Project52: Week Seventeen - Dancing

Project52: Week Seventeen - Dancing, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

This week involved more studio filming, but this time I forgot to use my still camera. However, this pose had stood out to me while filming, so again I took a frame from the video. Again the only post production was changing the aspect ratio. I really like this shot, the colours are so nice! One of my favourite people shots I've taken (well, kind of!)

Project52: Week Sixteen - Couple

Project52: Week Sixteen - Couple, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

Here is a photo from filming. Had some issues with the light (which were easily fixed in Lightroom) but I'm disappointed in how it is slightly out of focus, though luckily it's not too noticeable at smaller sizes. Otherwise I really like this photo.

Project52: Week Fifteen - Masks

Project52: Week Fifteen - Masks, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

As part of my short film for Studio, I have mask-wearing gypsies. So I made the masks and took some photos along the way to put in my process diary. Turns out they were the only photos I took that week, so I picked the least blurry for this week's photo. I think the camera had trouble focusing with all that glitter! They were good fun to make though.

Project52: Week Fourteen - Bush Filming

Project52: Week Fourteen - Bush Filming, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

Okay, so this week I cheated. It was the mid semester break, so of course this week of all weeks I didn't get a single photo. But, looking back, I realised that I recorded the background plates for my short film. So this is a still shot from it. It was the first time that I had tried taking a still frame from video. For those that are wondering - it was filmed in High Definition, I took the still in Premiere then opened it in Photoshop to convert it to the right aspect ratio (as it was recorded in 1.33, not square pixels). Much easier process than I thought, and picture quality is just as good as if I'd used a still camera in my opinion.

Project52: Week Thirteen - Easter

Project52: Week Thirteen - Easter, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

So it's been a while since I've updated. Uni is crazy (and will be crazy for a few more weeks, then it's all over, yay!) so I thought I'd quickly take some time out to post up the photos from the last couple of weeks. Admittedly most were not taken on purpose, and hence are not perfect, but I just don't have time at the moment. Therefore some are video stills from filming etc. I can't wait until semester is over and I can get back into spending some time with the camera.

I really wanted to do something Easter related. Not really what I had in mind, but I like the colours.

Project52: Week Twelve - Bush

Project52: Week Twelve - Bush, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

I'm wanting to film a project for uni at the reserve across from my house, so yesterday I went on a location scouting trip. I hadn't been over there very much recently, and even then when I've been I've only gone on the track to the reservoir and back. This time I went in a completely different area and loved it. I got surrounded by a ton of butterflies, but only having the 18-55mm lens meant I couldn't get a decent picture - and now have an urging to go visit the butterfly house at the zoo! I did however get this really nice picture of the bush. It was hard to get the exposure right because of the sun, and I also realised that I had rubbish in the bottom of the picture so I took a few, but in the end I just did an Auto Tone and cropped it in Lightroom and got this which I am really happy with. I thought about putting it into black and white, but decided to leave in colour - I think the different shades of brown and green are essential to the picture. There are lots of other photo opportunities in the reserve, I'll be making sure to go back another time during the year.

Incidentally, yesterday was Red Hill Show day, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I won Best in Show for the second year running! I also got another first, three seconds and a third! Really surprised myself after entering the exact same photos at Berwick and not winning a thing. Having said that, I would have chosen one of the other entries to win - I thought it was amazing and would love to take a similar photo. It's all someone's personal opinion though I guess. Now I just have to choose which ones to enter into Melbourne - I had 10 in Berwick/Red Hill, but their entry fees are $2 compared to $10, so I'll have to only choose 2 or 3 I think.

Project52: Week Eleven - Fire

Project52: Week Eleven - Fire, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

Another week where I didn't think I would get a photo, but opportunity came late Saturday night. It had been a crazy week, and, to top it off, it was my weekend on at work so I really had no time! However, it was the neighbour's birthday, and when I got there they had a fire going, plus they had a tree that was really nicely lit by the light on their shed. With all the people there I couldn't really take photos of the tree, so I took photos of the fire instead. Used my tripod of course, then in Lightroom increased the blacks to take out some odd bits and pieces, which also had the effect of making the colours a bit more extreme. It's the same thing I do on photos of fireworks and I think it worked really well. Perhaps not quite as impressive as a photo I've taken of embers at a bonfire, but still nice.

Project52: Week Ten - Stairs

Project52: Week Ten - Stairs, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

Okay, I (half) cheated this week. This is a another photo from the Botanic Gardens, only I decided to try and make it look like an oil painting using a Photoshop tutorial I found on the Internet. It was just too hard to take a photo this week. I had some unexpected events occur (some good, some terrible) and, having possibly gone through the entire range of emotions possible, meant that I couldn't find any creativity in me (not to mention getting behind on uni work). Having said that, it was quite fun experimenting with the oil painting effect and I learnt lots out it as it involved using filters I haven't used before.

Now things are more or less back on track and looking forward to really getting back into it this week.

Project52 - Week Nine: Pandora

Project52 - Week Nine: Pandora, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

No, not Avatar's Pandora (though I still wonder why they weren't all wearing bracelets). This was my Christmas present from my parents, and the subject of another 'Oh dear it's Saturday I need to take a photo' made worse with a 'Oh dear it's raining I'm not going out in that'. I've actually been wanting to take an up-close photo for a while. It was really hard to focus on, but I quite like it. It's just sitting on a notebook that was on my desk at the time, and I added an 'antique photo' effect. Quite cute I think.

So uni is now in full swing (well it is the second week) and I'm already struggling to fit it in. I WILL DO IT!

Project52 - Week Eight: Botanic Gardens

Project52 - Week Eight: Botanic Gardens, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

Well, I thought this week was going to be a piece of cake. We had planned a few weeks earlier to go see 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' (don't laugh) again (I said don't laugh!) at the Moonlight Cinema at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. I was wrong, of course. It was just one of those zero inspiration days, and even trying to take night skyline shots didn't work (though that may have been the logos of the companies I've been applying for depressing me). This was the best of the lot. I've taken something similar before that's doing the rounds of this year's Shows, but I think I possibly like this one better.

Incidentally, if you're ever planning on going to Moonlight Cinema, get there early - we got there at 7:30 (gates opened at 7) and it was already close to full - and the movie wasn't even starting until 8:30. Was still an awesome night, highly recommended.

Project52 - Week Seven: Experiment

Project52 - Week Seven: Experiment, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

I know, long time no post again. The last few weeks have been kind of crazy - as well as uni going back, I've been filling in applications for graduate positions. These involve lots of questions about teamwork and leadership and why accounting, which are all good fun. Hopefully they pay off - I'm through to the final round with one already which is a good thing.

This photo is a strange one. I was experimenting with my flash (and incidentally discovered it rotates as well as being able to adjust the angle - I've only had it for a few months!) and I overblew it. Big time. All you could see was a slight right edge and some of my hair. For a bit of fun I pressed auto tone in Lightroom and it somehow found my room's purple wall colour. And my hair colour. I played around with the other settings and ended up with this. I was kind of hoping to take a 'real' picture later in the week, but it didn't happen so this is it.

Project52 - Week Six: Cloudy Sunset

Project52 - Week Six: Cloudy Sunset, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

Last night, while out in the horse's paddock, I saw these amazing clouds while the sun was setting. It looked spectacular, but of course while I got my camera and came back it had disappeared. There was still this pattern of clouds left though. It looks quite unusual - there was storms elsewhere in the state, but they were doing a nice job of going around up unfortunately, so all we got were these orange-y/purple-y/blue-y clouds.

I forgot to bring my gradient filter with me, but in Lightroom I did an auto tone and increased the blacks to take out the detail in the bottom third of the picture.

It was hard to choose between this and another picture, I might post the other at a later date to see what people think.

Project52 - Week Five: Reading

Project52 - Week Five: Reading, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

Week 5's photo is one I started planning around week 2 or 3 I think! My problem was that I feel awkward taking photos of myself when people could potentially be watching. Finally a day came round when no one was home so I ducked outside and took it.

It's a good way of showing how I've essentially spent most of my free time since the start of the uni summer holidays - I've read the complete works of Jane Austen, Michael J. Fox's autobiography 'Always Looking Up', the complete Twilight saga, the complete Keys to the Kingdom series and I've just started on the book pictured - a collection of the works of the Bronte sisters (I'm trying to read some more classics, and I'm quite enjoying them). Reading has been easier than movie watching this summer - I've spent part of it with various renovations, meaning the house hasn't been as cool as normal, so it's been too hot to have my computer on my lap.

This photo was actually a test photo, but I liked it the best out of what I took, so I've cropped it to get rid of my hand holding the wireless remote. Not sure if it looks odd? I also had the issue that in front of the tree was quite dark and the paddock quite bright, so I used a Curves adjustment layer and masked out the paddock bit, then did a Levels adjustment over the top. Quite happy with how it came out.

Project52 - Week Four: Nelly

Project52 - Week Four: Nelly, originally uploaded by Jessica M. Cross.

Slight delay in posting for weeks 4 and 5 due to Internet issues! They were taken in the particular week, though I only finished editing week 5 today; the hot weather has meant I've avoided doing anything on my computer but the opening of graduate program applications and the need to get a head start on uni work has ended that. The week 4 photo was another last-minute-on-a-Saturday one, just didn't get around to it during the week. This is Nelly, our Miniature Pony foal (there's photos of her being born etc elsewhere in the feed). I decided she was this week's subject, but she's so friendly she walks right up to me, too close to get a decent photo! This was the best I got, it's a touch out of focus I think, but I like it and thinks it's cute. No editing to this one, just auto tone in Lightroom.

Focus on Frankston Photography Competition

First of all, I have taken the last two weeks photos, but I've had Internet issues and hence haven't uploaded. Hope to get to them during the week.

In the meantime, voting has opened for the Focus on Frankston Photography competition. I have three photos entered and any votes would be much appreciated! I can't give direct links as the website is kind of annoying but here's mine:

http://focuson.frankston.vic.gov.au/Competition/Pub/Gallery.asp?lngCompetitionCategoryId=5 - Frankston Fireworks (red fireworks in the bottom right-hand corner)

http://focuson.frankston.vic.gov.au/Competition/Pub/Gallery.asp?lngCompetitionCategoryId=1&PageId=6 - Frankston Foreshore (stormy pier shot in bottom row)

http://focuson.frankston.vic.gov.au/Competition/Pub/Gallery.asp?lngCompetitionCategoryId=4&PageId=3 - Ballam Park Tree (tree on top row second from right)

There are also some fantastic shots in the other categories that I didn't enter so I highly recommend having a look.

Project52 - Week Three: Books

Yet again, this week's photo isn't what I intended at the start of the week. Initially I thought I was going to do another portrait, but seeing as I did one last week and it was a bit too sunny for what I wanted, I decided to do some product photography instead. I was kind of lazy and decided to leave it until Saturday, when I realised the idea I had wasn't going to work, so I had to come up with something quickly - which was this. I've had this idea in my head for a while - I just love the different colours in the HP children's covers and I thought it would be fun to exemplify them against a white background. Admittedly, it's not particularly original, but I like it. I shot it using my DIY photo box, but since I'd used it last it had kind of disintegrated a bit, plus I couldn't use the lamp I normally use. Having said that, I still got what I thought was a nice photo and figured I'd fix the rest in Photoshop.

The first thing I did was fix the white balance and crop it in Lightroom. I then took it into PS and did lots of playing round with the curves. I wanted the colours to be bright, but the background white, so I crushed both the whites and blacks. The only issue with this was that because my hardcovers have covers on them, they reflected and faded out, so I used the quick selection tool to do separate curves adjustments for those. There's still a few funny spots, but overall I'm happy.

Hopefully this will be the last of the (more or less) random shots - I really want to choose a theme and plan things out more than I have been, so that's my aim for next week.

Project52 - Week Two: Sisters

I didn't have much time for photo taking this week - hot weather early in the week meant that most of my time was spent either in the pool or reading Twilight. I haven't put my compact into it's underwater case yet - I really should do that to be ready for the chance to take photos in the pool. The rest of the week was mostly split between preparing bits and pieces for my best friends' engagement party, working... and reading more Twilight. I therefore decided to focus my photo thoughts towards Saturday night's party - hence the late posting.

I was asked to help with the family photos, which I was glad to do - I'm still learning what to look for and how to position people and the like for these sort of shots - I find them hard because personally I prefer more relaxed, spur-of-the-moment sort of photos (for example, as I was doing a speech one of my friends had my camera and got what I consider to be one of the best photos from the night). However, one I did love was this one of Courtney and Rhianna. The two of them just have these gorgeous smiles on their faces and they look so natural in front of the camera, lucky things! To me the photo feels almost like it could be out of a magazine. It was originally a much wider shot which I cropped down to a square (something I don't normally do, but in this case it just suited). I had to adjust the white balance and tone in Lightroom (then the levels in Photoshop) - the light wasn't spectacular, but luckily was really easily fixed. I also added additional lens blur in Photoshop - the not-particularly-outstanding background was too in focus for my liking (it's times like this I wish I had a portable background - one day!). I'm still not sure if it's too overdone, and I'm sure there's something else I could do to make it really outstanding, but I'm not sure what just yet. I'm sure this is a shot I'll revisit in the future.

Project52 - Week One: Dahlia

Believe it or not, this blog is being resurrected - hopefully for longer than a week! After being inspired by people undertaking 365 day photo projects last year (such as Katie Elizabeth who I found on Flickr) I decided to undertake a (slightly) less arduous version - Project52, where I take one photo a week and post it online. My main reason for only once a week is that I intend each week to spend a few hours on the week's photo - for example, I may choose a theme and do a photo shoot based around it, or research a new technique (whether in camera or in Photoshop) and attempt to implement it (and I still have a uni degree to complete, full time work to find and my current part time job among other things this year). I also intend to try and go out at least once a month and have a shoot somewhere that isn't home - though I am very lucky in that I have many possible photo locations at home due to living on six acres. My plan at the end of the year is to then put them all into a photobook to have a record of my year through my camera's lenses. Each week I'll post a photo and describe what I did in the hope that we can all improve and learn.

It was nice to discover January 1st that two of my friends, Bianca and Kiera, are completing Project365. You can see Kiera's work at http://shootingproject365.wordpress.com/ or on Flickr and Bianca's work on Flickr. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with each day!

Currently my photos are only posted here; I only have a free account on Flickr and the other day I decided to upload my recent photos seeing I hadn't updated since early in the year. I promptly forgot to leave room for January's photos, so you'll have to come here until February to see them.

This week's photo has been a case of happy mistakes, I suppose you could say. My intention was to take a black and white portrait under a particular tree that I've been eyeing off, however, I fell off my horse Tuesday morning (don't worry, not really hurt, just a sore shoulder) but that put paid to my plans for Tuesday, which meant I had to move Tuesday's to Wednesday (when I was going to do the shoot) and due to work and other commitments the only time I had to shoot was a few hours this morning. I don't think it's a bad thing as the place I have in mind would actually suit a shoot with a couple I think. (Any couples wanting a photo shoot let me know!) I therefore changed to something simple, being a close up shoot, but while I normally like to shoot the roses in our front garden, I decided this time to photograph a flower that had caught my eye the other day (and I have hence been informed by my mother it is a dahlia).

The photo is taken using a 50mm prime lens and Hoya +4 close up filter at f/2.2 at 1/4000 (in Av mode) plus I used my tripod and wireless release. This wasn't the most in-focus of the photos I took (due to the aperture and the wind) but I really liked the framing and the bee. One of the main issues I had was that the plant was right in front of our pool fence - while the pool made a nice background, the wire mesh fence certainly didn't! It was hard to find an aperture that blurred the fence out while keeping the flower in focus. With most of the later shots I decided just to worry about the flower and fix the background in Photoshop, but in the end this one stood out the most!

When I opened the photos in Lightroom, it was pretty clear that the sun (which was coming reasonably straight on) had washed out the colours slightly. Using the auto tone in Lightroom improved it, but they still didn't 'pop' like I wanted, so I decided to be brave and try playing around with the curves in Photoshop (which I have little experience with). After trying a few of the presets and moving some things around I pressed the 'auto' button - and this was what came out! Complete opposite to what I wanted, but I loved how the middle of the flower had stayed bright yellow, and the background went the interesting mix of blues. I had intended to go out and shoot some more once my camera battery had recharged, but immediately changed my mind on seeing this. I also applied an Unsharp mask (following the suggestions in Scott Kelly's The Digital Photography Book Vol. 1) to try and improve the sharpness slightly.

So there you have it for week one! The rest of the posts will not be as long, I assure you.