Took the Low Light Challenge…..

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artist life, being creative, black and white photography, dog portrait, low light photography, photography

This past week I have been watching Steven Simon on Lynda.com. Loved watching sessions of him photographing New York City at night. My last post was on photos taken in low light….but I wasn’t pushing my camera far enough to get the images I wanted to capture.

So did a simple experiment with my daughter and our dogs….inside with low light….and this is what we got.

Bruno yawning…..

Bruno loves a good yawn!

To capture this motion in low light the first thing I did was to move the camera’s focus off the shutter release button and onto the AF button on the back of my camera. (As always I googled it.) This allows my camera to fire continuous rapid shots. Hence a frame by frame recording of Bruno’s yawn was possible because my camera wasn’t trying to refocus with each shot.

The second thing I did was set the minimum shutter speed to 1/125 sec. This allowed the camera to freeze movement…..but to do that in low light I set the ISO to auto with the highest setting at ISO 6400. These photos were taken at  the 6400 ISO. I must admit….I thought the photos would be really grainy or noisy because of the high ISO…but they were pretty clear straight out of the camera. Although I did do a little enhancing in  post processing to remove a little grain in the images. The images even without this post processing step were passable.

Thirdly, I had the aperture around  f5….this helped the lens to allow a lot of light in…..but made the depth of field shallow…. hence the little dog is in sharp focus….but Bruno is slightly out of focus….but still thought the photos worked and told a great story about our favorite big dog.

Would love to join Steve Simon in New York on one of his workshops…..maybe someday I will get the chance.

Sabi……

Bottle Caps…..Bats…..and Unique Cars…..

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abstract art, angels, art, artist life, Athens Georgia, bat image, being creative, car art, frog image, image of car covered in art, image of car covered with angels, image of truck covered with bottle caps, unique cars, Virgin Mary

Today we went to the Human Rights Festival in Athens, Georgia….while there we saw two unique autos.

The first one was an old truck completely covered in Bottle Caps…

The second car was a hatch back cover with….well…I really don’t know what the theme was except a mixture of images…..frogs…horseshoes….devils…

bats……

Angels and Saints…….

Must confess the frog and bat are my favorite…..but the spirit of these artists really captured my attention and imagination….they acted with full courage to bring their vision to the public and the tenacity to make their visions came to reality.

There is definitely a lesson in there for me….

Sabi….

Pink House with Green Shutters…..

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art, artist, artist life, drawings, Paris, pen and ink drawings, pink house

I want to live in a PINK house with GREEN shutters….in PARIS.

Today on Instagram @vuthears a very talented artist living in Paris….posted a Parisian street photo…he is always posting beautiful pictures of Paris…and today’s photo of a little pink cafe really made me want to go back to Paris….like right now!

So in my own little way I salute Paris….and it’s artists….with this simple drawing.

Joshua Tree National Park….

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abstract art, abstract landscape, abstract photography, art and nature, artist life, black and white nature photography, black and white photography, black and white photos, Joshua Tree, Joshua Tree National Park, National Parks, skull rock

Our family got the chance to visit southern California… and one of the beautiful places we got to visit was Joshua Tree National Park. The park was enormous and we only got to drive through about half of it. There are plenty of places to pull off to get out of the car and go exploring.

Even though the temperature was in the low 80’s …it being the desert….it felt much hotter….and the intensity of the sun was a bit overwhelming….but none of this stopped our kids from scrambling up onto the boulders and wondering down a path or two.

Below are a few pictures of that day….I decided to make these photos as black and whites…felt like it really expressed the starkness of the desert’s beauty.

Sabi……..

Campus Life + Black and White 4

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artist life, athens, Athens Georgia, black and white nature photography, black and white photography, black and white photos, northeast georgia living, photography, UGA, University of Georgia

On north side of The University of Georgia campus behind the Chapel is this old bell tower. A rope hangs down and is ready to be rung…..

Camus Life + Black and White 2

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artist life, athens, Athens Georgia, black and white nature photography, black and white photos, northeast georgia living, photography, UGA, University of Georgia

Terry College of Business….located on North Campus at the University of Georgia….on a bright sunny winter day.

Campus Life + Black and White

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abstract photography, artist life, black and white nature photography, black and white photography, campus life, libraries, nature, northeast georgia living, photography, sunlight, UGA, University of Georgia

Pictured here is the main library at the University of Georgia. This library is located on North Campus and is surrounded by large mature trees.

As an undergraduate, way back in the late 80’s, I spent hours and hours on the top floor of this library sifting through their large collection of art and photography books. It was here I daydreamed about and later planned on visiting art museums around the world. This library was the place I learned about other cultures and ideas….this naturally fostered a love for traveling.

Needless to say this is a very special place for me and I have very fond memories from my time spent under its roof. Hopefully in the near future I’ll get to see that top floor again….and spend some time daydreaming about other cultures….ideas….places….and plan a trip to a new place I haven’t visited yet.

included this view in the series because of the claw like tree in the front….

See ya on the top floor….

Sabi

New Job….New Places….New Projects….

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abstract photography, artist life, black and white photos, campus life, campus life + black and white, football, football stadium, getting outside, life of an artist, northeast georgia living, photography, Sanford Stadium, UGA, University of Georgia

Started a new job this past October…and the learning curve has been a douse. But life goes on and we must adapt…or make some sort of effort at it.

The hardest adjustment was going from being virtually outside all day to being cooped up in a windowless office behind a computer screen…. Yes, some of you know my pain.

Anyways….there are some saving graces to my new job.

• It’s at a major American University
• I get to attend art and museum lectures almost every week during my lunch break
• Today went to listen to the Universities music professors play
• Get to spend many lunch breaks outside surrounded by a beautiful environment on an energetic campus

That last point has been a spring board for my next photo project. I have been been snapping pictures with my Nikon and am ready to share a few of them with you…. Gonna call this project “Campus Life + Black and White.”

The first picture to launch this new body of work is of the iconic Sanford Stadium….

I am in no way a football type person…but know and love many people who are….however I did fall in love with the massiveness of the Stadium sign…It is a hulk of a thing and dwarfs anyone who passes in front of it…ie the top picture…see how little the gal walking by is.

The bottom picture was back-lit with the sun which managed to twinkle a few rays across the front. Makes the concrete structure seem breathless with life.

So stop by every once in a while to catch glimpses of this UGA project….hope you find some inspiration and beauty in it.

Sabi

Fall Ginkgo Tree….

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artist life, fall leves, ginkgo tree, image of ginkgo tree, photography, yellow fall leaves, yellow ginkgo tree

Found this huge Ginkgo Tree on Sanford Drive at the University of Georgia in Athens…..

Rainy Afternoon….

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art and nature, artist life, being creative, nature, nature photography, northeast georgia living, Water Lilly image