Macro ornamental strawberry

Macro ornamental strawberry, a photo by olmjohns on Flickr.

So I was hesitant to do this contest since I did not have any macro photography equipment.  I ended up purchasing some cheap accessories and took a lot of shots that look really good.  I chose this photo to enter because it is unique.
The Challenge:
Get super up close and personal with something tiny through macro photography.
http://www.gizmodo.com/5800821/shooting-challenge-macro
My Comment:
So I went out and purchased some new equipment for this challenge.  I had not bought anything for my camera since I got it over a year ago and decided I could get something for this challenge so I wouldn't have to eat a whole can of Pringles chips!  After reading all the tutorials on macro photography, I bought a set of extension tubes, a reversing ring and a shutter remote.  The reversing ring was the wrong size so I had to go with the extension tubes only.
This challenge turned out to be extremely difficult.  I originally intended to take a picture of a flower but shooting so close up outside was too hard.  The flowers kept moving and I couldn't get anything in focus.  I took a lot of great photos that I really like and I ended up really enjoying macro photography.  I think I will continue to work on more photos in this area.
My submission is a shot of an ornamental strawberry that I picked from my backyard and brought inside to photograph.  Since I used the extension, tubes, I don't know what many of the technical aspects are for the shot but I set the focal length to f/11 because I knew with the tubes I needed more light to get in to the lens to hit the sensor.
I think the strawberry ended up looking like a bunch of red ants on a ball.  Kind of crazy!
Thanks for the challenge.

Palos Verdes 5K

So I was thinking I was going to struggle on this run since my grandma's memorial service was the evening before.  I ran the race well despite dealing with a horrible shuttle service.  I got to the pickup point 45 minutes before the race start time.  When I finally got off the bus, I had only 10 minutes to run to the registration area and pick up my bib and timing chip.  Yikes!  Then when I left, the race was still going on so no traffic was going across the street.  I skipped the shuttle, hiked up the hill and my wife picked me up on the side of Hawthorne!  Crazy.

Hereafter

Hereafter directed by Clint Eastwood
2010
★✰✰✰✰
So I really tried to watch this film.  I really did.  It started off interestingly enough with the Boxing Day tsunami but then I felt it didn't go anywhere.  I couldn't figure out how any of these people could be connected and I'll never know since I stopped the film after an hour or so.

Portrait

Portrait, a photo by olmjohns on Flickr.

So I was hesitant to do this week's shooting challenge but I tried it anyway.

The Challenge:
Take a portrait of someone. This should not be a spontaneous candid, but a planned model shoot. It cannot be a self-portrait either. The challenge is to work with someone else and capture a portrait of them.
http://gizmodo.com/#!5798546/shooting-challenge-portrait

My Comment:
When I started up all this photography stuff, I told myself that I wasn't going to take pictures of people, only objects and landscapes.  Well, I also want to do these shooting challenges so I decided to try this contest.  The other issue I had was that I was hesitant to post of photo of my four year old son on the internet for all to see.  That being said, I wanted to make sure that my entry fit the criteria but still obscured my son's face a little.
I set up the shot with a small bedside lamp sitting in my son's toy grocery cart to get it to the same height as his face.  I had him stand against the wall and asked him not to smile.  Of course, that just made him smile.  I played around with shutter speed and was able to get 10-15 shots taken before he lost interest.
This was the best of the bunch.

Howl

Howl directed by Rob Epstein
2010
★★★✰✰
So I knew nothing of Allen Ginsberg or Howl prior to watching this film.  I knew Ginsberg was a "beat poet" but that was it.  The film was interesting as it takes all its lines from court transcripts and interviews.  Essentially, every line spoken by an actor was said by the person he was portraying.  Kind of cool.  James Franco was awesome as usual and the animation sequences throughout the film were good.

April

So I finished my second month of my "one object 365 days" photography project.  Here is a mosaic of the month's photos.  Visit my Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewjohnson/http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewjohnson/

Telephone lines

Telephone lines, a photo by olmjohns on Flickr.

So I was having difficulty coming up with a shot for this challenge.  This is what I came up with:

The Challenge:
Take one shot and submit it. You cannot retake this shot if you mess up. The pressure is on.  That photo need not be the only photo you take all week. Feel free to warm up today, get comfortable with manual settings or a certain technique. But whatever you submit should be a wholly new (subject, framing, etc) photo - and before you hit the shutter, agree with yourself that "this is the photo I'm going to submit."
http://gizmodo.com/#!5796165/shooting-challenge-one- shot

My Comment:
I was having difficulty coming up with something to shoot since it needed to be visually interesting. When you only have one shot, you really need to think it out. I was at my sister-in-law's house in Orange, CA for a nice BBQ and noticed all the power lines in their backyard. I liked how they all criss-crossed against the blue sky. I did my best to get the wires lined up in my shot as to where it would give the most artistic look. I hope you like it.