St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone! In honor of this super green day full of rainbows and pots of gold, I bring you some new photographs! Including one specifically for this day!

As you're about to see, I was playing around more with the macro stuff. I have one re-shot photo that I think you'll enjoy, and two new ones! I definitely feel like I'm getting the hang of this style of photography, and I really hope that you enjoy what I have to share with you!

My biggest problem, definitely, is the fact that I have pretty bad eyes. Sure, they could be a lot worse, but I still have issues with my viewfinder on my camera. Every time I switch which lens I'm using, I need to change the diopter so that I can see if I've got true focus or not. Because of this I've become pretty reliant on auto-focus... but auto-focus doesn't really work as well for macro photography. You really want to have full control with macros, and so I'm running into a few road blocks with it. But, rather than alter the diopter, I'm just learning to see differently. That way I will just get used to it, since this isn't my most-used lens. And if you've ever had to adjust your diopter, you know what I mean when I say it's a pain in the butt!!!

Either way though, the more I use it, the better I'll get at seeing what I'm creating. Eventually, I will just know if I have achieved good focus or not, regardless of if it actually looks sharp through the viewfinder. And maybe someday I'll have the guts to let the optometrist surgeons stick lasers in my eyes to fix my vision... but that's pretty unlikely!

Along with all these new photos, I also updated my website! I had to, because I needed two new galleries, plus I had to add all the photographs! So I bring to you my Origami Project in its own gallery now, and my Macro Photography also has its own gallery! Please enjoy!

And now what you've been waiting for! The photos! Remember, you can view them even larger on my website, here: http://www.photo-phantasy.com

A Very Meri Kurisumasu

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I know I certainly did. If you're wondering why this blog is titled with "Meri Kurisumasu", it's because this year I had my Japanese obsession fed so much, that I couldn't resist. And if you couldn't tell before that I had such an obsession by my Origami Photo Project... well... now you know.

Among the Japanese items I received a beautiful tea set, which is probably going to be one of my favourite items in years to come, and I also was given two lovely calligraphy sets. The tea set, at the very least, I will probably use in some photography, so I hope you watch for it! Truly, it is spectacular. I was also given just two purple Japanese tea cups as well, so those will be fun too!

To help my photography along, I received two Neutral Density filters, which is fantastic because now I can use long exposure earlier in the day. That means that when it's three in the afternoon, and not dark enough for catching that running water, I don't have to wait until the last minute to go out and steal a photo before the sun sets! This is a very exciting concept for me! And I'm sure I'll find plenty of other great ways to use these filters as well.

And to hold these filters, I was given a filter wallet that holds six at a time! That's excellent, since I'm always experimenting but my bag doesn't hold them all. Well, now it does! And it's lighter too, since I don't have all the plastic cases anymore. Awesome.

My Aunt was kind enough to purchase me Photographer's Market: Guide to Building Your Photography Business by Vik Orenstein (which was unexpected but appreciated!) so now I also have some reading material for better insight into the market I am trying hard to be a part of. Expect some good things from that, combined with my SEO research.

So now I have a lot of tools and props to use, and so many ideas for photographs. The best part is that we're getting freezing rain and snow today, meaning I should have ice to play with tomorrow! Hooray!

I also need to do a photograph for a Christmas Card project I am a part of, and I have a really cute idea for it. My recipient wanted singing reindeer, so I have decided to mimic the Grinch and put some antlers on my puppy and photograph him in front of the tree. This is also an excuse to try out some bokeh effects, but hey, you do what you have to do. I'll add some nice "singing" text in Photoshop to it for a complete effect once I'm done, so that should be up soon enough. Just need to find some of those cute cloth antlers. Dollar Store anyone?

And I'm still working on doing the fish bowl origami photo for my project, so I'd like to do that before New Years as well. Man I'm going to be busy with my camera! But after the holiday rush to finish creating gifts and visiting people, it'll be good to be able to pick my camera back up.

So definitely look forward to plenty of new photography, and I hope you all had a wonderful New Years!

PS: I'm looking for some nice software to set up a store for purchasing prints from my website, if you have any suggestions, that'd be great.