Welcome to #ThrowbackThursday the Second.

In the previous ThrowbackThursday post, I shared several old photos from my original Digital Rebel from my 2006 semester abroad in Europe, where I made mention of my lack of wider ‘scene’ shots being due to the lack of a proper wide-angle lens at the time.  That’s where my trusty Canon Powershot SD400 point-and-shoot camera came in handy.

As you can see, I took far more photos with that little camera than my DSLR during my travels because even if it was only 4MP as opposed to the Digital Rebel’s 6MP, it got the job done better. I know a lot of people think to take a good photo, you need a ‘good’ camera, but the SD400, at an estimated retail price of $370, really knocked it out of the park for some shots, even for an inexperienced photographer like I was at the time.

Once again, I’m showing my before & after edits of the JPGs, as well as the final, edited image on its own. Please note that I cropped the original size ratio of the SD400′s images to match the ration of DSLR images out of personal preference, and used only Lightroom 4 for all my processing. Also, click the images to see them bigger!

This first image was taken before I even touched down in Europe. My journey across two oceans had me fly from Honolulu to San Francisco, and then San Francisco all the way to Frankfurt, Germany, which is hands-down the longest flight I’ve ever been on. After waking up to an early morning sun shining through my window, I peered out and spotted the first snowy countryside I’d seen since I was a young child. (The light spattering of snow we get on Maui doesn’t really count.)

There was also a haze that was unfamiliar to me, as well as streaks in the sky from all the air traffic, which made for fantastic atmospheric effects, so I snapped some photos through the plane window. This is the first of several photos I took through the window of a moving vehicle, but as long as you avoid having a reflection in the window, it works out just fine.

Editing this one is pretty straightforward – just a matter of bringing out the contrast and detail, with a little vibrancy for good measure. I’m glad I somehow managed to not over-expose this shot too badly, even without understanding manual exposure controls on a point-and-shoot.

Continue reading “Throwback Thursday – Europe 2006 II” »

As inspiration/research for my NaNoWriMo endeavors, I’ve been going through a lot of my old photos from my Europe study abroad in 2006.  Here are a few that I decided to re-process, and most of them have never been posted, aside from my old study abroad blog, which is no longer in existence.

“Burano” – The island near Venice, famous for its brightly-painted houses.

“Remember Venice” – Gondolas on the Grand Canal.

“Meet Me At Como” – A cafe on the shores of Lake Como.

“Switzerland” – Somewhere near Interlaken.

The best part of these photographs is that while the first picture, “Burano”, was taken with my old Canon Digital Rebel/kit lens, the last three were taken with my old Canon Powershot SD400…and that last shot in Switzerland was out of a moving bus window!  It’s looking back on photos like these, when I was still very new to the art of photography and had the most basic of equipment, that remind me I can be more than my equipment.  There have been many times where I have taken a photo, and people’s only comment is “Wow, you are  so lucky you have such a nice camera!”, without any credit given to me as the eye behind the lens.  A few of my photographer peers have had similar experiences, so I know I’m not alone in noticing this.

In other news, there’s apparently a Wildlife Photography Contest going on over at deviantART, and it’s the first photography contest in ages that has interested me.  Luckily, zoo photography is allowed, so maybe I’ll be able to figure something out before December 15th.  Of course, it’d be much more impressive to go back to Maui’s rainforest looking for honeycreepers, but if I do that I’ll be wanting to rent a super-telephoto from Hawaii Photo Rental, and didn’t I just say I want to be more than my equipment?  Plus, I’m a very small girl, and hiking one of those monster lenses into a rainforest is rather daunting.  Where’s my entourage when I need one?

I also might be posting more fashion-related entries as time goes on and my interest in fashion grows.  Check out this shot of Sarah Jessica Parker from Elle:

I’m in love with the styling here! (Matte jersey crepe top with cage shoulder, $295, leather vest, $1,190, both, Alexander Wang, at Barneys New York. Cotton tank top, Michael Stars, $38. Stretch briefs, Chanel, $900. Leather boots, Bess, $385.)

Finally, I wanted to promote my dear friend and travel partner,  Cameron, and her new blog, Eyes on Etsy!

As a huge Etsy fan, like myself, Cameron puts together awesome themed collections made up of the best handmade and vintage items she finds!  In her own words:

Etsy is a magical, bountiful land of online creativity and commerce, specializing in handmade and vintage goods. I discovered it one day while wandering along (virtually), and fell head-over-heels in love. Now, just like any realistic love interest, Etsy is not 100% awesome 100% of the time. However, with a little patience, you can find some true gems… and I have.

So, seeing as I spend at least some part of every day browsing Etsy – and seeing as my list of Favorite items is approaching 300 – I thought I’d share my finds with the world. Maybe you can afford to actually purchase something…

Happy browsing,
Cameron

So there you have it! You can follow her on Twitter too, for all the great finds she doesn’t post on her blog!

There, I’ve been a good blogger now.  May I have a cookie? :)