Christmas Eve at Gma's and Gpa's

This is just a summary of my Christmas Eve in photos.

These are my grandparents, and this is also the reason you bring a flash with you. So you can balance the uber ugly strong side lighting with a nice soft fill.

















This is what I did to entertain the boys after they finished opening presents. My DS is in the front. I guess the screen was just plain blue since the light was going off on their faces and my screen too. They were greatly amused I was taking pictures of them. We were playing mario party ds, and I was losing until the end of the game, where a freak occurrence led me to win.




I like this photo, but I wish Abigail was in focus. I learned that when photographing kids opening presents, the chance of you getting a nice photo that is also focused correctly is like 1 in 90753092385789237589735.



















This is another "I wish it was in focus better" moment. Ben got a Guiness Book of World Records book, and he opened to the page with 3d goggles on it. Conviently on that page was also the woman with the world's largest boobs. The 2 little boys kept quickly opening the book to that page, looking at the image, giggling, and closing it. The fact I got the shot in focus this much is pretty impressive to me. The moment is very hilarious though.

This was a helicopter game where you had to pick up cargo and drop it in the drop zone within a time limit. It was probably one of the most difficult games I have ever played, and we never actually managed to get it to do what it was supposed to. I was just playing with the depth of field and shutter speed on the helicopter and this is the one I like best.





Grab shot! Afterwards Mike was like "I had no clue what you were doing" and I still don't know if Becky knows she was photographed.










The one thing about Christmas Eve is the amazing amount of photos that get taken. This is a shot that shows 4 people trying to get a photo of my grandparents. I liked that the flash was going off in the frame, and that my grandparents are blown out by light overkill.







Becky pulling the sneak attack photo, only to be stopped by her father who was waving his hands through her shot. And also notice this nice quantities of ham on the table. MMM ham.









This was a hilarious moment to watch. Karen is telling her daughter to pose with a Barbie doll for a photo, but Abigail wants to keep putting the Barbie in front of her face as a joke. I like that you can see this happening in the shot.



So that was my Christmas Eve in a nutshell: food, family, fun, photography, and Nintendo.

12/22 to 12/28

Monday 12/22 : My Living Room

My dad has like the most elaborate tree to decorate ever. This year we only put 1/3 of the decorations on it that we have to go on it. Our tree is over 9 ft tall and is home to all your favorite cultural icons such as the beatles, scooby doo, superman, etc.

I liked the pattern of the balls in the box of decorations. I noticed my dad continuously reaching in this one box, so i snapped a shot while his hand was breaking the frame. This was the best shot of all of this scenario I shot.



Tuesday 12/23: My Porch

We have a massive sodium vapor light on my front porch, and the light changes everything around it a lovely pea soup/ sea foam green when the camera is balanced for any other lights. I just stuck a 14 mm lens up in the air into the Christmas lights so that the lights would be in your face. I also like the blue and white contrasting with the sea foam green.


Wednesday 12/24: The House of the Grandparents Morrison

Every Christmas Eve we go to my Grandparents house and have a family party. Please check out the pull out blog on Christmas Eve for a more in depth look into this. This shot is the "I can take my own Christmas photos" picture, where everyone else (Becky and Mike) are confused as to what is going on.


Thursday 12/25: My Living Room

Christmas was relaxing. This photo is of a really crazy/cool moose statue my dad bought my mom. If you know anything about this house, you would know my mom is addicted to decorating the house in moose. All I wanted to do with this is get a close up shot of the crazy moose eyes/ moose. I am amused.














Friday 12/26: My Living Room

My parents and I decided to get out all of our old card games and play games all boxing day evening. This game was called 5 Alive, and it is basically a glorified version of 21. I got my butt kicked by a serious of unfortunate events, so I was free to take photos. I framed this so that you could see the hand of my mom peeking into the frame, while still seeing the action of my dad playing his card. I really like the smirk that is developing on my dad's face as he plays the card, as well as the motion of his hand.

Saturday 12/27: My Bed

This is just hours before my basement flooded and I would spend the night hand drying books. I took this with my cell phone camera. I have a work lamp next to my bed with a 100 watt light bulb in it, which is why the light looks so interesting. It was also extremely difficult to position the image of Garfield so that he looked like he was jumping on my head. That's all I really wanted to do with this photo, make Garfield jump on my head.











Sunday 12/28: Honeyville Church

The powere went out near the end of the service today so we had to finish it without electricity. No big deal since the church was built in the 1800's and the acoustics could handle no electricity. Basically, I wanted the lights to show that there was no light coming out of the bulbs, the candles to show that they were lit, and the church to be a dark tone. Once the power went out it was very grey and dark because very little light was coming through the windows.

At Nathan's place

From 12/20 to 12/21 I was at Nathan's house in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada! Here are a few fun shots from the weekend, or just things I felt like sharing.


This is the view towards the lake from the top of the hill at Nathan's camp.
















Here is Nathan's crazy dog. I like this shot because he looks real laid back and its a simple shot. And yes he is a crazy dog.











This is the dog one second,



and the next second, he looks like this for no reason!









Nathan took me on a tour of the camp, which was by far the most awesome camp that I have ever walked around. Here we are exploring the wild unknown of the girls' bathroom.









Nathan also taught me how to play the basic form of settlers of catan. I still am a little clueless when it comes to playing (and boy can his brother kick butt at this game). This is just a fun depth of field shot.









Here is another fun shot. I bought Nathan of Anti-Monkey Butt Powder, and he LOVED it. I knew he would enjoy it, but I had no idea he would like it that much. Eventually it ended up being a facebook image and status. Oh and this just goes to show all people make stupid photographer faces when they take photos, not just me!



Overall the trip was awesome despite the massive travel issues open my return. It was fun to go and I hope to visit again some day when the weather isn't potentially going to kill me!

Sandy Creek Basketball

On Wednesday 12/17 I shot JV and Varsity Boys Basketball: Sandy Creek Comets VS. Alex Bay Purple Ghosts.

The Jump Ball:

This was the JV jump ball. I liked the body language of the Ref as well as the look of anticipation on the boy's face right before he leaps to get the ball. Its not the greatest shot but it gave me a good idea for the jump shot for the next game.















This is the Varsity Jump Ball. For this shot I managed to get my way up to the track above the gym. I really wanted to see what a jump ball image would look like from above. There was an added bonus of a great facial expression of the boy on the left side of the image. I noticed that there were a lot of great faces made during these 2 games.













Facial Expressions:

This player made the best expressions the entire night. It shows that he was really devoted to the game and how he was playing. He really went all out. A great facial expression can take an otherwise boring image and make it very interesting.
























This one is more subtle, but I was just amused by how often players stuck out their tongues when doing lay-ups or going in for a shot.



















This was another guy who made amusing faces the entire game. I thought it was funny that he wasn't really paying attention to where he was throwing, and instead was making a funny face.













Basketball:

These are just the edits I thought were slightly interesting.













I thought that this player had amazingly good lay up form for just being a high school player. Every time he went in for a shot I knew I could count on awesome body language.














This was a really good screen play. The white team didn't notice the purple player setting up, and it was a very effective play. Overall, the body language of the players is very nice and simple, and it is easy to tell what is going on here.














I liked that this kid looked like Indiana Jones rushing out of the Temple of Doom with treasure. It has a nice layout of falling bodies and a triumphant moment of the player emerging with the ball.






I thought this was a cool shot of someone trying to throw the ball back into play.













Cheerleading:

I liked the motion and body language of the cheerleaders into the frame. The extra space on the right gives the feeling of movement further into the frame.









This image is about a cheerleader who slipped and started to fall while being held up. I love the expressions and the eyes of all of the girls in this image. They are all in shock or laughing about the falling girl.

12/15 to 12/21

Monday, 12/15: My Living Room
I was just amused that we have deer wall paper on the wall and that there was a pine tree in there as well. I can't believe that I didn't notice this earlier, since this is in the living room every year. Maybe its because I've never been home before the tree was decorated before.




Tuesday, 12/16: Exercise Bike in my Living Room

I have been attempting to work out on days that I a not subbing. After I made this decision, I subbed every other day for the rest of the week basically. It was way harder than I thought it would be to take a photo of myself riding a stationary bike from above.




Wednesday, 12/17: Sandy Creek Central School Gym, Boy's Basketball

Today I shot Basketball. Please check out the accompanying blog to see the photos and hear my analysis of those photos. I was excited since I hadn't shot basketball in over a year. This was one of the most interesting shots from that.





Thursday, 12/17: The Edge Teen Center

I loved the motion of Winona dancing around in her flowing tutu. This photo is more about the motion than the people doing the motion, which is why no faces are present in the photo. Additionally, I like that it is a very anonymous image.







Friday 12/19: Living Room

Today we got out of school after only being there 2 hours due to a snow storm. This is a shot of Mom taking advantage of the extra hours to get grading done before the weekend. The strange color cast is from the very large television across from her.






Saturday & Sunday 12/20 & 12/21: Nathan's House in Haliburton, Ontario

This is a teaser shot of where I was this weekend. I braved bad weather to be able to return home Sunday night, but overall it was a fun weekend. Check out the accompanying blog to see more shots from the weekend!

sorry about the lack of update. from being snowed in in canada one weekend, to the holidays and then a very sick grandma i just havent had time. we will try today i suppose.

Edit:

So I am too lazy to type all the text for the blogs right now but I do have all the photos uploaded into the drafts! there will be a lot to make up for me being so late with them all.

there will be the 2 weeks posted separately and then 3 special categories:

SCCS basketball, Christmas Eve, and Nathan's House

i will get that up sooon!

-amanda

Dec. 8 to Dec. 14

Monday December 8:
Edge Teen Center

So Jake wanted me to take some photos of him for his surrealism project. This shot was a grab shot during a down time when Jake was getting frustrated that his idea wasn't working too well. Eventually this led to many Rembrandt style lighting photos, as well as an art history lesson. It is lit using one stage light, so it is a harsh light source. I liked the balance of light and dark in this image. Jake is a good model even when he isn't modeling.












Tuesday December 9:
My Living Room
Dad is addicted to playing Mario Kart on my new DS. This is just a shot I wanted to take to show off my new Legend of Zelda themed DS. I like the depth of field, you can still tell Dad is happy playing, and you can tell someone is playing. The strange color is actually from the tv casting blue light on him.













Wednesday December 10:
Mr. Krenrich's Lab area

I was subbing for Mr. Krenrich today, whose main class is Marine Biology. This is one of his student's tanks in the back of the room. It was the most
well lit tank, and the fish were the most interested in watching me take their photos. I chose this one because the photos from the front of the tank have a reflection of me in them. Additionally, I liked the arrangement of the fish inside the tank, and the colors that were in the environment.

















Thursday December 11
The Edge Teen Center

This photo is all about hands and the passion that the hands convey. I'm not that crazy about it.
















Friday December 12:
Cornerstone Assembly of God

Tonight was Sandra's wedding to Rob. Boy was it blizzardy out. No I wasn't the photographer. My intent was to go to it to support a friend, but I did snap a few photos out. This was my favorite, Sandra being walked to the alter by her older and younger brothers. It is still weird to see Sandra in a dress.

















Saturday December 13:
My Basement

My original plan was to go to a show tonight for Aaron's band. However, I ended up feeling sick and decided it was best not to spread my disease around the crowd at the show. So I knew I could rely on my brother to be in the basement playing a video game. I believe he was playing Call of Duty, and just ended up dying (which made for the best photo because the red screen shows up best in a photo!) It was like his only death of the match so I just got lucky. I like how you can see the controller and the tv in the same shot. Additionally my brother's laid back body language is interesting. Coupled with the wide angle lens, the room and my brother look huge.

















Sunday December 14:
Honeyville Baptist Church

This was during the Kid's Christmas service. I thought it was a nice little photo of people singing hymns in the church service. Now that I look at it I should have cropped in the left side. Also the original has an annoying magentay red that is hard to balance. Overall I am pleased with this nice little moment, that also shows setting.

12/1 to 12/7

Monday December 1:
My Kitchen

I cook dinner most every night basically because I cook when I get bored. This night was sweet curry turkey (needed to get rid of left over thanksgiving!) with minute brown rice. This just shows how hectic the kitchen can be. I also liked the repetition of circles and I never noticed how man things in a kitchen environment are round, until today.

Tuesday December 2:
My Basement

My brother was setting up the drum set in the basement.I love this pedal and just thought it would be a cool angle to view it from. I think I will try to get a more in focus shot some other time by using liveview.























Wednesday December 3:
CBS Broadcast

I LOVE RANKIN BASS CHRISTMAS SPECIALS! I hadn't done anything photographic all day long and I decided that watching Rudolph kick off the Rankin Bass holiday special season wasn't photographic either... or was it? So I thought I would take my 14mm and try to distort what you were seeing as much as possible. I had several favorites but I thought this one illustrated the technique the best and filled the frame the most.








Thursday December 4:
The Edge Teen Center
I have been teaching Winona how to drum so that someday she can become the drummer for the teen band. I made her play a song that she had never played before for the first time Thursday night. She was incredibly nervous so I went up there to keep her company and to keep a beat for her. Of course I had to take advantage of an angle that you normally don't get. I liked that this showed motion in drumming that isn't too blurry so that you can still see the subject. Also I think the abstraction keeps the focus on the main subject: the drumming.














Friday December 5:
Simworld/my bed room

I had realized around midnight that I hadn't taken a photo of the day yet. I was playing the Sims so I decided screenshot of me yelling at Sim Amanda to do things right.










Saturday December 6:
My driveway

Well I needed to clean the foot and half of snow off of my car that had accumulated over the past 3 days (it was all in vain, 6 inches was on it in the morning). I will admit that photographing yourself with a D3, while cleaning snow off your car, and not having any feeling left in your fingers is probably been one of the more difficult things that I have done. I liked this one because of the action of the brush. Also the color of the sky (that way because of the storms we have been having, coupled with the train yard back there... it was really that color) and the presence of a sodium vapor light near my vehicle, made for some interesting color casts.

Sunday December 7:
Honeyville Baptist church in a snow storm

This is kind of just a teaser trailer for a project I will be working on this weekend. My church is doing the Christmas story play with a comedically corny twist. I decided to document the rehearsal and production, as well as take some audio and make a nice little multimedia package about it and how it teaches about Christmas.

I loved this shot when I saw it. I was kind of just one in a quick series of fired off frames. But the expressions and gestures that the boys have during a 3 wise men rehearsal were just too funny. This shot gives me hope for a pretty decent little piece I could put together.