Picture Frenzy

 I'm actually in a photography class with some of my homeschool friends, and every week our teacher gives us an assignment for what kinds of pictures she wants us to take for the week. One of the assignments for this week is a landscape picture, which I love to take. So after getting home from my homeschool group yesterday, I thought I'd head outside and try to get some pictures of a field that is just across from my house.

 And this is when the picture frenzy began.

 It was not long before I realized that my camera has excellent zooming abilities, and I was so thrilled that I decided to test just how awesome those abilities are. Let me give you an example of one of the pictures I took:

 I was standing in the middle of my front yard and I heard a hawk cry out. When I looked up to see where the bird was, I was delighted when I saw it perched atop a tree about 100 yards away from me (I guess about the length of half a football field). So, standing in the same spot, I zoomed in on the hawk...and the pictures came out clear as day! You can even see his eyes!! I was excited I even did a little jig. In my front yard. In freezing weather. Where everyone could see me. And I never do happy dances.

 

 One of the very first pictures I took was of a small house thing in a field that was about a mile away from my house. The picture is so clear, it's as if I was standing right in the field in front of the house, not in my own yard. Awesome? You bet it is!

 This picture frenzy went on for about an hour and a half, complete with excited jumping up and down, and exclamations of "Oh, my gosh! This is awesome!" and "Jake, can you believe it?!" Jake is my Brittany Spaniel, and up until yesterday it was nigh on impossible to take pictures of him since he is such a hyper dog. Now all I have to do is stand about ten feet away from him when he doesn't know that I am watching him and snap as many pictures as I please. It sort of makes me feel like a stalker or something, since I have to be all sneaky. :D

                                             

 All in all, it was a fabulous day. I would say Doug's word, but I believe I've used it in this post even more than Doug himself...Okay, I'll say it anyway: Awesome

My New Obsession :D

  Rembrandt Lighting: One of my favorite types of photography. Or so I found out yesterday. These type of photos are very striking and mysterious (in my opinion), and I absolutely love taking them. If you've never heard of this sort of photography, allow me to fill you in.


  Rembrandt van Rijn was a very talented painter that always depicted the subjects in his portraits with one side of their face cast in shadow, causing said subject to take on a more melancholy, darker feel. Now there is the technique of taking Rembrandt photos, which is pretty much the same thing as the paintings-just with real people. Awesome? Yes.


  I suppose this sort of picture would be better suited for a man, since the shadows tend to give a harsher, or more detailed, look on the facial features. But I took some yesterday of my mom-who is so photogenic she could be a model-and they turned out wonderfully. Of course, my mom would beg to differ since she doesn't like having her picture taken, but I've told her several times that the picture is great. I think it gives her a very mysterious/elegant look. Hopefully I'll be able to persuade her to let me post it on here...It's not like very many people would see it. :p


   Here is one of Rembrandt's self-portraits. See how one side of his face is shaded?


And here is a random Rembrandt picture  of a guy that looks slightly angry. Don't hurt me, mystery dude!

Baby pictures...?

Ciao, mi'amici!


I managed to get a few candid shots of my baby nephew yesterday, though I still have not gotten around to getting any "portraits" of him, or whatever you want to call them. I'm so great at procrastinating, I should totally join a club or something! Eh, maybe later.


You know, I realized just the other day (Thursday, if you're dying to know) that even though I take tons of pictures whenever I go somewhere, I never get any shots of me in any of them. I was with some of my friends the other day, so I took a few pictures of them horsing around. When I saw my grandma later that day and she saw me with my camera, she asked me,


"You've been taking pictures?"


 "Yeah, of my friends."


 Then she asked, "Are you in any of them?" and I was a little surprised that she asked me this. Because, no, I had not taken the time to have somebody take a quick picture of me with my  friends. This is why you have virtually no pictures of yourself, Hogan! <<That was me mentally berating myself, if you are wondering.


  The other day, I was just saying to myself, I wish I had some pictures to put in these stupid frames. Stupid, because there are so many of them and they are all empty. So sad.


  ...


  How did this post get from me talking about baby portraits all the way to the fact that there are no pictures of me with other people? Randomness, I tell you.