Inside the Darkroom

7/52: Salmon Croquette (Vegan Style)

2010-02-14T06:11:00.000-08:00

Last week, my mother made the extremely tasty Salmon Croquette without using any meat or animal products. After I took this photo I tasted a bit of it and it was wonderful!

6/52: Wedding Rings

2010-02-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

Yep so the rumors are true... my aunt is getting married in June and everybody knew about this - except me! I really need to stay in touch with my relatives huh?

5/52: Taking notes

2010-01-31T05:50:00.000-08:00

Part two of the seminar from last week, the audienced loved Chef Elle who talked about raw foods and the benefits of this special diet. I love this picture and I think its my favorite one I have taken so far.

4/52: Green Smoothie

2010-01-31T05:42:00.000-08:00

I was at a seminar earlier this week that featured a raw foods chef speaking about the benefits of live food. She was amazing and her guest loved all her dishes including this one - a green apple smoothie made with spinach, apples and limes. It might sound really disgusting but it actually tasted great.

3/52: Practice Makes Perfect

2010-01-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm trying learn all of the lovely presets on my camera. In this photo, I was praticing my aperture settings to blur the backgrounds of my photos. What do you think of this one?

Exercising

2010-01-08T16:38:00.001-08:00

I took this picture while my sister was trying out bursting for the very first time. She was going so fast, she looks like a huge blur! Hilarious!

1/52: Tomato Plant

2010-01-02T13:05:00.001-08:00

This is the first picture from my newest development: Project 52. I'm sure everyone has heard of Project 365 where you take a photo everyday and post it on Flickr or your personal blog. Well, I'm doing the exact same thing - except I'm taking a photo every week. I will be posting a minimum of one photo per week on this blog. When I'm done, I might create a photobook on blurb.com but I'm not totally sure yet

Play Time

2009-12-28T01:55:00.000-08:00

Can You Hear Me?

2009-12-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

Mother Daughter

2009-11-30T15:18:00.001-08:00

I took this picture the same day I took the picture of my sister's shoes. However, I just didn't have much time to edit it correctly. Take a look.

Shoes

2009-11-22T08:28:00.001-08:00

My sister kept asking me all day "take picture of my feet" and so I did. I played around with Adobe Lightroom all day to get three different "looks".

Downtown Shopping

2009-11-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

On Friday, my sisters, cousin and I went to Atlantic Station to hang out at the IKEA showroom. My favorite part was the kitchens and seeing how they designed beutiful homes in less than 800 sq feet.

We took these pictures while waiting for my other sister at the MARTA train station. We had fun just goofing around for 45 minutes.

Here are some Pictures of the showroom

Autumn Leaf

2009-11-08T11:35:00.000-08:00

Cooking with My Mom

2009-11-03T04:40:00.000-08:00

My Front Porch

2009-10-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

I actually took this picture many months ago when I was completely bored. My favorite one is the droplettes on the porch.

Life's lessons

2009-10-19T05:33:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, when I'm not doing homework or working on my business, I come up with usually sayings. This time, I decided to describe them through my photography. Here's one that I came up with yesterday:

When life has you surrounded....

get reinforcements!

Riding Marta

2009-10-11T03:47:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I decided to take my camera on MARTA to learn some different techniques.

Glow in the Dark

2009-10-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

When I took this picture, Baby sister and I were playing with her nightlight.

Weekend Warrior

2009-10-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

Baby Sister

2009-09-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

My very first photoshoot with my sister. I enjoyed it a lot and she had me giggling throughout the session, which took about 3 hours. Enjoy!

Elementary School Pep Rally

2009-09-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

My brother had this really cute pep rally at his football field. I admit that it was difficult to see but that is the life of a photographer right?

Naturally, he's very excited and leaves us in the dust!

This one is my favorite shot of the day, its clear and crisp. Plus, through his facial features, I can almost read his mind.

Since it took awhile for the rally to start, I started taking pictures of more random things.

Don't worry little guy! Next year you will be big enough to play too.

Last but certainly not least, my brother's team.

Fix-It Friday #29

2009-09-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

Usually when I post on here, I'm telling you about an event through my photos or I'm entering a contest. This time, I'm going to show you how I edit my photos. The same people who brought you I Heart Faces created an idea called Fix It Fridays. Contrary to popular belief, this is NOT a contest. Instead, we come here to learn about editing photos from other photographers - both amateurs and professionals - while sharing our work as well. I always use Picasa for editing my photos because the controls are easy to use and its free. If your interesting in downloading it, visit www.picasa.google.com.

Here is the orginally photo:

Now presenting my edited version:

All I did was added more highlights to make it brighter and contrast to get the colors to "pop" out.

Here is the black and white version with a slight glow added:

Finally, here is a sepia version with a glow and saturation to make the girl look more "delicate":

Piedmont Park

2009-09-08T18:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the entire family and I packed up and visited Piedmont Park. This particular day, they were having a special event called "Slow Foods Picnic". Everyone brought their own locally grown food and talked to some local farmers about the difference between locally grown food verses traditionally grown foods. Its was amazing and like usual, I enjoyed chatting with my subjects and snapping pictures.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Quarters

2009-09-04T21:06:00.000-07:00

I'm amazed at how sharp they picture turned out.

Football practice

2009-08-24T06:13:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, I went with my brother to his football practice. Although the mosquito feasted on my sweaty skin, I had a great time taking these pictures.

This one by far is my favorite out of all the pictures I have taken. I love the details and the gold trimming on the outside of the letters are breathtaking!

One in 8 Million

2009-08-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

This is a very interesting photo documentary from the NY Times about an Ethiopian girl that was adopted by an Asian-American family. I love the fact that this documentary takes a different look at transracial adoption.

Check it out today!

On My Back Porch

2009-08-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, my younger sister mentioned that she saw the most amazing spider on our front porch. I'm not sure what species this spider is but it has one of the most intricate webs I have ever seen in my life. The zig-zag pattern shown in the first picture is absolutely flawless. Can you imagine how long such a home took to build?

Coke Bottles

2009-08-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

I saw these thing collecting dust in the closet and I got a little inspired. Enjoy!

I Heart Faces ... or feet!

2009-07-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

For this week, the bloggers at I heart faces are doing something new... I heart feet. I couldn't resist this one so I'm getting away from the sidelines and into the game.

My First Photoshoot

2009-07-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

I had fun yesterday shooting my first "photo-shoot" with my younger sister, her best friend and our cousin. They loved the pictures and wanted to keep all of them.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

2009-07-12T15:05:00.001-07:00

My camera came home Friday evening and I'm learning many different things about it. One of the features I appreciate on digital single lens reflex cameras is the "auto-focusing" option. Its amazing to see the lens zoom in on exactly what I want; I'm thoroughly convinced she can read all my thoughts and expressions.

For my first documentary session, my sister and I took a stroll around the neighborhood. These flowers were the first subjects that caught my eye. Although I have seen them many times before, they appear very different through the camera lens and now I know why...their plastic and I thought they were real!

Although our neighborhood is one of the safest on our street, its not obvious to the naked eye. The curb appeal needs maintenance and this mailbox sums up what others see when they walk or drive-by.

Despite the fact I raved earlier about the auto-focus option, there are some frames where we miscommunicated with each other. In this picture below, I tried to shoot the beautiful yellow flowers but instead the camera zooms in on that ugly red weed! I should have used the "manual focus" option instead, alas!

This one is so far my favorite picture taken today. Cutie and I were plucking dandelions from every other yard in sight. Her favorite part of the trip was blowing the "fowers" into the hot and muggy sky.

In Less Than 9 Business Days...

2009-07-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

My camera will finally be home from Adorama! I decided to buy a Nikon D40 because of the good reviews written about it but I debated back and forth whether or not to buy a brand new or refurbished version. Therefore, I posted my concerns on The Photo Forum website and many members told me they saw no difference between their refurbished and new cameras.
For those of you who may be new to photography (or electronics in general) refurbished means that this camera was sent back to the manufacturer because it was considered a "defect". When most people think of defective electronics they generally believe that the product was damaged in shipping or the previous owner abused it but not all refurbished goods fall into those categories. Some were previous floor models in traditional electronic and camera stores. Others were bought by past customers who later returned them for various reasons - perhaps they disliked the model or found it too intimidating to use.
I also wanted to make sure that Adorama was a legitimate store so I looked them up in the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Not only are the BBB accredited, but they also have the highest rating that the BBB can give. So, if your interested in a refurbished camera, I highly recommend them.
I paid $475.30 for my camera and it comes with the body, lens, extra batteries, a 4gigabite memory card, carrying case and an extended two year warranty. At a traditional store, I would have paid almost 40 percent more for the same items.

Now if only I can wait 9 business days for Precious!

Rugmark Foundation Ends Childhood Labor in Southeast Asia

2009-07-01T01:57:00.000-07:00

While browsing the Internet yesterday, I came across a beautiful gallery by the Rugmark Foundation. Rugmark, along with other non-profit governmental organizations, are trying to end childhood labor in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. If you have some extra time today, please view these pictures here and read the children's powerful and moving stories.

Apples and Oranges

2009-05-31T15:49:00.001-07:00

Welcome!

2009-05-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog! Later on this month, I'm going to add pictures but right now, I'm trying to get my layout straightened out...

Thank you for checking me out!