The shot below is my favorite so far, it’s from Sunday, day 7. I was struggling to get some decent water drop shots, and this was actually the first shot I took before remembering I should reduce the aperture to ensure a large depth of field and sharp drops. However, the shallow depth of field in this one is what I think makes it so great, I love the softness and silky feel of the water against the sharp drop. The reason I was struggling so bad to get a decent shot was because my timing was completely off, I took about 500 shots and 400 of them were of just still water. I can’t remember timing being this difficult the last time I took shots like these, but I’m blaming it on the fact that it was late Sunday and I was pretty tired from the night before. So, I will have to do more water drop shots on a day when I’m more energized

I also think it might be time for a layout change. This layout has been up for almost a year, and it’s too springy for the season But I do love it, and I’m pretty proud of it, so it’ll have to wait until I feel a burst of creativity.

So, Valentine’s Day is coming up… Are you wondering if I have plans? For the very first time ever (even including whenever I had a boyfriend) I have a date for Valentine’s Day. Yes, it’s such a cliché that it almost makes me sick, haha But wait for it, the cliché actually gets worse, we’re going to the movies and seeing *drum roll* Valentine’s Day! And it was actually his idea to see that movie on that day. I know I should be all giddy and happy, but I think I’ve just lived too long, seen too much and am too heartbroken bitter at the moment. Plus I’m not really that interested in the guy, but hey, at least I have a date for Valentine’s Day and I get popcorn

Tell me, how do you plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Do you have a date? Will you spend it with good friends instead?

Last year I started a Project 52, which was about taking one photo every week. But I failed miserably Mostly because I took a lot of photos in a week and decided to wait until Sunday to pick which photo to upload for the project and I ended up having a whole lot of photos I never published. And because some weeks I simply forgot to take the photo! So why am I now doing the Project 365? Well, to challenge myself. I’m a year older, a year more experienced in photography, and I have lots more gear than just the basic kit I also think it will be easier to remember to take one picture every day than just one every week. But I have given myself 12 free passes, meaning during the 365 days I may pass a total of 12 days without taking a photo. For days I forget or just don’t have time.

I am now on day two and am so proud I’ve made it this far! I know you’re thinking “two days? come on…” but I had a really busy day and seriously only 30 minutes of free time today to take a photo and no inspiration at all. But I found these pencils in my cabinet and thought “yay! I’ll photograph these!” See? I’m already finding inspiration in new places!

Are anyone of you doing a Project 365? Or maybe a Project 52?

I also want to say thank you so much for your thoughts and comments on my last post, it’s been though, but I’m trying to be positive. Focus on the thought that he lived a long and happy life, and it was his time.

My first try at the water drop shot! Shooting this was so much fun, and I’ll definitely do it again! Setting it up was difficult though, since I live in a tiny apartment and don’t really have a table to use for setups like this, but I did find an almost solution. I should have taken a picture of my setup just to show you how bad it was Timing was also incredibly difficult! Hitting the trigger at the exact moment the drop hit the water, but I did get the hang of it eventually and I can’t wait to try it again! This is my most favorite shot, but there are a couple more at my flickr you should check out as well

I have also learned that reading photography magazines at 2 am could have some serious consequences. At 2 am I can’t really think clearly, and while reading an article in Digital SLR Photography I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a wide angle lens. So what does Lisa do? She goes online, checks prices and somehow manages to convince herself that buying this lens is a very good idea and that she can afford it. The next morning when I woke up I could not remember how I figured I had the money to buy this lens, but the damage was already done and I am now 4000 NOK ($690 using todays exchange rate) shorter and one Sigma 10-20mm richer. Well, it was an investment, right? If I spent the money on food, I’d have enough for food for about 3 months, the lens will last for years. Yes, it really was a good investment. I also have a plan for a photography project using this lens, I’ll tell you all about it in a few days

Ok, I am having the weirdest thing happening to me lately. I keep seeing numbers like 11:11, 22:22, 00:00 (when looking at the time), and also the numbers 66 and 666 everywhere! Like right now it says “Draft Saved at 11:11 pm” while I’m writing this post, only a few hours ago when I was on Facebook it said 66 online (on the chat). I went shopping at IKEA a few days ago and paid exactly 666 NOK. How freaky is this?!

I just noticed none of the pages of my site is working! I had some trouble with wordpress, I’m guessing that’s why, but I have no idea what’s wrong… Don’t know what had happened, but it’s fixed now

Anyways, my head is filled with exams at the moment, my last one is June 3rd, I’ll probably be more active online after that. See you soon!

I’m planning to start a Project 52! I would never be able to complete a 365 project, so I’ve decided to do a 52 weeks one instead. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and decided the time has come for me to just jump into it! If you’re wondereing, Project 365 is a project where you take one picture each day, and in Project 52 you take one picture each week. It’s orignally supposed to be pictures of yourself, but I don’t want to take pictures of myself, so I’m just gonna use a random picture I took each week. I will post my weekly picture each Sunday at my flickr account. Anyone wanna join me with this project? I’m starting this week, and will post my first picture this Sunday

But I tried HDR for the first time today! And I have to say, holy crap it’s FUN! The colors just pop from a pretty dull greyish photo and it just looks vibrant and alive. The photo to the left is a “real” HDR, composed of three exposures. I tonemapped both photos in Photomatix which is where the colors just popped, so much fun I then edited curves a bit in photoshop and applied the unsharp mask to make it a bit more crisp. I also enhanced vibrance and saturation in the sky in both pictures. The photo to the left is a “pseudo” HDR, an HDR from a single RAW file. I took the RAW file and saved three jpg versions of it with exposures +2, 0 and -2. I think I actually like the photo of the barrel better, probably because it has more different colors, the rust on the barrel, the dry yellow grass and cloudy sky.

Do come with comments and suggestions on how to improve I might have overdone the editing a bit, but I like the surreal effect of HDRs

I have uploaded the original, unedited, version of the pictures. Original of Real HDR and Original of Pseudo HDR, you really should take a look, the difference is amazing!

To share something more “personal”, I’m visiting my mom this weekend. I came home (to my mom) yesterday and I’m already having a great time. I met a friend I haven’t seen in well over a year and it was great to catch up It’s so nice to be home, not having to (or choosing not to) think about school at all, and just relaxing. Have a great weekend!  irate:

I haven’t really done any updates on the site in quite a while. I’ve been really busy the past few weeks. In addition to my London school trip, I’ve been in a committee arranging a conference at my school. I was in charge of all the IT stuff, maintaining the website and making all the promotional stuff like posters, flyers, designing the tickets, the program for the day. It’s been ALOT of work, and in addition to all the work I’ve had to do, my other committee members were never satisfied with my work. Always complaining about small typoos, information missing etc. But the thing is, that was not my fault, they wrote everything so they made all the typos, I just copied the text. They were the ones who didn’t send me the information in time, so I just had to make do with what I had. It’s been really stressful and ruined the past couple months of my life, but thankfully the conference was this Thursday, it went really smoothly and it was a success. And now I can finally start studying, I haven’t had time to open a single book this semester… So, now that that burden has been lifted off my shoulders I can finally do things around my site

I didn’t get to see nearly as much of London as I wanted, the time just flew! And most of it flew on the underground, holy crap we spent a lot of time in those trains… But it was ok, I didn’t mind using the underground, and it was a pretty easy way to get around. Some of the places I didn’t get to see, were also some of the most important places in London; Big Ben, London Bridge and Buckingham Palace. I got a glance of Big Ben and also took a taxi over London Bridge, but I didn’t get the time to really “see” them, you know? I didn’t get any pictures of them either…  I did get some photos of the city though, and they’re on my flickr Not all my photos are up yet, I’ve only gone through half of the shots I took, I’ll go through the other half when I find some time.

I’ve also been practicing with slightly longer exposure shots to capture movement in my shots. I don’t particularly like taking photos of people, but when I get them moving, I find I quite like it It was pretty difficult doing it all handheld though, since I didn’t bring my tripod, but I got a couple decent shots. The girl in the pink coat in my shots is one of the girls I traveled with, a fellow photographer I got to know during this trip, and we had loads of fun taking photos So much fun we ended up on the wrong train one night cause we were so busy thaking photographs and just jumped on the first train we saw without really thinking it might not be ours 

And today, as the lovely Sunday it is, I went for a walk in the sunshine and took some photos of the cold weather and snow. I have realized that I love Sundays. They are so calm, no shops are open, only cafés, there are no parties to go to, just spend the day relaxing I might not be as positive about Sundays if it hadn’t been for the fact that the past three Sundays have had really great sunny weather though 

I’ve also made a new quilt layout! I’m really happy with it, it’s the first time I’ve made such an effort into the layout for my quilt. I’ve usually just had a small pop up window and used one of the free backgrounds offered at the Q*bee. But this time I decided to make a “real” layout :up: I also think I need to find some new smilies, they are really cute, but it’s too difficult to see the different emotions in them…