# Started Blogging Shameless Promotion



## PixelRabbit (Jan 16, 2013)

Ok time for a shameless promotion!
Just started blogging, I'm using Facebook because I know I'll use it, I have a hard time starting somewhere new and I already had a little photography page there with a lot of my stuff posted so it seemed like a good place to give it a go.

I posted the first post a few minutes ago! Don't miss a thing and check it out now ! 

https://www.facebook.com/JudiSmelkoPhotography


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## cgipson1 (Jan 16, 2013)

If you weren't so good looking, I would report this as SPAM!   lol!


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 16, 2013)

Lol honestly Charlie I felt a little spammy posting this, I need a shower lol!


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 16, 2013)

Look what you are missing, Angus napping with his squeaky toy awwwwww.... (don't tell him it's not napping please!)


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## thetrue (Jan 16, 2013)

Wait, that's a squeaky toy?


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 16, 2013)

Well it used to squeak....


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## cgipson1 (Jan 16, 2013)

Spammer!  :greenpbl:  :er:  :hug::


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 16, 2013)

Aw Charlie, I used a kitty cat, that HAS to count for something!


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## cgipson1 (Jan 16, 2013)

PixelRabbit said:


> Aw Charlie, I used a kitty cat, that HAS to count for something!



It did! I like Kitties!


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## runnah (Jan 16, 2013)

PixelRabbit said:


> Aw Charlie, I used a kitty cat, that HAS to count for something!



There is a joke involving another name for cats and increased blog traffic... but I will take the high road.


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## shefjr (Jan 16, 2013)

I can't read it.   I shut down my Facebook.


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 16, 2013)

Runnah, I did a quick search and got nothing..... of relevance lol! 
Aw boo shefjr


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 16, 2013)

Shefjr, you made me go hmmm... and I figured I would post my first blog post here so people don't have to click.

Catching Up

I thought about starting a blog a year ago when I got my camera.  We had just moved into our new house and things were changing fast, I had so much to write about and I should have done it then but we all know what they say about hindsight.  Better late than never I suppose! 

Lets take a quick little trip back in this post and catch up to today.  I won't bore you with the details but I have been looking for a creative outlet for, well, forever.  I have drawn, painted, made jewelry, tried to write, graphic design, and have always taken photographs but never seriously.  I will say I have some artistic ability but I have never been able to express myself like I can with my camera (since I invested the past year learning how to do it).  

I always wanted a camera, a good camera, and when I got mine last fall I cried like a girl and I didn't see it coming! Just walked out of Henry's and broke down.  If I knew then what I know now I would have been crying because there was so much I didn't know.  As they say, ignorance is bliss and boy was I blissfull! 

So there I was, tears dried, camera and manual in hand excited as heck about learning how to use it and of course I use the internet to start learning.  I found a great forum thephotoforum.com and started posting pictures for C&C (comments and critique).  Reality swooped in and I realized how much more there is to photography than just pointing  and clicking.  People talked about exposure, Fstops, ISO, shutter speed, white balance, composition,  focus, depth of field... photography jargon flew!  Good gawd what have I gotten myself into?!? I did a lot of thanking and a lot of nodding and smiling while I hit google and tried to make heads or tails of it all.  Slowly I did.

I quickly realized that photography, good photography, photographs that make you STOP AND LOOK for more than a millisecond is two parts, creativity and technical ability with your tools (camera, lens, light, filters, post production programs).  It ALL matters! 

So in a nutshell after a year I have a pretty good grasp of the fundamentals of photography. To me it all comes down to finding the right balance of all of the elements both technical and artistic.  I freely admit that at this point I'm out of balance on the technical side of things and need to dedicate time to learning post production work.  I find it way too easy to get lost behind the camera, get a good image, cheap out on the post processing and moving on to the next moment behind the camera to get the next good image to cheap out on the post so I can get behind the camera again... 

So, right now my mantra moving ahead into my second year behind the camera is balance and my goal is to get my post work up to speed.

There you are, we are caught up to today in a very abbreviated fashion and with that I will call it a day.
The blog has officially begun and I have no clue where it is headed, kudos to you if you are still here reading, thanks and I hope you stick around!


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## shefjr (Jan 16, 2013)

PixelRabbit said:


> Aw boo shefjr



I had to shut down my Facebook account because I was sick of reading and getting myself into arguments with people and their opinions on stuff like politics, guns, religion, etc... There is so much misinformation out there I just couldn't take it anymore. I used to enjoy Facebook before it became all of the above stuff. I shutter to think about the current misinformation about guns that is surely all over the place currently on FB and so much is opinionated misinformation. I digress. I was actually considering activating some sort of Shefjr Photography on FB just so I could read but, thankfully you have posted your first blog on here. Thanks! I enjoyed reading about your first year in the journey of photography. If I have to I'll create that account just to read your next post. 

Cheers,
John


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## Sarmad (Jan 17, 2013)

I'll read it regularly, Okay I'll try my best at least!

Though I found it early, I had already liked your facebook page so it was in my News Feed!


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## Derrel (Jan 17, 2013)

Sooo, you're now admitting that you're off balance in public,eh? Oh, pardon me, I meant you're telling people that you are, "Out of balance"! I don't want to twist your words! I enjoyed the blog. Even went to Facebook to read it and snoop around.


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## EIngerson (Jan 17, 2013)

I gave it a like.


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 17, 2013)

shefjr said:


> PixelRabbit said:
> 
> 
> > Aw boo shefjr
> ...




I had similar issues with my personal FB, I realized I had WAY too many random people friended, I reduced the number to people and voila problem solved! I still get a bit but it's not like before with a barrage of controversy over every little thing that they can possibly tie back to their own agenda and personal beliefs.  Now I quite enjoy the people I have on my feed  



Sarmad said:


> I'll read it regularly, Okay I'll try my best at least!
> 
> Though I found it early, I had already liked your facebook page so it was in my News Feed!





EIngerson said:


> I gave it a like.


I saw you guys! Thanks! <3


Derrel said:


> Sooo, you're now admitting that you're off balance in public,eh? Oh, pardon me, I meant you're telling people that you are, "Out of balance"! I don't want to twist your words! I enjoyed the blog. Even went to Facebook to read it and snoop around.



lol! if you didn't know I was "out of balance" by reading here you aren't doing it right  Thanks for taking a look!

So I'm sitting here with coffee pondering the blog and ready to write for today despite not knowing what I'm going to write lol.  While I may have thought about doing this for a long time the decision to do it was really quite sudden, like yesterday morning, so I'm really going into this unprepared... ah see there you go, now I know what I'm going to write about! 

I decided that since I was shameless enough to post it on the very first day I may as well do this up Judi style,  I'm going to post the first week here as it happens (I know, exciting right!) ... stay tuned


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 17, 2013)

Blog Day 2
blog blog blog blog blog blog blog
^^^ read that out loud fast, it's a fun word! 
So, I really did it, I started a blog, damn, how do I get myself into this ****?  
I mean I have thought about it off and on, especially over the last while as I ponder how to get where I want to go with my photography, but that's it, I THOUGHT about it.  Then for some stupid reason yesterday morning I got up, stoked the fire, made a coffee, had a smoke, decided to write a blog, wrote two blog posts and promoted it on thephotoforum.com all before 10am! THAT is how I get into this ****.

Now I'm not saying that I don't want to blog, quite the contrary, I've always been fascinated by people who have the dedication to actually do it, I envy them.  You see I have a horrible habit, I start something and I'm great out of the gate, but as time goes on I inevitably hit a wall somewhere close to "success"  that I just can't seem to get past.  Whatever it was that I was so passionate and gung ho about for the last X amount of time peters out and I start again with the next thing I find to latch onto so the whole process can start again.  

 It is quite exhausting to be honest and I'm quite over it being a pattern in my life, perhaps I can use the blog as a tool to conquer that demon on a small scale ...  ok enough of the woe is me, you get the idea, this may never get off the ground, this may fly, this may fly then crash and burn ... this can be anything, this will be random at times, this will be the good the bad and the ugly, this will contain my best photos and possibly my worst, this will contain at least two cats and one dog, it may contain more than one nut, I will do my best to continue to free write and not get bogged down in "perfection"

So day 2 begins, I have ideas and I'm going with it and I promise there is photography stuff coming! 
Stay tuned dear reader


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 17, 2013)

Have I a created a monster?  Another post today.  (I'm thinking that I would be VERY smart to start stockpiling the "extras" to use on days I don't feel like writing)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Confession, I'm a picture hoarder!

So, I'm a picture hoarder, for those who know me this won't be a surprise in the least.  I have way too many pictures of birds and squirrels and things in general that have no real impact or reason for being, I mean how many squirrel shots does one person really need? But there they sit, taking up drive space taunting me by their sheer numbers.  I'm spending time today going through the FB page albums and deleting a whole bunch of "meh" and shots that were posted for the sake of posting "something". 

All of the flowers got the axe, I can't look at them and feel good.  Flowers are pretty but they are photography fodder IMHO. 

I'm glad to say that I'm way more choosy recently when I decide whether to post a picture on FB, Flickr, on thephotoforum etc... so the issue is slowly rectifying itself in my online albums.  Not all that long ago a member at TPF made a comment "your eye is developing nicely" after I let that stroke my ego for a moment my first thought was "If that means I think more of my stuff is crap and less is good then yup you Sir are correct!"  The absolute insanity of it all is that I shot the squirrels just a day or two ago adding to the army already taunting me, a digital mob that represents one of my least favourite traits and stares at me in the list every time I use the drive.

I started out with great intentions, I obviously know I have this quirk and that I was in danger of spreading it willy nilly about in my new hobby.  I would shoot, review in camera and eliminate the clunkers immediately, upload the rest to the computer and go through them again and pare away more fodder and pick the best, transfer the best to a new file and delete the rest.  Great system right? Yeah it's great if you keep doing it.  Slowly I got lazy, I skip steps now, often all of steps except uploading the whole mess, picking out the obvious best, processing them only and closing the file leaving a whole bunch of crap and a couple gems to float around on my drive.  After a while it becomes a hugely daunting task to figure it all out and get rid of it.  There are superb tools out there to help organize things and I'm trying to incorporate those tools into my workflow, I will overcome this! 

So I've pretty much come to the conclusion that going through 2012's photo files and cleaning them out is an exercise in futility.  I have tried it a couple times and at the very least got things organized but that is how it will have to stay.  If I push this and MAKE myself do it there will be no good end, there is just simply too much to go through and I will be setting myself up to fail if I attempt it, I won't do it all and I will hate every moment of cleaning it up.  It will have to serve as a reminder to me that I don't want to recreate that mess again in 2013.

If you are getting into photography do yourself a favour, especially if you are like me and would let this happen, get organized right at the start, learn what is available to help organize your stuff, pick one, learn it in and out, learn tagging, just DO IT NOW!!! You will thank me later.  Once I get my own ducks in a row I will share what program I'm using etc... to get my disorganized self automated !


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 18, 2013)

This morning's installment!

Maybe I Can Save You Some Grief!
One post got me thinking, Victoria mentioned she was 5 months into her adventure with photography and is also still learning by herself through the web.  There is definitely a ton of resource out there but it is a LOT to wade through and a LOT to learn, maybe I can save some people some grief.

 Since I've already sifted through some of it I'll share what I have learned while it is still fresh in my mind.  Don't expect me to get really technical about things, if that's what you are after you are reading the wrong blog, this is more of an overview of the important bits when you first start out with a DSLR.

Right out of the gate you have to make a couple decisions you should make that will shape your experience with your new DSLR.

~~Please note that all of the terms I'm using here are for a Canon, the same settings can be found on Nikon etc... but the names will be different.~~

What mode do you want to shoot in? 

Green Box, Full Auto
The camera does it all. Good option for casual photographer, sight seeing, static objects.  If things start moving around or light conditions become less than ideal this mode may not get you what you want.

Scene Modes (little man running, flower, mountain and lady's head)
The camera normally still does it all but it applies typical settings based on the scene mode you choose.  These solve the problem of being in auto and encountering one of the problem situations like moving subjects. By putting it in sport mode you are telling the camera things are moving so up the shutter speed please!

Av, Tv, P 
These three combine auto and manual.  Av is aperature priority, you set the aperature you want and the camera picks the rest to make the best (in the camera's opinion) exposure .  Tv is time (shutter speed) priority, same as Av except you control the shutter speed.  P, or program mode is an interesting mode, here you control the ISO and the rest is set by the camera.  

M or Manual, you do it all.  Ah control over it all, put me here!
(ah this is where I belong says me, the noob with no clue! I will do manual, I will control my camera's every thought, in manual I shall make beautiful pictures!)
Now just because you decide to learn manual it doesn't mean that there aren't times that the other modes are the right choice.  It's important to learn what each setting does and what situation it is good for.  

Raw or Jpeg or Raw+Jpeg
What file format you want to shoot in?  This will dictate how much or how little post processing you will do.
Shooting in Jpeg the camera makes a lot of decisions and assumptions in the final rendering of the image.  Ok for those who choose to shoot in auto and are getting nice personal shots. Not so good if you want to do any editing beyond some of the basics
Shooting in Raw gives you an "undeveloped" image that needs to be fully processed.  You have  full control over all of the data captured, it's all in there.
Ah there we have it again, control over it all, mwa ha ha! I shall shoot raw! 

So I chose full manual and raw, I'm the master of my domain, I got far enough to look up the exposure triangle and have a tenuous at best grasp of what an Fstop, ISO and Shutter Speed are, lets grab the camera and shoot some pictures!  There's that ignorant bliss again  

That's where we will stop today.  There are tons of options on how you choose to use your modern DSLR, you can do as little or as much as you want and that will probably evolve over time.  When I first started out I was manual and raw all the way but now I definitely see the value in some of the other modes given the right conditions.  

Stay tuned dear reader, I promise there will be some new pictures here at some point, I just have to find them and take them!


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 22, 2013)

[h=5]Quick hit and run.  I've officially gone insane, giving learning portrait photography serious thought....[/h]


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 24, 2013)

Ok this is it! Last post that I'm going to include here 


Lost My Coffee!

 Ok so without my  morning coffee I'm pretty much useless.  This morning went something  like this.  6am Mike and I get up, he gets himself ready and we double  team the morning tasks, restarting the fire, feeding the critters,  letting the dog out, making coffee of course.  Hand him his lunch, kiss  goodbye, grab my camera and wander with my coffee to have a smoke. 

 While there I find some frost on the window... take some shots.  Go  back to coffee, look out the window, zomg sundogs! Grab the camera!  Now  go back to the list of things I have done this morning, note that  nowhere does it say get dressed, yep I'm still in my housecoat.  This is  where the location of my coffee gets foggy.

 Grab the camera,  throw on Mike's winter boots and go out the door.  Walk to the open  field and take pictures until my hands start freezing.  Head back to the  house.  Go upstairs, take some more pictures, come back down to check  the pictures.... reach for my coffee... no coffee....

 Go back to the room where we smoke, nope, check the path to the front door, nope.... 

 And that is how I lose my coffee on a daily basis.... excuse me while I go and find it...


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## Rick58 (Jan 24, 2013)

...and yet you still don't mention getting dressed even after the walk through the fields


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## PixelRabbit (Jan 24, 2013)

lol.... further proof I'm useless without my coffee


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