First Look Photo: Approachable Song Birds

Of all the song birds in Maine, the most approachable is the cat bird; a type of mockingbird.

Photo Friday: I’m Watching You

As I learn my photography, through New York Institute of Photography, my best, practice subject has been my cat.  He has put up with bright lights, and having a camera shoved in his face, without a complaint.  This is my latest shot, practicing macro.

Photo Friday: Comfort and Style

Today’s Picture is another school assignment.  I was to shoot a pair of shoes to show texture, and focus on the style of it.  Himalayan cats are considered a symbol of style, so that’s why he’s in there,  that, and I couldn’t get him out of the picture.

 

Photo Friday: All About the Birds

Here’s three new shots I took on my walks.  Birds make great subjects.

Drawing from Photographs

As I am just getting back into painting, and drawing, I have to work on it all the time.  The book I’m relearning from is “The Fundamentals of Drawing” by Barrington Barber.  I’m a firm believer in learning the basics, and building up from there.  I’m going with a book; and learning on Youtube, because I don’t have the money for classes.

In most classes, they place an object in front of the class, and tell you to draw it; at least that’s what I’ve been told.  In the book, she shows drawings of objects to draw, so you can learn shapes, and shading, but they are objects that don’t do much for my desire to draw.  What I like about the book is she gives you the basics of drawing, and uses the shapes as examples, but she says to find things you care about to practice with.  Two days ago, I found some sea shells, and had a ball doing it, and the other thing I use is photographs I took myself.  Some artists like to use a pencil in the field to make quick sketches in the field, to work on later, but being a photographer, the camera is my way of getting a quick sketch.

Someone had asked me if that was cheating, and if you’re wondering the same thing, my simple answer is “no”.  Just because I use a photograph, I’m still doing the work of drawing it by hand.  I’m not tracing it, or converting it to a drawing on Photoshop.  I am just choosing a subject that has some meaning for me, and making it easier for me to recall at home.

Here are two pictures from today’s practice.  The first image is the photograph I went from, and the second image is what I drew from the photograph.

Picture of my cat

 

When you draw something that you’re interested in, it becomes fun, which is what drawing is supposed to be.

Raw Force

I have a confession.  I have heard all the arguments for and against switching to raw, but I wanted to stick with Jpeg out of fear.  You can call it fear of change, or fear of botching it up; the truth is, I didn’t know how to convert it to jpeg to work with my computer, and I was too lazy to look at the instructions.  There, I said it!

Now that I have that out of the way, let’s get down to the meat of this article.  A couple of days ago, I watch Jared Polin, on youtube, talk about the benefits of using raw, and yes it might be a little more work, but it’s a hundred times more versatile than using jpeg.  After seeing his proof, I revisited my software instructions and found the conversion button.  So now, I can adjust the raw files to the image I want, (not what the camera wants), and convert it after I’m done with it.

As of yesterday, I made the switch completely to raw, and here’s a couple of images I took with it.

Picture of my cat

You Can’t Find Me!!!

This is just one of the things my cat does when I pull out the jump rope. I still don’t understand why he’s so afraid of it, but he hides every time.

 

The master of the house

Here is a shot of my cat on his favorite high spot; the book case.

The most relaxing look!!!

That’s comfortable?

It always amazes me how cats can find comfort in the strangest positions, and places.

Day 68: Don’t be fooled

Don’t be Fooled

 

Don’t be fooled

This is not an innocent face,

He just got poop

All over the place.

 

He got it on the floor

Which I just had to clean,

I tried to clean his bum

But he got real mean.

 

The dry shampoo didn’t work

And I really tried,

It ended in the shower

Where he really cried.

Now he looks like a drown rat

And he smells a lot better,

Since the shampoo didn’t work

I’m now writing a letter.