Hi. My name is Stephanie, I am 21 and this is my photography blog. I am assuming most of you have come over from my main wordpress account which is
here, which means you are probably already a fan of mine. Yay!
I have always liked photography. When I was a little girl I would often be found in the spare bedroom of my Aunts house looking over the dusty old photo albums while everyone else was hanging out downstairs. It was a lonely way to spend an afternoon, but one I enjoyed and engaged in many times. I would often complain about not being in photos but my family could only laugh because apparently I wasn't born yet. Hmpf! I also wondered why there were so many great photos of my cousins but hardly any of me... I think you guys can probably figure that one out for yourselves!
I think photography is a great way to remember old events that you may have no recollection of otherwise. I remember this night, but not this photo being taken because I was so young! Every year my school had a fancy dress ball at a big sports stadium, where each class from my school would perform a dance in front of everyone. It must have been so cute to watch!
Another photo of me when I was young is here... obviously it is not really, I edited this to show a dream I had as a child where I would met Big Bird on the Great Wall of China. We used to have a video of Sesame St that I loved where the whole gang visited the Oriental Asian continent- or maybe it was just Big Bird? I can't remember it very well.
Here is another image I edited... it was on request by one of my friends. I did two separate images but this is the one I had on me. I hope my friends appreciate all the great things I do for them. This is Sarai, in front of our school. I turned the picture black and white in photo impressions, then layered it with a coloured version and cropped around the flowers so they were in colour and the picture beneath was in monotones, then I merged them and saved it. I always wondered how they did those Burger King posters, but now I know!
I got my first camera when I was 16. It was a canon point and shoot and I convinced my parents to give it to me as an early birthday present because my school ball was that year and I didn't want to miss out on having some great photos. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have many real friends, my own dress or a date and I wasn't comfortable going stag so it probably wasn't a night worth recording. I felt incredibly self conscious.
The camera died after three years of having it, while driving through the Scotland country side. I had only taken about 3 thousand photos in total which isn't many at all so I had to replace it quickly. I used disposible cameras during that trip then started to think about getting a DSLR. Whenever I went on holiday around Europe there were always loads of people using them which made me want one more. I know my trip to Disneyland would have been better if I had one because I wanted to remember the experience but I didn't have alot of film. I'm hoping to go back someday so it probably doesn't really matter. Oh well. I got my photo with Pluto, and thats what matters right?
Anyway, here is a photo from that first camera. It had special effects which I loved at the time, like ''colour selection'' but I have since realised those kinds of things aren't worth having on your camera because you can do most of those things on your computer.
When I was in my final year of highschool, I signed up for photography, which meant my parents had to buy me a new camera... of course my teacher failed to mention that I could do my work digitally so I got my first SLR. Unfortunately I had no idea how to use it, and those lessons had been taught the year before to the art students who actually qualified for the photography course, so I basically used it like a point and shoot, while my other camera was pushed aside for a few months.
I got a rough idea how to develop film and use the darkroom which was interesting but I probably spent less than two hours that whole year actually in there... I switched to digital as soon as I found out I was allowed to. My photography class is how I found out about DSLRs... I overheard some girls in my class saying how cool they were and how this rich girl in our school had one. I didn't want one until I saw how beautiful the photos from my SLR were... they had brilliant colours and were very sharp, but I pushed the thought to the back of my mind because I could barely afford new clothes, let alone an expensive camera.
This is the only photo I have from the darkroom... I developed myself. It was such an amazing experiancing watching the picture appear when I took it out into the light and the chemicals had been washed off. If I ever had the time, I think working in a darkroom would be alot of fun, but it seems to have a steep learning curve.
These photos are what made me love my SLR, even if I hated photography class, and I was the worse pupil...
The original colours in the photos are much more vibrant and show more light. These ones are kind of muted but they weren't always like that. Sorry!
I love the detail in her eyes, so beautiful. And the DOF (Depth of Field)/Boken is lovely as well.I love the reflection of her eyes in the mirror :)
This used to be my favourite picture... unfortunately the reproduction of this photo is awful, but I still have the negatives so I’ll get the photo reprinted some time and hopefully post a better copy here in the future.This photo is too cool for words :)We went to Scotland for a daytrip one day, which as you know is when my point and shoot finally died on me. I got one perfect picture after many with lines and big grayed out areas had appeared in many pictures than I was unable to produce another clear one.
It took more than six months to replace my camera and I originally wanted a Nikon because I had negative experiences with Canon in the past, and Nikon and Canon were the most popular cameras in the field, so I wanted something with alot of additional lenses available and something that wouldn't kill my budget. I wanted a Nikon D5000 originally so I brought a remote control for it and the manual then I realised using Canon would probably be cheaper and I found a similar model I wanted called the Canon EOS 500D. I thought that was what I would end up with because it was a good camera and it came with video but when we went to the store there were none in stock so I got a 450D instead... it was two days after Christmas 2009 and we were traveling to Ireland the next day so I didn't want to miss out on any other photos.
Unfortunately I didn't know how to use it...
I've had my DSLR for close to a year now. I've brought two additional lenses on top of my kit lens (55-250mms + 50mm 1.8) and several photography books but I'm not much closer to knowing how to use my camera. I've taken lots of photos with it though, many of them very good but I think it has more to do with luck than skill at the moment. I don't take as many pictures as I should at this stage because I don't know whats worth capturing and I feel like a dork taking pictures of myself all the time. Also self portraits can be tricky and taking them in public can be really embarrassing- people like to make comments.
I was going to do take some photography classes this year but I missed the deadline because I was stuck in New Zealand during the Christchurch earthquake. I'll have to find another way to pursue my hobby... I guess its time to get my nose into the books I brought and then get out shooting!
My dream is to become the best photographer I can be and to take the kinds of photos I like- I have over 8 thousand photos saved to my favourites on flickr but I have no idea how to duplicate most of the ideas there with my limited skills. My other dream is to set up a photography studio in my home one day and to take photos in the weekend. I can't imagine it as my main profession, but who knows? Its been a lifelong interest so hopefully it will lead me somewhere good :)
