Photo: Pikachu for You

Pikachu for You

The last of nine photos with Amour. She’s handing a Pikachu doll to her friend Jerica. This is actually a remote for an old Pikachu VCR… it has play, stop, fast-forward, and rewind buttons on Pikachu’s hands and feet, a power button on the Pokemon’s stomach, a remote sensor on the back of his head, and AA batteries inside.

Jerica and Amour couldn’t help but laugh. :grin:

I wish Amour good fortune in her modeling and psychology career, and the same for Jerica in her field of study.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1000, F3.5, 50mm, ISO200, 2009-11-02T09:41:27-05, 20091102-144127rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: Wanderlust

Wanderlust

Amour wants to wander the world instead of being stuck in boring college courses. :unsilly: I wasn’t planning on using this for anything, but I love her eyes and pose because she looks innocent and curious.

There’s some guy standing in the background with a backpack, facing away. We were at a busy (sidewalk) intersection. If I asked him to move, three people would have immediately replaced him. Oh well. I think he filled in a hole because there was bright sky or a building behind him.

I brightened Amour’s eyes and darkened her pupils, cleaned her up a bit, and shifted the white balance to cloudy, which is warmer and more yellowish.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/800, F4.5, 50mm, ISO200, 2009-11-02T10:05:40-05, 20091102-150540rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: Seriousness

Seriousness

Amour with her friend Jerica O’Neal, acting all serious. I have a photo of both ladies smiling but it doesn’t work… there was no balance.

Amour is the noun for love in French, which is very serious.

Jerica had to stand on her toes while Amour crouched down or they’d be blocking each other. I couldn’t have them stand side to side either.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/500, F4, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-11-02T10:12:27-05, 20091102-151227rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: Eyes on You

Eyes on You

Amour is watching you. Or she is being watched. Either way, she’s not afraid . . . my caption-writing abilities are going down fast.

This is outside of the photography school at Daytona State College. They have these cool blue-tinted windows… you can see my reflection vaguely in the window on the left.

I just told Amour to do something interesting and I got this. Good job girl.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1000, F3.2, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-11-02T10:10:38-05, 20091102-151038rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: Gamer Chick

Gamer Chick

Amour pretending to play a video game. :grin:

I gave her an old PlayStation 1 controller and told her to start mashing the buttons. She’s looking at an imaginary television set to the left of the frame. The cable for the controller just trails off to the ground.

If you play video games make sure to do it with friends because it’s no fun alone. I’ve been in a couple impromptu Mario Kart DS tournaments at the college cafeteria. Fun fun fun. Of course I can out-snake everyone. :cool:

She smiled with teeth and all in another shot, but I think she looks cuter in this one.

Editing was easy on this one, but it hinged on me getting a good background. There was an ugly railing just to the left in the background, which would’ve made the picture ugly if I included it. Composition is everything! So is lighting and your model or subject’s pose.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/800, F2.8, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-11-02T09:38:25-05, 20091102-143825rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: Kathleen and Amour

Kathleen and Amour

Kathleen Edsom, a culinary student at Daytona State College, posing with Amour Bloomfield in the grass.

I took a few photos with both ladies looking at the camera, but I preferred having Kathleen look up at Amour so it isn’t an ordinary portrait. I got grass stains on my jeans… but I had to kneel in the grass to get the camera down low enough. This was near bldg. 300 at the campus, so there were a lot of students watching, asking questions, trying to join in. There’s a big photography school just a few paces away so this is nothing out of the ordinary.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1000, F4.5, 50mm, ISO200, 2009-11-02T10:02:50-05, 20091102-150250rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: With Nature

With Nature

The 3rd of 9 portraits of Amour. She’s stopping to smell the roses… or petunias, or whatever these blue flowers are.

The flowers and mulch was planted there, the flower in her hair is fake, and she’s wearing a dress and makeup, but I still say she’s with nature. :wink:

For editing I removed some freckles from Amour’s arm (spot healing brush), darkened the corners, added contrast, brightened her face, and toned down the greens a bit.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1600, F2.8, 50mm, ISO200, 2009-11-02T09:58:38-05, 20091102-145838rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: Searching for You

Searching for You

Amour is looking for you! This is at the clock tower at Daytona State College. You can see her books and coffee in the background at the bottom left. It was overcast, which is the best lighting for portraits.

From the camera this was too dark, but I brightened it with the exposure tool and highlight recover to 45 in Adobe Camera Raw 5.0. There wasn’t much to do otherwise because she knew how to pose.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/2000, F2.8, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-11-02T09:55:30-05, 20091102-145530rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: The Violinist

The Violinist

Amour Bloomfield playing the violin. Amour is a Daytona State College student and she assures me she has modeled for many of the photography students. :cool:

She didn’t know how to play my violin, but she picked it up pretty quickly so hopefully no one will notice. The book is Suzuki Vol. 2, which I enjoy playing. I’ve never advanced beyond a second-year level in violin (unlike piano), but at least I have good intonation.

At first Amour was looking at the music, but I told her to look at the camera instead. It doesn’t make sense because she should be looking at the score if she’s playing a song, but photography often makes no sense.

The next eight days will all be portraits of Amour. I took a lot of different pictures of her. Check back soon.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1000, F3.5, 50mm, ISO200, 2009-11-02T09:44:42-05, 20091102-144442rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Lauren Axelrod’s Archeology Review

I met Lauren at Daytona State College in the fall of 2008 at one of my math classes. She’s a dedicated blogger and archeology student who is attending DSC with the goal of becoming a Doctor of Archeology. In fact, she is so sure she will accomplish this that she’s calling herself a doctor already! That is misleading, but I admire her dedication and I hear she makes a good income through freelance writing.

You can see all of her articles on her Triond profile page. I like her article, Did Christianity Cause the Fall of the Roman Empire?, where she concludes in layman’s terms that the Roman Empire fell because of mismanagement, not a change in religion. It’s much like how the United States is going to fall by completely ruining the U.S. dollar over the next few years (buy gold, silver, firearms, and canned goods quick!).

Here’s her main blog, which has some interesting links and information:

The Ancient Digger

She also wrote a short post about me and my photo, Bongos for Peace.

If you’re studying to be a journalist, an archeologist, a psychologist, a photographer, or whatever, one of the best ways to get your name out there is to start a blog and write lots of useful articles. You don’t have to do original research. Analyzing or even summarizing concepts in your field of study will be useful both to yourself and others. If you use WordPress and pay for your own hosting like I do, you’ll pick up a lot of web development skills along the way (there’s no other choice!). If you’re studying to be an archeologist but writing an archeology blog makes you sick, you’re in the wrong field. For Lauren, this is definitely not the case. Don’t sit on the sidelines just because you have 40 hours of college coursework per week. :wink:

2009-11-11 Update: Lauren gave me and some other bloggers a Best Blog Award. Check that out!