Just Some Of My Stuff....

magkelly · May 6, 2010

I'll be adding pics here in this thread for you to look every so often.

I ran across this one earlier when I was looking for the photograph I used for the reflections thread and I thought some of you might like this one. The statue in question is of St Francis, the patron saint of animals. As you can see he's got stone animals as companions as part of himself, but in this case he also has a little visitor of the real variety and I just thought it was too sweet, so I snapped it. I was at an Episocopal church as I recall meeting up with a friend of mine who goes there. This statue was in their little garden by their office.

It was just a quickie. Not technically perfect, but I still like it. I wasn't sure how they'd feel about me photographing things there so I couldn't take a whole lot of time for it really. I took this using my Fuji S7000, with the built in zoom such as it is. It's not a bad camera for a non DSLR but the only lenses available for it are simple screw on ones. There are no real settings you can adjust.

I do the best with what I've got, shrug.

magkelly · May 6, 2010

One of the things I keep my eye out for as a photographer is stray, feral cats. I very much like animals as models, particularly when they are not tame and easy to photograph. (I like a challenge!) This calico who I dubbed Callie wasn't the easiest cat to get a shot of. I think it took me a month before she would even let me near her at all and a lot longer before I got close enough to get this shot. She was part of a pack that lived behind my building at the time. This was taken up close, no zooms etc with my Fuji. I love the colors in her fur against all the natural stuff under and behind her. It was perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better moment or background for her.

magkelly · May 6, 2010

This is another one of a St. Francis statue actually. I took this at a cathedral in CA. The rainbow from the stained glass window falls directly on his heart which is interesting because old holy cards and paintings that portray this saint in his moment of ecstasy often will show him shot with metaphorical arrows so here it's like it happened naturally with the light. You'll probably see more of this kind of thing. I like photographing statues, angels in church yards, etc.

magkelly · May 6, 2010

These two shots are of the same person so I'll put them her together. These were taken out in CA in Oakland at Jack London Square for someone I knew back then. She's a character actor and needed some new shots to submit professionally so I obliged.

magkelly · May 6, 2010

Okay, last one for today. This is I think my best portrait shot ever. I'm very proud of it. It perfectly captures the person, his sunny personality, and the moment. One of my favorite people, one of my best friends, and a favorite and obliging model. This is one of a series I did using him in SF. You'll see more of these. I took several really nice shots of him that day. Sorry about the crappy size on this one, but I had to use a web jpeg I made for him. I can't find the original at the moment, but I'll look again tomorrow. It's really nice appropriately sized. Looks like he's modeling for some guy's clothing catalog, doesn't he?

That's it for now!

magkelly · May 18, 2010

Another one of Rick, me experimenting a bit with the B&W stuff in CR and Photoshop. In the end I was aiming for something like an retro old photojournalist shot here. It's a bit blurry and noisy to begin with, not a really great shot technically, but I've always really liked it and I wanted to do something fun with it anyway.

magkelly · May 18, 2010

I'm not the best at taking night shots so far, but here are a few I like. These are from out in California.

Bitter Jeweler · May 18, 2010

magkelly said:
Another one of Rick, me experimenting a bit with the B&W stuff in CR and Photoshop. In the end I was aiming for something like an retro old photojournalist shot here. It's a bit blurry and noisy to begin with, not a really great shot technically, but I've always really liked it and I wanted to do something fun with it anyway.

This is a nice portrait. It's a shame it's out of focus.

magkelly · May 18, 2010

I love this picture. I think it's an awesome shot. It so completely captures his personality. (Rick is a lovely mischievous kind of person. He's the epitome of the word optimist and a very good friend.) I've tried everything and no matter what it's a bit blurry. There's nothing I can really do about it except go with it and stop worrying about whether it's technically perfect or not I suppose, but this is one of those shots that just really bugs me. I'd give a lot to be able to fix it but oh well, live and learn I suppose. It actually looks a bit better cropped and in B&W though I do miss the bright red of the fire hydrant and all the rust on the chains.

magkelly · May 19, 2010

This shot I've actually gotten paid for the use thereof. It's been used in a cat calendar once and I also had a company out in CA pay me for the limited use of this photo for one of their blank note cards. Taken with my Fuji S7000.

I was just messing around in CR with it trying out some slider tricks they were showing in the Lynda video I'm currently watching. I'm not too sure I didn't over process it a bit this time but I wanted to see if their recovery and clarity suggestions worked and just how much more detail I could really get from all that white fur of his. I got quite a bit back, but I'm not too sure I really like it any better done that way. It is a bit sharper, but it also seems too noisy to me now. I think I liked it processed better the old way. It wasn't quite as crisp, but I actually liked it a bit softer than this.

magkelly · May 19, 2010

Two more, same cat, same camera, different afternoon. Just a couple of nice head shots that I am also playing with in CR and Photoshop, doing as the tutorial suggests. Probably boring for some of you, just your basic pet shots, laugh, but I actually think he's a very photogenic cat.

pbrr1der · May 19, 2010

That cats eyes are amazing!

magkelly · May 19, 2010

pbrr1der said:
That cats eyes are amazing!

Yup, and he knows it too! He's a vain thing my cat, but then again he knows he has good reason to be, laugh. They actually are more medicine bottle green than yellow though. They only look gold in certain lights. I love photographing this particular cat. You can get a bad shot of him, but it's not easy unless he's just not into cooperating for some reason. He's mostly pretty patient with me about it. I think he likes the attention and I always give him something nice to munch on after. My other cat, she's almost impossible to get a good one of. She moves too much and she's got a very short attention span!