Corruption & Sunshine

I always seem to get hit by some little mess when it comes to these assignments! This week I got struck by the corrupted files - what a mess! I haven't had a lot of chances to get night shots because of my work schedule, and the one time that I did I completely lost all of my images. I went to retrieve them with my card reader and my laptop wouldn't recognize the device and I couldn't figure out why until I troubleshooted with our PC. Sure enough I got that lovely little pop up message that said something along the lines of: Sorry! You're SOL today, the files you are trying to reach are corrupted. Fun times.

I'm going to see if I can get one more night in before turning in everything on Wednesday so I can have them on my contact sheet at the very least, but we'll see.

We did have some nice weather today though, so I had a little outdoor craft day. I love the sun!

Sharks Hockey

Just a couple of extra shots from last night's game of HP Pavilion and the boys on the ice. I played around with the levels and curves on these for the first time.

HP Pavilion

Last night I went to my first hockey in roughly 2 months. As much as I love hockey and the San Jose Sharks, let's just say that it was long overdue. I've been taking my cameras to games for roughly 3 years now, but until last night's game against Dallas, I've never challenged myself by shooting the whole game manually. It's not that easy. Actually, it's nowhere close to being easy. But I also got to test out my newest lens (55-200 mm), which was very much needed with my seats far away from the ice. Sports are never easy to shoot because of how fast the action can be, especially when you have shaky, cold hands! Too bad you can't take tripos in!

I had fun going around during the intermissions after each period of play (that is when I wasn't busy eating something) and here's what I shot:

Counting Down

I have one thing, and one thing only, on my brain right now; it's so hard to concentrate on anything else unless I can relate it back to the fact that I am going to Disneyland in 28 days!!!!

Today a friend of mine (and what a coincidence is it that she'll be my companion to the happiest place on earth) and I decided to have a little fun and make ourselves a countdown calendar because we're just that excited. I made a smart move this time and actually remembered to grab my tripod before leaving my house, otherwise I doubt I would have been able to get any pictures. We got some of the Disney paint chips that you can get from Home Depot that are shaped like Mickey Mouse heads (so cute!) and glued them to a big black poster board. We still need to add a few small touches, but the big things are out of the way.

First day with RAW

So I tried to get a start on our next assignment, quality of light, since Monday, but I made a pretty small (or large) little error - I forgot to shoot in RAW and was still working with JPEGS. Yet another smart move, Jazz! So those images are out the window for this assignment. I just didn't notice until right before I went out to lunch with my sister at Red Robin. So I haven't made much of a start on this assignment, but I did shoot my first few images in RAW. I really love a lot of the lighting and lamps that they have at the restaurant but we had to be out of there pretty fast so I didn't get all the photos I wanted, but at least I tried a few, and then of course there was our wonderful dog, Mackenzie, who is always happy to see us when we come home. The lighting in our house is horrible (we're a bunch of cave people it feels like) so there isn't much light in this image, but I really love it regardless.


I'm really looking to getting some variety in for this assignment, though. I have a hockey game coming up on March 3rd (San Jose Sharks vs. Dallas Stars) and I'm really hoping to get some images at HP Pavillion - yet another source of lighting I get to play around with more. I've been having a little trouble with my exposure at games because that ice just wants to blow out everything. But I'm determined, so it will happen. And I know it'll be too late for this assignment, but I'm going to be at Disneyland in just 30 days! I'm looking forward to going camera crazy there. The last time I went I went a little overboard according to some people, but I go for the atmosphere and taking photos is what I do since I'm too much of a scaredy-cat to go on any rides.

Metering & Bracketing

The third assignment was a big trouble shoot for me - a sore spot and it didn't turn out like I had wanted it to. First I pinch a nerve in my neck, which puts photography out of the picture (haha!) since I could hardly move my neck or my arms and then I get sick leaving me with very little wiggle room to actually shoot the assignment once you factor in all of the rain that we got last weekend. It was a major cause for headache after headache. But I did get it done, which is better than the alternative.


My mom's cat decided she wanted to have a little fun when I was shooting the figurine inside the house. That girl knows how to get in the way of everything and she wouldn't stop playing with the lamp or with the little figurine-dude that my sister was already having fun with trying to create fun poses (it's a set of two and they're usually kicking the crap out of each other in some form or another).

Final Image(s)

And my extra ...

Tough Decisions

Why is it so hard to pick a final image? There's a good 4 or 5 images from this set (48 in 24) that I can see myself turning in as my final image and only choosing one of them is a toughie. I did manage to make a final selection (or two). I ended up submitting a second image just as an extra because I really couldn't decide between the two. We'll be doing the critique on Monday. Yay! I'm already anxious for the next assignment, not that I'm not taking more photos anyways.

Anyways! These were some of my favorites from the assignment. Take a guess which one I am turning in (and I guess which I'm turning in as a kind of "bonus" for my indecisiveness). I do have them all posted to my Flickr account (which I need to update more) and you can view the entire set here: 48 in 24

48 in 24

I finally shot a completed 48 in 24 over the weekend. I can't 100% say it was a typical day for me, but it was a fun day that ended with my typical Saturday night: we had a birthday party for my dad since his family was in town, and then I got to go to work at Target at the lovely old hour of 10 o'clock at night. Now comes the fun part: picking one image to use as my final image. It's a lot harder than you'd think, I can't ever really settle on just one because as soon as I do, I change my mind again. So I haven't made a whole lot of progress just yet, but it will happen.

But just for pure comedic reasons, I thought I would share the silliness that is my dad:


For about an hour he went around the house with the tin that his gift (a wallet) came in hanging out of his back pocket. We all thought it was pretty funny, but that's just what he does.

Day With Dre

The plan was to shoot the first assignment, 48 images in 24, yesterday starting with work at 6 in the morning. It didn't work out like I had hoped considering half of my day was spent at work and in class and I conveniently left my camera at home. Great plan Jazz, great plan! So a friend and I had a last minute plan after I got out of school to go down to the Marina for some photos where I learned a great lesson! Don't pack your camera away!! Right as we were getting ready to leave and I had put away my camera a deer darted out of the marsh and straight into the Carquinez Strait and had disappeared from view before I could even get a bad shot. Great job Jazz, great job!




I had been hoping we could get out to the marina a little earlier than we did. I'm still having a little trouble trying to get the correct exposure and there wasn't a whole lot of light by the time we arrived (someone likes to take a little while to get ready, but we wont say who out loud).

Charlotte the Harlot

I know, I know! It's a fluffy little cat, right? Oh well, I'm sure we'll all get over it. My mom asked me to take some photos of her two new kittens (who are less like kittens everyday and more like tubby little fluff-balls). I shot them a couple of months ago but haven't gone through to edit them until today and decided I would play around with this one on Photoshop. It's such an uncharacteristic shot of her, she's the friendliest little animal I've ever met, but I managed to catch her in a grumpy mood. I probably woke her up, which I know I wouldn't like.

Oink Oink

I snort when I laugh, I love to gorge myself on food, and I can't deny it anymore, I live in a sty. My mom wasn't kidding when she called me a pig! OK, I am only joking, but it doesn't mean that the previous statement wasn't true, because it was. I always tell myself I'm not the biggest slob in our house. I can clean when I want to - no really, I can! The problem is that I don't want to. I can't find things when I clean; it's called organized chaos. I know where everything is when it doesn't belong somewhere (does that make any sense at all?) and when it's put somewhere on purpose I probably wont find it until next year. But I'm getting ready to go to sleep, laying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, dozing off into my own little world. But what do I see? Layers and layers of dust all over the blades of my barely used ceiling fan. Don't we have maids to clean these things up? I guess not. I think somebody needs to do a little cleaning tomorrow. The sad thing is, the floors are even worse.

And I will never admit to this again, just so you know.

Lost & Found

My mom has this crazy habit of losing things, replacing them, and then finding the one that was lost soon afterwards. The best example is her wedding ring. She's lost her wedding ring more times than I can count in my memories, let alone how often she lost it before I started paying attention. To date she's on her 2nd and 3rd ring (both of which she actually still has). I don't remember when ring #2 came into the picture, but it was lost once again right before her birthday about 6 years ago. Surprise! Surprise! She gets ring #3 on her birthday after finding it in this antique shop while out on the coast. Surprise! Surprise! She finds ring #2 the next evening while moving furniture around.

Ring #3 (pictured above) is probably my favorite of the two, but don't tell her that. She should also be happy to know that I found it, again, at the bottom of the laundry basket this morning.