drip drop

Originally uploaded by cignoh

today i tried to photograph water drops. i googled and read a little about doing it and loosely followed some of the techniques. i shot outside in bright sunlight holding a water bottle over the water and shooting in continuous mode. i didn't use a tripod. the water bottle didn't offer enough control, a dropper, as one of the articles suggests, would be a lot better. i don't know if i set my focus point carefully enough, so some of my drops were out of focus. i must have taken between 50-100 photos, of which only a few were useable/actually captured drops.

http://www.photosig.com/articles/1489/article
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/how-to-photography-water-drops/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickwheeleroz/2440342279/

i would try it again maybe using colored lights, a tripod, or other things etc. for a different and possibly more precise effect.

here are more of my results.

word to the wordle

One blog that I've been reading a lot of recently is LifeHacker Australia. Here, I find lots of tips and tricks about the latest technology and ways to make life just a little easier. The topics are widespread - one minute you are learning how to tweak Firefox, the next your creating a bedside pocket to hold your stuff. It's all good. Today LifeHacker directed me to Wordle, an interactive text parser and generator that creates an image based on your text. The fun part is tweaking its font, colour and layout. I tried it with two text samples. the first was my resume. The second was the text and vows from my wedding ceremony.I had heaps of fun with and wanted to pass it along for my fellow bloggers to try.

photography workshop, crafty things, and more

haven't posted in a while, this is what i've been up to:

photography workshop
grafitti/piggie
crafty

from top to bottom, left to right:

i started taking a photography workshop at lunch once a week. last week (first week) we explored f-stops, and this week, we're working on shutter speed.

• shutter speed: i captured the fountain image using a fast shutter speed---i'll try to put up an example of the same fountain using a slow shutter speed so that the water looks soft and filmy.
• f-stops: for dof, i shot a series of varying f-stops. then i photographed a mcdonald's happy meal kung fu panda toy with bokeh. i'm collecting all of them and want to do portraits of each. here are the ones i have so far (along with other pics related to kung fu pandas and/or just to pandas).

next are miscellaneous photos i took as part of my photo a day project.

• la river graffiti: the first is part of a group that i took along the la river during lunch one day. more can be found here. i had a 50 mm lens which wasn't ideal, it was hard to convey a sense of the space and capture enough of the scene, i might try to go back sometime and shoot with a wider lens.
• microwave piggie: the second is a microwave splatter screen that robinde gave me. i liked that the entire image is white.

finally, here are a couple of crafty projects.

• constantine tshirt recon: one is an older tshirt reconstruction that i did, and the photo is part of my effort to document the things i've made. i took the portrait outside using the reflectors that i bought recently.
• baby mobile: the second is a baby mobile that a few of us made for our friend. we constructed the animals on our own (i made a piggie that i blogged before), then a few of us got together and constructed the mobile from hangers and yarn---we didn't want it to look tacky (handmade, not homemade, as my friend put it)---and were pretty happy with the results.

rhubarb pie

I saw some gorgeous rhubarb at the market a couple of weeks ago and bought up the good looking ones. I only needed a pint or so of strawberries to have enough fruit for a pie. For this crust I used the Cook's Illustrated foolproof pie crust for the first time, which is pretty much your standard recipe except it replaces half of the water with chilled vodka. The idea is that water makes the dough gluteny, which you don't want, but more workable, which you do want. Vodka gives you the workability without the gluten, and the alcohol cooks off during baking, of course. It worked really well... rolled out like a dream and didn't stick or rip.

owls apron

I grew up in the same town as my Aunt Joyce. It was a very small town - Divernon, Illinois. My aunt had a very big house and it was full of owls. For as long as I remember, she collected them. When I was a teenager, I went to visit and their new carpet had arrived. It was teal. A very big house with very teal carpet and she loved it. When I saw the owls on a whim fabric from Robert Kaufman, I knew it was perfect for her! I've been sitting on it, trying to decide what to make. I realized that my favorite pattern so far was the Emmeline Apron from Montessori by Hand. I didn't have enough for a full apron of owls, so I mixed and matched with some cocoa fabric that I had. I decided to make a little "patch" on the bottom with a couple of owls. This was a new technique for me.

The apron is reversible. I made the reverse side in red because I really liked the contrast with the teal straps. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out and I have heaps of fun with this pattern. I highly recommend it! I've already made more straps and bias in preparation of making more!

Pretty in Pink

I never imagined that I would find one the largest and most thorough botanical gardens in the world as far north as Montreal, Quebec. I spent 6 hrs at the Montreal Botanical Garden and wasn't able to cover it all. I took A LOT photos, but decided to dedicate this post to pink flowers. Why pink?

Originally uploaded by sukogirl

halter top

I got a pattern a couple of weeks ago for a halter top from Amy Butler. I've been searching for very cheap fabric to practice with because it involves some skills that I hadn't tried before. This week, I found some $2/m silver and black cotton voile. It turned out ok but I've learned a huge secret of the sewing world! Hidden zippers aren't really hidden, so always make sure you match your fabric, although it's very possible that I installed it wrong. That seems more likely! Also I'd like to alter the pattern next time as its a bit too broad across the chest and high on my back. I'm 34 but still want dress like a skank. ha!

you spin me

These are prototypes for a gift that I would like to make for some friends of mine. They are DJ's and are due in roughly 9 weeks or so. I'm hoping to make them "my first records" for their little tike. I'd like to use batting instead of stuffing so I can get the grooves more even. I'd also like to find a better way to do the hole in the center. They are a bit lopsided, but I figure the baby won't mind. I'd love any suggestions for improving on the idea!