Experimenting Photographing Snow at Night

It started snowing late in the day while I was at work today and by the time I got got close to my town it had actually started to stick to the road.

Normally my commute is about 40 mins the MOST in traffic but today it took well over and hour. It gave me a lot of time to think and one thing that popped in my head was the idea to photograph the snow coming down tonight on the bulb setting to see if I could capture the snow with a streaky look as it streamed down.

I put the light on by my back door and set my camera on the tripod under the awning (to keep it dry) and I captured this:

ISO 100, f5.6, Shutter 15.2 on BULB setting



After the exeriment was completed I couldn't resist getting a photo of Lucas enjoying "sniffing" the snowflakes:



I tried multiple shots...this one I liked the best. If anything it was a neat experiment. :)



Tonight I worked on these 3 images of a "side of the road" barn & silo that my sister and I loved so much we had to pull over to photograph on our trip to the Mulica River & the Pine Barrens on October 28th (I'm still trying to catch up on 2007!!):



The same photo (above) converted:





And just to show you how funny the two of us are on these photo trips.... Here is my sister taking her version of the shot and my shadow as I take the shot from behind her to the right. We must look hysterical on the side of the road and that's why I like to document us while we're out...my sister tries to do the same for me and those are many of the photos you'll see running along the right side of my blog.





The other thing I tried tonight was a "gritty" Photoshop technique I found while googling. I tried it on a "Lee" photograph and this is what I got as a result. Kinda neat if you're going for this kind of effect:





Found this photo from November.

My Dad moved away and we went to clean out the attic and I found a box of my old stuffed animals...my sister was there with her dog and we had some fun. Can you tell which is a stuffed animal and which is not? LOL. The Jack Russell is hers. LOL!




In other news....

I'm flattered with a phone call I just received while I was writing this blog post. A local Photography club found my website through a web search and asked me if I would be interesting in judging their bi-monthly photography contest. The did a search on local photographers in the area and came across my site.

I declined the offer because I didn't feel comfortable judging, critiquing, and providing detailed feedback on technique to others while I'm still learning myself.

Even though I wasn't comfortable with judging their bi-monthly contest the phone call at least provided me with information about a very local club that I didn't know existed. The person I spoke with shared information regarding the club along with their website so I could review it. Thanks to Cranbury Digital Photography Club for the offer! :)


On another topic:

A few photoshop tutorial site links that were shared on my forum tonight:

http://www.worth1000.com/tutorials.asp

http://www.pslover.com/

http://www.good-tutorials.com/

http://photoshopcafe.com/

Can't Wait for Fall

Getting excited for fall...When I edited this shot it made me very excited to capture fall in it's full glory!

I made my 1st photo sale!

Thanks to my friend Gordon, who I work with, I made my first official photo sale of the photo below:

The photo was taken the day after the N'oreaster we had in New Jersey back on April 15th. 2007. I stopped to capture this scene while I was driving around to check out the aftermath of the flooding in my area.

I pass this farm everyday on my way home from work but the road is so tight that there is no way to pull over to take the photo unless I wanted to pull right into the farmer's driveway and I wasn't going to do that!! LOL!

So, because the road in front of the farmer's house was flooded (and I couldn't drive any further) it was the perfect opportunity to shoot the flood but then turn around and take a photo of his farm and his barn, which is another shot I also love (below).

While I was driving that day I also stumbled upon the scene below. The person got out okay but I can't say the same for their car!

Anyway, back to the original subject.....so, I sold the farm scene photograph at 18 inches wide adhered to a black backing board. It's a "large format" print so the printing and application to the special backing board was done at my sister's graphics shop. She uses the same large machine that prints the graphics for vehicles/signs, etc that prints on huge rolls of vinyl. So people can get their photos as large as a bus (no kidding!!) or as small as an 8x10. We're going to try to get more business based on large format printing (besides me trying to sell regular prints). (her website http://www.cranburycustom.com/).

I guess you can say this is my 3rd "sale" (but I'm using "sale" very losely)...My mom was the first person (besides myself) to have one of my photos blown up into a large format print and my grandfather had the same photo blown up (but not as bis as moms). This is how mom's photo of the Manhattan Bridge & the Brooklyn Bridge (where she's from) looks in her office:

My sister will be at the National Night Out in Hightstown, New Jersey tomorrow selling graphics/decals, etc so if you're in the area - stop on by and pick something up!! She'll be featuring the sale of large format photography printing featuring our photographs.

Maybe I'll make another sale somehow!

Below is the flyer she'll be sharing at the event. If you know anyonw who is interested in Large format digital prints of their own photos or any photos featured on my website http://www.jenweaverphotography/ call Cranbury Custom Vehicle Lettering & Graphics at 609-587-6444: