Author: iampotassium

Mountain Girl

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When my friend Jem was in town a few weeks ago, we went up to Chautauqua Park in Boulder with our friend A so that A could model and Jem and I could practice taking portrait shots. Chautauqua is awesome for photography because it’s snuggled up to the base of the Flatirons that look over Boulder (so it’s very picturesque) but it’s also annoying because if you don’t get there at exactly the right time of day, the sun makes taking pictures really hard (it’s too bright or it’s already hidden behind the Flatirons)! The lighting was definitely a bit frustrating when we were there but it made for a good challenge to get good pictures of A! Yay portrait practice! Can’t wait till you get a DSLR too A so that we can model for you to return the favor! :) Anyway, it was really fun and A did a great job being photogenic so I’d have to say this was a success.

I love the picture above because the rock A is standing next to mirrors the giant Flatirons behind it. I love the pictures below too… Take a look!

This one I am proud of because I just learned to make that reflection of the sun in her sunglasses into that starbursty shape. I love it. It makes the pic look super epic.

For some reason, I love the dramatic backlighting and A’s windblown hair in this picture. Plus you can see the Flatirons in the background.

This one is fun because you can see me and Jem in A’s glasses. Hi Jem! :)

What are you like in front of the camera? Are you an absolute ham like I am (sometimes it’s seriously really hard for me to decide if I want to be in front of or behind the camera…) or do you run from the camera? Is there something you really hate about yourself in pictures of you (I always feel like I’m slouching in pictures :p)? What about something you love?

By the way, don’t you love how beautiful and sunny all those pictures of A are? Yeah… it’s been ridiculously warm here… So much for December being wintery. Though I guess we are supposed to get snow this weekend…

Dropsy Turvy

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Yay! A post! And one with crazy water droplets! The pictures in today’s post comes from last weekend when my friend Jem was in town and we gave each other various photo challenges. This one was by far the hardest because it requires dropping water into a bowl full of water and capturing the droplets falling and landing in the bowl. You have to have a lot of light so you can use high shutter speeds (so the drops don’t look blurry) AND you have to take hundreds of pictures so that you can at least get a few cool pictures. So the set up is pretty much as complicated as taking the actual picture. Jem and I made an impromptu light box and pretty much filled it with all sorts of lights. I think the best way to do this type of photography is to use an external flash but Jem and I didn’t have one so we had to improvise with a couple of desk lights, an overhead light in the room, etc. Anyway, then we set up the background behind the water (in the picture above, it is the sheet music – this picture was inspired by this one taken by Patrick Latter). Then we played with a variety of camera settings (longer and shorter shutter speeds, smaller or larger ISO and F numbers, her camera vs my camera), backgrounds, and the water itself (we added blue food coloring to the water at first and then some milk). Fun times.

The picture above and the pictures below are some of my favorite pictures from my camera.

What do you think? It’s craziness! I love how the pictures (which have been adjusted only for white balance and shadows) look ridiculously 70’s… So many colors…. How are you guys? It’s getting to be holiday season so I’ve been thinking a lot about traditions. Do you have any awesome traditions that you do every year? Is it something you’ve done forever with your family or is it something you and your spouse/significant other came up with? What’s the story behind it? I want to know everything! :D

Top Secret Crochet Project pt 1

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Meet Woky! He was my top secret crochet project #1 of the fall. This isn’t the current top secret crochet project mentioned in Monday’s post though. You’ll have to wait on that one. Anyway, this is Woky. He is an ewok in case you were thinking he was a cute teddy bear with a hood (:-/) and his hood is removable. I made him for my friend Jem! A few months ago, my friend J suggested that we make crocheted ewoks together and I thought that sounded fun! J is a much faster crocheter than me so she finished her ewok in record time. Meanwhile slow Potassium took months to finally finish Woky (this does not bode well for my current top secret crochet project….). It was awesome in the end though because I finished Woky about a week before Jem was supposed to come into town for a visit. Somehow she figured out that she was getting an ewok though I think she was still happy that she was right. She promptly named him Woky! :) Before Jem came into town, we took Woky to the pumpkin patch for a photoshoot. So without further ado, may I present Woky!

This is before the pumpkin patch; Woky decided he wanted to ride the great shark Finn across the house… Cobalt can’t look at this picture without thinking of riding the sand worms in Dune…
Ewoks in the corn maze!
I think Woky has chosen a pumpkin….

I am super proud of Woky. I’d say he turned out pretty well! His pattern was pretty hard (I had to keep asking J for help… that’s partly why he took so long to finish…).

In other fun crafty news, my friend Jem and I are thinking of starting an Etsy shop for our photographs and possibly my crocheted creatures (though I am super slow so I’m not sure about that). Anyone have any comments about that? Do you have an Etsy shop? Is it awesome? Stressful? Let’s discuss (topics: Etsy/ewoks/anything else you’ve been dying to tell me)!

Curious…

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Whew… I hope you all had happy Thanksgiving weeks last week! I took last week off from posting because it was technically vacation at school… grad students don’t really get vacations from lab (those darn cells, always needing something….) so I took a vacation from my other activities (such as writing in here) instead.

So what have I been up to?

Well besides reading a bunch of young adult books (I read 3 books in about as many days… :-/) and eating (over the past week, yours truly has helped eat 1 turkey breast, 1 turkey, and 2 ducks… not to mention a ridiculous amount of stuffing, mashed potatoes, and other delicious Thanksgiving favorites), I did lot of arts and crafts. These include a super secret crochet project, fun crafts from a “Crafternoon” with my sis in law and other friends, whale drawings, and (of course) photography. My friend Jem was in town for Thanksgiving so she and I gave ourselves various photography tasks. So in the next few days/weeks/etc, look forward to posts about all those crafts up there plus more star photography, pictures of our friend A modeling for us (see pic above for an example of that), and cool water droplet pictures similar to this one by Patrick Latter.

In other news, I am starting an informal class that meets on Mondays and Wednesdays at school. Depending on what my homework is like, I might have to switch these posts to Tuesdays and Thursdays for a bit so I can spend Sunday and Tuesday nights doing my homework instead of planning fun blog posts… :-/

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you do any Black Friday shopping? Are you doing any Cyber Monday shopping right now? What is your favorite activity to do to relax? I loooooove being creative (or reading).

Blue eyed bato

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Short post today! Today I have a picture of my friend A’s cat, Meow. She is pretty much the most adorable cat of all times (though I have been known to say that about a lot of cats) and she looks at you with her big blue eyes and meows at you until you pay attention to her (or meow back, one or the other). Anyway, I am super proud of this picture because I took it on my iPhone and then used not one but two different photo apps to make it look awesome… oh yeah… I am turning into one of those crazy iPhone apps people… but only in the picture department. I am such a nerd…

In case you were curious, I used ColorSplash to do her eyes and then Instagram to make the general feel of the picture awesome. I kind of love it.

Oh yeah… I also call cats Batos. It’s my friend C’s fault. She started it when we were back in high school…

Do you have a smart phone? What is your favorite app? Do you have a dumb phone and like that way (that’s Cobalt…)? Tell me… :)

Minimoon ziplining!

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So that’s where my hotel key went…. :-/

Finally, a Wedding Wednesday post about Cobalt’s and my minimoon! Well after the wedding, we headed to the coast of CA to stay in this swanky hotel called The Inn at the Tides. Waiting there in our room was a fancy care package from my MOH, her family, and some of my other friends. My MOH’s mom made us this awesome shark wedding card:

Anyway, the next day we awoke to the world covered in fog. It was a bit awkward because I actually forgot my hoodie in the bridal suite the day before so now I have a super comfy soft hoodie from Inn at the Tides to remember our minimoon with… Here’s a picture of the hotel in the fog:

but don’t worry, as soon as we drove away from the coast a bit, the fog cleared right up.

Then Cobalt and I went ZIPLINING!!! It was so beautiful ziplining through the trees of west Sonoma County, California. Plus our guides were super informative about all the different kinds of trees (we learned that redwoods are kind of scary to zipline to because they have a crappy root system and tend to sway in the slightest wind. One girl in our group asked to go last if we were ziplining to a redwood tree because she didn’t want to be seasick while she waited for everyone else).

Some ziplining stories: The longest zipline went right over where people in later groups were getting trained so they told us to scream bloody murder as we flew across. Also, because it is the longest a lot of people can’t actually make it all the way across. If you end up stopping, you have to turn around in midair and pull yourself to the other side. I curled up in the tiniest Potassium-ball ever and launched myself to the other side and I just barely made it…

After going through a bunch of zip lines, we got to go up a giant spiral staircase that wound its way around an epic redwood and then we walked across several rope ladders high above the ground. Finally, we ziplined to the last tree and then had to belay back down to the ground. It was so fun!

Here’s an attempt at a picture of me and Cobalt while ziplining (the camera was tied to my vest so it was hard to get me in the picture…..)

After ziplining, Cobalt and I had to head back to my parents’ house to pack up the car with all our non minimoon stuff, wedding presents, and other fun wedding things (we even brought three of our cactus centerpieces home)! Then we went out to a congratulatory dinner with my family before starting our epic journey back to Colorado the next day… Sad… the minimoon was so short and Cobalt and I were so tired from all the craziness that goes into planning and then having a wedding… the drive back to Colorado was a slow one…

Hopefully Cobalt and I can have a real honeymoon some day (yeahhhh NYC and Paris!!!!) but for now, our minimoon was an awesome mini getaway. :)

Where did you/do you want to go on your honeymoon? Did you leave right after the wedding? If you did, Cobalt and I are amazed… :)

Best husband ever!

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The stuffed sharks really like my new backpack… :-/

Welp, today’s my birthday and I was going to use that as an excuse to not post anything. Then Cobalt let me open my present from him early (before bed last night) and it was so cool that I just had to write a post about it!

HE GOT ME A SHARK BACKPACK.

I’ve been wanting to get this backpack for a while now for a few reasons. The most important reasons are listed below.

  1. It’s a shark backpack. Need I say more?!
  2. Okay, if you need another reason: The company that makes them has an animal protection theme and features endangered species on their bags. My shark backpack came with a note reminding us of the fact that shark fin soup could wipe out a bunch of shark species in a very short time period (like in the next few years). Boooo… we love you, sharkys!

Do you have any fun traditions for your birthday? Are you super excited about your birthday or is it just another day? Let’s discuss… except I’m gonna go get some cake while we talk… ;)

Getting ready for the cold!

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Well after days of having temperatures in the 60s and 70s all week, we are plummeting back down into the really cold this weekend. The high for Sunday is supposed to be 28! Craziness. Not looking forward to that one….

The picture today is pen and ink! Last weekend, my friends A and J came over and we had art night. A and I played with pen and ink on newsprint while J worked on designing a new pillowcase for a throw pillow. It was fun. A much needed break from lab, that’s for sure. Anyway, I spent the majority of my pen and ink time practicing drawing penguins. This one is my favorite. :)

What is the weather supposed to be like for you this weekend? Any fun plans? Cobalt and I have challenged ourselves to have an amazing weekend despite the cold. We haven’t decided yet what an “amazing weekend” looks like but I’m sure we’ll figure something out… :)

Professional Wedding Pictures!

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I remember being sad that I didn’t have access to my camera on my wedding day because I wanted to save the whole day in picture form. Thanks to Holly Carlyle Photography, Cobalt and I have access to the proofs of all 900 or so of our professional pictures that sum up the whole day pretty well! I put together a little post for you guys. It’s a little overwhelming to go through all 900 and pick out just a few! I am already sad about the others I abandoned so maybe I will post more pictures later! Anyway, here are a few!

One of the many pictures of me, my bridesmaids, and our Shark Bananas.

Table for the relatives who couldn’t come
Groomsmen being silly before the ceremony





So we may have given each other pieces that were too big…

The Father Daughter dance was much discussed… My dad and I are ridiculous…
A girl and her shark…
Kissing the bouquet shark goodbye
Rings and photobooth props… I think our photographers were having fun.

Thoughts? Is there anything that you wanted to see that I didn’t put here? I have soooo many pictures I could post for you guys. :) Let’s discuss! I miss getting comments from you guys…

In other news, today is my sis in law’s birthday! Yay! Happy birthday! I hope it is amazing. Also, Saturday was my mom’s birthday (Happy birthday again, Mom!) and my birthday is next Monday! Hurrah! So many November birthdays… :)

In other other news, my epic grant is getting reviewed tomorrow. Fingers crossed they like it!

DSLRs and what I know about them

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Gustav wants to learn how to use a DSLR too…

First off… Our wedding pictures are up! I’ll post some on here on Wednesday! Cobalt and I have to figure out which 50 we like the best out of all of them for our wedding book. So many pictures to choose from!

Anyway, today’s post is about DSLR cameras. I have had a few people ask me if I have any advice on picking out DSLRS/getting into photography. So I thought I’d write a little post about it. Obviously if you have more questions, go ahead and ask and we can continue the discussion over a series of posts.

The bottom line
I think when you get your first DSLR, it’s good to just go with whatever used one that fits properly in your price range. You don’t know what you want in a DSLR yet but you need something to practice on. So if you can find a used (but not too used obviously) one that fits well in your price range, I say just go for it! As you play, you will notice features you do and don’t like in a camera and then when you are a more experienced photographer who can afford a brand new DSLR, you can get a really nice one with all the features you like.

Canon vs Nikon
As for the different brands, I have a Nikon because of just what I said above – my old boss’ husband was selling his old Nikon so he could buy a new one and I really wanted to try it out so I bought it. I haven’t looked back since. It has been so fun. The biggest differences I’ve seen between Nikon and Canon at least is that Canon products (the camera body, the lenses, etc) are usually bit cheaper (though experienced photographers will tell you that Nikon has better picture quality… I have no idea if this is true… I’ve seen professional photographers with both Canon and Nikon cameras). I like the Nikon cameras because you can change all the settings while looking through the view finder (as you’re taking a picture). As far as I can tell, Canon uses a series of menus that require you to use the viewing screen to change settings, but you’d have to ask a Canon person about that. It’s funny how hard it is to switch back and forth between them…

Learning how to use your DSLR
I actually took a class but it wasn’t as hands on as I would have liked. I learned a lot about photography in general – like lighting and composition, etc. It also got me started learning about how to use Photoshop to play with my pictures. A lot of camera stores offer more hands on classes that you can take. They generally have classes dedicated to either brand and any skill level. I learn the best by just trying things out so for me, the most helpful thing was to go out on photography adventures with friends and their DSLRS. We had a range of photography skills and were able to teach each other little things as we played. Some camera stores put on events like Mike’s Camera did with the zoo day where you can play with all sorts of cameras and they are there to help you. I would definitely recommend looking into what cameras stores you have around you. They usually have a list of fun photography events or classes in the community.

I think that’s all I can think of for now! Do you have any questions? Let’s hear them! I hope this was helpful…