A pharmer's clothes: July 30, 2012

Thinking of what to write in between pictures is a challenge. Should I write about the frivolous and obvious? I got this shirt on sale and I love it even though it immediately becomes a wrinkled mess. These shorts are new and I may never take them off. I tried to put my hair in victory rolls and it literally took hours. Holy roots, I need to re-dye my hair.

Snore.

I suppose that since I would characterize this as a "fashion blog," I feel justified in discussing oh-so fascinating clothes and elaborate hairstyles. On the other hand, there are times when I want to delve deeper, and treat my blog more as a journal. But there is that nagging, concerned voice in the back of my head…How much of myself should I put on the internet? How much to the outside world at all? I'm honestly not all that worried about over-sharing or compromising my own privacy, but about the risk of being vulnerable. Opening up to others has been a lifelong struggle. And no, saying this to the internet is not ironic. The internet is a buffer. Some of you might be sitting there judging me, but since you are far, far away from my real life I'm honestly not so worried about your reactions. The horrible truth is I'm terrified of being rejected by the people I love most in life. I have no clue where this came from, and since I don't really prescribe to the validity of psychoanalysis, I don't really care. The point is I know it is an issue and it's something I'm working on. I'm scared of letting my walls down, not because other may come in, but because I'm afraid of what will come tumbling out. I'm worried I will overwhelm others with the anxieties that are a never-ending tirade in my head.

I often times wonder if everyone suffers from such a loud internal monologue. I can never seem to turn my brain off, which frequently makes me my own worst enemy. For example, my neurosis du jour is my weight. After college I started doing weightwatchers and lost 35 pounds. It was hard, but I was at a point in my life where all I did was sleep, exercise, and go to work, where everyone else was on a diet too. Without this perfect combination of factors I don’t think my weight loss would have been nearly as successful. Fast forward to now. I’ve definitely put on a few lbs. Grad school most definitely doesn’t help (my will power is not good at saying no to free pizza and cupcakes), nor does having a mentor that is an excellent cook but gives zero fucks about nutrition. I’ve also been fighting a losing battle with exercise the past few months. After my appendectomy I couldn’t exercise for four weeks, which apparently is a really great excuse to quit exercise forever.

So now here I am. I’m completely unhappy with the way I look and how I feel in my own body. I know I should just stop eating so much (as if it really is that simple), but all this self-flagellation makes me feel quite shitty and hey know what would make that feel better? Ice cream. And so goes the vicious cycle.

I don't really know what the point of the word vomit above is. Except that the first thing I thought when I saw how these pictures came out was "OMG I HATE MY LEGS! BLERGGHHH" And honestly I'm tired of having that reaction. I'm tired of this roller coaster love/hate relationship with my body. I know that I should strive to be healthier (shouldn't we all?), but I don't want my goal to be dictated by the scale. I'm infinitely envious of ladies who are full of self-confidence at any size. How do they do it? What mantra can I repeat to learn to be happy with who I am right now? Because more than anything that's what I want - to feel comfortable in my own skin.

Action!

This was so fun! Taking jumping pictures is already one of my favorite things to do, but this was even better. I took all of my pictures in "Tv" mode on my camera, where you input the shutter speed and ISO settings and the camera picks the proper aperture. Somewhere in between full auto and full manual - I think it worked out really well. For the jumping pictures I used a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second. I think I could have even gone faster because my hair is a bit blurry in some of them.

For these pictures I used a 1/1000 shutter speed. I could have played with this all day. Too fun.

If you also made a fool of yourself jumping around and taking pictures I would love to see the results!

Photography challenge part 2: action photography

The photography challenge continues! Apologies (again) for missing a week. Honestly, doing this every week was probably a bit much. I'm thinking I will do every other week for the rest of the challenge.

Anyway...this week the prompt is action photography. Action pictures were one of the things that really made me want to get a DSLR. It's hard to capture action on a point-and-shoot, and most of the options require using the flash, which often means a longer shutter speed and possibly blurriness. Now that I've got a DSLR I'm definitely looking forward to taking some gravity-defying photos.

Ignacio Torres

The trick to taking good action photos is a super fast shutter speed. If you really want to look like you are freezing time, then you want the fastest shutter speed possible. Of course, fast shutter speed means less light gets into your camera, which is why action photography works best in well-lit situations. You can also increase your film speed, but this will make your photos grainer.

The second biggest tip is to take a lot of pictures. Action moves fast (duh), so capturing that perfect moment will take good timing and luck. If your camera has a "multiburst" function (taking multiple pictures in a row) this is definitely the time to use it.



Natsumi Hayashi takes some of the most amazing action photos. They are all just jumping pictures (or "levitations," as she calls them) - no fancy photoshop tricks! Beyond amazing. Natsumi even ever so kindly offers instruction on how she takes her surreal photos.

There are a lot of online resources on how to capture action in photos. I especially like this guide from PictureCorrect that doesn't only give you tips on how to set up your camera, but also some pointers on composition and timing. You can even find tips for your specific camera. I did a quick google search for "action photography Canon EOS Rebel T3" and found some very straightforward and helpful guides. I'd recommend trying the same for your camera to get tips specific for your DSLR.

I hope these pictures and tips have inspired you to go out and try some action photography! Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with on Monday.

PS For more inspiration, check out ESPN's body issue. Olympic atheletes jumping and whatnot. Oh, also they're nekid. Yum.

A pharmer's clothes: July 19, 2012

Whoa! I kind of fell of the internet there for a second. I don't like apologizing for blog absences cause, you know, I have things to do IRL just like we all do. But regardless - I'm sorry anyway. I had kind of a crummy time at work last week and it really took a lot out of me. I didn't have energy to do much beside sit at home with Jason and watch TV. So that's what I've done for the past few days and it's been awesome. I'm feeling much better now, and things at work are going a bit smoother. Ahh the life of a PhD student, always tumultuous.

(( top: H&M / skirt: Zara / ring: Target / glasses: Warby Parker ))

Jason and I have starting watching Doctor Who. We watched a few episodes last year, mostly the early seasons. We both really loved the cheese/creepy combo of the first Doctor, but we weren't as enamored by later Doctors and stopped watching. After some coaxing, we decided to give the tenth Doctor a try. Omg amazeballs! Some of the episodes are seriously creepy though. I've definitely had some Doctor Who-inspired nightmares the past few nights. Sometimes I feel guilty about how much TV we watch. but with shows like Doctor Who how can you resist?

Nighttime is the right time!

I had so much fun with this! Taking photos at night was hard (mostly cause I couldn't see anything on my camera!), but also really fun - I could have played around with sparklers for hours, if only we had more sparklers! Oh well, there's always next year... I took all my photos with f4.5/10 sec/ISO 100. I tried to take a few with car lights passing by but I think there was too much street light around - none of them turned out. But that's part of the fun, right?

One unexpectedly cool picture was this one. I was having Jason wave around his phone to check my focus and exposure, and the result was very cool and spooky, almost like smoke! Would have been fun to try with an iPad.



If any of you ventured into the darkness, I would love to see your results!

Nighttime photography tips and inspiration

By darwin1974 on lomography

What is it about nighttime photography? Photography in the daytime is often about capturing a moment in the same exquisite detail our memories do. On the other hand, nighttime photography often produces surreal images from worlds more haunting and beautiful than our own. I think it's this otherworldly quality that makes taking pictures at night so challenging, which is why it's first up in the photography challenge.

Possibly my absolute favorite thing about night photography are long exposures with lights:

No matter the kind of photo you're taking, the tricky part about nighttime photography is dealing with low light. The amount of light your camera sees is based on three settings: aperture, shutter speed, and film speed. Aperture is how wide the opening is that lets light into the camera. The camera settings represent a fraction (ie an aperture of 2 means 1/2), thus a smaller aperture setting means more light gets into your camera. Shutter speed is just like it sounds - how long the shutter is open and letting light in. Like with aperture, shutter speeds represent fractions (ie shutter speed of 125 means 1/125 of a second), where the lower the shutter speed setting, the longer the exposure time. Film speed is how reactive the camera is to the light coming into it. For digital cameras, film speed more specifically addresses how sensitive the camera chip is to light. Film speed is measured by the ISO standard, where 200 ISO film is twice as sensitive as 100 ISO. The trade off is that the faster the film (ie the higher the ISO), the grainier the final image.

Kayley from Sidewalk Ready

Because all three of these setting factor into how much light gets into your camera, that means there are many ways to take a picture with the correct amount of light. For example, let's say that I want to take a picture at night. I could use a slow shutter speed of 4 (1/4 of a second), but that will likely make my picture blurry, especially if it is a picture of a moving object. On the other hand, I could reduce my shutter speed to 8 (1/8 of a second), but increase my ISO setting. This is a really nice website that explains how different combinations of aperture, shutter speed, and film speed can give you the same level of exposure. Because all these settings effect more than just how much light gets into the camera (like film speed also effects how sharp/grainy an image is), messing around with the different settings can give you radically different results.

Exposure Guide

A few more random tips about nighttime photography:

• "A good rule of thumb says that you’re safe with a shutter speed equal to, or faster than, the length of your lens. For example, with a wide lens of 35mm, you’re fine with a shutter speed of 1/60s. But when zoomed in to 210mm, you need a faster shutter speed of 1/250s." - PhotoSecrets
• "Be aware that longer exposure times can lead to somewhat grainy images. One way to combat this is to lower your ISO speed or turn on your camera’s Noise Reduction setting, if it has one. Alternatively, post production in Photoshop (or equivalent) allows you to carry out filtering to reduce the noise. Do this carefully, though, to prevent loss of detail." - PictureCorrect
• "Sounds strange, I know, but setting your camera’s White Balance to ‘daylight’ will make your skies seem a deep and rich blue colour, whilst rendering any bright lights with a warm, yellowish tinge." - PictureCorrect
• "You may be able to save time by using manual focus. Most likely, you're going to shoot multiple exposures of the same shot (a fundamental principle of photography), so set the first shot using auto-focus, then without changing the focus, switch to manual focus. That way, if your camera has difficulty focusing in the dark, it won't repeatedly search for a focus lock." - Harkins Lawerence images
• "Use a cable release or remote to trigger the shutter. Just the small vibration of your finger on the shutter can also cause a little bit of camera shake in the images. With these really long exposures it’s always important to remove any possibilities of your camera moving." - Digiatal Photo Buzz

I'm getting really excited to try my hand at this week's prompt. I even read through my camera manual - gasp! I learned that my camera does not have a built-in "night mode," which is kind of a bummer, but just means I will actually have to really learn how to take good nighttime pictures! I'm planning on busting out my new tripod and messing around with my camera on total manual mode (automatic is for losers, pssh). Jason and I still have a few sparklers left over from the 4th of July, so I might try a few light writing pictures too - excitement!

I hope these tips are helpful to anyone else who is participating in my little photography challenge, and inspire you to head out and take some pictures this weekend. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing everyone's photos on Monday!

A pharmer's clothes: July 5, 2012

Happiest of news! We have power again!!! Living for six days without power really made me realize how spoiled I am. I can't count how many times I literally wondered how people survived 200 years ago. With temperatures in the hundreds, high humidity, and a heat index near 120F, I couldn't imagine doing any more than sitting in the shade and trying not to die. Which is pretty much what Jason and I did, if you interpret "sitting in the shade" as "hanging out in the air conditioned lab and playing Diablo."

  

(( top: Urban Outfitters / skirt: thrifted / shoes: Target ))

I hope all my US readers had a lovely Fourth of July! Aside from the lack of power, we had a pretty good day. It's hard not to love the Fourth in DC. This year we headed over to the Iwo Jima memorial to watch the fireworks. The view was perfect, but damn there were a lot of people!

Photography challenge

So I'm still without power, which means my hair is a hot mess and definitely not outfit post worthy. To feed my blogging urge, I thought I'd post a few silly pics I took the other day while playing around with my new camera.

Macro mode might literally be the coolest thing ever. I still haven't read through the manual and really have no clue how to use my new camera - I still haven't figured out how to change the flash settings! D'oh! I feel a bit incompetent, haha. So, to try to force myself to learn more about my camera/become a better photographer I was thinking of doing a little photography challenge. Would any of you guys be interested in participating with me? It wouldn't be just for people with DSLRs or just for beginners- all the challengers are broad enough that anyone could do them. The point would just be to try to push your skills, whatever they may be!

On each Monday for the rest of the month I will post my picture(s) for that week's challenge, and a linkup to everyone else's pictures. Here's what I'm thinking for the prompts:

July 9 - nighttime photography
July 16 - movement/action
July 23 - focus/depth of field
July 30 - photoshop

Who's with me?? Better pictures for all!

Sunday table: summertime eats

What a crazy weekend I've had! On Friday afternoon, I went under the needle to get tattoo #4. I was hoping I could do it all in one sitting, but it was just too much, so I have another appointment to get it finished in August. Then on Friday night there was a huge thunderstorm here in DC. A massive tree limb blew down behind our apartment and we've been without power for almost 48 hours. Paired with temperatures in the hundreds all weekend, and I'm sure you can guess that it is hot hot hot in our apartment. Needless to say, these meals were not cooked this weekend, but definitely fit the bill for summertime eats. With the Fourth of July coming up this week I figured it'd be the perfect opportunity to share two of my favorite recipes for when the mercury rises.

Cool cucumber soup

6 cucumbers, peeled and with seeds scooped out
1 granny smith apple, peeled and cored
1 1/2 cup fresh mint
2 jalapenos, with seeds and veins removed
1 cup fat-free greek yogurt
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 tsp salt
Crumbled feta

Roughly chop the cucumbers, apple, and jalapenos into large chunks. Dice one of the cucumbers into small cubes and set aside. Puree the remaining cucumbers and all other ingredients except feta in a food processor or blender until smooth, working in 2-3 small batches. Combine the batches in a large bowl and mix in the diced cucumber. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours until very cold. Serve with crumbled feta on top and a slice of toasty bread rubbed with garlic.

Makes 8 servings.



Beer-boiled brats with sauteed sauerkraut and onions

5 bratwursts (Johnsonville brats are the best, just trust me)
2 cans of beer (cheap-o lite beer is fine)
1 medium white onion, cut into thin slices
1 can sauerkraut
1 tsp cinnamon (sounds weird but it is soooo good!)
French baguette

Add the beer, 1/4 of the onion, and bratwursts to a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes in the beer and onion mixture, then move to a hot grill or pan and sear for 5 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, saute the remaining onions in 1 tbsp olive oil. Cook over medium-high heat until the onions brown nicely, then reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook until fully translucent. Add the sauerkraut and cinnamon and saute for 5 more minutes.

Serve bratwurst on toasted sections of baguette. Top with sauerkraut and onion mixture, and some good mustard. Prepare to have mind blown.