leggy

On Saturday I took a friend to the far western tip of the island to watch the sunset. I couldn't take enough photos of the landscape as the sun basked the mountains and tidepools in golden hues. Here I am trying to best capture the ripples of the water illuminated by the sun. As the minutes progressed, I enjoyed watching my shadow become longer and longer until finally, ten minutes before sunset, I found myself walking on thirty-foot legs.

Shooting Mode: Shutter Priority

Shutter Speed: 1/1250

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 18mm

Flash: Off

Metering: Center Weighted Average

ISO Speed: 100

craving the sun

Taken inside my house. There is a chance this is called the Elephant plant - but whatever it is called I have two of them. They're huge! Not just their leaves, but the stalks grow to be feet upon feet tall.

Recently I have missed having sunlight in my photographs. This picture was taken today. The sun blazed through the window lighting up these leaves. This shot gave me a chance to eat the sun.

manual mode

shutter speed: 1/15

aperature value: f/4.5

light meetering: center weighted avg.

iso: 80

focal lenght: 6.1 mm

white balance: tungsten

af range mode: macro

Adventures in the kitchen

Yep. It's gross and it's mine. I would have spared you the sight of it, but it was one of the few pics from this week that I didn't use a pre-programed function for. On the off chance that this didn't turn your stomach, below you'll find the camera settings for this "found art."

Manual mode
Shutter speed: 1/3

Aperture value: f/4.0

Light metering: center weighted avg.

ISO: 80

focal lenght: 21.5

flash: off

white balance: tungsten

Fun with Office Supplies

Rather than being a dutiful employee, I spent part of my afternoon digging through thirty years worth of office supplies. This is a picture of an office supplies box brought into focus by looking through a long tube of holiday wrapping paper. The long shutter speed enabled me to blur the wrapping paper tube, and the manual mode enabled me to play around with the aperture until the box, three feet away, was in focus.

Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority

Shutter: 1.6 seconds

Aperture: f/5.0

Focal Length: 32 mm

Flash: Off

Metering: Pattern

ISO Speed: 100

Light Source Option: Tungsten

Adventures in photo-tweaking

I might have walked 20 steps out my front door for this shot - not exactly the effort my co-contributor put forth for her shot. I have been looking at this arch since the first heavy snowfall months ago. This is the lilac tree at the edge of my yard. Bent under the weight of the snow, this archway attracts my imagination - it is somehow the grace of finding oneself (in this case, the tree) in an uncomfortable position that ends up creating beauty. 'Course, the tree may have a different opinion. I'll ask it when it wakes up.

camera settings:

shutter speed: 1/60

apertrue value: f 3.2

iso speed: 80

focal length: 6.1 mm

light meetering: evaluative

exposure compensation: +1

and then, using a program called Microsoft Office Picture Manager, I set the color saturation at minus 100, contrast at +20, midtone adjustment at -20. My style of creating a black-n-white photo with some punch.

Adventures in Aperture Mode

This is one of my favorite spots to study on a clear day. It's a steep 20-minute hike from the Pali overlook - to the left is Honolulu and to the right the cliffs drop down 1,800 feet to the the Windward Coast and Kaneohe Bay. The Koolau Mountains catch the tradewinds from the northeast, forming a persistent layer of clouds over Lanihuli in the distance.

Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority

Shutter: 1/200

Aperture: f/9.0

Focal Length: 18mm

Flash: On

Metering: Pattern

ISO Speed: 100

Brave words

This week has been stormy and rainy - it's the wet season in Hawaii. I've spent a lot of time indoors reading. A dear friend leant me the works of Sabrina Ward Harrison - a young woman who specializes in mixed media journaling and photography. She wrote this when she was 22. I wish that I had read her works as a teenager - she has so much to say about empowerment and the journey into womanhood. This is a page from her book Brave on the Rocks that spoke to my heart.

getting started

shooting mode: iso3200

shutter speed: 1/15

aperture value: 3.5

light metering: evaluative

exposure compensation: 0

iso speed: 3200

focal length: 13.8mm