Spring through Glass and Plastic

I went to Neillsville High School on Tuesday to talk with a photo class about being a photojournalist. It was pretty fun and I found a whole host of new websites while researching. On my way back I stopped along the street and the Black River to take some spring photos. The light was lush and I am not usually up and out with a camera that early to capture it. I took my Canon 40D and my Holga (now loaded with 120mm film). I never know which one to use, so I used them both!

I drove down by the Black River and took some photos on some island/backwaters where people fish a lot. It is nice that it wasn't buggy yet.

Glass

Plastic

Blossoms on the main street of Neillsville. I am not sure what street, but as you drive in the whole road is lined with flowering trees - it looks so pretty!

Glass

Plastic

Plastic

New leaves near the Black River

Glass

Plastic

This is a different day along a road near Withee. It was a gravel road and I kept the "Bulb" function open and slowly moved. I loved how the light just caught the white birch trees.

More and more blossoms on the main street of Neillsville. I hope folks weren't thinking I was 

weird.... probably :)

Glass

Plastic

Conclusion: Spring is pretty and fun to shoot no matter what camera or lens I use. I don't think you can take a bad picture when there are flowers and the light is out. I do think I have been shooting a bit too many spring shots, I should break out of the "pretty flower rut".... Or, I will wait until next week when the blossoms turn brown and keep shooting pretty pictures till then.

Here are some flickr groups with more spring shots:

The Colours of: Spring

Spring and Summer Around the World

Four Seasons

Oh! Here is an interesting NYT article that is unrelated to photography: All the Obama 20-Somethings

NPR's The Picture Show on Flickr

Exciting! My photo was featured (in a little tiny corner box)  on The Picture Show on NPR's website! I added a photo to the Flickr group (which I just joined yesterday) and they put it on their blog! Well, they put six photos from the Flickr group on their blog in the corner including mine. I don't care, I'm still excited!

The Picture Show - What Is 'The Picture Show'?
Come here for a daily dose of photos from around the world, as well as commentary and questions from NPR's multimedia team.

There are a ton of great photos and multimedia on the site, so check it out. I could really spend a lot of time there.... 

Here is my photo that is featured. It is yesterday's photo for my 365 project of the blooms outside work in the afternoon.

Engagment Photos

Last Friday I photographed my first engagement photo session at Wildwood Park in Marshfield. I am photographing Tim and Jill's July wedding in Duluth, it should be beautiful! The session went great and they were really fun to photograph. I'm looking forward to their wedding!

I have always been drawn to this hill at the park, but never been able to get photos on it. Lucky me, I got to pose people on the hill and finally got some photos that I really love! Hence there are so many on the blog of Jill and Tim on the hill.

I experimented using actions and vignetting with a lot of these photos, which was kind of fun! The light, sky and green grass were working in my favor!

Holga Loaded with 35mm FIlm: Take Three

I finally had time to scan my 35mm film from my Holga. I shot most of it at Little Bull Falls on the  Yellow River last week. I am still not sure how the effects "happen" on the sprockets.  Here are the results!

 I shot this on a gravel road with the "bulb" function. I love the colors on the bottom and the exposed sprockets on the top. I am not sure why they are exposed. I do think though, that I would like this photo better if It were just a Holga shot and not on film.

 This photo is the same situation. I may have double exposed this, but I don't remember. I am wondering why the sprockets are double and not fully exposed. That must be because it is a double exposure... right? I really have no idea. I should keep notes.

Green grass growing by the Yellow River.

A log by the Yellow River. It was so huge about a month ago and now is pretty much running low to normal.

I really like the faintness of the first layer of trees and the exposure at the top. I wish the bottom were better though and the overall negative was darker.

Field

A double exposure of branches. I think I stopped along Highway H to take this for my 365.

Trees along the road while I was looking for a fire. Mapquest was SO wrong. I liked how the light hit these trees and illuminated the bright new green leaves. Now why is the exposure not around the sprockets on this one? It isn't double exposed.... mystery.

I spoke to a high school class today about being a photojournalist. I searched for a bunch of links to give them for inspiration and ideas, so here are some links to sites I found.

Photo District News

Foto8

David Burnett

Andrew Moore

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! Do something nice for your home! I think sometimes people don't think as the earth as their home, they think about their house as their home. If people spent as much time taking care of the earth (or even considering their actions and how those affected the earth) as they spend on  taking care of their house... wow.... that could make a big difference.

You can calculate your carbon footprint HERE or HERE

I checked my carbon footprint on the first website and it was 20.17 tons of carbon dioxide per year. The national average is 20.42. Mine is so high because, unfortunately, I drive so much for work. I would love to ride my bike, but riding my bike with my gear to Withee may take awhile. (It would also help if I read photo assignments correctly and didn't drive to Granton for something that was not happening today, but on Saturday. I shook my head at myself) I also have a tendency to fall a lot, so the camera bag would throw me a bit off balance and some expensive equipment could be damaged. Excuses, excuses, I know. 

Some earthy photos from yesterday on the way to (drive, sad) Wisconsin Rapids.

Speaking of driving... The sun was hitting the newly green field just right and I couldn't resist.

I stopped by the Yellow River and took some photos. The light was hitting the grass and it looked so lush and green. I love the first green grass of the spring.

The Yellow River at Little Bull Falls. I used a slow shutter speed, about a 30/100 and had the f-stop closed to f22. I also put the ISO at 100. It was really sunny, so I had to do this to be able to use the slow shutter speed and not blow-out the highlights.

I had to wait for my assignment to start so I stood outside the school and photographed "pretty-ness". 

Now I am concerned... I should really try to park my car at work and then ride my bike here and leave everything overnight. That would cut down on some mileage and my carbon footprint....hmmmm.

Happy Earth Day!

Blue Mosaic

I am feeling a bit boring today. Boring and a little bored. Hence the blue mosaic. BUT I am also choosing blue today because during my run I saw an "elusive" bluebird! It is a big deal for me. I think it was the same one that I saw three times, or it could have been three different bluebirds....

1. Flight, 2. Buds, 3. Lake Superior, 4. Early Morning Drive, 5. Sail boats, 6. Grass, 7. Martini, 8. Ferris Wheel, 9. winter


I believe I may need a project to work on... I have been working on updating my website (well my sister has been updating my website, I just tell her what to do...thanks*) so I will post some links when that is done.

Trip to Iowa

I'm back at work after a weekend jaunt to Iowa.

After flying over the hills of southwestern Wisconsin, we crossed the Mississippi. I get kind of obsessed with photographing the patterns that the water makes as it cuts through the land.

 Mississippi River, Iowa/Wisconsin border

 And flew into Iowa, my home state. I used to think it was boring, but now I love to count the grids and the miles of roads.

It was spring in Iowa! They are about a week ahead of central Wisconsin.

There was much relaxing and talking with my friend, it is nice to have relaxing girl weekend with no agenda. It did me much good to see her and it makes me happy to see their new family and home!

Of course we took photos of new baby, Gabe. It is hard to pose a baby! I am not quite sure how to... and they are squirmy and sleep a lot. I did get some cute ones though, it would have been hard not to!

Their sweet dog, Tanner

We made yummy guacamole!

Unfortunately, all good weekends come to an end. I am glad that I got to fly there and not drive, which would have taken almost 5 hours. It is more exciting to fly and fun to take aerial photos. This is Cedar Rapids, IA, where we flew in. I had an internship there a few years ago and I think this was my first time "back."

We landed back in Wisconsin, safe and sound. I am already looking forward to next weekend though... it will be nice to be home for a weekend and spend some time, hopefully, mountain biking!

Softball Light

I photographed my first softball game of the year yesterday. I like shooting softball because the action is quick and condensed in a small area. I was leaving after getting some action shots just when the light was getting nice. I took this photo for my 365 project. It is also my 100th photo - only 265 left!

 

 

I'm usually a fan of shooting softball and baseball when the light is right. It tends to be nice right around six, this time of the year. Each field is different, but it makes shooting more fun when you can play around with the light. Here are some other softball and baseball photos where there is something going on and nice light. I should make that a goal this year... get some high action and nice light. I hope I will be shooting a lot of baseball!

This weekend I am heading to Iowa to visit friends. I loaded my holga with some more 35mm film and there is 10 hours of driving, so hopefully I will see some interesting sights.

Tulips

In Kansas City the tulips were out!

Tulips in my sister's yard

Here they are almost out.

Spring is springing!

Actions on Wedding Photos

UPDATE: Shutter Sisters blogged about actions today too! AND the best thing about their blog about actions is that if  you comment on it, you get a chance to win a set of presets from Totally Rad Actions! Click HERE to enter.

 Since my last post was about actions, I thought I would share some wedding photos that I have used actions on. I only used actions on a few photos from last year, but I did a couple extra from previous weddings that I thought would look good with some actions.  I use Aly's Vintage actions. You can download them on HERE. I don't have all the before pics right now, but here are some examples.

I used Aly's color boost action on this photo

Aly's Vintage: Simple Vintage

This photo I just used a vignetting action. I think I shot the photo a bit askew, but there was enough room to work with, so I went and tilted it more.

Before

After

Aly's Vintage: Memory Lane Hi Res (but not converted to B/W) and then Simple Vintage

Aly's Vintage: Memory Lane Hi Res

Aly's Vintage: Memory Lane Hi Res

Some more Photoshop actions can be found HERE.

You can see more of my wedding photos at my website, http://www.lauraschmittphoto.com/weddings1.html