanks for the thoughts on the photo.

about the blog banner.

1. yes, that's a photo that I took.
2. here's a tip about finding size/dimensions. right click the banner and then click on "properties". In my case the banner is 660x283px.
3. No, you do not need photobucket here on blogger.com You may upload straight from your computer. I'm not very familiar with photobucket (i'm a die-hard FLICKR fan - the best photo sharing site on the planet - Rachel Denbow uses it too), but i assume you can use images that you've posted there.
4. If you were to create a banner you'll probably want to make sure it's bigger than your current one... then your page will be even from left to right.

was it helpful?

let me know if i can do/say anything else for ya.

have a GREAT day.

Angela Christenson said...

Thanks for the info...I will use it. The only reason I use photobucket was to upload on my myspace page when needing a code. Flickr is one of my favorites too, its a daily stopping ground for me. Yeah I know what you mean about my banner not being center with the rest of my page, I noticed that immediately when I got the three columns up. But I knew that I was going to try and fix that this weekend.

I just finished watching this awesome movie. I don't know if your into movies or not, but it would be a good family movie, it is called August Rush it is currently on PPV, Robin Williams stars in it. A very good story line.

So are you a pastor/minister at the church that Rachel attends? There was one day she had posted something on her blog about a group at her church that was taking photos of there daily lives, and recording some of the things about themselves. It's been so long ago that I probably don't even have the details correct anymore. But I just thought that it was such a great idea, and that I wished I belonged to a church that had activities like this. I go to a church but it is very small and not many people my age. Had you ever heard of a place called Darien when you lived in WI.? If not, it is a blink and you'll miss kind of town.

Anyways I will work with the information that you have given me...And Thank you!

Oooh Yeah, I feel better. I was pretty stiff the following day, after my fall.