“A Little Knowledge…

Is A Dangerous Thing.”

And it can make or break your photographs.

I have no excuse.  For years I worked off and on for professional finishing labs as well as a private One Hour Photo Lab that I operated for years, I did not own it.  Along with photo finishing I sold cameras & had knowledge of their operation, went to workshops, etc.  I used to care about aperture, film speed, now I switch my Pentax K200D to auto on everything I can.

I chose this body because I had a Pentax 35mm with a couple of lenses & I could interchange on this digital camera body which is what I have been doing for over 10 years.  I absolutely need to upgrade but know when I do, another better digital camera will come out even cheaper.

One of my shortcomings is that I don’t always think things through or verify information that I have before I do things.  Knowing quite a bit about cameras and their accessories gave me a false sense of security that I “knew it all.”  When I found a “softener” filter in my lens size I got all excited & purchased it.  It didn’t occur to me to ask why it had (B) on it.

Come to find out that B is a stronger softener than the A that was not available at the time.  Had I questioned the proprietor I would have been told that this filter has a stronger softening effect than A and asked them to order it for me since that was my intent.  I wished just the slightest hint of softening.  Instead I ended up with almost a “fog” effect which I intend trying at a later date in a cemetery or especially with lights like at Christmas.

Needless to say I used it a few times and was not happy with it.

Sharing the results of the Hoya 49mm softener B results.  I promise to do another post later when use it again with specific results in mind.  I had no idea what the effects would actually be until this trial shoot at Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan and my yard.

 

This lens does not do justice to delicate pink rose petals starting to fade.

Miscellaneous flower shots.  A few are not bad.  I need to play with it more.

Daily Prompt: Planets or Bubbles?

I was hurling through space the other day, one of my usual “out of body” experiences I like to do so I can be reminded of just how small and insignificant me and my problems really are in the grand scheme of things.

Bubbles make all things better, even space!

Bubbles make all things clean again!

Daily Prompt: Willy-Nilly Kaleidodesigns

Sometimes I like to play with the various Kaleidoscope effects my software offers. One just splits the image and another does the actual Kaleidoscope design effect and allows you to place it where you want it in terms of color and shape, lots of options.  The split effect they call kaleidoscope splits 4 images at a time.  There is a plan to what I do eventually but my designing does begin willy-nilly.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Transmogrify for Halloween!

calumetcemetarygrimreaper

ENTER, IF YOU DARE!

grimreaperglow-2 pumpkinrainbowHalloween used to be one of my Favorite Holidays when I was young, after Christmas of course.  Halloween is my oldest son’s favorite and he goes all out in decorating each year.  Sometimes including his own costumes, fave being Brandon Lee’s “The Crow.

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Yes folks, that’s his real hair!

Enjoy video from some of his previous Halloweens on youtube.com!  Or even scarier!

One of his earlier Halloweens with a jumping apple head for an apple head doll
One of his earlier Halloweens with a jumping apple head for an apple head doll

As a child I lived near one of the oldest graveyards in the area with stones from the 1700’s at least.  A few of us used to go up there to read them.  Thanks to the television program I watched as a young teen, Dark Shadows, I thought cemeteries were very cool.  Ghosts anyone?

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cemetary-ghost

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I had a very cool Halloween song that I might have shared before.  Starts with:

Jack ‘O Lanterns big black cats and witches that fly in the sky!

I'll get you my pretty, and your little guns too! (hope I don't get deleted)
I’ll get you my pretty, and your little guns too!
(hope I don’t get deleted)

Halloween also led us straight into the other holidays later on.  Used to be we kept the Halloween harvesty feeling way past Thanksgiving and I loved that.  I remember when Christmas didn’t really start til a week or two before Christmas.  Again, that was over 50 years ago and I don’t think that stores were even open on Sundays.  I think they started doing that in the late 60’s, some of them.  I love autumn!  It’s just a great time of year for so many reasons.

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Less than a month until Thanksgiving if anyone cares and coming soon to a super market near you, GMO enhanced poultry, also known as

POULTRY OF THE DAMNED!

 Thanksgiving???!!!!
Thanksgiving???!!!

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Have a safe and Happy Halloween to those that celebrate.

Pleasant Dreams!

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Eerie

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I like to fool around with adding animation to part of my photos like these by cutting and “filling” other pictures or color combos and then animating only part of the picture.  Gives eerie effects depending on light, shadows, color, etc.  Hope you get some ideas for your software.  I am happy to answer any questions as to how they were created as well as planning many “how-to” posts way overdue.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern


I will sometimes create patterns with my Microsoft Photodraw under Distort and kaleidoscope. I will lock in the effect to add the next one as well as placing any other designer effect to enhance as desired. The above are some examples with the caption of what they were originally. The bottom galleries show how these effects were placed and the results.