Week In Photos: December 21 - 27

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

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

Nikon D5300, 50mm f/1.8 lens, f/1.8, SS 1/100, ISO 100

Nikon D5300, 50mm f/1.8 lens, f/1.8, SS 1/60, ISO 3200

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

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

Nikon D5300, 50mm f/1.8 lens, f/1.8, SS 1/60, ISO 1600

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.

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.

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

Pizza is everything.

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.

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.

Yarnography: I Promise I'm not a Slacker.

It might seem like it by the frequency of my blog posts, but I'm really not being a slacker. I've just been crazy busy with dyeing yarn for the shop, dyeing yarn for wholesale orders, and picking out and ordering new yarn bases. These days I feel like I'm drowning in a never-ending pile of yarns that need to be reskeined. I reduce the pile to zero at the beginning of one day, and by the end of the day, there's another giant pile staring me in the face! It's a bit overwhelming sometimes, but it makes an excellent photo subject.

Not related to the yarn photos, but the Holla Back Tank is done! Well, almost. It's not off the blocking board yet, but as soon as this sucker's dry, I'll be taking some finished object pictures. I really cannot wait to wear this.

Yarnography: Self-Striping and Spinning Adventures.

It's time for another photography post! I've been pretty good about practicing this week, which is surprising because I've been working on my first wholesale order on top of yarn for the shop (more on that in a later post!). If you follow me on Twitter, you might have already seen these first two photos, but the last one is totally new.

This was a new colorway that I dyed up. It'll be in the shop on Tuesday.

This is another new colorway that I'm absolutely in love with. I posted this photo on Twitter yesterday afternoon and had someone already claim one of the skeins!

You might have seen on Twitter or Facebook yesterday that I got a warping board to play around with self striping and gradient/ombre colorways. Of course I had to try it out as soon as possible, and the yarn closest to the camera is my first effort. That blue, yellow, orange, and black are all part of one very long skein. The whole process was really fiddly, so I hope it was worth it. Once it's dry, I'll be casting on a pair of socks for myself to see how it turned out.

Behind the self-striping yarn is another new colorway, and then waaaay in the back by the ball winder is my first braid of fiber that I spun on a wheel! I finished it last night at my knitting group on my friend's Ladybug. I also have my first wee little skein that I spun on a different friend's wheel, but it didn't make it into the photo. I'll probably post about both of those tomorrow!

Yarnography: Product Photography Then and Now.

A rookie mistake a lot of people make when they start selling their products online is poor photography, and Gynx Yarns was no exception. I was looking through my old photo folders from when I first started selling my yarn, and I was amazed by how awful the photos were! It's no wonder I wasn't really selling anything.

It was interesting (and amusing) to see how much my product photography has improved, so I thought others might be interested (in laughing at me) as well. The old photos were taken on a point-and-shoot that was a few years old, and the new photos are all with my DSLR I got at the end of last year.

Old photos on the left, new on the right.

This is Bamboo Forest. The color is so far off in the first photo!

This is Fullmetal. This is reskeined differently than the original, so that's why the color proportions look different, but the original is so dark!

This last comparison is Sakura. Same problems as the first two.

My photos could still be improved, and I've been trying to dedicate a little bit of each day to photography and learning how to use my DSLR properly. I also invested in a tripod and use the timer so that the camera is completely still when the photo is taken. If you have any product photography tips, I'd love to hear them!

Yarnography 8.9.12

I've been reading up on photography a bit the past couple of weeks, and I think it's paying off. I still have so much to learn.

Yarnography: Notebook

My husband made fun of my notebook until I assured him that I translate all my notes to my computer in a legible (and dye splatter free) manner.

In other news, today is Augustus's second birthday!

This is Babygustus when we were bringing him home after adopting him.

And here's Adultgustus! Happy birthday Augustus!

Yarnography: Rubber Gloves.

A day in the life of: My gloves.

Writing out new dye recipes and such.

I bought these gloves when I was still in school, hence my name being on them. A lot of my tools have my name written all over them, and I never had any of them stolen. Success!

So dirty!

Yarnography: June 26, 2012

Dyeing up some yarn for the shop.

Yarnography: February 28, 2012

I take a lot of yarn photos, both of my own yarn for my Etsy or of yarn in my stash. I end up liking a lot of them too much not to share, but I don't really have any reason to show them other than they're pretty. So, welcome to my newest feature of the blog: "Yarnography", in which I show off pictures I like of yarn.

 

The yarn in these photos is Gynx Aran in the colorway "Totoro #2".

Inspiration Photos: Cancun

Until yesterday morning, I hadn't knit in probably about a month. Life just kept getting away, so yesterday morning when Jose was still asleep, I finally pulled out some knitting and attempted to knit.

My cats weren't having it at all. They normally don't bother me while I'm knitting, but I guess they were so attention-starved this past week that they couldn't help themselves. After a lot of struggling, I think I managed to get four rows of my Featherweight Cardigan done before Jose woke up.

I also haven't dyed in a little while because of all the life-changing events packed into December and January, but being in Cancun really gave me the itch to get back to the dye. The vivid, bright colors (ocean) next to the very clean neutrals (sand) were very refreshing, especially at this time of year.

Here are a select few photos I took on my trip that I found particularly color-inspiring:

Yarnography.

The sun finally came out of hiding yesterday, so I was able to use natural lighting for redoing my yarn photos! I've redone almost every yarn in the shop and I love how much nicer everything looks. There's so much more texture!

Here's a few of my favorite shots. My photos will probably always need improving and I'm going to continue working on them, but these are already such a big improvement that I had to show them off.

Click on any of the pictures to go to that yarn's page.

Not Craft Related: New Camera!

Note: If you are only interested in crafts and have no desire to see how adorable my cats and dogs are, you might want to skip this post and wait for my next one.

This week is my last official week as an undergrad, even though I've already turned everything in. I have a studio clean-up today and tomorrow, and then I walk across the stage Saturday!

I haven't photographed any of my final three projects yet, because I was waiting for something I ordered to come in the mail. I ordered myself (and my company) a Nikon D3000 so that I can take better pictures for both my Etsy shop and my blog! I am by no means a photographer, and I'm still trying to figure this thing out. I used Nikon D40s and 50s in high school (I think) so I'm familiar with a few things, but I am definitely a beginner.

Of course, the only things I've tried shooting are my cats and my family's dogs when I went to visit on Sunday.