Brenizer Method

I tried out the Brenizer method, and got a successful picture out of it!  I tried one other time last summer, but I didn't realize that manually expanding the frame is pretty much impossible for me and my lack of skills. So I got the program Hugin, a free downloadable program that makes panoramas and any other type of expansion image.  It's an amazing program, and it gave me my first successful expansion!  The Brenizer method is my new favorite thing.

Chasing the Wind

My parents and I went on an adventure down by the American River.  It's like a fairy-tale there.  The soft grass and trees, rocks strewn about from long ago strip mining.  The colors are phenomenal, soft hues like in my dreams.  I added new methods to the madness of editing to emphasize the colors I saw, but the camera did not.  For these (and others that didn't turn out however much I wished) I clambered up and down small cliffs and held on to roots for dear life and got my pants all dusty.  Surf-sliding down the dirty side of a cliff was the best.  It made me feel superhuman.

 

 This tree is amazing. It's a aggregate of limbs, some that submerge themselves in the ground, and then swoop back up into the air.  It has knots and carvings all over, a wizened old plant. 

 I thought this branch looked like an elephant with oddly shaped ears.  And I made a drawing so you can see what I see better.

My 365 picture, titled "Alice, don't let go."

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

 On Christmas Eve I brought a reading lamp from my room and tried to make the lighting in my living room better for Christmas pictures.  It didn't really work as planned, so I ended up having a photo shoot with my lamp and the ornaments.

For Christmas I got a 50mm f/1.8 lens!  I was geeking out all day, and going a little bokeh crazy with the Christmas tree lights.

My Uncle likes to make faces any time I point a camera at his face.

I actually got a picture of Kevin.  And he's smiling.  Normally he hides his face or looks away.  But he smiled.  :)

My Grandpa decided he would see if he can still ride a bike.  He can.

The "boys" played with my dad's pellet guns, and tried to make the scope on his newest one more correct than it was.  So I took pictures of them and everything else in the backyard.

We have these awesome glasses that make the lights on the tree and the house look like snowmen!  And when you tip your head side to side it looks like they are dancing.

I took bushels and bunches of pictures of Elly.  At first she seemed annoyed by the way I trailed around her like her own personal paparazzi, but the she started just ignoring me.  Which was actually better for pictures.