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Taken with iPhone Camera. Edited with Tiffen Photo fx.

I don’t know how many countries in the world make as big of deal out of All Hallows’ Eve as we do here in the U.S. So it just wouldn’t be fitting for me to do a picture a day for a year and not publish a Halloween photo on Halloween. This photo is of a Jack-o’-lantern that my kids carved last night. My wife did most of the knife wielding. Apparently, my kids thought it was rather funny to have the pumpkin loosing his supper. It wasn’t easy to get the light just right, and I tried a number of different shots.

Nothing profound or deep about today’s photo…what you see is what you get.

Manual: p.139: Protecting Photographs from Deletion

Images: Today I Googled jack-o-lantern on Google Images…wow, there are some creative people out there.

Taken with iPhone Camera using Lensebaby macro lenses. Edited with Photo fx.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” –Helen Keller

For someone who couldn’t see and couldn’t hear, I think she is one amazing person. Are we willing to push ourselves like she?

When we take a photo, do we say, “it’s good enough”, or do we try to make it something that we really feel right about.

Today I was experimenting with using a small Lensbaby macro lens in front of my iPhone lens. I was amazed to see that I could use it to bring macro shots closer and better focused. After I had accomplished this I was pretty happy with what I came up with, but I didn’t quit feel like it was presentation worthy. Non the less, I was just about ready to pass it off as my photo for today, because I wasn’t happy with any of the editing effects I was getting on my iPhone. At last I decided to give it one more try. I ended up with the dreamy, monochrome, shallow depth-of-field photo you see today.

I don’t know if anyone else feels like it’s a superior image compared to the original. But at least I feel good about it.

I’ve added a new gallery where I’m going to publish some of my alternates, rejects, and first tries. I’m calling it 365outtakes.

Manual: p.57 Focus Lock

Images: Today I looked at photos of Edward Weston. His work is some of my favorite. I particularly like Pepper Number 30.

Taken with Camera. Edited with iFlashReady, DXP, CinemaFX and Photogene.

I saw these two chairs sitting side by side in the office building where I work. I could imagine a conversation going on where these chairs sat, but the conversation seemed somehow one-sided, since one chair faced the other. The chair on the left faces away from the first chair in silence, arm rests raised in superiority.

The carpet in my office building, as you can see, looks like wild carpet from the ’70s. It’s horrible looking carpet, but add interest to this piece, I think.

I used a program called DXP (double exposure) to overlay two different pictures.

Camera Manual: P.124 The GP-1 GPS Unit. I don’t have this, but think is sounds cool. I want one.

Artist: Ashlee Raubach: I particularly like this bridal series.

Taken with Camera, edited with CinemaFX and Photogene.

Hidden Treasures is a strange title for an old rusted Pepsi can. But there is a story behind it.

When we moved into our home 4 years ago, the backyard was partially held captive by a monster Pyracantha bush. The bush measured about 75 feet wide, 20 feet deep and 20 feet high. Every inch was covered with needle like thorns.

I learned from an elderly neighbor that the small bushes had been planted in 1960. It had been allowed to grow without constraint and had grown into the monster that occupied my back yard.

I could not pay a company to remove the bush. May companies came and looked at it and would not attempt the job. Not one single company had even given us a bid for removal.

Finally we enlisted the help of family, friends and neighbors. Together we worked and worked. And within the course of about one day, we removed that bush.

This old Pepsi can was found inside that bush. Not only is it a cool, rusted vintage can. But it reminds me of that day, and those people that kindly gave there time and energy to help me conquer the bush.

This can is one of my treasures, but the people around us who help us conquer our monsters are the true hidden treasures.

Camera Manual: Page 43,44 Learning more about Live View. I figured out a really cool technique that I think will help me nail sharp focus in Live View, especially with a short depth of field. Use the zoom and put the lens on manual focus (a tripod might really come in handy here.) then with the subjects zoomed, manually focus the lens on exactly what you want in focus. No guessing exactly what spot you got. I’m going to go try this on something in real life now.

Artist: Photographer and podcaster Martin Bailey, Englishman living in Japan. He’s very good at detailing in his podcasts various photographic concepts and techniques.

Taken with Camera, Edited with Photo fx and Photogene.

Yesterday I started the conversation about style. This subject continues to rest on my mind, because my gut feeling is that one’s style is not something that is consciously chosen. A style is discovered. Or perhaps one’s style is never fully recognized by one self. Tasra said in her comment that Chase (I assume she is referring the illustrious Chase Jarvis) has said that he sees her style emerge. I do too, though I haven’t put my finger on it yet. If I were to pick a few words I would say her style is dramatic, elegant, focused. My other commenter, Natty, has a style that is also emerging, though she doesn’t know it. The word I thought of is ‘singular’.

The trouble with trying to identify style is that it’s like trying to pigeon hole a particular band into a particular genre. Anyone who has ever tried to organize their music collection by genre has quickly discovered how futile that is.

Rather, one’s style represent particular markers that distinguish one’s work, not a hard and fast rule. Pushing oneself within and yes, beyond one’s style should always be the goal of the artist.

I had an art teacher once that said that creativity is seeing one thing and doing another. Style is doing another and another and another ’till you see the similarities and the differences.

Today photo is of a dear friend of mine. We had lunch today and he was gracious enough to let me put my iPhone in his face without getting too bent out of shape.

Camera Manual: P167: Color Space sRGB vs Adobe RGB. I also learned why my files have an underscore in front of them now, and when I first got the camera they did not. That indicates that they were taken in Adobe RGB mode. I Don’t know on what page I found that.

Artist: Chase Jarvis