An Angel's Sunset

I just love this picture! I took this one as we were leaving Fort-de-France, Martinique. I hadn't had a very successful day of taking photo's, I hadn't really found anything to inspire me, or that just jumped out and said "wow, that would make a great shot!" so I was feeling a little down. Then when I looked over my balcony, I saw dolphins jumping and swimming to the horizon and their antics made me throw my head back in laughter. In doing this I noticed this beautiful cloud formation framing the sun. I rushed back inside to grab my camera and took the shot! Of course the sky wasn't nearly this blue when I took the shot, and the orange hues were much less pronounced, so I uploaded this picture onto to my laptop and had some fun with Paint.Net. As I was editing the photo, I noticed the clouds kinda looked like angel wings, hence the title of this entry. It's funny; if I hadn't seen the dolphins, I doubt if I would have even noticed the beauty right in front of me. Sometimes, I'm so damn lucky!

Beauty Fountain

This photo was taken at one of the most beautiful fountains I've ever seen, in the town square of Seville (Cadiz). I really changed this one up. The blue wasn't nearly as bright and the brightness of the water was increased a great deal. I made a bottom layer in Paint.net ( I used the "clouds base") and then I used the "glow" function to bring out the really bright spots in the water and highlight the shadows on the statues face. You know, in the past, I was really against using photo editing software. I figured, if you're not going to get the shot right the first time, what's the point, right? Wrong. When I think of all the photo's I've "tossed", I actually feel a little ill. I now realize that every photo I take has the potential to be wonderful. Time to buy more mini-drives, or maybe even a terrabyte! lol

Soldier in The Sun

This photo is one of my absolute favourites! My parents and I were being herded through the entrance to the Vatican and there were all these magnificent statues arranged around a room without a ceiling. This was before we entered the actual church, where much to my dismay, I was told I wouldn't be allowed to take any photos. So I took as many pictures as I could to try and convey my astonishment at how well these statues and artifacts had been preserved. This one in particular was lit so dramatically from the angle I was viewing it that I just had to keep the image forever! Now, I did tweak this one a little; the color of the wall in the original picture is a very washed out orange and the shadows weren't nearly as pronounced. I've inserted the original image below :

I've been learning so much about how to make a good photo into a great one and I think I might be getting closer! ;) I just really wanted it to be a more eye-catching photo. Something that makes you stop and take a good look and make you wish you could have been there to see it yourself!

Anyhoo, that's all for now. Now it's time I was off to bed!

Little Guy!

This wonderful little creature is a Barbados Green Monkey. They are so named because of the moss that grows in their fur and gives them a green tinge. This little guy would pose just perfectly anytime I would raise my camera. In this case there wasn't really much to learn, but just be thrilled that I was so lucky to be in this reserve, surrounded by this wonderful group of monkeys. The monkeys were allowed to roam freely in and out of the reserve in order to keep their territory from the other wild monkeys on Barbados. I loved this photo when I first took it, but the green in his fur wasn't quite picked up in the shot. So, courtesy of my man and Pain.Net, I changed some of the hues and contrast to bring out the greens and make it look a little more like a nature magazines cover photo. I think it turned out beautifully, but then again, I'm very biased lol! Hope y'all like it!

Something to treasure

This picture is of a dear friend of mine, Trevor, who lives in Nanaimo, B.C.
I was visiting him, his ex-fiance and their little boy Shane. It was a beautiful, late summer day and I'd just gotten a new camera for my photojournalism class at Vancouver Island University. We were sitting outside when we saw this butterfly (which I later found out was a Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly) sitting in the grass. I immediately went to work with my camera taking all sorts of wonderful close up shots, but something seemed to be missing...My friend decided to let the butterfly walk onto his hand and carried it around on the back of his hand for a good 20 minutes or so. And I was happily snapping away, trying to get a great shot. Then we noticed the butterfly was crawling up his arm and eventually it climbed onto his face. My eyes lit up. My friend noticed and said "what?" I just grinned and said "stay put, this'll make an awesome shot and one hell of a story!" So I walked around to the side the butterfly was on, tilted the camera and "click!" went my shutter. I did a little editing with a program called Paint.Net, just to tweak the lighting and give it a more "artistic/magazine" type quality. Now I've got a great shot and a fond memory of someone, whom, I'm sad to say, I have fallen out of touch with. Maybe someone we both know will come across my blog and get us back in touch. Life's full of surprises!

Well, that's all she wrote for now! Hope you liked it!

P.S.
This butterfly actually spent to whole weekend in Trevor's house! Guess the little guy/lady just needed a place to crash after the sugar rush lol

Why PhotoCurve?

You're probably wondering why I decided to name my blog PhotoCurve. Well, first of all, it sounds great, just kinda rolls off the tongue. But mostly, because I'm still learning about photography and as with all life, there's a huge learning curve! This blog will feature a daily photo and there's a story behind every one, hopefully some that are more entertaining than this intro (haha). Anyway I have to get downtown and then head to work. I'll add more when I return. Ciao!