Art not so ordinary. Part 7.
Conclusion.
Today is the last day of my week of every day art. I hope you enjoyed it. =) Today’s last few pictures are profiles of my husband and eye, doing random things, where the picture gave me an overall feeling that I found interesting.
This first one is of me, standing in the doorway to an underground lounge in Anacapri, Italy where Luv and I went for our honeymoon. I really like the effect of the silhouette in this picture with the warm, sunset-like colors in the background. This picture gives me kind of a mysterious feeling, which makes me like the name of the lounge in the background even better: Underground. minimal post processing on this picture. Take on the Canon Powershot S40 almost a decade ago.
This is a picture of Luv taking a picture on the coast of California on our trip own to Monterrey. I really liked the the look of him standing tall in the foreground, with both mountains and beach in the back. Post processing: a little vignetting, decreased saturation and vibrance and increased clarity.
I can usually remember where almost every picture is taken…but not this one. I’m pretty sure it is in a random store in Westminster, MD…but not positive. Couldn’t help myself. I just really liked the casual stance taken from the back.
Art not so ordinary. Part 6.
Day 3 of my week of “everyday art.”
This was from a campfire at a birthday party a couple of years ago. I got somewhat hypnotized by the patterns the smoke was making as it rose from the fire.
The house numbers from my beloved first house. This was the week after I got my new macro lens, so I was enjoying playing around with it.
Ice in a cup. Selenium preset in lightroom. Again, my new macro lens.
Bolts from a bridge in California.
Art not so ordinary. Part 5.
Day 5. Colored patterns.
Bricks from the patio outside of Davidge Hall at the University of Maryland Medical School. I simply liked the pattern. In Lightroom, I then applied some vignetting and a cross process effect.
The side of an old building in Old City Philadelphia. Sepia filter.
This is actually sand on a beach in Goa, India. Taken on my Canon Powershot S40. The original picture is really not incredibly exciting and is somewhat washed out. But I turned up the blacks A LOT and really liked the effect it created.
This is actually a glass door at a restaurant in Philadelphia. Random. I just liked all the colored polka dots. The glass is actually see through, but there was a shadow behind it. So again, I turned up up the blacks to get this cool effect. I also slightly increased the saturation, vibrance and clarity.
This is the surface of a trampoline, taken with my iPhone. I was surprised to see how well the phone would hold up at such a close distance. I obviously couldn’t set the aperture myself, but liked the effect I got here.
Art not so ordinary. Part 4.
Day 4. Black and white day.
These first three pictures are abstract black and white patterns created from buildings in Chicago. For each of them, I obviously first made them black and white, then turned up both the exposure and the blacks to give them a more high contrast look.
This is the kimmel center in downtown Philadelphia. The pictures is actually of glass – the vertical lines are the metal cords holding up the glass, and the slanted lines are the roof of the structure showing through the glass.
My daughters bouncy, gummy ball. Wide aperture. High contrast.
Art not so ordinary. Part 3.
Day 6. Movement. Today’s pictures are all patterns created from ordinary items with a touch of movement.
Tree branches swaying…take with a long exposure & a couple glasses of wine. =)
A tree with red christmas lights. This can be done even with a regular point and shoot camera. Just turn off your flash, and it will automatically set a long shutter speed. Then look up, and spin (just don’t fall!)
The entrance way to a resort in mexico. Taken at night with the lights on, from the window of our rental car. I propped the camera on the window sill to try to reduce vertical movement and focus mainly on the horizontal shear.
Taken with my iphone, while nursing my daughter in her nursery. The yellow is her wall, the very small smudge of brown is her rug, and the blue is a blanket sitting on the ottoman in front of me. It was not very bright in the room, so again, I turned off the flash, and basically waved the camera while I took the picture. It is pretty grainy since it is a long exposure taken on an iphone, but I like the effect. Reminds me of pointillism.
This is the bottom of a small wading pool in a resort in Goa, India. Taken with a VERY old canon powershot. Again, no flash, and slightly long exposure (1/80) to allow for the wave.
Art not so ordinary. Part 2.
I decided to turn last night’s post into a week long series of abstract art from every day scenes. Hopefully it will inspire some of you to find beauty in your every day activities.
Try it out: In the next few days, look around you and find something ordinary and make it beautiful! Take a picture with your camera, or phone – whatever you have on you, and post a link to it here in the comments to one of my art series posts! Unfortunately it is not possible to post pictures directly into comments, but you can put a link to a facebook page or flickr page – wherever your picture lives. I would love to see what everyone comes up with! Happy snapping!
This is a close up of a door from a very old house in Old City Philadelphia, taken while I was on a walk with Radha. I just really liked how the chipped paint looked. Post processing: I turned up the blacks and the contrast pretty heavily.
This is a random truck parked on the side of the road in Old City Philadelphia. The original picture looked ok, but in lightroom (my FAVORITE photo editing software) I applied a preset that gives it a “crossprocess” effect. One of my favorite websites is lightroomkillertips.com where you can not only learn all sorts of cool tips for using lightroom, but where you can also download a ton of awesome presets to use on your pictures!
Old mailboxes on the coast of california while driving to Monterrey from San Francisco. It was a bright sunny day, and I just really like the weathered look of these mailboxes.
This is a thali (plate) of 4 ceramic bowls with different herbs/spices in them (turmeric, yogurt, henna, oil) used to “beautify” brides before their wedding. This was the morning of my sister’s wedding almost a decade ago! Taken on my now almost archaic (but still ticking!) canon powershot. My FIRST digital camera.
A random record store in Chapel Hill, NC (GO HEELS!). I liked this particular collection of artists superimposed on the musical genre sign. In Lightroom, I turned the saturation of all colors down to zero except for yellow (which I increased just a touch).
This is a set of glasses for sale in some random shop in california. I got as close as I could get to them without impinging on my shortest possible focusing distance (didn’t have my beloved macro lens at that time), then zoomed up even further and stopped the aperture down to about f/3.2. I like the abstract effect of the colors and almost not being able to tell what this is a picture of.
Same store, a cup full of bright green plastic clothespins. Did a bit of post processing on this one as well.
Art not so ordinary. Part 1.
I truly believe that you can see beauty .. or art … in almost anything.
The more you practice a craft, the more you start to think in terms of that craft – even in your day to day activities. One of the by products of my becoming a photographer, is that I seem to view the world in “pictures.”
Today’s post is an exhibit of this.
Find more of my art at: jas-photo.com
My humidifier recommendation
I have had many people ask me what humidifier we use in our daughter’s room, so I thought I would share it here. We use the Air-O-Swiss 7135 Digital – and have gotten great use out of it – especially over the last 2 weeks when Radha has had two really bad colds back to back (spending most of tonight in her room, holding her upright).
Anyways, the humidifier is definitely on the more pricey side, but it is very reliable, stays clean (it has an ionic silver stick) and can be used in a large room. It is quiet, and uses ultrasonic humidification, so as soon as you plug it in and put water in it, it is producing mist. We have been using it for 2 years now and are still very happy with it. In fact, we haven’t had any problems with it, which is more than I can say for the less expensive, store bought humidifiers that we have in our master bedroom (barely lasts through one season). The one thing you should keep in mind is that you need to elevate the humidifier off the ground about 1 foot to keep the surrounding ground dry. We have used it in our daughter’s room – both old with hard wood floor and new with carpet, and haven’t had any complaints.
As far as cleaning goes, the ionic silver stick keeps the water from getting gross (all the other humidifiers I have used inevitably start getting a nasty film on them), but you do still need to clean it with a demineralization cleaning packet every so often. The humidifier has a cleaning light to let yo uknow when it needs to be cleaned. We usually have at least a 1 month response time to this light, and it still seems to be working just fine!
Powered off
All the essentials for an afternoon with my hubby when the crazy wind gusts have left us with no power (the little one is napping):
The best swaddling blanket EVER
I while back, I wrote a post on http://www.Greenista.com about the Miracle Blanket. It is the absolute BEST waddling blanket ever, and I am always trying to spread the word about it other parents. I’ll let my post speak for itself, as I re-post it below.
Swaddle, swaddle, swaddle…baby’s best friend (and parent’s too)!
For 3 years, I have spent one out of three to one out of four nights awake taking care of patients in a hospital, often so sleep deprived I wanted to cry… Yet NOTHING prepared me for the sleep deprivation of being a new parent! There is no respite from this new phase of life! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE it, but it is definitely not easy.
Having seen several close friends’ children have miserable sleeping patterns, I became obsessed with how my baby would sleep…even before she was born! I started doing some research about sleep – talking to other moms, talking to physicians, reading books, watching DVDs…you name it (stay tuned for other posts on things I learned about sleeping). Perhaps the most prominent strategy I came across was “swaddling.” Now I know this may seem like an obvious concept for a lot of you, but trust me, there are some people who have never heard of it!
The idea is that you want to recreate the feeling of the womb for your newborn, who has just spent 9 months nestled very snuggly in the warmth of your (or your wife’s) belly. So, in preparation for Radha’s arrival, I watched videos, went to classes and read books on how to swaddle. By the time Radha came along, I was a swaddling pro! And I found that without a doubt, swaddling leads to better sleep. But alas, there is one main problem with this seemingly perfect plan:
No matter how hard you try, a little arm, or a little leg will somehow find a way to break free from the ever so perfect swaddle!
Solution: Swaddle me to, swaddle me fro, the Miracle Blanket is the way to go!
I tried many different types of swaddling blankets. All of them were basically either squares or rectangles. The basic idea is that you fold one corner down, put the baby in the middle with their neck at that fold. Bring one side over the baby, then bring the bottom up, and then the other side over (this is a little simplified…trust me, I was trying all of the most detailed swaddling tricks). The problem is, that depending on the size of your baby, and the stretchiness of the blanket, little babies’ legs and arms can wriggle their way through.
One of my friends finally suggested: the Miracle Blanket (www.miracleblanket.com). I hesitated to buy it, because it costs between $26-$29 a pop! I doubted it could be that good…. So, I borrowed one from a friend, and lo and behold, it WORKED! It is actually a little bit complicated to use (see this YouTube Video or website) but you get used to it very fast, and you will fall in love! As soon as I started using it, my daughter starting sleeping better. She, like all babies, sometimes cried more while I was swaddling her, but once she was swaddled, she would calm down, and because her limbs wouldn’t break free, she would sleep for long stretches in the night! It was awesome. Before I knew it, I owned 3! Hope you find this helpful – I would love to hear your comments and stories!
SUMMARY: The Miracle Blanket
PROS: It works! Arms and legs do not come out and babies stay asleep longer. You can use it from when your baby is a newborn until you want to wean the swaddle. Some babies do get too big for it, but they are usually ready to wean by that point.
CONS: Pricey… but no different than the over-sized receiving blankets that you will have to get once your baby gets bigger than 7-8 pounds. And a little complicated to use at first, but don’t worry, you’ll catch on quickly!
PRICE/AVAILABILITY: The Miracle Blanket is available online at www.miracleblanket.com – you can get many different colors and styles. The price is usually about $26 (~$5 cheaper than in stores) but you have to pay for S&H. You can also find it at BuyBuy Baby, for $29.99. Definitely the way to go if you want it ASAP. You will have limited color options, but should at least be able to find green, pink and blue. Also, they now have an organic options – perfect for all you “greenistas!”
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