Self-Portrait, Classes and Eagle Lens
I signed up for Cheryl Johnson's current photography class, Painting with Light, which starts tomorrow. CJ always starts her classes by asking students to take a self-portrait. This round, she asked students to take a portrait which features their favorite color. Although red has been my favorite color for a long time, recently I've found myself drawn to orange. This morning, getting ready to go to my workout, I decided to take a self-portrait in my orange running shirt. No make-up, hair not brushed, feeling pretty natural. Then, I decided to stretch myself and take a portrait that really focused on my athletic self.
While I like the shape of my arms and the way my shoes are hanging, I wish the focus was crisper and my expression a bit more relaxed. I turned it to black and white because the colors in the bathroom clashed with everything else. The first self portrait is very safe; the second one is a bit of a risk. Not sure if I'm feeling that brave.
In other news, THANKS for the wonderful feedback on my eagle photographs. For those of you who asked about the lens, I used my Nikon 70-300 mm lens, and it was fully extended.
The technical specs are: speed 1/400, f5.6, ISO 800. I took it in "sports" or "running man" mode. We were kayaking when I took it, and we were fairly close to the eagle. I kept waiting for him to fly away, but he was so interested in eating that he was going nowhere.
Also, I'm curious s to who is planning to do Shimelle's class, Learn Something New Everyday. I've done it the last two years (once in ATC's and last year with stamping). I'd like to do it this year, but will do it with something simple - either photography or art journaling. If you're dong it, what's your plan? What have you done before? Links welcome.
Hi Rinda I love that first SP the splash of orange makes it zing
ReplyDeleteThe second one I like how you look but would have preferred it in colour, how about photo manipulation and bring back the colour to your and perhaps your shoes too.
I doing LSNED again this year but I haven't yet worked out how. But I do like your idea of a photo So may do it similar to my Nature's Calendar.
Lovely self portrait Rinda. I like the first one too.
ReplyDeleteI am doing LSNED too this year but will probably do it digitally, as I did last year as I find it really difficult to find time to paper scrap every day at the start of the term. Last year I printed all my pages out 6x4 and made an album with them.
Here is a blog post about my project last year and a little bit about my project in 2009
http://talesfromthescrapheap.blogspot.com/2010/10/life-is-good.html
Fab self portraits, and no wonder you are loving that colour, it suits you so well!
ReplyDeleteI think that LSNED was the first Shimelle class I did back in 2008 and I haven't done it since. But I think that this could be the year to revisit - just need to decide what size to do it this time and I will be ready!
Well done on the self portraits - they are so hard to get and I know what you mean about looking relaxed in them ... I have to take about 100 to get one that I might think is okay!
ReplyDeleteI was all geared up for LSNED but we have had some last minute changes this September and it will mean I'll be away from a computer for a lot of the time, and that will frustrate me as I was going to go digital - I still have other projects for the month in mind but I'm fairly sure it won't include LSNED, which is a pity!
Rinda, you are looking fabulous! What age do you look in that first one? About 20!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't going to do LSNED this year, but then I noticed Shimelle mention something about the prompts being refreshed, so if it's a bit different I think I'm in
LOVE these photos of you, Rinda! And I love that you included your running shoes in the mix. :o)
ReplyDeleteI think they're great, Rinda - you look focussed in the second shot, which fits with the athletic feel well :)
ReplyDeleteI'm in LSNED for sure, though I'll be starting it late because we'll be travelling back to England. I'm planning a super-simple version via Twitter, noting the Tweets in a tiny (but very cute!) notebook, but I also want to do a scrapbook of The Boy's first month at secondary school so I figured I'd get him to think of a 'lesson learnt' each day and scrap it on his behalf. Because I always over-complicate things!!
Your kids are looking so grown up now, wow! And I'm so pleased to hear the good news about Gypsy xx
Good news about Gypsy! I love the self-portraits. I've never seemed to be able to keep up with LSNED for some reason. I used to think it was because September was a crazed month when school was starting, but it didn't improve upon retirement. I'm not sure if I'll try it this year or not. If I do it will be a much different version than before. I'm waiting to see about the refreshed prompts as well.
ReplyDeleteThose are good pictures of you Rinda. I like them. You are looking good!! You are inspiring me to get back to working out 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. I'm almost tempted to go back to Curves or just start walking. You should be proud of yourself. Oh by the way I saw your postcard at Kristin's blog and loved it. Great job. Take care.
ReplyDeleteYour expression may not be relaxed, but to me it sends a powerful message. Makes you come across as confident and in control of your health!
ReplyDeletehmmm, makes me want to take a self portrait before I head out to weight training next week ;-)
Am signed up for LSNED, but have no idea how i'm going to approach it..it's my first time, so I keep looking on everyone's blogs for inspiration! Love both your self portraits!
ReplyDeleteAlison xx
Both the portraits are great,Rinda....very powerful.I think I prefer the first one of the two.
ReplyDeleteNot sure whether I'll do LSND or not...I have found it doesn't inspire me quite as much as Shimelle's other classes.
Love your self portraits, especially the second in black and white.
ReplyDeleteI will be doing LSND again this year - 3rd time for me. I've prepared a 6x4 landscape book and will be doing one photo and a line of journalling a day - I hope!