Sunday, December 28, 2014

Week In Photos: December 21 - 27

DSC_0003
Nikon D5300, 35mm f/1.8 lens, f/2.0, SS 1/50, ISO 2000

12-22-142
Nikon D5300, 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 lens (shot at 185mm), f/4.5, SS 1/40, ISO 800

12-22-14 10
Nikon D5300, 50mm f/1.8 lens, f/1.8, SS 1/100, ISO 100

12-24-14 3
Nikon D5300, 50mm f/1.8 lens, f/1.8, SS 1/60, ISO 3200

12-25-14
Nikon D5300, 35mm f/1.8 lens, f/1.8, SS 1/80, ISO 1000, shot with remote

Heartless
Nikon D5300, 35mm f/1.8 lens, f/1.8, SS 1/800, ISO 1000

12-27-14 1
Nikon D5300, 50mm f/1.8 lens, f/1.8, SS 1/60, ISO 1600

Sunday, December 21, 2014

365

Lengthy post warning. Feel free to scroll down to "TL;DR" if you are not my mom and therefore probably not interested in anything other than pictures.

The first time I remember being interested in photography was Christmas morning when I was somewhere in the eight to ten year old range. Santa had brought me my first point and shoot camera and some rolls of film. I loved taking pictures, but of course I couldn’t just snap away all the time since each roll was limited to something like 26 photos. A summer or two later, my parents let me take a photography course for kids. After that, I felt like I had become quite the photographer.

I joined the yearbook staff my sophomore year of high school, and was an editor my junior and senior years. While at the time I was much more interested in writing and graphic design (I’ve experimented with quite a lot of creative fields), it was sometimes necessary for me to borrow one of the school’s Nikon D40s and snap some pictures of a club meeting or pep rally. Our yearbook advisor, Mrs. Watson (who is actually the woman who inspired me to learn how to knit and turned me into the crazy yarn lady I am today), taught us some basics in photo composition and photo processing in Photoshop. Being an editor my last two years also gave me the opportunity to take a few photography/Photoshop workshops at yearbook conventions (yes, that’s a thing).

Post-graduation I didn’t play with photography again until the last month of my college career. I won a scholarship for graduating fiber arts students by writing about Gynx Yarns and how I hoped to grow it after receiving my degree. That scholarship gave me the money to buy my first DSLR, a Nikon D3000. At the time, the D3200 was already on the market, but I was looking to stretch my scholarship money to invest in a few business things. At the time I had been taking photos of my yarn with my phone, so it was a huge upgrade.

Over the past few years post-college, I’ve played with photography here and there. 95% of my photos are yarn product photos, but on occasion I’ve taken photos of my cats, vacations, etc. This past summer I upgraded my camera body to a Nikon D5300 that I am in love with, and acquired a few lenses along the way. I have been feeling the itch to play around with my camera more as I prep for the vacation of a lifetime next year. It’s the kind of trip that has to be documented, and documented well. I feel like my photography is pretty lacking at the moment, and I want to improve.

That’s where the 365 Project comes in. For those not familiar, the premise is simple: take a photo every day. You can follow various photo challenges online for prompts, or you can do your own thing. While I plan to take on the challenge for all of 2015, I’ve already started. What can I say? I’m inspired, and if I don’t act on it, I’ll lose momentum. And besides, this time of year is so fun to document. So for me, I guess it’s a 378 challenge. I might resort to using my iPhone from time to time, but the goal is really to pick up the DSLR and shoot.


That brings me to this neglected blog. For the past 2+ years, it’s essentially only been my podcast videos. I now plan to post each Sunday (or maybe every other Sunday if it gets overwhelming) and show a photo for each day. Today I have this past Wednesday through Saturday in photos. I hope you will enjoy watching my photos improve. My good friend Maria said that she might be joining me in the challenge in 2015, so check out her blog too if you haven't already.

TL;DR: I'm going to take a photo every day in 2015, but I've gone ahead and started a bit early. Check in weekly/biweekly for the photos I've taken.



JoseAugustus1
December 17, 2014. Nikon D5300. 50mm lens. f/1.8, shutter speed 1/50, ISO 2000

This was an experiment using this technique to get little heart-shaped lights in the background. I didn't do it quite right, so I'd like to play with this again.



Pizza 12-18-14
December 18, 2014. Nikon D5300. 50mm lens. f/1.8, shutter speed 1/160, ISO 2000

Pizza is everything.



12-19-14-5
December 19, 2014. Nikon D5300. 50mm lens. f/1.8, shutter speed 1/160, ISO 2000

Testing out some new fiber in front of the tree.



Meangustus
December 20, 2014. Nikon D5300. 50mm lens. f/1.8, shutter speed 1/320, ISO 500

This one cracks me up. Augustus is such a sweet kitty to me, but he and Othello don't like me taking tons of photos of them. I really need to get a lens that I can use farther away from them so they don't hate me so much. Here he ran away from me and hid behind... that big box thing in the backyard that makes lots of noise? What's that called? I don't know. Anyway, doesn't he look like an angry street cat? Yeah, he's totally a spoiled inside kitty.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Monday, December 8, 2014

Monday, December 1, 2014

Monday, November 24, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 107

Episode 107 - An Interview With Knittyandcolor

Monday, November 10, 2014

Monday, November 3, 2014

Monday, October 27, 2014

Monday, October 13, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 102

 Episode 102 - Pre-Rhinebeck Excitement


Monday, October 6, 2014

Monday, September 29, 2014

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Monday, September 15, 2014

Monday, September 8, 2014

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Monday, August 25, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 95

Episode 95 - This Is a Dyeing Show

 Quick note: I'm not sure why the video quality is so low this time, but since this was my third time recording this episode, I really can't be bothered to try to fix it. Sorry, I'll try to do better next time!


Wednesday, August 20, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 94

Episode 94 - An Interview With The Kangaroo Dyer/Gail Callahan


Monday, August 11, 2014

Sunday, August 3, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 92

Episode 92 - An Interview with Fibernymph Dyeworks


Monday, July 28, 2014

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Monday, July 14, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 89

 Episode 89 - An Interview With Nerd Girl Yarns

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

Friday, June 20, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 86

Episode 86 - An Interview With Voolenvine Yarns


Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Monday, June 9, 2014

Monday, June 2, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 83

Episode 83 - An Interview With Must Stash Yarn


Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Monday, May 19, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 81

Episode 81 - An Interview With Juno Fibre Arts


Monday, May 12, 2014

Monday, May 5, 2014

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 78

Episode 78 - Spinning Fiber Adventures


Monday, April 7, 2014

Monday, March 31, 2014

Monday, March 24, 2014

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Monday, March 10, 2014

Monday, March 3, 2014

Monday, February 24, 2014

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Monday, February 10, 2014

Monday, January 27, 2014

Sunday, January 19, 2014

The Dyer's Notebook - Episode 67

Episode 67 - An Interview With Gourmet Stash



Shownotes

Last Friday night I had the pleasure of interviewing my new friend Kate of Gourmet Stash! I hope you all enjoy the interview.

In announcements, I talk about the new Blip issues. Blip will no longer be feeding to iTunes, so you will need to start watching the podcast here on the blog or on YouTube. I am working on getting all past episodes on YouTube.

I also answer a viewer question at the end about dye lot sizes and working with dyed and undyed yarn at the same time.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014