On the Same Level With Nature - Up Close and Personal

What a beautiful day! Seriously - it was so amazing outside today.

Too bad I was in the office all day (except for the few minutes I ran out for lunch and actually got to feel the sun on my face from the office to the car, the car to the store, and you get the picture!). The dashboard thermometer read 86 degrees and that was shocking to me!

This is the time of the year where I truly feel like I come alive. When I get out of the office at night it's like I'm "released!" and "full of the power of spring"!! On spring days like this I tie my hair back, roll down the windows, and open the sun roof when I drive. I can't get enough of that warm spring wind all around me. Don't you know that feeling??

Okay, sometimes I try to contain my true silliness on my blog and keep it to pretty professional "talk" but I think it's okay to post how something made you feel alive and how it inspired you.

Well...with that said...today the feeling was like ---> I wanted to find large open field and just run through it barefoot with my hair flowing in the breeze!!

Sound strange, corny, weird? I doubt it you'd think that...come on! admit it! I'm sure you've had visions of running through a beautiful open field, feeling the sun on your face, while your hair blows in the breeze (well skip the hair blowing in the breeze if you're a guy and you don't have flowing hair LOL).

This is the time of the year where it's not burning hot and you can feel spring physically and mentally (I think that's why they call it "SPRING FEVER" LOL!) and you just can't wait to be outside.

Unfortunately I wasn't dressed for the occasion for running through any fields with my "work clothes" and high heeled boots on LOL! (Imagine the site as I'm running and go tumbling down in my boots!)

So, I settled for another day of getting VERY Close and personal with nature by using (only) my Nikon 105mm f/2.8G VR AF-S lens and shooting some macros at the park I frequently visit on my way home.





Macro is a whole other world...you are literally a foot away from your subject, up close and personal and certainly on the same level with your subject. I wasn't perfectly dressed for this either - but did happen to remember that I have a spare pair of sneakers in my trunk and a padding thing to kneel on!





This session was even more fruitful then the last one in terms of variety. I headed over to the rose garden section of the park (this place is huge) and I set up for getting close to the flowers by lowering the tripod as low as it would go. I made a note to bring my Gorilla Pod next time and see if it can support the weight of this lens. It's hard to get close w/ a full size tripod so that option may work!




Most of these ended up being hand-held and required a lot of squatting! I guess you can say I am getting my workouts! Photography+toning the legs? Can't beat that!

Enjoy!

At The Park Today

I stopped at the park for a little while on the way home today to capture the most beautiful day with a beautiful sky...full of amazing clouds!

I started with some HDR shots with my Nikon 18-200mm VR.

WHen I was here I felt like I was walking throuhg a Fairy Tale!







And then I switched to my Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AF-S Micro Lens to give it a run for it's money!

I'm trying to get the hang of shooting REALLY close with the lens to get that really abstract-y look for flower photography.

The hardest part was focusing on the flowers when the wind kept blowing (Grrrrrrrrr!) AND I was using a tripod! So many were sent to the recycle bin when I got home but these were the ones that I kept that I loved!!

The ones that appealed to me most today were the very abstract flower shots below. I just feel like they would make great abstract art pieces to hang on the wall.







A little more realistic macros for you:





What a beautiful day to be out and about! I need to go back though and keep practiing and practicing these abstract macros. The focus is the hardest part!

Macro Mania

So tonight I was practicing again (2nd day with the new Macro lens)...but I just can't get the lighting right with the bulbs I have. I know it will take time to figure out but I hate the learning curve!

I will be seeking more advice on the best way to light the lightbox so I can avoid a ton of post processing! It's just too time consuming!

For practice I decided to photograph things that I felt were meaningful to me.



The umbrellas were the gift that was given to all of the guests at my wedding shower:





My husband and my wedding rings:



A bracelet that was given to me by my friend's mom before she passed away:



Was in my hair at my wedding:



Beaded jewelry hand-made by me:








Also, I took these for my brother-in-law's birthday:





To view my MACRO Photography gallery click here: http://jenweaverphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/2753011

Happy Birthday To Me

Well, it's not my birthday yet...it's Saturday. But my Birthday/Christmas gift has arrived today from B&H Photo.

I haven't tried it yet...I know...you're asking "why???" That's so unlike me! Well, other things have gotten in the way of trying it but I think I will go and try it right now....

More to come in this post if I get a few shots off.

OKAY! I CONVINCED MYSELF! Even though I'm dead tired!

I just went and used my new lens for the first time! I shot for about 20 minutes and tis the season I went with mostly Christmas ornaments for the test shots.

These are unedited straight out of the camera....so that means I haven't worked with the white balance and it may be off in these shots. I'm still experimenting with various lightbulbs and camera settings (and the flash).

These were shot in the new lightbox with the flouresent setting for the white balance on the camera, the Gary fong cloudy filter on, and the flouresent bulbs in the lamps.















And some non-Christmas items:

Merry Christmas Wishes!

Last weekend I finalized my Christmas card. I decided to do another "make your own" card of one of my photos.

The past 2 years I had my Black Lab Lucas on the card...one with a Photoshopped Christmas hat and last year he was sitting in front of the Christmas tree.

I decided to not do another Lucas card so I photographed my ornaments on my tree and picked my favorite one...show below:



Some that weren't chosen for the card:








Some good news! My husband ordered my Birthday/Christmas gift from B&H Photo. On Monday my Nikon Telephoto AF Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR (Vibration Reduction) Autofocus Lens should arrive! I can't wait!!

I'm looking forward to creating my own softbox (hopefully over this weekend) and working on Macros to make my own Birthday Cards/Special occasion cards for family & friends like I do for Christmas every year. I think it's a great way to send them something personal while saving the $4.00-$5.00 that card companies charge!!

I want to find cardboard cards that have the open hole in the front where I can slip the photos into. Otherwise I have to figure out how else to make the cards. I haven't done any research yet on the best ways to do it but I'm sure once I search ideas will come out of the woodwork. :)