Life: One Exposure at a time

SPRING

2010-04-14T10:38:00.002-04:00

I took this after class on Thursday around 9pm! I had to fly home and get my tripod......but it was worth it, because the sky looked sooo neat!

These flowers are about the size of a quarter...they are so tiny and fragile! I love trying to get pictures of them

The first tulip to bloom in our yard! How exciting

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

Light Painting

2010-04-01T10:19:00.002-04:00

I call this one A "light" lunch! I had to try this one about 6 times to get it just right....and I'm sure I could try it 60 more times!

The YMCA made with a 4-ft fluorescent bulb run behind Anna.

I loved the theory behind this idea....but I'm not sure I loved the actual outcome. I wish I had a smaller light, so it would actually look like dust was being scattered.

Imaginary friend. My brother calls is "Mom said if I imagine hard enough, I could have an invisible friend....and look it worked!"

I do believe this one is the funniest out of all the pictures. Its just classically hilarious!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

Silhouettes take 2

2010-03-24T10:57:00.004-04:00

Okay, so I did a re-do of my silhouettes....I just loved the umbrella idea so I ran with it. I'm still really torn as to what picture I should turn in. The annual ring photo has amazing colors in the sky and its quite an interesting photo, but the umbrella ones have so much more character to them.

Let me know what you think!

I would say this is one of my favorites....we were throwing the umbrella back and forth, and these photos got so ridiculous......our posture and body language was down right hilarious as we shielded our faces from the umbrella or other dumb things. Even if I don't turn in these photos, they were incredibly fun to take!

I also love this photo...we were balancing the umbrella on our hand, then attempting to pass it between us.

Um....yeah, this is me being ridiculous. Since its a silhouette, you have to emphasize anything you do and this was how I decided to stand! Too bad you can't see my legs...haha

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

Silhouette Shots

2010-03-21T22:40:00.003-04:00

I can't decide which photo to use for the assignment....I may end up taking more, but I kinda like these ideas.

This was a totally new idea....This is the Annual Ring at SVSU. It tells time by the sun shining through the top ring and casting light or shadows onto specific spots on the ground. The East-West holes align on the sides and capture the sunrise and sunset. I loved the way this one turned out.

So which one should I turn in? I really want to re-shoot the umbrella shots when its lighter out.....

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

K9 Class Photos

2010-03-14T22:51:00.004-04:00

Went to the Lansing area again over Spring Break to take photos for another K9 class! I love doing this because I get to see all the new dogs and I also make money, so its a win-win situation!

Left to Right K9s "Sharek" "Castor" "Zuk" "Dallas" "Quanto" "Hondo"

I had a lot of fun taking these pictures, even though its quite challenging to get the dogs to pay attention for more than 0.4 seconds. I also got to increase my Photoshop skills because I took the original pictures against a concrete wall with a press board border like 3 feet up the wall.....lets just say it wasn't pretty! I had to extract the officers from the picture I took then drag it over to the chosen background and make sure everything blended together and all the seems were correct! Its not 100% professional, but considering the skills I had to work with, I think its pretty kick ass!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

HDR attempts

2010-03-04T18:33:00.001-05:00

My first attempt at HDR photography

My second attempt at HDR phtography

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

Revision of myself

2010-02-27T21:30:00.003-05:00

I decided to take a more realistic approach to editing my photos. I also wanted the background to be more of a solid color rather than all crazy! I liked the coloring of the other set, as the green really pops...but I like this set more overall!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

This is me!

2010-02-26T12:00:00.002-05:00

I found photo studio that does these types of portraits and I really liked the idea. You can never take too many photos of yourself and I really had a lot of fun with this.

I wish I had a lighting set, as these would have turned out a million times better, but I'm pretty impressed with the overall effect I got! I will probably do this again soon with different colors, faces, etc!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

Snowy

2010-02-17T19:26:00.002-05:00

I took this photo as part of our composition assignment and I believe it fits rule of thirds, leading lines, repetition and possibly color. I'm not sure which one I will turn it in for, but I really like the picture for its simplicity!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

Comments

2010-02-12T15:22:00.002-05:00

It was brought to my attention that commenting was not being allowed for these posts! I think I have fixed the issue and commenting should be allowed now.

If you still can't comment, please let me know : 1exposureblog@gmail.com

Thanks!

~J.A. Sewell

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

Pictures from Depth of Field

2010-02-04T22:42:00.002-05:00

This was the final picture I turned in for the assignment and I was quite please with how it turned out.

One of the first photos I took and I didn't like how close together they seemed and so small.

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

Moon photos and a few others

2010-01-31T00:37:00.004-05:00

I decided to brave the frigid temperatures out tonight to get a few photos of the moon! The clouds around the moon made for a really cool halo.

This was a 20 second exposure at f/22. I tried many times to get the branches in the picture, but they only showed up in longer exposures so I had to deal with the fact that the moon moved a little in those long exposures.

I took this in the Delta parking lot before class. The sky looked so cool with the blues and purples. I just wish I could have captured the details in the moon as well as the colors of the sky.

This is a long exposure of the trees in my yard. The sky was quite orange colored and looked really cool with the light from the full moon!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

Capturing Light take 1

2010-01-13T17:59:00.003-05:00

Started a photography class and our first assignment is to capture light. I went out and took a few photos today of icicles and the snow.

I used a 70's filter on this picture and I think it makes it look neat.
~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

More photos from various places!

2009-10-25T11:52:00.005-04:00

Went to a bonfire....I really like how this turned out!

Took some photos in St.Charles, I have others, but this is the only one I have done yet. I really like how the water motion turned out.

There was a big storm that passed over and the clouds were moving incredibly fast, so I took a 30 second exposure and this is what I got....I am very excited about how it turned out.

I couldn't decide between these photos, So I posted both!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

50/365

2009-10-04T23:59:00.003-04:00

Whoah....I totally like skipped a lot of days in my project, but technically I haven't because I take a picture almost everyday with my blackberry...but I'm not about to actually post those here as actual pictures.

I have admired these grapes forever...and I finally stopped and took some pictures of them. I wish I could have captured their smell...OMG...they smelled heavenly. The most concentrated grape smell I've ever smelled. I think I may go back and get some more pictures soon!

Took a little drive to find some inspiration and decided I liked these clouds and stopped on the side of the road to take a picture. I was informed by some guy who pulled up that "I had to have permission to photograph THAT field!" I was like "okay..." and I just walked away..I don't see how he has the right to tell me that I can't photograph that corn, as I was standing on the road! Oh well...

Field of Soybeans in the foreground and Corn in the background with cool clouds!

A very cool old tree with cool clouds makes a cool photo! I also love the yellow/green of the field. Its very neat.

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

30/365

2009-10-04T23:57:00.003-04:00

I actually took some pictures randomly and I figured I should post them since I'm supposed to be taking a picture everyday....I'm failing miserably...but this project isn't supposed to be about taking a picture everyday, but instead becoming a better photographer. I will most definitely be able to accomplish that goal, as I get better everyday!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

23/365 Chicago Day 3

2009-09-16T00:26:00.003-04:00

We passed by this place many times a day...what a view!

Skyline of Chicago from a moving boat. It was one of the best shots I got from the boat!

Navy Pier Ferris Wheel, Carousel, and Swing Ride at night!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

22/365 Chicago Day 2

2009-09-16T00:17:00.005-04:00

Here are the Jellyfish at the Aquarium in Chicago!

I am so incredibly behind on this! I am starting to realize that with classes and work, its becoming more and more impossible to take good pictures everyday. I'm not about to settle for a stupid picture...so I would rather not take one. I also went to Chicago for 4 days and I took like thousands of pictures and I'm kind of pictured out!

Anyways, here is day 2 of Chicago. I will probably post the 4 days of chicago....then I think there is going to be a week or so before I really start going on this again..Im not going to have this as a top priority, but I will try to get some photography in on my free time :)

Moon Jelly at the Shedd Aquarium.

The famous Chicago Theater sign!

Downtown buildings at an angle!

View from our hotel. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel on Michigan Ave...we were on the 15th floor..which rocked!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

21/365 Chicago Day 1

2009-09-06T20:38:00.004-04:00

So I missed a few days and I don't even feel bad about it :)

I am in Chicago for 4 days over labor day weekend with a friend and I'm taking pictures like a crazy person!

We've probably walked like 10 miles in the last few days because we walked everywhere the first 2 days, then we got smart and got a bus pass so we don't have to walk the 8 miles to the Museum of Science and Industry or Legoland(if we make it).

Day 1 we had a slight change of plans and had to ride a charter bus to Chicago because of a train derailment and our train couldn't pass, so they canceled it. We arrived in Chicago around noon on Saturday. We then WALKED like almost 2 miles to our hotel WITH OUR LUGGAGE...that was probably one of the worst ideas Ive ever had in my entire life.

We then went to the Hancock Observatory after checking into our hotel room. We walked to the observatory, which was over a mile or so and we enjoyed the views and took tons of pictures. The ride up to the top was only 40 seconds long and we were moving at 20mph in that elevator. The skyline was stunning, was it was quite cloudy and I was slightly bummed by that.

We then traveled down to Navy pier along N. Shore Drive. We rode the ferris wheel, which was fun and we ate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, which rocked. The food was very good and the decorations were awesome.

When we were walking to the Navy pier, under Lake Shore Drive, I saw this guy playing guitar and harmonica and I loved how the light behind him created a silhouette.

View from the top of the observatory.

The Copper Cowboy...only in places like Chicago can you see things like this! He was totally copper and had a whistle thing in his mouth, so thats all you could hear. It took a while to get his picture, cause he kept blocking his face...so I got out my zoom lens and he didn't notice :)

This statue was sooooo cool. I just loved everything about it.

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

18/365

2009-09-01T23:05:00.003-04:00

With classes starting, I thought this photo was quite fitting. Sometimes we all just need a reminder to take a second and breathe.

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

17/365

2009-09-01T22:23:00.002-04:00

Since I've already taken some sunflower photos, I thought I would just edit this photo a little differently. Sometimes you need to have some fun with the photos instead of trying to make them look realistic.

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

16/365

2009-09-01T22:19:00.003-04:00

Didn't end up taking a photo until way late and decided to just shoot a quick pic of the moon.

Its extremely hard for me to keep these dates straight for some reason. I guess when I get busy and I don't post for a few days, its hard to know which day was what # in my 365. I am hoping that I can soon figure this out and stop missing days for no reason...I know I've taken picture each day, but for some reason some of them are lost :(

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

14/365

2009-08-31T11:18:00.003-04:00

This is probably one of my most favorites. I'm not really sure why either. I just love the whole picture in general.

Picutures of the dune fencing on the beach...I took so many pictures on that beach, and I loved how they turned out.

This clam was very cool and it took me a few shots to get a good one, but I'm quite happy with how this turned out. Especially since right when I was taking this, the waves came in and made the sand all shiny...I was excited.

I loved the look of the driftwood and the small pool of water after the sand. It was quite pretty.

We stopped at a pier and I took quite a few photos. I love the look of the pier out over the water and it makes me miss the ocean.

There will be lots of more pictures added as I get them edited, but these are just a few of the pictures I took during the day.
www.flickr.com/ambientreflections
~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

13/365

2009-08-31T11:17:00.002-04:00

I will have the pictures from this day up very soon, but I don't have htem edited yet!

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

12/365 (Steamy)

2009-08-28T14:55:00.004-04:00

So I totally forgot about taking a picture until it got dark out, so I thought I should take a picture that can only be taken in the dark.

I drew a heart on the door of the shower and then I turned all the lights off and shone a camera on the heart then I took a picture. I didn't use my tripod, but I used my monopod and it worked pretty well.

~J.A

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~Dorothea Lange

11/365 (Skulls)

2009-08-27T23:57:00.003-04:00

I went out picking blackberries today and I found an animal skeleton just chilling in this really soft green grass type stuff. I was pretty amazed at how perfect the bones were and I just had to take some pictures...I only got one good picture, but I kinda like it.

10/365 (childrens toys)

2009-08-25T22:51:00.001-04:00

I only took this picture today with my phone.....I had a busy day, so I didn't get to it.....this will have to do. So, what do you think about the pose of the horses? Didn't they see anything slightly off before they sold these? Maybe that's why they were in the clearance isle.
Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

9/365 (Sunflowers)

2009-08-24T21:19:00.002-04:00

Took pictures of the sunflowers that are growing in my front yard. Ive been wanting to do so, but I just never got around to it.

I really like this shot, but I'm not sure I like how unfocused it is. I just really like the leaves and how they are all curled up and such.

This is probably my most favorite shot of the week. I love how blue the sky is and how contrasting the yellow of the petals are against the sky. This picture just makes me happy when I look at it!

8/365

2009-08-23T23:33:00.004-04:00

I didn't do much today, but when I woke up I found my cat sitting on top of the bookshelf in a small basket. I thought it was soooo cute!

I even captured a rare picture of Olive and Izzie together! They both sat there for quite a while letting me take pictures.

7/365

2009-08-23T23:27:00.003-04:00

Ive really gotten behind on this.....so I think I have 2 days to catch up on :)

We went to the lake today and although it wasn't that nice of a day...I did get some good pics.

The day was quite cloudy and it rained on and off....but the water was still pretty!

I absolutely love taking pictures of my shoes for some odd reason.....but I like how the pictures turn out...

There were tons of hummingbirds, and I spend a ton of time just sitting and trying to be still. I got a few really good shots, but I wish I could have gotten closer :)

5/365 (Sunset)

2009-08-20T23:38:00.003-04:00

Took some pictures after the sun went down!

4/365 (County Fair)

2009-08-20T10:21:00.002-04:00

I'm a little late in posting these photos, but I got home late last night and decided to go to bed instead of doing this!

Went to the fair last night and took a ton of cool photos. I only wish I could stay there for an entire day just taking millions of photos...I doubt I could get bored with it!

So first we went to the rodeo and I must say I'm getting pretty into this now that I've gone to 2 different rodeo events.

I took a bunch of pictures of people sporting their cowboy hats, but the pictures I took of this guy were some of my favorites.

I also took way too many photos of the ferris wheel. It was really tricky to get the lights just right, but with some practice...I got a few good shots.

There were lots of other cool rides and I tried to take pictures of all the neat ones that were all lit up.

If you care to see the entire set of shots that I took, you can visit my flickr page!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambientreflections/sets/72157621968509987/

3/365 (Rain & Cats)

2009-08-18T22:48:00.003-04:00

I got lucky this morning when my car was covered in rain drops...I took a picture before I left for work of the rain drops on my windshield. I was all excited that I had my picture for the day and it was still early.

When I came home from work, the two cats were snuggled up together which is the first time they've done so. I was so excited that they finally like each other enough to sleep together. They were very sleepy and their eyes show this!

2/365 (A trip to the Veterinary)

2009-08-17T23:26:00.004-04:00

I didn't get all creative and fancy today with pictures. Instead I took a few pictures of my little cat while she was riding in the car on the way to the vet. She was so not thrilled with riding in the car and she voiced her opinion about this. She settled down after a while and actually fell asleep.

This is her voicing her opinion as to how pissed she is about riding in the car!

After a while of letting me know she was upset, she finally fell asleep! I would like to think its because I was singing to her and my voice is so great...but I KNOW thats not the reason. She was most likely tired from screaming!

I'm just glad I didn't have to take the big cat, because she goes crazy and howls and pees....its just ridiculous!

1/365 (This is just the beginning)

2009-08-16T19:40:00.003-04:00

I have wanted to start this 365 photography project for a while, but I could never commit myself to it. I just always think about the days I don't take my camera out of its bag...and during the winter when I'm uninspired. I am really going to try my best to keep up with this and make it for the whole year!!

I found a honey bee out on the cone flowers and I took a ton of pictures including some macro shots. I was quite surprised that I was able to get as close as I did.

This isn't a honey bee, and I'm not even sure what it is...but I really like the look of this shot and how sleek the insect looks.

Bay City

2009-08-01T23:06:00.003-04:00

So today I went to Bay City to work on a photo collage for a gift. I took a friend with me and we took probably 800 photos between the two of us, but I'll spare you all those photos and show you some good ones.

First we drove to Bay City and went to the riverwalk. We walked all along the pier taking pictures of anything and everything.

We enjoyed watching the boaters speed by and sort of wishing that we had a boat just to take on a joy ride. This old guy made me laugh because of the way he sat at the top of the seat rather than in the seat. Looks like he was having fun none the less.

I hung my toes over the edge and took a picture of them because I just painted them last night and I thought I did a pretty good job. They were looking pretty snazzy!

Saw like a million ducks in the water and I have so many photos of all of them. I really got a kick out the ducks when they would dive down in the water leaving their butts up in the air. It made me laugh...and take lots of pictures!

We saw a guy napping under a big willow tree. The branches kept hitting him in the face when the wind blew and I kept wondering how someone just falls asleep in the public park when willow leaves are smacking you in the face.

I went down to a sandy little strip by the water and drew a heart in the sand and took some pictures of said heart. If you look closely, you can see there are some teeny tiny little bird prints in the center of the heart. I think they're kind of cute.

We found a crane and took about 100 pictures of him before he came really close to us and we got some good pictures. He was so graceful and patient while fishing.

We saw lots of little baby ducks with their moms and these two sleeping on the log were the cutest things ever.

After going to the river walk, we ventured downtown and stopped at this abandoned factory on the way. We took some pictures outside of the the building and then we decided that we were going to ignore the "Do not Enter" sign and break into the fenced in area to take pictures inside.

We found this really cool building inside the fence line, but after taking this photo we noticed a cop that kept driving by the building and we suddenly became scared we might just get caught in there. We quickly hurried back to where we crawled through the fence and left. But I did get this pretty cool photo while we were there.

After trespassing at a factory lot, we proceeded to go downtown to take some more pictures for our project (which I'm not posting here as of now because if the recipient sees it, that will give it away...once its been gifted, I shall post the pictures)

THIS IS THE LUNCH BREAK. We went to Cottage Inn pizza and ate the pizza buffet with all you can eat pizza, salad, drink and ice cream for $5.29. I was blown away at the deal. ...it was pretty good pizza and I'm a big sucker for ice cream.

After lunch we drove around because it was raining and we didn't really feel like getting wet.
We found a pretty cool building and took some cool pictures here while it stopped raining for a few minutes....

While at the building above, I saw this sticker in the window that was pretty funny.

Our last stop in Bay City was at the Oval Sculpture and fountain. I'm sure it has a real name, but since I'm unaware of it, I called it "the oval sculpture!" While we were here, we had to go to the bathroom because we drank too much fountain pop. So we located the womens restrooms and proceeded to go in only to discover that there were NO lights in the joint....or none that we could find. We ended up using the men's restroom because....well...when you gotta go, you definitely dont want to go in the dark in a public restroom. Were just glad that there were no men who needed to use the restroom while we were in there.

After going to Bay City, we ventured to downtown Saginaw to try and get even more pictures. I found this building, which I have taken pictures of before.......there was never so much ivy and I was quite thrilled by the ivy.

Drove by this pretty sweet mural that was downtown. I think its really cool and there could definitely be more of this type of art downtown. I'm pretty sure this is a graffiti project aimed at bring more art and graffiti that actually adds to the character of downtown rather than just trash old buildings.

Our last stop of the day was at an old railroad that was pretty awesome. We didn't stay long as it started to rain, but I took this pretty sweet picture of the lights off to the side of the tracks. I was pretty excited when I seen that the light was actually working.

That pretty much sums up my photography journey of the day.
I hope you've enjoyed my pictures and the little blurbs of information I scribbled down about each one

~J

A day at the farm

2009-05-09T18:59:00.007-04:00

Today I went and hung out with family and took my camera because my Grandparents have a large farm. I love taking pictures of all the trees, flower, old buildings and such.

I get my camera out and walk outside to find my first inspiration....I locate a pear tree full of blossoms. I turn my camera on..........focus on the blossom I like, go to press the button and.........NO MEMORY CARD! FUCK! Now what do I do? I'm an hour + away from home and I don't have my memory card. I run back in the house searching my camera bag hoping that somehow I tossed in an extra card. Not so much...I'm out of luck. I get out my point and shoot and decide that its better than nothing, but still sucks. Then I remember that my Grandparents are up on technology and have digital cameras....I quickly ask my Grandma what kind of memory card her camera holds and she checks....I am SOOOOOOOOO glad when she pulled it out and it was an SD card, just what I needed. I borrowed her memory card and set off on my photography journey!

Here are some of my favorite shots I took:

Those are just a few of the ones I really liked.......and I don't have them all edited yet. The rest of the photos are in my flickr photo stream if you are interested in taking a look. Just click on "Photos" at the top of my page and take a gander.

Thats my story and I'm sticking to it
~Jessica

New Motivational Posters

2009-05-08T16:02:00.007-04:00

Someone sent me an email today with these motivational posters and it really made me laugh, so I thought I would share them. I was kinda in a "blah" mood and this really made things better, so even if they don't make your day better....they will at least give you a few minutes of genuine laughter!