Not leaving well enough alone

OK, in my previous post, I featured this image captured in Disneyland.

However, I wasn't happy with it, which was just gnawing away at me in the days since I posted it. Finally, I decided to get a purely critical POV from objective eyes, and utilized a critique forum on Flickr.

After taking a couple of the suggestions in the forum, I edited it a bit differently in Lightroom, mainly getting rid of the ugly extreme vignetting and toying with the contrasts a little bit:

Could this be a better image? Absolutely! I took this with my point and shoot, so I was limited when it came to DOF. I wish the little girl had turned a bit more my way to reveal more of her eye. And I really wish that she hadn't worn a striped shirt.

However, I loved the image in that moment. This little's girl's pensive pose will always remind me of that October day in Disneyland on the Rivers of America. I also think the reflection on the banister is kind of cool, and it may not have caught my eye if she wasn't wearing that striped shirt.

Please feel free to tell me what you, esteemed reader, think of the image. Was the second edit better? Do they look the same?

Thanks as always for stopping by, and for sticking with me through my photographic journey.

Child's eye

I always have some sort of camera with me, and I make sure to charge my batteries in my point and shoot the night before I visit Disneyland. Usually I like to get photos of my niece, but I also love the photographic opportunity that Disneyland presents. It's a beautiful, magical place (no matter your age) filled with people and things you don't see on a regular day. I was on the "steamboat" taking a ride on the River of the Americas, enjoying the beautiful October day (Hello, this is Southern California!) and I noticed this little girl right next to me just leaning on the railing and enjoying the view:

I love the perfect profile of this little girl, and the contrast of her striped shirt to her smooth hair. The reflection of her shirt in the rail is something I noticed but didn't think came out until I started editing the photo. I created this as a B&W image in Lightroom 2 because the colors in the original were competing too much with her stripes. B&W also adds to the pensive mood I felt when creating this image. I couldn't help but wonder what was going on in this little girl's mind as we cruised down the river. I like that you can see a hint of her eye in this portrait, because for me, the photo just isn't worth taking if you cannot see an eye of your subject.

Thanks for stopping by!

Project 365 Catch up: Day 17

Whew! It has been a little bit since I have blogged about my 365 project (Don't worry, I'm still on it!). So let me catch you up a bit with photo days 13-17. It has been suggested to me to add metadata (Since this IS a photoblog and all), so I am going to try my best and do that for you, starting today! Photo Day 13

Two things for Day 13: I forgot my trusty point at shoot at home (How could I?) And then went out to dinner and shot this little ditty with my iPhone:

A little noisy, but I liked how the light hit the glass with the oil in it.

Photo Day 14

Big news for me and my photographic journey:

Is now mine! It was the only photo that I took that day, because really, that was the only thing that mattered on day 14.

Photo Day 15

Took a trip down to Anaheim to visit the funny talking mouse. I started out at Disney's California Adventure, which has changed a lot since it first opened--my last visit there--and all for the better. One of the details that I enjoyed seeing was a Gaudi style mosaic bench. This photo is one of the details of that bench:

I liked this particular detail because of the colors, and I'm a sucker for Shamu.

Taken with Canon Powershot SD780 (aka my trusty point and shoot). Camera on auto, 1/200 at f/3.2, ISO 200, 5.9mm.

Photo Day 16

I am a Pixar nut. Anything that comes from them, I am a huge fan before I even see it. And of course my foundation of love for them came from the movie Toy Story. These are my favorite little characters from that movie:

I loved these little aliens in the movie, and when I saw the "Bucket o' little green men" I had ideas for my new camera and these little guys. I like this photo because it's funny (how can you look at these and not smile?), and I like putting a little twist into photos.

Taken with THE Canon 5D Mark 2, 1/200 at f/4, Tamron 90mm, ISO 800 (Notice the lack of noise?? Love it!!)

And here we are at...

Photo Day 17

It ain't so sunny today in Southern California and I must say, as much as I normally don't like the rain, I loved it today because I could play around with Mark the camera and get photos like this:

I love reflections and water shots, so this was my first foray combining these two things with the high ISO.

Taken with Canon 5D Mark 2, 1/160, f/4.0, Canon EF 24-105mm at 105mm, ISO 6400 (Did I mention I love it!)

More rain this week, so I'm sure I'll get a few more rain shots up this week.

Thanks for sticking with me, and as always, thanks for stopping by!