THEMACGIRL*

Last night Rob and I ventured out in the cold weather, and we headed to downtown Louisville to take long exposure photos. The photo to the left Rob took, and the lower one I took.

The photo of me wasn’t a long exposure; Rob simply placed his strobe on the ground in front of me. I was really surprised how dark everything behind me looks, given the fact the bridge (2nd Street) that we were on was fairly lit up. I imagine as he took these photos he blinded many drivers as they passed by. Fortunately, there were no accidents! Heh.

By the end of the night, I wasn’t sure how I felt about my photos. Compared to Rob, who has been doing this much longer than I have, my photos were pretty mediocre. However, I was happy to find a few that I did like this morning. The photo below was taken with Rob’s 16-35mm f/2.8 L lens. I’m really surprised that he let me borrow it, considering that I told him I was going to steal his 5D Mark II camera when/if he bought it! O;-)

I’ve been saving a little money here and there for a new lens to replace my kit lens. I’m torn between a wide angle or a lens with a focal point similar to the kit lens (18-55mm). I’ve been eyeing the Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 and the Canon 17-40mm f/4 L lens. The 17-40mm would be wide enough for what I’ll be using it for, but I love the look of most photos taken with an ultra-wide angle lens. I have to add that Rob’s 16-35mm f/2.8 L lens was really nice…. but definitely out of my price range! I think the lens itself is more than I’ve invested overall in my camera collection. Ha!

I recently found a very cool application that turns photos into polaroids called Poladroid. Having had a polaroid camera and buying film for said camera it’s nice to have a *free* way of having polaroids without spending a fortune on film. Not to mention that the film is being phased out, so once it is gone you’ll be spending a lot of money for it on eBay. The photos in this entry were either from my DSLR or Holga originally that were turned into polaroids, pretty cool huh?

My only complaint with the application is that it doesn’t seem to read .cr2 (RAW) photos, that or my computer has a heart attack when it tries to. It has to be the application, because my Powerbook hasn’t let me down yet. Sorry Windows users, but there’s not a version for you just yet. This should be even more reason for you to make the switch to a real computer. JUST KIDDING! ( Not really! :) ) Here are some other photos that I’ve used with the Poladroid application:

I’ve already started thinking about possible traveling in 2009, yes, it’s a little early, but I always like to have things to look forward to. I’m pretty sure my Mom and I will be visiting my brother Roy in Seattle at some point. I really, really would love to take a cross-country road trip somewhere. Seattle would probably be the perfect trip, however, I don’t see myself enjoying that with my Mom. A road trip like that would be more enjoyable with someone around my age. I’m not really sure what brought this on, other than the fact it would be a great photo opportunity. I really hope this happens, but it’s going to be hard finding someone I could spend that much time with and the potential for high gas prices again. I’ve been enjoying the low gas prices in Kentucky, I think the cheapest I’ve seen has been $1.83. Unfortunately, gas will be back up to $4/gallon before we know it. What is the cheapest you’ve seen gas in your area?

I always pass Bernheim Forest on my way to Louisville, but in the twenty-four years I’ve been living here, I’ve never stopped. I didn’t have class today because of Election Day, so my flickr friend JJ and I headed up there. After getting there and walking on one of the trails I was kicking myself for not visiting Bernheim sooner. It’s so pretty and peaceful to be surrounded by the woods. I live on a 185-acre farm and I am surrounded by woods but they’re not as extravagant. If we have any more warm days and I’m off I’m definitely going back before we head into Winter.

After going on a short trail and then across the Canopy Bridge we headed back to JJ’s car to find another spot to take pictures at. When he put his key in the ignition his key would not turn. He wrestled with it for about 30 minutes, I even tried and no luck. He eventually called a tow truck and I had to find someone to take me back to my car, my car was about 15 minutes away. I’m usually not in these situations so after calling my brother and finding he was unavailable I didn’t know who else to call. I could’ve called my parents but they would freak out if they drove on the expressway. My friends were all working and by the time they got off of work the park would be closed. I finally decided to call my boss and he picked me up at about 4:30-4:45. After I got back to my car I called JJ to see if he was on his way home. He was still waiting, it turned out that the tow truck went to the wrong address, and it was going to be another thirty minutes before he showed up. Needless to say, today was not his day. :(

Despite the inconvenience of JJ’s car being temperamental I had a good day. Today was the perfect fall day, high of 75, with the sun out showing the beautiful fall leaves. I truly love this time of year! The past few years in Kentucky we haven’t had a very long fall, it usually went from really hot to really cold over a few days. I’m happy when days like these come along and I can actually do something with them. You can view the rest of my photos here.