Mistakes = Learning

Used to be that I was really afraid of making mistakes. I was so insecure that when I made a mistake, and someone tried to help me by constructively pointing it out, I would get all bent out of shape. Now I know that if someone actually takes the time to constructively point out my mistake (and I of course value their opinion) It is a gift.

Yesterday, I sat on the wrong side of the polo field for lighting. I used a shutter speed of 500 and let it pick it's own fstop. It mostly used f4 - f5.6 with an occasional 7.1 or even 11 thrown in. This made most of my photos very contrasty. On the one hand, it wasn't really what I was going for. On the other hand, the photos look kinda cool! So I'll be popping that tidbit into my brain for creative photography in the future.

I also tried a lot of panning to show movement.

One More..

ok, Last one for today, I swear..

Post office horses

On Thursday evening, I ended up going "horse lookin" after all. I was having a "moment" of feeling creative and a bit irritated. I do sometimes have a typical "artists temperment" and I get all moody. Sometimes this works to my favor. I left the house right around sunset and drove by the tiny post office on "main street" Eastwood. As I mentioned previously, there is a monument of some sort within a horse pasture right across the street. This time the same dappled grey horse (a mare I found out) that I had photographed last time was there along with her buddy a flaxen chestnut pinto. (forgive me, I get tobiano, overo, tovero etc confused so I'm not exactly sure what this horse was) Both horses are probably 15hands or under. I "think" that the grey is a welsh of some sort because her head is not arab-y at all. Her ears are very tippy though. (wish they'd brush her mane but it does make photographing her interesting)

Although there wasn't as much sunset sunlight on the pair as I had hoped, I did manage to use the light to my advantage. I accidently had my ISO wayyy up on 800 because I was shooting pictures of my son indoors earlier in the day but the 800 ISO worked out fine. The one problem that I find with my Rebel XTI 400D is that it's images are a lot noiser than I would prefer. The ISO up on 800 certainly didn't help that fact but it gave me the shutter speed that I needed while using a F7.1 aperature.

I didn't get very many images of the Pinto that I liked tremendously but as usual, the grey's coat reflected the light beautifully. Note to self, don't photograph colored horses in the shade.. LOL!

The Grey has lost a lot of her dark coloring over the course of the summer and I find it interesting that she has lightened so much. I'm glad that I got a photograph or two of her while she still had that dark dappled grey coat.

I would like to try to go shoot some polo tomorrow but my poor hubby is ill so I'll probably end up staying home. (we don't want the baby to get sick too).

Next weekend is the "St James Court Art Show" which is the second largest art fair in the country. 7 or 8 full city blocks of every kind of art you could imagine! It is simultaneously inspiring and overwhelming to me. I hate going by myself but I find that I don't normally have anyone to go with. If I get to talk about the art with someone, It helps me stave off being overwhelmed. I may try to bring munchkin with me but we'll see.

I do daydream about having a booth at St James. I can never make enough miniature tack to sell in a booth so I'm hoping that someday I can sell my photographs instead.

I would dearly like to get up into my studio this weekend so wish me luck!

light

I didn't go "horse lookin" on Tuesday. By the time I was on my way home from my appointment I was tired and the muse had left me. Today my head hurts and is threatening to turn into a migraine.

I decided to go back through some of my photos of my son and I'm glad I did. I keep all of my original photos so that when I learn more, and I see differently I have them. Above is one of those pictures. It may not be a good photo for grandma and granpa to see munchkin's face but it seems a little poetic to me because of the lighting. Munchkin was just laying on the rug in the sunlight, playing with the hat he had just taken off of his head.

Feeling creative

Starting last night and into this morning, I've felt a compelling urge to be creative. I'm really fascinated with lines that make up objects. I really need to find some horses to photograph with this thought in my head. I'll be out this evening so I may go "horse lookin" then..

Meanwhile, here are a few more photos from the 2008 Festivale of Endangered Equines.

Here is the order of Breeds:

Caspian (Caspians are not Ponies, they are horses)

Fell Pony

Mountain Pleasure Horse

Mountain Pleasure Horse

Highland Pony

Caspian

Newfoundland Pony (Love his roany butt! :-))

Images from the chaos

Above are a few images from the chaos of hurricane Ike that hit our area. As you can imagine, a hurricane hitting in the Ohio Valley is a strange and rare event. The winds that blew through our region were supposed to only be about 25 - 30 miles per hour and they turned out to be 70-85 mph which is equal to a level I hurricane. Our Fair city was definitely not prepared for such an event. I would be surprised if any city on the mainland, that is landlocked , is prepared for hurricane force winds. Cincinnati and northern Ky was hit hard as well. It turns out that about 286,000 people in Louisville alone lost power. Some lost their houses when large trees fell on them. We definitely could have fared worse.

The first three images above are slow shutter shots of our trees being blown around. These trees are at least 40 - 50ft tall, so to get the kind of sway you see, requires quite a bit of force. I was also sitting down, holding onto the railing trying like hell to keep my camera steady while taking those shots. I probably should've used my tripod but I was afraid it would be blown off the deck.

The dragonfly you see, the poor thing, was holding on for dear life on the brick outside of our screened in porch. He eventually ended up plastered to the screen and I don't know where he ended up after that.

The last photo is of the generator that we were loaned so that we could at least have SOME power like Internet and TV. It was wonderful to have lights so that we could make munchkin's bottle at 6am instead of trying to do it via flashlight. Generators are VERY loud and they actually cost more to run per day than having regular electricity because of the cost of gas prices now. It was impossible to buy a generator while the power was out. There was a report that the nearest Home Depot with a Generator was in Nashville, TN, four hours away.

We did invest in a Coleman LED Camping light and that was really one of the best purchases we could've made. It was the last one left at Walmart at 6am. Walmart had lost their power as well and re-opened at 2am so we felt lucky to get it.

We finally got our electricity back last night at 8pm. I was on the way home from doing laundry and a few streets over from our Subdivision I saw about 20 utility trucks. (that is not an exaggeration, there were really that many). Some cutting down trees, some working on lines, directing traffic, etc. I called my husband to confirm that our electricity was back up, because if it was not, I was going to turn around and let the guys know! ha!

The bittersweet thing about having no electricity was that I had a lot (read "too much") of time for introspection and contemplation about what I would blog about should I ever get back on the internet for an extended amount of time.

I'd like to correct my post about the Rare Breeds. The show was actually called "The Festivale of Endangered Equines". It was organized by the Equus Survival Trust and specifically Victoria Tollman. Victoria has graciously corrected me on the labeling of some of my photos with the correct breed. I feel very badly that I got them SO WRONG! So this is a public apology to Victoria and I will update my website soon. In case you're not sure of the URL of my website, it is here: http://abounaderphoto.smugmug.com/2008%20Festivale%20of%20Endangered%20Equines

I have also realized that I have far too many pictures up on my website. I've already been paring them down. I also realize that I need some photo shop elements classes so that I can put some of the photos on more interesting and compelling backgrounds.

Actually I have years worth of things to learn about photography. I really would like to learn studio lighting, and I would really like to learn more about what settings to use in what circumstances.

I would also like to get one of the new Canon Cameras. I am still deciding between the new 5D mark II and the 50D. Both have some great features that I think I need and both are very expensive. I will need to find a new job in January because munchkin will go into daycare so I will probably have to wait till then.

Correction!

The Ponies below that I Identified as "Exmoor Ponies" are actually "Gotland Russ" ponies. My apologies and my thanks to Victoria Tollman who organized and ran the 2008 Festivale of Rare Equines

Not really 100% back

We were lucky enough to secure a generator from my parents, who borrowed it from my sister. My sister never lost power in her neighborhood. We are still without power and it has been said that it could be another 10 days before we get it back. I have no idea why our power is out. As I stated before, all of the houses around our little sub-subdivision have power but we don't. So no laundry which is what we are currently in need of!

Because of the generator, I was able to tweak a few more photos from the 2008 Rare Breed Expo. So please enjoy!

THe breeds are in this order: Highland Pony, Exmoor, Highland pony, Exmoor pony, caspian pony.

More to come!

No Electricity

Unfortunately, as of today, I've been without electricity for two days! It stinks!! Especially for an Internet junkie like myself! THe Power Companjy says it could be yet another 7 days before our power is back up. This is due to the 71 MPH winds that came through our area on sunday. These winds were the remanants of Hurricane Ike. There are 260,000 people in Louisville without power and unfortunately, I am one of them. All of the houses around us on different streets have power - it is very frustrating. We are fortunate though, the trees behind our house withstood the winds just fine and our house suffered no obvious damage.

Luckily my husband bought a small power supply a couple of years ago so that we can have 25 - 30 minutes of internet a night.. Our home network is down though so I can't tweak any photos during this time. The good thing is that I can work in the studio in the mornings when my son sleeps because the sun shines right into it. I haven't gotten a lot done because I am spending time looking for some of the supplies I need, but hopefully tomorrow I'll be more productive!

Akhal Tekes!

Over the Weekend I was Privledged enough to be able to attend the "Rare Breed Expo" at the Kentucky Horse Park. In 2006 I met many Akhal Teke Owners at the Symposium that was held there. It was wonderful to see everyone again and have the opportunity to photograph their horses. I took a mind-blowing amount of pictures to make sure that I had some good shots. Above are just a few that I've had time to go through and resize. MANY more to come! I also got a few good photos of some of the other breeds that were there as well.. I just haven't yet had the time to tweak them.