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CM Monthly Challenge: Ugly Beautiful

The joy at looking at old pictures is realizing how much I have learned since. Looking through this file of images from 2011, I am pretty sure I broke every rule of macro photography–not enough light, too shallow depth of field, bad–BAD–focus, not using a tripod, and almost all of the images are centered composition (how boring). The first image is a water fountain in a public park, the next two were taken in my backyard and they were my ONE AND ONLY attempt at insect photography (I like my subjects to be a little bit more…still). Still they are “beautiful” images of otherwise ugly things (sinks and bugs–yuck as my 3 year old would say). Please continue the blog circle by visiting Narelle Bailey Photography next.

CM Monthly Challenge:Shooting through glass

Sunset

Shot 4.30.13

Canon 5D mk III

100mm 2.8 L

Settings: Aperture 3.5, ISO 100, SS 1/400

Please continue our blog circle by checking out what Tamra did for this months clallenge!

Crash Test Kiddos (because I couldn’t bring myself to use the word “dummies”) Part One: Marshmallows

So what do you do when you’re a photographer and you need to try a few different things? Well, if you’re like me (a little impatient and you just so happen to have a house full of kids) you throw everything at the wall in one session and see what sticks! I should start by saying that my kids were not happy or cooperative models this time around, so much so, that I had to break the ONE session into TWO.

What I learned from my use of marshmallows:

Marshmallows are sticky– especially when you leave the bag in front of a large window with direct afternoon sun (oops #1).

Cornstarch is messy– I rolled the marshmallows in cornstarch to stop them from sticking together. Sadly I was wearing a black shirt and black pants that were then covered in the white powder (oops #2).

Marshmallows do not like being tied to fishing line– I cannot even count the number of marshmallows that were slowly cut in half from being tied to the line. When you’re tying from top to bottom, it’s kind of a problem when a top or middle marshmallow suddenly gets chopped in half.

Marshmallows make kids hungry– do not, I REPEAT, do not use an edible food product and then try to tell the kids “well, sorry you can’t eat that, it’s just for decoration” what on earth was I thinking! Well, I know what I was thinking, I was thinking eating sticky marshmallows would leave white sticky goo on their mouths and faces and I would either have to chase them down with a wet washcloth (the key word chase) or I would have to Photoshop it all out (and no one wants to do that), so I chose mean mommy–I might have chosen wrong (oops #3).

Large marshmallows are too LARGE– huh? Yes, in my opinion the large marshmallows are too large for kids–the proportions are all wrong to look like snow. That being said, I have the WORST tying skills on the face of the planet and there was no way I was going to tie hundreds of teenie tiny marshmallows–next time I’ll just outsource that job (any volunteers???)