I like this picture. It is literally looking halfway through Cobalt’s sunglasses! I was standing behind him while he was looking at something and I noticed how fun it was that I could sort of see through his sunglasses. I wondered what it would look like in picture form and luckily I had my DSLR on me! So here we go. I think it looks neat. I like the stuff that is doubled because it is at the edge of the glasses. I also like the clouds through the glasses. Fancy… Maybe I will play around with that more to try to get something crazy in the glasses. Ooooo…
Author: iampotassium
Shark Comfort
I took this picture probably about a year ago when I was studying for my giant oral qualifying exam (definition: if you pass it, you get to stay in grad school as a Ph.D candidate/basically get your master’s degree – I passed, btw). I was really really stressed about it and studying like a crazy person. So to calm myself down this particular evening, I curled up on my bean bag chair in the corner of my room to read my papers. As you can see, I surrounded myself with all my sharks/shark stuff (you can even see the dorsal fin of my shark arm warmers at the bottom) to help calm myself down too.
I’ve been feeling pretty down lately – mostly just stressed out with work and life – and I wanted a picture to relate how I feel. I feel like a lot of times pictures/daily snapshots focus on happiness (which is a good thing! don’t get me wrong…) but I think that it’s nice to have some contrasting shots in there to make sure that people know it’s okay to be down sometimes too.
Portrait: Oscar Party!
Good morning everyone! I hope you all had great weekends! Did anyone else watch The Oscars last night? Cobalt and I got dressed up all fancy and went to an Oscars party where we ate delicious fancy hors d’oeuvres and drank fancy drinks. It was a fancy affair all together, as you can see by this picture of my friend Danielle! I think the fact that everyone got all dressed up for the evening was the best part of the whole party. My friend Jennette and I broke out the cameras and went around the party taking pictures. So fun… so fun… :)
As for the Oscars themselves, I was a bit sad that Hailee Steinfeld from True Grit didn’t win best supporting actress over Melissa Leo and I was sad that How to Train Your Dragon didn’t win anything, as I thought it was a fantastic animated movie. It was crazy to have actually seen all 10 Best Picture nominations in advance. I spent much of the evening giving plot summaries of the lesser known movies (127 Hours – good even with the fact that he has to cut off his own arm sometime during the film; Winter’s Bone – good though gritty, the lead actress was amazing; The Fighter – different/better (in my opinion) from The Wrestler in many ways; The Kids are Alright – the kids really are all right but the parents… :-/; etc.) Anyway, if I could make a recommendation for you guys, I would suggest the animated and live action short winners. The animated winner was The Lost Thing and it is spectacular. It is creative and the animation is neat. It was my favorite of the shorts but I was really surprised that it was also the favorite of the academy. Craziness. The live action winner was God of Love and that one is also really funny and light hearted.
Welp, I’ve talked your ears off about movies…
Cell Phone Picture: Squishy!!!
Today you guys get to see Squishy! Sorry he’s all blurry. Dumb cell phone camera… He was a gift from Cobalt a few months ago. :) I apologize for the lack of amazing story behind him because I have been so busy with crazy research (soooo tired)/getting ready for the Oscars! I am so excited about the Oscars this weekend! Cobalt and I are getting all dressed up and going to a fancy party! :) But first, we still have two best picture nominations to see! So far we have seen 8 of the 10 best picture movies, listened to all of the best score nominations, seen all the live action and animated shorts, and probably more but I can’t remember right now. Wow… so many movies…
Hide and Seek with the Moon
Um moon? I know you think you’re doing a good job hiding, you know… behind the roof and the tree? But here’s the thing, moon, you are REALLY bright… So yeah… um… I can see you. Is it my turn to hide now? ;)
I love taking moon pictures now that I have that fancy cable release that I got for my birthday last year. Makes it so fun. Last week, Cobalt and I were driving home from dinner and the moon was freakin’ amazing. So I ran inside, grabbed my camera (sorry 50 mm lens… this is the job for our old friend the zoom lens…), my tripod, and my lovely cable release. Bam. Camera on tripod. Bam. Cable release plugged in. And we are ready for action! :)
Black and white: Dry
Also from my walk with Cobalt last weekend (see! I took some landscape pictures and I used my old(er) zoom lens!). I really like this picture. I think the trees and the clouds in the background are pretty ominous. I also like the pokey guys in the left hand corner of the picture, just peeking in to see if it’s safe.
Long Way Down
“I don’t think I’ll make it on my own…” (it’s Goo Goo Dolls!)
This weekend, Cobalt and I went on a walk on one of Boulder’s many trails because it was amazingly warm outside and I wanted to shoot some landscape pictures. I can guess what you are thinking here: “this is a picture of feet… not landscape…?!?!” Yes. You are right. Those are my feet. We were walking along and then I found this weird area with concrete and rusted steps and gears and wheels. Right in the middle of all that nature. I think it is a system that helps control for overflowing creek water but for me it was a goldmine. So fun. Anyway, I really liked this ledge with the steps leading down and since I had my 50 mm lens on my camera (yeah… not good for landscapes either… Don’t worry… I got some cool shots with the zoom lens too so I didn’t totally fail with my goal), I decided to try more of a dramatic picture. I like it. A lot.
Portrait: I feel like there was something else I was supposed to do…
Wow… Happy Monday everyone. That weekend totally flew by for me… and now for another crazy week at work! Anyway, this is another picture of Janet from her “photoshoot” last week. We both thought this one was pretty portrait-esque and thus it earned its spot as my Portrait Monday picture. Janet and her friend Meghana are pretty much my favorite people to work with when I want to practice photography because they are totally fine being silly while I work on a specific kind of shot/pose. In fact, this is one of the few pictures in which Janet is making a normal face. Hilarious. Thanks for being awesome guys, makes taking the pictures even more fun(ny). :)
Leaping into the weekend
Whew… I have had quite the week. It’s been crazy intense. I realized this week that my research prefers to operate on a strange schedule. So as much as I would love to work 9-5 Monday through Friday like a “normal” person, my research begs to differ. I found myself in lab until 11:45 pm one night and then back by 8:45 the next morning. It’s been interesting because although I generally have to come in around 9ish each morning, I get these strange blocks of time where I am waiting for things to incubate or grow or whatever. So it’s like come in and do a bunch of stuff… wait………………………………………… wait……. OKAY! Do more stuff! Wait………. Ha… This is the life of a research scientist I guess.
So during one of my epic breaks earlier this week, my friend Janet and I decided to go for a walk with my DSLR and my new lens! It was freakin’ gorgeous outside (66 degrees!) so I was glad to be able to escape lab and go take pictures. Janet was awesome and let me take a ton of pictures of her so I could practice/get used to my new lens and shooting outdoors. This one is one of our favorites!
Taking the Plunge
This is my roommate’s bunny, SamE (pronounced “Sammy”). She is a lion head bunny, hence the crazy mane she’s got goin’ on around her little ears. Anyway, with the new lens in tow, I let her out to get some exercise while I practiced my portrait shots (win-win situation I’d say!). I took a bunch of pictures of her but this one is one of my favorites. I love the composition of this shot especially – with the bunny in the lower corner instead of the middle. I also like all the blurredness (I know that’s not a word) of her surroundings. So awesome! :)
Potassium Photography 