Is Photography Art or Indulgence (on my part!)

So my Pentax K-X is a perfectly fine beginner DSLR camera...and mine is red! But as much as I liked my red beginner DSL I felt like I needed something with some advanced features.  So I got myself a Canon T2I -- 18.2 megapixels, shooting capability in "the RAW" (still not sure what that means yet except that it will be better to manipulate in Photoshop), and a bunch of other features that I'm still working through.  Photography is an expensive habit!  I could take a second mortgage out just on the lenses that I want!


But in addition to my new camera, I also invested in Lens called the Lensbaby.  This is a very cool lens kit that "bends" the image providing a lovely sweet spot of focus and feathers out the rest of the image.  There are multiple optics you can add to your Lensbaby.  I bought the "Composer" and several optics and special effects.  Check out their website and gallery for some very cool examples in their Gallery Lensbaby.

My favorite, the fish eye optic!

But as I struggle with the new equipment, I also struggle with photography as an art form.  I've always like to take unusual angles of things...more interested in the composition of a picture than documenting an event.  But what makes my shot better than someone else's?  I mean, if I get a great picture is it because of my artistic insight or is it because I have a great camera?  I struggle with this...

So here are some photos that are what I call my Seinfeld Series -- pictures about nothing...but I like them!  What do you think?

Macro 10x and 4x together

Macro 10x and 4x together

Double pane optic

Double pane optic

Macro 10X

Double pane optic

Double pane optic

I'll take Spiders and Snakes over Scorpions!

The other day I went into the master bathroom.  It was about 6:30am.  In the corner where the shower door meets the wall, there was something black.  It didn't move -- not even when Big Girl (Viola) came in and sort of sat on it.  I couldn't tell if it was something alive or a really weird dust bunny.  Of course I didn't have all the lights on...just a little night light thing.

ok so maybe I should focus on vacuuming up all the dog hair and Andy hair?

Well, I shooed the dogs out of the bathroom and turned on all the lights and to my surprise it was a scorpion.  EEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!! All I could think about was where's my camera?  I have to get a shot of this guy.  Since he didn't move, I thought he was dead already.  But I guess the flash woke him up because all of a sudden he was moving.  Big Girl tried to do her patented drop and roll move on it and Lil' Sopha likes to rub her face all over bugs and seafood (don't ask me why).  It was a crazy few minutes as I was yelling at Andy to kill it!

His response, "I don't know nothin' about killing scorpions -- we don't have them in NY!"  So I did the only thing I could think of...I reached for the shoe.

"Give me a flip flop, " I yelled at him.  And then with precision and decisiveness I whacked it dead like I had been killing scorpions for a while.  Maybe it is a sign...after all I am married to a Scorpio.

My Best Subjects...

Hello Creative People everywhere! Today I want to look at some of my favorite photographic subjects, my girls. Not only are they really cute and expressive but I can try out new techniques when I photography them as I'm still getting to know my DSLR camera. I have a Pentax K-x with an 18-55 lens. I'm now studying lenses and wondering what my next one will be. Photography is not an inexpensive hobby!

I'm sharing a diptich entitled I'm Happy/I'm Sad and one entitled Your Eyes Are the Windows to Your Soul.