Lake Baldwin Ecological Preserve

Instagram Fall 2012

1. Bug collecting
2. Sunset @ HHS football game
3. Cheerios by the beach
4. Purple shells in Malibu
5. Orphaned under my classroom
6. Dream Bigger-- love this!
7. Grass of some sort
8. Infinite (I love patterns!)
9. Bolt

1. Apples @ Oak Glen
2. Mojave Narrows
3. Cheese!
4. Standing tall
5. H2O
6. Plants near Big Bear
7. Little ecologist
8. Grasses near Big Bear
9. Garage sale score!  My new old camera--Pentax K1000--the one I used in my high school photography class :)

1. Perfect pumpkin stem
2. Wonder
3. Still Standing
4. Gum on pavement-- only cool when it's not stuck to my shoe
5. Framed
6. Book lover
7. Getting crafty-- baloon yarn balls... post balloon pop
8. Sundance Lane
9. Pink flower in Sun City

1. Creepy emu face
2. Tree decorating
3. Introducing Rick James (RJ for short)... our Elf on the Shelf
4. Treasures
5. Reading corner
6. Fall colors in abstract motion
7. Self portrait
8. PS project--face of faces
9. Grey day

1. Bloomingdales in Santa Monica (again with the patterns)
2. Converse Patriotism
3. My first nest necklace
4. Ansel in alley
5. Mini me
6. Disturbing the peace?  I disagreed
7. Wrightwood
8. For Sara for Christmas
9. My little photographer

I do portraits too...

I'm currently teaching my portraits units in both beginning and advanced photo.  The other day we were critiquing student photographs in class and a student asked me to see some of my portraits.  So, here are a few from just a couple weeks ago.  Please critique... I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

Photography in an instant :: August

I've been really happy with how much more photography I've been doing since I downloaded Instagram.  I feel bad that I've been a bit judgemental of cell phone photography for quite a while now.  I'm surrounded by cameras day in and day out, but how many times have I gone for long stretches without taking a single picture?  How many times have I opted to leave my DSLR at home, when I should really be bringing it with me?  But my cell phone is with me all the time.  And now I've started seeing my everyday world differently.  I'm seeing photo opportunities where I had overlooked them before.  Here are my first 9 photos which were shot over eight days in August.  More to come later... 

1. Emerson by ring light
2. Emerson's cool shades
3. Ansel by window light
4. Live simply... that others may simply live
5. Crepe myrtle branch on glass
6. Fallen log in Wrightwood
7. Wine cork litter
8. Sara and I in Hollywood (ok, obviously I didn't take this one)
9. Bug hunting

No Remote? No Problem.

A quick cell phone pic of the setup from my Night Lights photo.  The whole photo outing was planned with the intention of doing long exposures, and I forgot my remote... meaning I'd be limited to 30 seconds exposures max.  Not good.  Luckily Ruben had encountered this same problem before and had a solution-- a rubber band and a wadded up piece of paper.  Wrapped tight enough the rubber band will pull the paper down onto the shutter release button and hold it for however long you want.  Definitely cumbersome, especially when working in the dark, but it worked! 

From the Vault : Salvage Yard

Woo hoo!  My 100th post!  Yay me!

 

While going through old pics and trying to clean out the junk I found these and figured I'd see what I could do with them.  They were taken in a salvage yard near Rialto.  I went in search of rust.  I think the guys at the gate thought I was crazy when I explained that I wasn't in need of any car parts... just some pics of old cars.

Grace :: 1 Year

Here's baby Grace last October at just one week old...

 

And here's Grace now... as beautiful as can be and about to turn 1!  Time flies!

  

 Isn't she beautiful!?  And that outfit... thanks Sara!

These were taken in Oak Glen, California, a tiny little town known for its apple orchards. It was a really fun place to spend a day, and from a photographer's point of view it held unlimited photographic opportunities-- orchards, historic buildings, wide open spaces, picket fences, brick walkways-- it was amazing. There were even some cool crates and wooden chairs just sitting around the orchards for us to use for posing Gracie. The best thing about the area is that it's so open--you can wander pretty much wherever you want to go and you don't have to pay a cent!

I did learn a valuable lesson from this photo shoot--Be over prepared.  I was very casual when planning for this shoot for two reasons.   1.) I knew Sara (Grace's mom) would be all over pinterest finding fun ideas, poses, outfits, etc. so I didn't feel like I had to plan too much in that department, and 2.) These are my best friends and this is something like the fourth session I've done of them (plus they've assisted me on two additional shoots.)  So, I pretty much just made sure I had a charged battery and headed to the location.  When we got there I popped in my recently emptied 8GB SD card, took two test shots of my boys to check the lighting, and that's when my SD card gave me an error message I've never seen before (and which I've since learned from SanDisk means the card is toast.)  So, here we are way out in the boonies, and I hadn't thought to pack extra cards.  Yikes.  Luckily I had one 1GB card in my camera bag (all my other cards are stacked next to my computer---shame on me!)  My 1GB card said I could shoot something like 60 pictures if I shot in RAW only--no Jpegs.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I am notorious for over-shooting, and on this day I just couldn't.  In fact, Sara and I had to weed out the bad shots on the camera every so often to be able to keep shooting.  It forced me to take my time a bit more, and, in the end, gave me much fewer pictures to sort through afterwards.  So, I guess there are two morals to the story here: be prepared but less is more.  Hope you enjoy the photos :)

Night Lights

I shot this on a photo get-together back in May.  We parked at a pull out by Silverwood Lake and hiked along a trail a ways to try and do some star trails.  I was having absolutely no luck with that, so when some fishermen with headlamps came walking by on the trail I switched gears and caught this picture. 

9/11 Memorial

Taken on the front lawn of Pepperdine University overlooking the Pacific Ocean.   There was one flag for every person who lost their life in the September 11th attacks.  Most of these were American flags, but interspersed here and there you can also see flags from other nations who lost citizens that day.

Fashion in Hollywood (sneak peek)

It's 10:30 and I should be going to bed, but I just couldn't wait to post a sneak peek of pictures from my shoot this weekend.  I got to shoot with fashion photographer/ model Shaun Michelsen!  Very exciting.  For now, here are two pics from the day.  Model: Jordan Hampton

 I couldn't help but snap a few of the pro at work :)

Yarn Bombs and Instagram

A couple years ago while driving near downtown Riverside, I noticed a light pole that appeared to be wearing a sweater.  Dustin informed me that that was a Yarn Bomb-- a form of street art where people go and knit cozy little blankets onto things in the public view.  The idea of somebody sneakily bringing their yarn and knitting needles in the dark of night to crochet a colorful sweater on a light pole just made me smile.  Unfortunately, I didn't go out and immediately shoot pics of the one I'd seen, and by the time I got back there it was cut down (really?  Someone thought it needed to be removed?!)

 

Then, this summer, while shooting pictures of my sister in Wisconsin, I stumbled upon another bunch of yarn bombs.  Needless to say I jumped right out of my skin I was so excited.  The first two here were on a bike rack at our first shoot location.  Little monster feet!  How adorable!

 When we drove to a second location to shoot more portraits I couldn't believe it when I saw yet another bike rack wearing a sweater!

Now for the Instagram part.  I was finally convinced to download it onto my phone, and have been having fun playing around with the different effects.  I'm a dedicated Photoshop user, and I'll admit that at times I've discouraged students from taking the "easy way out" with online photo editors.  But, sometimes it's nice to be able to edit on the fly.  Today, for example, I took, edited, and posted a photo while sitting at Burger King.  Today, Mr. B sent me a link to some Instagram look-alike actions that can be used in Photoshop, and I tried them out on these pictures.  I think they're pretty neat, and worth downloading if you enjoy the Instagram look, but want to be able to use it in regular old Photoshop. 

From the Vault : Bronchial Trees

I found these photos in an old box of pictures.  I don't even know the last time I actually got prints made... the pictures I take these days just hang out on the internet and on my hard drive.  These two were from a roll of black and white film, and I actually vaguely remember pulling over on the side of the road somewhere in Wisconsin to take these, becasue I was so taken with the shape of these trees.  They remind me of lungs.  It was an insteresting little investigation to try and figure out exactly where and when these were taken.  "June 2005" was printed on the back--likely by whichever photo lab printed them.  But, thinking back to June 2005 I was perplexed, because I was in New Mexico then (on my way to California.)  What was also weird was the fact that the photos on the roll seemed to span about 6 months--starting with snowy trees, then these, then some spring-ish ones, and finally, some pics taken in New Mexico.  I guess it's just strange to me now that I'm fully immersed in the digital world that it could take me that long to capture 24 exposures.  It took me a minute to remember what that was like.  But film was expensive!  Patience was a must.  I kind of miss those days.  Anyway, I scanned the prints (they're a tiny bit pixelly, but I'm ok with it for now) and added a sepia tone in PS with the blending mode set to Soft Light.

TAs Needed!

To my Scorpion blog readers:
I can't believe school starts in only five days!  I hope that you all had a wonderful summer.  I trust that your creativity has been recharged and that you've got lots of ideas for this coming school year :)  I just checked my schedule and Advanced Photography is 3rd period this year, which I believe is good news for some of you who had schedule conflicts. It's a big class, but most of you are used to that, so it shouldn't be a problem.  At this point I have no TAs in any of my classes, though!  I usually have one or two per period, so this is going to be a bit rough.  If any of you are looking to add an elective or know a trustworthy friend who is please let me know ASAP.  Also, Advanced Photo students--don't forget to complete your summer homework and bring it with you the first day of class.

Looking forward to a great year!  See you in a couple days :)

~Mrs. V

Peacemonger

I think it may be time to replace the sticker on the back of my car.

Taken with my cell and edited in Pixler-o-Matic (free and somewhat decent editing app) while I waited for my Nikon to get repaired.... more about that later.

Minneopa State Park

Minneopa State Park just outside of Mankato, Minnesota.

Ring Light Black & Whites

We ran over to do a little prep work in my classroom today and I remembered that I have been wanting to try out Mr. B's homemade ring light (I'll post a link to the site he used for directions when I find it.)  However, when I went to grab a camera off the shelf I realized that they're all in the shop getting cleaned over the summer!  All I had on me was my cell phone, but it worked just fine.

 ANSEL

 ME

(Emerson took this one.  I like that the jagged cut edge of the light becomes a frame.)

 EMERSON

DUSTIN

(I always avoid getting this vent in pictures, but in this case I like how it turned out as a backdrop.)

Make a Blog Book! You'll love it.

To my fellow bloggers:  Make a blog book!  I ordered one last year and absolutely love it, and I just ordered another one.  They're sort of like yearbooks for my family blog (not this one.)  My kids and I were reading through the first blog book at bedtime.  They really love it (of course... it's the story of them!), and so do I.  In fact, while reading it I stumbled upon these pictures that I had kind of forgetten about.  I had never posted them on this blog before, so I thought I'd share them.  They're from back in October of 2010.  It's not very often that I look back through my old pictures and posts on the Internet.  But having a tangible book in my hands makes it much more fun.  I used Blog2Print, and the quality was excellent, but I think when I make a book from my photography blog I'll use something that allows me to get full page photos, which Blog2Print does not.  I've ordered photo books from Shutterfly before, so maybe that would be a good option.  Anyway, I encourage all of my fellow bloggers to get your work printed and bound every so often, and I'm going to make it one of my goals to do the same for my photography blog.

Goose Island Camping

Here are a few photos from camping at Goose Island in La Crosse, Wisconsin back in June.

Mississippi River

Sweet Emerson 

Becca's Fire Ring 

Star Trails

This star trail photo is a combination of two 11 minute exposures.  I was looking for a program on the internet that combines multiple star trail photos to create longer streaks, but actually found that doing it in Photoshop is really simple.  You just copy all of your shots into one and change the blending mode to Lighten--so simple!.  If you look closely you can see a small space between each star trail (especially the really bright one right by the trees.)  Of course I wish the space wasn't there, but I'm glad I was able to figure out where it came from--the space is a result of using long exposure noise reduction on my camera.  The camera took an 11 minute "blank" exposure after each actual exposure to reduce the noise you get with exposure times this long.  I'm not sure which is worse--excess noise or spaces between the star trails... guess it's something I can put on my to do list.  I shot in RAW+JPEG fine mode and used the RAW files, so I was able to reduce what noise I did find in CameraRAW.  Another thing I encountered with these shots is the awful purple corners I seem to get whenever I do long exposures.  I had heard this before, but looked it up to confirm--they're caused because your sensor gets hot during long exposures.  Not sure how to prevent it, but a little work with curves, layer masks, and vignetting made it a little better.  If you know of a better way to shoot or edit to solve this problem I'd love to hear about it.  By the way, the orange glow on the right was from a campfire across the road.  Not sure what they were putting in their fire, but it was HUGE!

Behind the Scenes :: Corey & Nicole's Most Popular Shot

   I'm one day shy of going a whole month without posting anything, and I am not ashamed to say that.  My family and I recently traveled back to Wisconsin and Minnesota for a 43 day marathon vacation visiting friends and family, and it was G L O R I O U S!  I decided to let the photos pile up and not worry about keeping up to date on my blog.  I figured there would come a time when I was back at home and feeling uninspired or out of ideas and then I would have all the time I needed to post from my backlog of pictures.  I guess you could say I wasn't a total slacker, though, because while back in Wisconsin I did a lot of portraiture-- two senior portrait sessions, a shoot of the Done Right Seamless Gutter construction crew to update their website, a family session which included couples pics of my three siblings and their significant others, plus two additional couples sessions.

     I managed to keep my facebook photography page a little more up to date, so if you'd like to see some of these pictures you can check them out at facebook.com/vanoverbekephotography.  The picture below is of my brother Corey and his girlfriend Nicole.  We were saying goodbye to everyone the evening of this shoot, so I felt a little rushed which I never like.  I'm usually the opposite, actually--shooting for too long and taking too many pictures.  In the end, though, I think we got some really great pictures, and the feedback on facebook was awesome... my most popular post to date!  This picture was the most popular and my personal favorite too.  I had a vision in my head of how I wanted it to look, and it came out exactly how I wanted.

     I thought it'd be fun to post a "behind the scenes" picture of how this shot was created.  I didn't want to post it on facebook, because I thought it might ruin the ethereal mood of the photograph, but since most of my blog followers are photographers themselves I thought this was a more appropriate place.  I was lucky to be shooting in my Dad's backyard, because he and Corey own a construction company and their trailer was parked right out back.  What do you know, they had just the right ladder for the job.  I actually wish I had one of these here in California.  It folded down super tiny and was about the weight of the step stool I sometimes take along on shoots--and my stool only has three steps!  I had a bit of an audience since we were all over at Dad's for dinner together before we flew back to Cali.  It was fun, though, to get to show my family what I love to do. :)

New: In 2012 and 1888, respectively.

From my mom's garden

 A church in Baldwin, WI.