March: 30 days of old pictures

Hello March! I have decided that every month this year I am going to challenge myself. Last month it was to incorporate yoga into my daily life. That challenge went rather well, not without a few bumps and hiccups. :) I was trying to shoot at least twice a week in February and that challenge was going well too, but I was not posting all my pictures. This month is to post everyday to my blog.

This month's theme is to post a previous picture that I have not posted to the blog or to my flickr page. I had a talk with a photographer the other day and I really need to get my photos out there for people to see and critique.  The only way you get better is to have people see your work right? Well, here I am world! :)

Here is my first picture of the March challenge. And in good fashion I'm posting this approximately 30 minutes before March 2.

I attended an event  a couple of weeks ago that spoke on black and latino relations within the the Americas. This is Rosa Clemente on the left. She is a hop hop activist, journalist and entrepreneur. She does numerous college tours and talking with her I realized that she had been invited to speak at my college some years ago. I swear I have a knack for remembering faces! I would also encourage you to look at her wikipedia page.

I've also realized that I have been neglecting the quote of the day that I said I was going to incorporate in each post.


"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one." 
- Elbert Hubbard


Until tomorrow... paz y amor :)

My neighborhood

January 21, 2010: 35 degrees and sunny, 1pm-3:30pm. I had to run a few errands so I decided to walk around and shoot my neighborhood. For each photo I have posted the information so that we can see the best outcome. Every photo was shot RAW but for blog posting purposes I had to convert each photo to jpg. I do have to mention that I am going as amateur as possible. Meaning that I have not altered these photos in any way. I do know how to use photoshop, however I do not have photoshop in my computer, yet.  Gotta get the picture right in the camera lens first. Those are the best pictures. A very good photographer does little editing afterwards.

I was reading Jasmine Star's photography blog and she posted this because a reader asked her how to improve thier manual exposure abilities.  So I took her recommendation and chose to start my camera the same way.


"I was given for shooting midday in full sun with my 70-200IS 2.8 lens was the following: f/2.8, 2500, 100 iso. All of a sudden, I felt like someone had given me a lump of gold. I finally found a place to start!"  ~Jasmine Star

I love getting this kind of information from a professional because it can give you a starting point. As much as I love taking pictures, I have never been tech savvy when it comes to camera manual settings. And with that said, I have absolutely no idea what she means! :) So I figured out from my camera's manual that they shutter speed should be 2500 and the aperture should be 2.8  What is the Iso number?  Frankly I have no clue! After this photo session, I'm actually going to do some research so that I can learn to shoot better manually.

My camera couldn't get an aperture of 2.8 so I started at the lowest, 3.5. From here, with each picture I took I made sure that my camera registered the right exposure for each lighting situation.  Looking back at the pictures, they were all taken with an Iso of 100 but I have no idea how I did it!

Here is the very first picture of the day.

Camera settings: 1/100 3.5 iso 100

This one is soooo much better! Camera settings: 1/400 3.5 Iso 100.

There are many murals in my neighborhood.  My goal is to photographs as many murals in Brooklyn as I can.

I love how the colors pop on this one! And the handwritten addition makes it even more fun! lol! BTW I did not write that. lol! Camera settings: 1/400 5.6 Iso 100

I'm a huge fan of graffiti as well. I would have loved this photo if there were more light. This wall was shaded because the sun was behind the building at this time. I have to catch this one early in the morning to get the right light. Camera settings: 1/160 5.6 Iso 100

I'm also a sucker for fashion.  Had to make my way to Soho to pick up some art supplies and came across this boutique window. Camera settings: 1/50 4.5 Iso 100

These are the last two pictures I took.  I don't really like either. The first one is too light and the second one is too dark.  I'm assuming that in order to get a perfect shot with this one, I'd need extra lighting since not all of the areas that need light are reflecting the light.

From the Beginning

I've renamed my blog to fit the theme of being an amateur photographer. I've been struggling at this blog since I started it. I wanted to write about being a professional photographer. This seems pretty normal since I'm NOT yet a professional photographer. Hmm...How can I write about being a photographer? Well, I can start from the very bottom. This is where my skill level is: amateur, beginner, not yet professional. So my whole thought process was that I wanted to write about the stuff I know.  This is not very much in the photography world. Why don't I write about the stuff that I learn everyday to make myself a better photographer?  This sounds like a plan!

So today I have devised a plan! muuuaaaahahahahaha!!!!!!!! I will go outside and shoot.  I know that I can't shoot everyday but a girl can try can't she? lol! It is 35 degrees and sunny.  Seems like a perfect day to shoot. ;)