New Lens!

Per my request, my grandmother wanted to give me a new lens as a graduation gift. Her husband was a professional studio photographer when he was still alive, so it was a meaningful idea to her. Unfortunately, she has 12 grandchildren, so she could only afford $200 towards a new lens. I found a relatively cheap macro lens on eBay for which I could afford the difference.

I got a Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens. 60mm is slightly zoomed in (I am used to 28mm completely zoomed out on my other lens), and so starting out zoomed in, but without the ability to zoom in more is a little weird to get used to. I've also been playing with B&W shots again, which I haven't really done much with since my film photography class in high school. Here are the shots I took right out of the box:

Spider Webs

[1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400, 60mm]

Stucco -- Depth of Field

[1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400, 60mm]

Porch Railing

[1/125sec, f/2.8, ISO 400, 60mm]

Toby -- not his usual ham-it-up model self

[1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400, 60mm]

~*~

Beginnings & Introductions

For Christmas, my parents got me a Canon Digital Rebel XSi:


And as a motivation to make time to take more pictures (and also because Sarah Michelle urged me to), I decided a photoblog was in order.

Now, I don't know what the typical definition of a photoblog is, but since I tend to be atypical, I'm defining my own terms here. My goal is to post one or more pictures taken on my new camera (yet to be named), and write a blog about it (with the exception of this post). In the future, this will mean a travel blog. For now, it will probably mean whatever I have time for in between school, work, friends, and my last semester of college and (possibly) LA. Hopefully that last one will also serve as a motivation to create blogging material.

All pictures I post will be taken in fully manual mode and unedited unless otherwise noted. I started manual photography on an ancient film SLR -- a Minolta that was once my grandfather's when he was alive -- and so I'm a purist when it comes to digital editing.

On another note, I'm saving up for a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens:

So I guess this means I will have to go with the cheap/free SoCal excursions for a while...

~*~

I forgot to introduce myself:

[01.12.2009 - Los Angeles, CA]
[1/60, F4.0, ISO 800, 53mm, +0.6]

Hi, I'm Sara. I am from San Jose, California, and hope to return to the South Bay after college. At the time of this post, I'm an undergraduate senior studying computer engineering at the University of Southern California in downtown Los Angeles, CA.

I live in a one-bedroom apartment with my 2 cats, Toby and Keiko. I quickly realized after adopting them sophomore year that they will be with me for the next 10-20 years of my life. They are my loyal companions (Toby was my first model and Keiko followed me on my first photo shoots in my parents' backyard as well as the nearby creek), the beginnings of my own atomic family.

Toby aka "Toberman" is a cuddle whore. We call him the fat cat because he used to be very round, but he's lost most of it and now is just a very large cat with a lot of furry excess skin. He has a problem with biting fingers and licking faces. His favorite past time at our current residence is to get stuck on the gazibo outside and cry until I get him down; I wish he were smart enough to either learn how to get himself down (like Keiko), or simply not go up there anymore. He's a cowardly feline who prefers housecat life:

[12.26.2008 - San Jose, CA]

[1/400, F3.5, ISO 400, 28mm]

Keiko aka "Keekerman" is a secret sweetheart. When I have people over, he is shy and slow to warm, but he has a whole secret life of friends once he leaves the house. While more brave, he is the smaller of the two and so Toby is dominant. He loves being outside, even if only stationed on my front porch guarding the house, and he will follow me around outside (which makes him a terrible model most of the time because he will always trot over to me before I'm done composing my original shot -- unless I'm lucky enough to catch him distracted):

[01.072009 - San Jose, CA]

[1/125, F3.5, ISO 200, 28mm]

This is my boyfriend, Adrian:

[12.31.2008 - San Jose, CA]

[1/125, F4.0, ISO 400, 38mm]
(Not the best picture of him, but it's the only one I have on my new camera. I'll post a better one soon!)

He and I have been on-again/off-again for about 4.5 years now. He's my closest thing to family when I'm away from my parents, and I feel lucky that we've managed to stick together despite the crap we've put each other through on our quests to find ourselves.

~*~