The Stink Eye- Zoological Edition

I went to the Oklahoma City Zoo yesterday to take some pictures. When I got home, I noticed there was a theme. Many of the animals were giving me the stink eye!

I noticed it first with the owl.



Then it became a trend!








Ah well- I'll just take it to mean that they were trying to pose for me.

In other creepy news, these two shots make me literally both gag and get the chills while I edited them.

Urban Prairie

For a fleeting 48 hours in Oklahoma City, we had a preview of spring. Friday and Saturday were glorious! I hit the door running from work Friday because I wanted to take my camera out to enjoy the golden light of the evening and the 70 degree weather.

While I was out, I was accosted by a soggy Weimaraner with a tennis ball in his mouth, with his owner (an older gentleman) following behind. Sophie was intent on playing with me as I was trying to shoot, despite her master's attempts to distract her. At one point I heard him saying, "Sophie, she's out here trying to get some urban prairie photography, so leave her be!"

I thought that was a pretty good way to describe my photography style in general- urban prairie. And the light was glorious! So here are some pics from that day.


















Hope they keep you warm during our upcoming SNOWPOCALYPSE

Getting better

So I took the leap and moved up in the camera equipment world. I put it off for a while because I knew that when I did that, I would need to really commit to learning more about photography to get full of use of the machine.

Now here I be.

Here are some strengths and opportunities for growth (haha) that I think I have to look forward to developing.

COMPOSITION
I think I'm pretty good at composition, in the macro world at least. In fact, I hate having to crop my photos for prints or whatever. But I need to get better at cropping. I also need to do better with taking pictures level. I am terrible- especially in my downtown shots of buildings, with having crooked pictures. Must improve!

THINGS THAT MOVE
I like taking pictures of flowers. Or berries. Or plants. Or trees. Not really things that move. I would like to improve at this, especially taking pictures of people.

WHITE BALANCE
I kind of know what it is, but I want to get better. It effects color quality.

PHOTO EDITING
Today while I was editing some pics, I was just about ready to delete them all. Granted I was just having a bad day, but I really have so much to learn in photo editing, especially in color. I also want to become better at black and white photography.

BOLDNESS
One of the reasons I don't take pictures very well of people is because I feel totally awkward when I do it. I see incredible street shots so often that I could shoot, were I willing to be bold enough to take them. I will say I did take a step in this direction a couple of weeks ago by asking someone if I could take pictures of their fountain.

Onward and upward!