I started this blog in 2006 to share my job hunting journey in my fields of technology and education and to share my amateur photography passion. However since then I've strayed into other topics, including (oddly) Marilyn Monroe; a piece of Americana called the Cafe Rienzi; Belgian draft mules; antiques and furniture refinishing; artists Firma Duchene Philips, Tom Durant, and David Grosblatt; and a television series called PREY. And those are just for starters - so browse and enjoy!
Prairie Light eBook Series
Check out Jeanne's new ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Store:
Greetings, everyone who happens upon these pages! A few months ago I wrote a blog post introducing readers to my "Scrappy" photo gallery site. Today, I am announcing the website has just gotten its new "summer look" with new feature photos and one new exhibit:
Ben pulling a wagon with the Allis Chalmers D in Sunday's parade at the fair
Ben always exhibits his old Allis Chalmers D and Ford Series 2000 tractors at the County Fair Antique Tractor Exhibit and he and his son Steven drive them in the three tractor parades that take place during fair week. This year I tried to get a picture of all the entries at each parade. I didn't succeed 100% but I got most!
If you like county fairs and enjoy old tractors, drop by my photography site and have a look! While you're there, check out my other feature exhibits:
I've always loved drifting petals and petal drifts. A couple of years ago I happened to be in Virginia during cherry blossom time. Not only were the cherry trees gorgeous, but their drifting petals filled the air like falling snow. Seriously. I even tried to capture it on video.
So back home in Indiana this spring when the petals on my beautiful magnolia tree started blanketing the ground, I thought I would try to capture their descent. I guess there are many ways you could approach this ... a close up of a single petal in mid-air, a long exposure that would leave a trail of movement or even a multiple exposure showing the descent of a petal. All challenging shots in their own right (at least for me).
As it turns out, a simple, straight-forward approach was enough of a challenge! It's not easy to capture a petal in flight. But let me digress. Back in March I went with a friend to the Indianapolis Flower and Patio show at the state fairgrounds. While I was admiring a particular landscape display, a little book entitled "Steal Like an Artist" lying a coffee table caught my eye. The landscaper told me that his daughter was an artist and that this was her favorite book. Intrigued, I snapped a photo. When I got home, I ordered this book and another entitled "Show Your Work," both in ebook format and both by the same author Austin Kleon. I enjoyed them both, especially the latter. Some concepts I garnered from Austin are that you need to find a group of like-minded people - or let them find you; that online is the best venue for meeting like-minded people these days; and that to be found online you need to establish a long-lived online presence. Last but not least you need to show your work - only work to Austin is not just the final product - but also the process. He says we should be active everyday and share bits and pieces of things we are working on ... So I'm going to share a few lessons learned from some 200 attempts to capture petals in flight. I know, kinda lame, but it is one of the things I've been trying to learn how to do in my photography.
If you're going for stop-action on moving objects, then you need high shutter-speed (burst shooting capability is also nice). So any setting that gives you the highest viable shutter speed (whether you choose a wide-aperture or work in shutter-speed priority) is good. Also, for high shutter-speed you'll need good light - so early to mid-afternoon with its usually problematic high contrast is not necessarily a bad time of day in this case.
Multiple vantage points work, but I found in looking at some of my 200 photos, that petals show up best either silhouetted against the sky or against something light - or if the petals themselves are gleaming in the sunlight, against something darker. In the wide-open Indiana prairies, petals do not fill the air like drifting snow (unlike Virginia). So wait for a breeze gust or better yet a steady wind. Aim and focus toward the direction the wind is blowing the petals to have a better chance of catching them. Focusing or metering on the trunk of the tree provided me a fairly nice medium gray tone and adequate depth of field. (I should also mention that the sun was at my back, in the west - and I forget whether I set the camera to spot-meter or to center-weight meter.) Also if you can, position yourself where you can see the top of the tree. Wait to see several blossoms start to descend - and press and hold that button! If you're lucky you'll catch 'em in mid-air. My frustration was that my camera only did three bursts and then lagged in recording them, thereby limiting my ability to keep shooting. Probably using a tripod and remote control would be good - but I need to brush up on those skills. I set the camera to ISO 100 which gives sharp, beautiful detail (but higher ISO's will allow you to work at higher shutter speeds). I think in my best shot I forgot I had set the focus to macro or macro zoom - and that actually lent a nice little exaggeration to the photo. (Or maybe that's just my imagination.) In post-processing, perhaps adding a motion filter to the photo would also help emphasize falling or drifting petals.
Falling and drifting magnolia blossoms - best viewed full screen
Falling and drifting magnolia blossoms - zoomed in
My final thought on this topic, is that this shot was a lot of work for relatively little return (capturing about seven little petals in flight), and is probably more easily and successfully attempted in Virginia during cherry blossom time. ;)
In the meantime, happy shutter-bugging!
JuneBug
May and June
In May and June when the flowers bloom, and the air is filled with a sweet perfume, and the petals blow like the drifting snow, then the neighbors forget their winter woe and greet one another on a sunset stroll.
Some time ago, I posted an article about a great new social sharing site for photographers called YouPIC. I responded to their Facebook ad in January and visited their site. They had a spectacular photo featured on their front page and also made some pretty startling claims on that page, to wit:
"Find high quality inspiration for your photography from millions of photographers"
"Showcase your best shots and be rewarded with tremendous exposure, awards, and love"
"Improve your photography dramatically ..."
Just by joining a site and uploading your photos? Even though I was a bit skeptical, I joined this online community, which is free and allows unlimited uploads.
Greetings, everyone who happens upon these pages! A few months ago I wrote a blog post introducing readers to my "Scrappy" photo gallery site. Today, I am announcing the website has just gotten its new "spring look" with new feature photos and four new exhibits:
Hi, fellow photography afficionados! As per the title of this blog post, I wanted to alert you to a really, Really (REALLY) great new social sharing site for photographers called YouPic!
It's sort of a cross between Facebook and YouTube, so everybody gets a home page and a "feed" page
I get to see dozens of beautiful and inspiring photographs any time of day or night
and it's gotten my photographs more of a global audience than ANY OTHER SITE EVER, and that includes my own photography site!
What's not to like?
Well, I could go on and on but to give you a better idea of what it's all about, here's what YouPic says about themselves:
"YOU Inspired: Find high quality inspiration for your photography from millions of photographers."
"YOU Admired: Showcase your best shots and be rewarded with tremendous exposure, awards, and love."
"YOU Improved: Improve your photography dramatically with photography tips from peers and by following your progress"
Wow. What could you possibly have to lose? I know what you're thinking. Is it just hype or is all that really true? Well, ever since I uploaded my first photo (after responding to an ad that appeared on Facebook January 1, 2015), I've gotten 12,486 views, have been liked (favorited) 1,088 times, and have been shared (re-pic'd) 571 times. In only two months time! Plus, I've gotten to see, like, and comment on hundreds of fabulous photos in the categories of nature, landscape, black and white photography, street photography, portraiture, fine art photography, etc. from all over the world, in similar fashion as one would view or comment on Facebook entries. I feel like a world traveler without ever leaving home! :)
Other participants at the site have been so generous and so kind. It helps, I think, that YouPic uses an award system (and a points system) to encourage people to interact. And the more you interact, the more photographers interact with you. Even as a hobbyist I'm not a great photographer, and I certainly don't have expensive or fancy equipment. But on YouPic really great photographers actually take the time to enjoy my photos! What photographer wouldn't like that?
So, has my photography improved as they claim it will? Well, only time will tell, but I truly believe my photos will improve. For one thing, I can read what people say about their individual process, see what brands and types of cameras they use, and also see what camera settings they use to achieve a particular effect. Besides, I think it just helps to look lots of good photos from fellow enthusiasts - Other people's photos help you see the world in new ways, see things you've never noticed, and perhaps give more thought to how you want to fill your frame before you press the button.
Anyway ... you can tune into your favorite news channel and get all the bad news going on in the world. Or you can join YouPic and see all the beautiful photos coming in from all over the world. The choice is yours, but I think you know which one I'd recommend! Warning, though - just like bad news, beauty can be addictive!
:)
JuneBug
P.S. Here's a link to my YouPic home page. Come on over and have a look! Better yet, come on over and join us! Again, what do you have to lose? (except possibly some time well-spent?) :)
So today it finally occurred to me that since I started this blog around 2006 in part to talk about my interest in scrap-booking and photography, I should introduce my photography site on this blog -sometimes it takes me a while to see the obvious!
Wow, so much time has passed since my last post! I've had good intentions, but as they say, life keeps getting in the way and truth be known, social media like Facebook has somewhat replaced blogging.
Taking inventory of why I started this blog (job-hunting and hobbies), I reflect that I am now headed toward full time retirement (whether I can afford it or not) and loving it! I drew my first social security check last July. I have also worked about a year and a half as a part-time database editor for a start-up company named Schoolhouse Partners which publishes both print and online editions of grant opportunities. It has proved to be very interesting work - sort of a virtual opportunity to travel and immerse oneself through writing in different granting organizations in various areas of the country and the world, not to mention the great experience it's provided me in technical writing. Schoolhouse Partner's production office was initially located in a scenic prairie in Purdue Research Park. I enjoyed spotting various types of wildflowers, insects, and other wildlife through the seasons as I took my noon walk around the little lake across the street. Then when the weather got too cold, there was an exercise room with treadmills in front of big picture windows right around the corner and down the hall! However, last February we were given the opportunity to set up a home office and work for the company from home - which I also enjoyed immensely.
My coworkers and I were put in touch with Schoolhouse Partners through the Aging Workforce Initiative, a wonderfully worthwhile demonstration grant operated by our local WorkOne. The grant provided training and internship opportunities as well as various other services to job-seekers age 55 and older. Sadly, the grant's funding was cut in 2012.
Now as I head toward retirement, I look forward to spending more time on hobbies and interests including learning CSS technologies and graphic-arts skills such as photo restoration (with an eye both toward volunteering and toward earning some extra income in my retirement years). I also want to get more involved in digital and physical scrap-booking, photography, writing, cooking, gardening, and walking with Ben to name a few things - and to just enjoy this old Indiana farmhouse Ben and I are so fortunate to live in with our cats, dog, chickens, and mules in this rural community of good friends and neighbors. :) One of my poems was featured in Lafayette CitiBus's Words on the Go in June - and in the past four years I've had two sweepstakes and one reserve placement in the photography display at the Tippecanoe County 4H Fair Home Show so I guess I'm off to a good start.
Ducks at Purdue Research Park
Blue Heron and Canadian Geese at Purdue Research Park
Baby Barn Swallows Perched on Sign at Purdue Research Park
