All posts by peneloping

Helpful things for the photography noob

50mm f/1.8 Series E

First off, I just want to clarify that I’m a beginner. Total n00b. I bought my first dSLR last April and I only sort of know how to use it.

This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list of the best stuff in existence. This is just what I came across that I found helpful. I’ll add to this list periodically.

In no particular order:

Books

1. Anything by Bryan Peterson. I’m not going to lie, I’m kind of obsessed with him. His hair is weird and he’s super cheesy but his videos want me to run out and try all of his tutorials immediately. My favorite books by him are Understanding Exposure, Understanding Close-up Photography, and Understanding Digital Photography. There are a slew of other books depending on your particular interests but Understanding Exposure and Understanding Digital Photography are probably the most useful for someone staring blankly at their new dSLR.

2. Nikon D7000: From Snapshots to Great Shots by John Batdorff. I love this book. While I still recommend reading your user manual, this book is basically a more readable version of a manual. He explains all of the basics of what goes into taking a photograph, but specific to the features of the Nikon D7000. He then goes on to explain several different types of photography (action, portraits, landscapes, black/whites, etc) and how to achieve great shots with this particular camera. There are other versions of this book tailored to other cameras (e.g. Nikon D5100: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Rob Sylvan), but I’ve only read the one for the D7000 and skimmed the D5100.

3. The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby. This book is pretty awesome but to be honest, I borrowed like seven photography books from the library and started reading this one the night before it was due and then haven’t renewed it since. It’s definitely less basic (he doesn’t explain where are all the buttons are and what they do) but super helpful. Plus, I think there are three or four volumes.

New camera!

Videos

1. The Perfect Shot by Bryan Peterson. Basically a compilation of a bunch of tutorial videos he’s shot. A lot of them can be found on Youtube just by searching “Bryan Peterson tutorials“.

Websites

The Photo Forum. I spent hours and hours poring over this site when I first starting looking into what camera to get and how to learn to use it. There are tons of threads on almost anything you can think of, so definitely look around and do some searches because chances are what you want to know has already been discussed.

The SLR Camera Simulator. This site is super cool just for explaining in very visual and basic terms what aperture, shutter speed, and ISO do. Plus it’s really fun to play with.

Ken Rockwell. Suuuper in depth reviews and descriptions of basically any equipment you can think of. Some people say to take his advice with a grain of salt though.

Close up filters

Do I need a _____ ?

1. Tripod. This depends on what kinds of photos you’re going to taking, and where. Low light means longer exposures are needed, which means no shaky hands. Actually being in your photograph is also made easier by having a piece of equipment that holds your camera for you (shocking, I know). Good tripods are expensive, but most people will tell you that $200 is nothing compared to the $500-$209348023 you’ll have to spend replacing your camera or lens when your crappy tripod gets blown over by the wind. With that in mind, and with no extra money in my budget, I bought a ~$20 tripod specifically for indoor use. So far it does what I need it to and I haven’t had any issues with it.

2. UV filter. I’ve read about a hundred articles and forum posts about why a UV filter is or isn’t necessary and I still haven’t a clue.  Some people say it blocks distortion from UV rays on bright days. Other people say that this is only necessary on film cameras. The first group usually retorts that even if it’s not doing anything at least it protects your lens if it falls. The other group comes back saying that having the glass of the UV filter shatter on the lens can do more damage than the actual fall would have. I have no idea. I don’t use one.

3. Flash. I want one but I don’t have one. I’ve read good things about the SB-700.

4. Remote. I love the idea of this, especially for self-portraits, but get a wireless one. My first dSLR was a Nikon D3100, which lacks the sensor required to work with the wireless one, so I had to use a wired one. Which meant that every time I wanted to use it to take a photo of myself, I had to be three feet from the camera, tops, and there would inevitably be a bit of black wire sticking somewhere in the frame. Not fun. For my new camera, I’m getting this one. There’s also the Nikon version. And if you have a D3100, try something like this, which has two pieces to it.

5. Reflector. These are pretty helpful, particularly for indoor photos where you’re standing next to a window with light coming from only one side. You can get one of these pretty cheap off Amazon, but you can also make your own. I took a giant piece of cardboard and glued wrinkled aluminum foil on one side and sheets of white paper on the other. Super easy!

PS I’m not getting paid for any of this. These are my own opinions.

PPS If anyone has any other suggestions for useful photography resources, feel free to leave a comment!

Fair Isle elves

Whale sweater progress

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Whale sweater progress

Whale sweater progress
ravelry page // pattern: Sweet and Seamless Sweater // yarn: LB fisherman’s wool & Knit Picks WotA 

One of the biggest lessons I learned when I started knitting bigger projects was that if I catch a mistake, even if it’s on row 3 and I’m all the way at row 57, I should always rip and fix it. Unless you can fix without ripping, of course. Some people can tell themselves that they love it for its imperfections, or that they won’t notice the error. I can’t do that; I always notice.

The thing with fair isle knitting is that even if you’re doing it totally right, it looks absolutely awful. The entire time I’ve worked on this sweater, I’ve had this ongoing argument with myself over whether or not I need to rip and start over. Maybe I’m pulling too hard. This part’s uneven. Why are these stitches leaning that way? It’s not even comforting to watch Youtube videos of the experts or to look at other people’s progress photos because I always seem to be able to convince myself that they’re knitting gods and I suck.

And yet inevitably I bind off, toss it in some warm water for a soak, and when it dries it’s lovely and even and I feel silly for ever doubting myself.

The moral of the story is that I need to photograph all my fair isle projects while they’re in progress so that when I start a new one, I can look back and see that the gorgeous sweater I finished and blocked used to look like crap too.

Or that wet yarn attracts small magical fair isle elves that unravel and re-knit the whole thing evenly whilst I sleep.

Who’s that girl?

You know that awesome feeling when you make a goal for yourself and you actually do it?

New Girl red dress
dress: self-made // capelet: Apostrophe (thrifted) // boots: Nine West (thrifted) // tights: F21

It feels pretty good.

New Girl red dress

I have a confession. I’ve been in love with Zooey Deschanel ever since I saw her in Bridge to Terabithia (which has always made me bawl like an infant, by the way), and when I got my Bon Look glasses a few months ago, my roommate asked me why on earth I didn’t watch New Girl. I didn’t really have an answer, so the next Tuesday, I snuggled on the couch with her and it was pretty much the best half hour ever.

New Girl red dress
New Girl red dress

Are you shocked that I was immediately inspired to make a dress from the show?

New Girl red dress

I used pretty basic pattern frankensteining for this one. I used Simplicity 1873 for the pleated skirt and then used Burda 7309 for the bodice and Burda 7739 for the sleeves, which I elongated to make them end just above the elbow. The dress itself is made of red cotton sateen and is super soft with a tiny bit of stretch. I might be wearing this on Valentine’s Day for whatever Boyfriend has planned that he refuses to divulge.

New Girl red dress

New Girl red dress

Still need to work on the lack of photo editing skills. We’ll get there.

Boots

Happy Monday, guys!

Excuse the mess –again!

I know, I know. I think I’ve changed the layout here four times in the past month. I’m still making some minor adjustments, and some bigger ones, so bear with me! I was going to do it all at once but my previous theme was just really bugging me. I wanted to try out the whole front-page-post-excerpt thing but it just wasn’t working for me to have to click on each individual tiny picture to get to the whole article.

Thanks for your patience!

PS Holy crap SNOW! As a person who really wants to go fabric shopping I am horrified. As a Californian who’s never lived in the snow, there are no words to describe the glee.

Stay safe, guys. And don’t forget to play in the snow!

Shoe rescue – Part 1

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You may recall this lovely pair of Lottas that I got last summer. In fact, they’re even featured in my blog header.

Except you might have noticed that they’ve faded quite a bit.

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Yikes! And sad 🙁

What also kind of sucks is that I ordered the wrong size so they’re a bit too big on me, which was fine until I broke them in and the straps became too loose for them to actually stay on my feet. Double sad.

I had toyed with the idea of cutting out a part of the strap and then sewing the ends together to shorten the whole thing, but these are one of my favorite pairs of shoes (although realistically, which ones aren’t?) and I have no experience working with leather so I was very wary.

Today decided to just go for it. Either I leave them alone and pretty much never wear them or I completely screw them up and they become unwearable. Or all goes well and I end up with a gorgeous pair of sandals that actually fit!

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I essentially put the shoe on, pulled the strap outward, and cut the strap right where it hit the center of my heel. I then took a 1″ piece of elastic and sewed it onto one cut side of the strap, then to the other, creating two X shapes when they’re lined up. It would be a good idea to reinforce this with something iron-able or fray check or possible some sort of leather glue.

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This is what it looks like from the back. Not too shabby, right? If you’re really worried about aesthetics, you could even glue something decorative there to cover the stitches.

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Next up, dealing with the color fading issue. But I have to wait for supplies to come in the mail.

I hate waiting.