Day 2_What I Wore Today

Today is a day of new learning and of humble beginnings. I was humbled to read again the photography tips by David Peterson's recommended by my brother. I have some inhibitions in the past to seriously take the tutorial as I saw the early lessons to be amateurish on which I arrogantly believed I am already beyond that. But as with bitter realizations, I started to notice that I am way behind what I envisioned I am.

Thanks to my sustained enthusiasm and to some supernatural force that keep me glued on this exercise, I arrived early in the office with gusto to dig into online sites for further advices. Luckily, I was reunited with David Peterson's special folder in my inbox (a folder I made with my brother's subtle coercion). Just like a landmine, when I opened a day's tip I am unendingly provided with ceaseless number of links which are genuinely helpful. I was reintroduced with depth with ISO, flash fill, subjects in motion, file formats, colors in photography, and the handiest of these is Google Picasa. I was doubtful at first, uncertain if I will just be dumping another space-eater in my computer. Apparently, Picasa is the answer to my RAW photos!

So here goes my Day 2, a photo of what I wore today. Knowing today's task ahead of time, it is a little funny that I got conscious of what I have to wear. With my attempt to be out of ordinary I was thinking of taking a photo of some other things I wear like my watch and my glasses (which practically belong to my usual get-up, though); on which ordinary photo I presume to be a picture of my shirt. I was also considering to be a little out of the box on which I was thinking of taking a portrait of me smiling with I-am-wearing-a-smile-today-photo. This I get dissuaded so quickly - another portrait of myself is just not a smart choice.

With a seeming lack of better options and being confronted by a big hurdle on being artistic, I am left with my yellow Khao San Rd shirt. I love the print - a sketch of calm birds on top of a post line trying to look like a musical staff. The birds are cute, way opposite than the angry ones. Technically, the challenge for me today is to apply the relationship of ISO and shutter speed: how the reduction of ISO communicates to the shutter speed that it needs to work double to recompense the lack of light (as I write this I am getting confuse on the relationship, whether its direct or indirect) and specifically to reduce the grains, which were evident with my weekend shots. I seemed to be forgetting my lesson as easily as when I took this photo it was the aperture wheel I was fiddling with.

I guess I am satisfied with the outcome - no grains, just the right contrast and exposure for a yellow subject. Thanks to Picasa, this photo was fine-tuned with the RAW format. I am amazed on the great details that are saved compared with the loss in the auto conversion to JPEG. Certainly, not comparable to the multitude of editing options of Photoshop but still handy enough for novice manipulations.