Groceries! Part whatever.

Posted on September 8, 2013 by marey mercy

I’ve captured a few interesting shots here and there lately, so it’s time to share. I’m gonna save my fave for last, but let’s start with this one, found in the cheap wine section:

That pretty much sums up the attitude of people who buy box wine. YEP.

I’ve been wanting to capture this little mixed message for several trips now, but located as it is at the front doors to the store, and given the fact that I never remember about it until I’m on my way out and my phone is already stored away, it’s been a hard one to catch. But on a recent quick trip where I was just picking up a few things I remembered to leave my phone out, and although the shot’s a little blurred I think you can still make out the quandary this might put a shopper in if she or he is too literal-minded:

I’m not sure what to do here.

I passed by these pastel-colored booze bottles on the way to the checkout line one day (didn’t pay attention to what sort of booze they contain) and couldn’t resist a quick snap. On its own the picture wasn’t worth much so I gave it the Pixlr treatment:

What happens to your vision if you drink too many of these.

This is one of my favorite iPhone captures of recent memory. This little heart post-it was stuck to the parking lot concrete right behind some dude who was getting out of his car when I stopped to take the photo; he looked at me like I was bonkers, but he did keep his feet out of the shot.

When searching for art in the everyday, be sure to look down on occasion.

Aftermath

Posted on September 6, 2013 by marey mercy

So for my final shots from Saturday’s session, I decided to get some shots of me taking all that makeup off. I don’t really know why. The camera was set up so I figured, why not?

One thing about all that stage makeup is it does a real number on my rather sensitive eyes. The only eyeliner I can comfortably wear is MAC Powerpoint eye pencils; the liquid liners and glitter shadows I use for photoshoots stings when I apply it, and if I leave it on too long will cause my eyes to swell and itch a bit for a day or two after. And the glue from false eyelashes is bothersome too, so my eyes were itching during the entire shoot.

At the same time, when I spend an hour and a half putting on makeup I hate to wash it all off right away, so I tend to keep it on longer than I should. As a result, my eyes were a red, itchy mess the day after this photosession.

This one needed to be black and white for some reason. I think it was the shadow created by my hand that convinced me.

At first I had the idea of wearing a different wig while taking the makeup off, because I rarely take photos of me with my real hair. There’s nothing wrong with my real hair, in fact it’s longer right now than it’s been since I was 30 years old (although it’s still short). It’s just that my wigs have become such a part of my photography-persona that I never care much for shots where I’m not wearing one. But it was too much hair covering my face and I couldn’t get the shots I was after, so I took it off and left the wigcap on. And for some reason I don’t quite understand I chose to put this chambray/ruffle top on; I actually bought it thinking I would wear it for real, but on me it looks pretty ridiculous IRL. However, I am always on the lookout for tops with interesting detail that would look good in portraits, so I kept it. Honestly, it still doesn’t look all that great, but I thought I’d try it out.

It kind of pains me to post a photo of myself without makeup, but I’m willing to suffer for my art.

And, a few photos of the mess I make on picture day:

Neither of those clocks are accurate.

Torture tools for sensitive eyes.

Outtakes

Posted on August 17, 2013 by marey mercy

Still really sick. Haven’t felt this crummy in several years. Too sick to write in complete sentences, obviously. Who needs subjects anyway? Predicates rule.

Found this broken piece of ornament on the pavement by the school’s bell tower. No idea why it’s there in the middle of August, or what sort of ornament it might be other than a Christmas one. Anyway, great colors.

I also found a little graffiti inside the tower; being a good employee I was sure to tell the facilities manager it was there so they can clean it up. Hey, love graffiti is still graffiti, after all.

This is the shot I referenced in my previous post about taking these photos; my friend had the idea to shove the crepe myrtle branch over so it would show up in the shot and I was focused too far out, capturing her hands in the shot. I don’t know why, but this really cracks me up (we did get a much nicer shot when I focused in more closely; she’s still pushing the branches over so they show up in the picture).

OK, this last shot I love. We were taking some photos from the school’s balcony when I noticed this weird mannequin head in the window of a teacher’s classroom. I have no idea why the teacher owns this thing; who knows – I popped off this shot really quickly and loved everything about it, even in the LCD screen. The shadows and reflections are just perfect, at least in my opinion. Not exactly what the advancement director wanted for her school brochure, but this is definitely the shot that made the whole day worthwhile for me.

That’s all for today…back to bed.

No SOOC for me

Posted on August 16, 2013 by marey mercy

This post kinda piggybacks off yesterday’s about Pixlr and photo editing, which I always want to make one word but then I get the red squiggly line of rejection from my operating system. Anyway.

I forgot my camera Thursday but convinced my lovely husband to bring it to me in the afternoon so I could wander the school with the advancement director and take photos she could use in the capital campaign brochure. I have a lot to say about this experience, but it’s late and I am tired and my allergies have gone haywire again, so I’m going to save all that blather for a later post. I’ll have more photos to upload this weekend from this shoot anyway so there’s plenty of time for that. Suffice it to say that taking photos for someone else reminded me why I never want to be a professional photographer.

For now, I just thought I’d share a few before and afters because, well, I find them interesting. I have never, ever, been able to upload a photo without editing it first. The idea kinda scares me actually. I always see what could be better about it no matter how good the shot is initially (which is what SOOC means – straight out of the camera). When I only had a little point and shoot I used editing to create the effects a better lens would have given me, like bokeh, and I’ve never backed off from there. It is true that as my skill and equipment have improved I’ve learned to make do with less, but even the simplest of shots can benefit from some fine-tuning.

I really wanted to point out to my friend (the advancement director) how much better a photo could look with a little work, because of conversations we had while snapping photos about just that subject, and when I sent these before and afters to her, she really couldn’t see what the big deal was. Without getting too much into it now, I’ll just say it is a big deal to me (in an I really enjoy the editing part of the photo process way, not an I will never speak to you again if you suggest SOOC photos are fine) and when it comes to editing I’ll leave no stone unturned to make the photo just how I want it, no matter how close to perfect I think it might be – but I never think an original photo I take is perfect.

So here’s the first example. She really wanted a shot of just the lion’s head against the sky, but there was no way to do it without getting something in the background, unless I was going to shoot right up the lion’s nose.

The sky was really cloudy Thursday and kinda wimpy-looking, and the edge of that crepe myrtle stood out in a bad way. I thought I could work with those clouds and emphasize the strength of the lion statue by emphasizing shadows and contrast as well, like this:

I used a clone brush to get rid of the branches, and had to add a lot of blue to the sky as well as really emphasizing the shadows, but I think the second one looks much better. I may have darkened the school a bit too much though.

Here’s another one – now this was a totally random shot I popped off while the two of us were in the hall talking with another teacher. I really like it and think it’s one of the best of the bunch:

I just love the lights in the hallway and their reflection on the floor, and while the focus is on the lock instead of the sign, I still think it works. And it’s my photo so what I say goes. But, the locker had all this tape and crap on it, and I wanted the colors to pop more, so I used Paint Shop Pro and Snapseed to take care of those things.

I also edited out as much of the red that was reflected in the light hitting the locks – my friend was wearing a red shirt, and in the original you can see all these little pinpricks of red in the glints of light. That’s a really picky detail but shit like that bugs me if I don’t get rid of it. Once I’ve noticed it, it must be fixed, or it will drive me batty.

I also added structure and sharpening, obviously, and brought out the red and yellow in the signs. Added some vignetting too, to draw focus towards the lock. And you can see I wasn’t able to completely get rid of the tape and other gunk on the lock but it looks much better in the second photo. I may have oversharpened or saturated the red in the locker sign, but I will try to live with that.

Here’s the one that my friend could not tell the difference at all when I showed her both of them:

One thing about this school is that it’s fairly new, and only has one building; while it’s functional enough, it’s not very photogenic. This little garden is pretty weak; it has the Mary statue, one sad pot of roses on one side, and one lone crepe myrtle on the other; the grass around it is pretty brown right now, and the two stone benches that face Mary aren’t symmetrical. It’s a bit of a stretch to call this a “garden,” but it’s doing the best it can I suppose.

Funny thing about that crepe myrtle: it was actually nowhere near the statue, but my friend decided that to add interest to the shot she’d stand to the side and shove it over as far as she could without breaking it in half so it would be in the frame. I took a few of the photos focused out too far and you can totally see her hands pushing the tree down. It cracks me up every time I look at it, and I want to share that one along with a few other goodies I discovered (this one I took of a mannequin head that is for some reason stuck in a teacher’s window is just awesome) but I only had time to edit a few shots tonight so I’ll have to share it later).

Anyway, here’s my edit:

Snapseed has an awesome clarity/details feature that really sharpens photos beautifully – something that is hard to do without ruining the shot. I think you can see that really well here. I used some control points to darken the bricks and then saturate them a little for a richer color; I also wanted more contrast in tone between the bricks and the statue. I brightened up the roses in the corner because, why not; and I brightened the branches on the crepe myrtle so they would pop a little and the veining on the leaves would show up. Then I reduced those shadows on Mary’s face (especially on the right side where they were a little too dark) and actually reduced the saturation on her a bit too. Then I added the slightest vignette blur to give her a little depth, since I was using my 17-40 mm wide-angle lens so any sort of bokeh or blurring is subtle if it exists at all. I mean sure, the first photo is fine, but the second one is far more balanced, focused, and interesting. Still not a thrilling shot, but for what my friend is looking for it’s fine. And it is still fun to take a decent shot and see how much better I can make it. Looking forward to working with and sharing some more – especially the few weird ones!

Photoedits

Posted on August 13, 2013 by marey mercy

There’s a great free program called Pixlr that I discovered about a year ago; I used to use it quite a bit but haven’t accessed it much in several months. However, with my recent light and shutter-speed experiments I’ve been getting back into it again, since working with those photos is a different animal from my usual work.

Photo pre-Pixlr

Pixlr has an easy user interface and loads of options to add visual interest to photos. I don’t use it to make major adjustments to clarity, contrast, brightness or anything like that since I do that as a RAW file through Photo Ninja, but I love the overlays and borders available there. I use the effects option on occasion as well, but mostly it’s the overlays and borders that I use. And no, Pixlr’s not paying me to say any of this (as if). I just pulled some photos into it this weekend and realized I hadn’t shared it with readers before.

Post-Pixlr; adding a border and overlay

Generally if I edit a photo with Pixlr now, it’s because I feel it’s a little boring and needs something extra to add interest. The downside is you can’t upload TIFF or PSD files so I have to edit them in JPEG format, which I really hate to do – but to use Pixlr it has to be done.

Pre-Pixlr; it’s fine but a bit boring

Personally I like using the “efficient” editor, but there is a “playful” one you can download and even put on your phone. The efficient editor allows you to control the intensity of the effects you add as well as move them around the image, so I much prefer that version as I like to disguise the “pixlr-ness” of the overlays as much as possible when I use it.

Post-Pixlr; added several overlays and a subtle border

Anyway, it’s a cool little free editor that’s well worth a look. Just click browse, upload a JPEG, and play around for awhile. Hours of fun!

8/3/2013: Revised poem

Posted on August 2, 2013 by marey mercy

I didn’t have much to say today, so thank God I have about 400 poems stashed on my hard drive to fill in when current words fail me. Many of them I’ve already posted here, but in looking for something that isn’t uploaded yet I came across this one, which has been shared before, but always bugged me as the ending felt not-quite-right. In looking it over it suddenly hit me how to improve it by moving the stanzas around. Yay. And I wrote this back in my 20’s, too. Funny how (ugh) 20 years later you can finally discover the solution to an old poem-problem. Anyway, here it is:

Waiting For Bolivar Ferry

We wait our turn
on a weekend
when tourists and teens
converge
on the peninsula
to stretch their skin
in the sun: engines off,
windows down,
radios up,
as if the beat
proclaims
some inner rhythm
of parched hearts.
We are waiting
for Bolivar Ferry.

When it docks
we’ll all pull forward
in tight metal rows
onto the boat
that will slick us
like plastic
six-pack scrap
across the sea.

A sheen of boys
begins to volley
for attention, girls
in open truckbeds
cake makeup,
spray hair
already starched
with heat.

The shoreline
brings the sleaze
out of everyone,
the steam
that shimmies up
from the concrete,
the stick, the sweat,
the hidden grit
that slicks
to the surface.

The original version of the poem is here.

Boardwalk 1

I don’t have any photos of Bolivar Ferry, but I do have some photos of the general area where the ferry is located; these were taken the summer of 2012 when we went down there for my birthday.

As a side note for camera geeks, these were taken with a Canon PowerShot G12, which is a nice compact, single-lens camera (although it’s pretty big for a compact and probably barely fits in that category) that can shoot RAW and is a nice substitute for when you want to take good photos without lugging your DSLR around. However, once I figured out how to use my iPhone I’ve rather abandoned the thing; this was one of the few times I actually used it. I have probably forgotten how to use it at this point, but it might benefit me to pull this sucker out again. It can take damn good pics, and I think it can shoot in burst mode too, which might make for some cool motion shots. Hmm. I may need to use it in a future studio shoot. Anyway, final photo:

Not bad at all for a $400 camera.

Gertie

Posted on August 1, 2013 by marey mercy

Turns out I didn’t have as many house photos as I thought I did. But I went ahead and edited a few of the sweet cat I bonded with while staying in the guest house last weekend – I never did ask what her name was, and nobody told me, so I have named her Gertie. She never would sit still long enough for me to get a decent shot, but I managed to pull together a few that weren’t a total blur.

Any time I came near her she’d crawl out from under the little table where she hangs and demand my attention. OK, she didn’t have to demand, she got it just by being cute.

Yes, my sister-in-law did stamp turkey tracks into the concrete of her guest house. Did I mention she’s a stickler for details?

Gertie also liked to rub her head against the metal stair railing; she’d bang it so hard you could hear it ring out like a gong. I don’t think she’s into self-abuse, just being an enthusiastic cat.

I don’t know why, but I like this picture.

Here is a picture of the water silo as seen from my bedroom window. I don’t know why I like this picture either, it’s just water storage – but I do.

And here is a shot of the new house, although this isn’t all of it. It’s longer, but I was too lazy to continue walking backwards to get it all into the shot. Yes, I really did just say that.

And this is a photo of a painting made by my husband’s grandmother. My sister-in-law had this spot over the dining table set up for this painting in particular; it has its own special light beaming down on it.

Their grandmother and grandfather moved to some land in Big Bend at some point in their lives, building a house of stone there with their own two hands and basically hiding out from the world in the middle of the desert. My SIL loved going out there and spending time with them. In a way she’s created her own place out in the country to mimic theirs, albeit more refined and less deserted than her grandparents’ place. Apparently that old stone house is still standing but has been abandoned for some time; no one has lived in it since they passed away. My SIL went out to see it a few years ago and said it still has the table set for company (I just realized I’ve never asked if this is a painting of the actual stone house; my guess is that it is but I have never gotten that confirmed).

As I might have mentioned, I’m returning to work tomorrow, so I expect my writing will get more sloppy as I have less time to pull these posts together. Hopefully you will forgive my lack of grace or grammar as I move forward.* In closing, here’s a shot of some more barn kitties, ones with which I did not bond. They were sweet enough, just not as convenient as Gertie, who was always hanging out right outside my bedroom door.

*For some reason, I like to upload posts both here and at Flickr right after midnight each day, but clearly that is going to have to change also. My plan is to continue writing the posts a day in advance, and to upload them first thing in the morning when I get up. That’s what I do on Flickr when school is in session.This probably matters to no one, but I’m mentioning it anyway.

House detail

Posted on July 29, 2013 by marey mercy

First off, it’s my birthday today. I don’t like forced celebrations of any kind as I generally find them tedious and more trouble than they are worth, so as usual I am doing nothing special for the big event. Just turning a year older, appreciating the fact that I’m still around to do so, and enjoying being back home after a weekend of traveling. Moving on.

In yesterday’s post I mentioned I’d taken a ton of photos of all the antique architectural details in my sister-in-law’s house, where we visited this weekend. While still there, the internet connection was too slow to bother uploading the photos, but now that we’re back home I can upload the first batch.

This counter is in her kitchen, and was salvaged from an old general store.

My friend Lana made an interesting comment yesterday that antiques can hold spiritual energy from the past, and I liked that idea. In fact I originally thought I’d try to conjure up a ghost for each photo here, but I was not creative enough to do it. I did however have a good ghost for this door (all the doors in the house are antique; most of them purchased from one particular resale shop in the Hill Country):

This antique is haunted by The Ghost That Always Hits You In The Ass On The Way Out. You’re welcome.

Not an antique, but it is a cool picture.

I mentioned this in yesterday’s post, but she bought loads of this recycled wooden trim and used it all throughout the house.

I asked her where the wood came from, but I don’t remember what she told me.The bathtub isn’t antique – the Jacuzzi jets kinda give that away – but it is a claw-foot tub.

These lights are over the recycled store counter in the first photo. As a bonus, you can see my car through the window. You’re welcome again. Also, that painting on the left wall was painted by her grandmother. I have a shot of it I’ll process and upload tomorrow.

Light fixture out of jelly jars. I wonder if it gets jammed often. Double-bonus pun!

Apparently this stove doesn’t work properly, but I loved the bright red knobs on it so whatever.

Lots of driving this weekend and I’m tired, so I’ll upload some more from this trip tomorrow.

7/21/2013: Photo Day

Posted on July 21, 2013 by marey mercy

I literally spent all Saturday taking photos; I set up the studio early and then worked in a few hours of shooting intermittently throughout the day, alternating it with doing laundry and other domestic duties. Sounds thrilling I know.

I took about 400 photos and there were several costume changes. I’m still obsessively working through the results, so I don’t have much to say right now. But I did want to pop by the blog and share a few I’ve processed so far:

I realize the ground is slightly tilted in this photo, but I promise it is perfectly level in real life.

Love the lighting here.

I always have to make myself look stupid at least once.

Outtake Awkwardness

Posted on July 19, 2013 by marey mercy

I set up for a weekend shoot Thursday afternoon, and while I was at it I threw on a crinoline and attempted some sofa-jumping pics (I worked in the interior design industry in the 90’s, and to this day I cannot use the word couch when referring to that particular piece of furniture; it was considered in poor taste to do so, which is one of those completely random, useless factoids from a past career that has never vacated my brain). Anyway, most of the shots were crap, but I did snag this one, which I enjoy:

I have very veiny feet, and until my mid-20’s I had hair on my toes. My nickname in high school was “hobbit feet” because of this. True story.

I took this one shot where I hit the sofa hard and the face I made was so awful, I deleted it directly from the camera. The second I hit the delete button I realized it would have been perfect to upload in an outtakes post on my blog, and actually shouted “Nooooo!” but it was too late. So, the best outtake I cannot upload. But I did find a few lovelies to share.

This one illustrates the importance of being sure one’s Hobbit Feet are pointed

Nice framing

Believe it or not, I’m making an even worse face in the shot I deleted. But at least my Hobbit Feet are pointed.

I always watch a Rifftrax or old Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode while shooting. Weird, I know; but I can’t sit still to watch anything, so I use my shooting time as movie time. Sometimes between that and the industrial-strength fan I have blowing, I have a hard time hearing the timer count down This was one of those times I couldn’t hear it, and realized it was about to go off too late. I tried to scramble into some sort of pose, but I didn’t have time to come up with anything, so I punted:

When in doubt, make this face

I’m going to try out some new costume stuff this weekend, which will require a trip to Party City tomorrow. Time to buy more cheap crap! Maybe I can get my hands on some Hobbit Feet slippers or something. But it would probably be better to get my feet on them (or in them).

mareymercy.

Art, Horror, and Other Obsessions

Tag Archives: Photography