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I've been pretty low on ideas lately for photography. All this weird crummy weather does not really make it easy. I'm also very timid with taking my camera out in the rain. So while sitting at home I was drawn back to stumble upon out of boredom. Ironically I kept getting photographers web pages and online portfolios. I stumbled upon one that looked really familiar to me, not because it took me to a facebook page, but because I've seen these pictures before. But where? I kept looking through the albums on his page of all of his great photography. Then I ran across a picture that I was in. It was one of those "oooh yea" moments. Me and some old friends of mine went to this young couples house because they were having an ice cream social. It was pretty random but my friend knows them because they are neighbors. The father of the family is a quite the artist and photographer. It took me a good amount of time to quickly sift through his pictures. There is so many.
If you're interested in looking through the pictures go to his facebook page. After creeping on his facebook for a bit I found his web page. It's called thorthought.com. If you actually go to this web page and click on the Saginaw Happening button, it will take you to his blog. It goes through blogger, so if you enjoy his pictures as much as I did you can follow his blog. It's all about events that go on in Saginaw. He takes some pretty amazing pictures. He inspired me to at least try to take some pictures. So I just went outside (after the rain let up) and I got a few good pictures.

Only At Night

A wonderful photography experiment turned out amazingly well. I greatly appreciate the help I had while doing this.

What gave me the idea for this experiment were a few pictures I took at night while I was waiting around Thursday night at Wheelers Landing Marina. Who thought the Saginaw River could look so good. It might only be at night.

 The next night we walked to the park across the street and I used the concept of slowing down the shutter speed on my camera to capture light even though it is pitch black outside. Using my tripod to make sure my camera is steady so it doesn’t turn out really blurry, I came out with a few really cool pictures.

After these pictures we went back out the night after and took a lot more pictures only this time I decided to buy some glow sticks from Michaels for a dollar.

We also went to one of the bridges to capture the lights of the cars passing by and some of the lights across the river.

I think all these pictures turned out really well and I'll probably use this technique a lot more often. It was also really fun doing it. Going for walks at night is extremely peaceful. Hopefully I'll come up with a new idea for an experiment next weekend. If anyone else has any ideas or photography experience, input would be very helpful.

Stumble

I'm sure a lot of people know what Stumble upon is (Stumble Upon). If you don't, it's a website that navigates you to high quality (no spam) websites that are relevant to your interests. You make an account for free and you put checks next to all the categories that you like or interest you. My checks mostly have to do with art and photography, obviously, and some other nerdy things that interest me. I was stumbling this morning and a ran across a music video that I would would fit in with my blog. The song is called Holocene by Bon Iver.

Not only am I in love with the song, the music video is just so breathtaking and beautiful to me. I like the idea that they used a little boy in the video. To me it shows the side in everyone that just wants to explore and be a kid. This music may not be everyone's cup of tea but at least watch the video. Mute it if you have to. Try to put into words what the song or the video says to you. Of course I went for a walk with my camera after watching the video a billion times. I put the song on my iPod while I took picture and i think it really helped my creative eye.

Also, if you don't have one already, make a stumble upon account. It's a good time killer and can sometimes be a good tool for learning. I get a lot of my photography experiments from it along with art techniques. If you're a huge computer nerd like me there are a lot of how-to's and tools that can help with technical problems. Or you could just watch people get hit in the face if you check the "humor" interest box.

Expermiental

Photography has always been my main hobby that I am able to do all year around. It's nice to just get out of the house for me in any kind of weather because I love nature so much (maybe a little too much). While I walk I would get so bored just looking around and listening to my own foot steps. So whenever I go for a walk I always have my camera. Then I can at least capture the beauty on my walk so that other people can see what is out there. After being an active photographer for so long I began to get bored of the typical point and shoot method (although I still enjoy it). Experimental photography became quite a passion for me when I started learning a little more about my camera. For those who know little or nothing about the subject of cameras, experimental photography is pretty much using the cameras basic settings differently than most people would or exaggerating the purpose of the setting. So today I decided to experiment with one of my lenses. Instead of attaching it to my camera I thought it would create a cool effect if I just held it away from the camera and used a different perspective. The lens I used is a semi fish eye lens that I found for a cheep price. You can tell what a fish eye lens does by just looking at what you can see through the lens that it gives a much larger range of view compared to just a standard lens.