Converting Your 50 mm Into a Macro Lens

I'm not claiming to be an expert on photography, this is just something I picked up on the internet somewhere and I thought I would give it a try.  I took my 50 mm 1.8 lens and converted it into sort of a macro lens just by turning it around.

For this experiment I wanted to take a photo of my wedding rings (aren't they just beautiful, my husband did good).  Here is as close to my rings as I could get with my 50 mm on my camera.

No cropping to the photo, I just did a clean edit and sharpened a little.

I took the lens off, turned it around, held the camera with my right hand and lens with my left, and made sure to push the little lever that keeps the aperture closed so it would stay open.  You have to have the camera on manual mode or the camera won't let you take the photo (I like to shoot in aperture priority, so that's I how I found out about that).  Get as close to the object as you can and move the camera around till you find the sweet spot where you want the lens to focus on.  I wanted to focus on my beautiful shiny diamond.

Again no cropping, just a clean edit and had to brighten quite a bit because I closed the aperture a touch to get the diamond more in focus, so the photo was pretty dark.

It was nice, but I wanted more oomph.  So I converted to B&W, did some minor cloning of some imperfections, slight burning of the shadows to give more dimension, sharpened my diamond more, and added a slight pink layer to give a little color.

Shine bright like a diamond!

silver/treasure

Goodbye Coffee (For Now)

Today is Fat Tuesday.  Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, marking the first day of Lent (Lent is the 40 days prior to Easter and it is traditionally a time for prayer, penance, fasting, and abstinence which helps to prepare our souls for the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday).

I'm sure almost everyone has been thinking about Valentine's Day lately, but not me.  I have really been focused on Lent this year, trying to think of ways to make this as good a Lent as ever.  Soooo, after much thought, I decided that, in addition to the traditional fasting and extra prayer, I will be giving up soda (it's bad for you anyway, but I love it) and...COFFEE!  
Gasp!

So while I'm not going to gorge on a ton of food today, I might indulge in a couple extra cups of coffee.

Goodbye coffee...for now.

Forget the Dirty Dishes...It's Snowing

Lucy and I went outside yesterday morning while the baby was napping to play in the snow.  Well, she played in the snow, I played with my camera, which is way more fun in my opinion (and ignore my girl's fashion choices, she doesn't like to match these days). 











Lucy was throwing snowballs at me, all her idea, little stinker.


And she looks way cuter wearing my hat than I do.

Linking up with Friday Photo Journal, Nurture Photography:  White/Minimalism

My 10-Month-Old Finally Slept All Night

Isaac actually slept through the night last night.  I mean...ALL NIGHT.  He went down at 8:30 pm and didn't wake up till 7:00 am.  I wish I had slept all night though, I kept waking up looking at the time and wondering when he was going to wake up (having full ta-tas doesn't help either). 

Isaac is going to be 10 months tomorrow, so I'm happy he was finally able to sleep all night, but honestly, I'll be surprised if he does that again any time soon.






My baby is getting so big, very bittersweet.

Sibling Love

Sibling love.

Lucy loves smothering her baby brother by putting her face in his, squeezing him, and giving him kisses.   What does baby Isaac love to do?  Grab and pull that beautiful long hair every chance he gets.  Then Lucy cries, I go break them up, and the cycle continues.


Sibling love, it can be quite exhausting.

Just the Two of Us

I've been dabbling in self-portraiture lately, here is one I took last weekend with Chuck.  I don't take nearly enough photos of him, and photos of us together are almost non-existent.  

I know this sounds cliché, but if you want something done, you gotta do it yourself.  

I've been working out again.  Just starting out slow, doing Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30.   Gotta get my body ready for all those swimsuits that I'm going to wear come summer time (note sarcasm).  I'm kinda obsessed with Jillian Michaels, I love and fear her at the same time.  So glad she's back on Biggest Loser.

Does anybody else love and hate Jillian workouts as much as I do?

Shadows

I've been experimenting with shadows and side lighting lately, trying to get out of my comfort zone and practice shooting with different kinds of light.  








It's fun, you should try it!