Amateur at the Lens...

Made it Halfway!

Sierra — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:01:22 +0000

So remember me yappin about the whole 365 project? Well…today was day 183, making that 6 months of doing the project! I’m pretty excited that I’ve made it this far!

Soo…Update!

Sierra — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:52:45 +0000

As requested by my friend Paula I have some small updates…in no particular order other than there is no order! :D

Monday starts my LAST semester in college and I can not wait! I get all the classes I need so I don’t have to take a summer class if all goes well. It is really going to be a hectic semester too. 2 jobs and an internship…gonna be crazy. For some reason I’m pretty excited about Studio Portraiture…lol…that is the class that is a little if-y on whether it is gonna happen this semester. I hope it does!

I’m still doing the 365 project. Today was day 96! How exciting is that? I mean I know that I have some really crap pictures, but I think I have some fairly decent ones in there too :) I’m just super happy I’ve stuck it out this long. I personally think everyone should do some kind of 365 project. It doesn’t have to be photography. lol write a poem everyday, write a shore story a day, do something to document a year in your life! It is worth it :D

I am thinking about getting a MacBook and a Nikon D300. I’ve had my eye on both toys for awhile and well…I think I’m going to go on and get another student loan and do it! A friend and I are gonna pool our money together and get iLife 09…it’s cheaper for both of us if we buy the I guess it is a family package. :D it…looks…sweet….just so you know. The same friend also helped me set up a new website I’m “playing around with”. It’s called photogtips.info …I do have the .com…but there is drama w/it lol *don’t ask…it will be .com too as well soon hopefully lol…*. The website was my secret project for the past couple of months. At the time there really isn’t much on it yet. I’ve been playing around with a podcast and posted a tester…took me far too long to figure out how to actually post the podcast O_O like you would not believe. Hah…he’s pretty cool and you should checkout his website :D …and if you are in Evansville you should use his other site if you need to sell stuff :D lol…sorry…

I do believe that is all I have at the time, but I’m gonna start updating this again :D well…until next time..have a good day! :D

365 Project!

Sierra — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:05:34 +0000

I decided to give the 365 Project a stab and so far I’m 3 days into it and I’m loving it. 3 days may not sound like a lot, but for me that is dedication already :O I procrastinate a lot and with this project so far in my 3 days I WANT to do it. I just need to keep up with ideas to fill up the days :O It is just a fun project :) So far at least lol…For me I want to build dedication, creativity, and just plain have fun :) I created a whole new Flickr account :O You can see it here :)

What I have so far:

Technology's Puppet (My Generation)

I love to Read!

Sleeping Sugar Addict

School has started up again!

Sierra — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:05:08 +0000

Once again classes has started. Okay they started a couple of weeks ago actually >_< And well I thought I’d share with you what I’ve been working on lately. I decided that I wanted to do some “themes” so I started out with Alice in Wonderland. I was just playing around with a picture and decided that, that could probably pull off as an illustration for the book *maybe* and just went from there. My second set I decided will be Snow White simply because I took some pretty creepy pictures of an apple today that reminded me of Snow White. These projects I am working on are for myself. My idea behind the projects is abandoned items from our dear storybook leading ladies. I hope you enjoy what I have so far, they are a work in progress, but any suggestions are welcome :)

Alice in Wonderland (so far):

Alice forgot her shoes when she went down the rabbit hole

Tea Party!

Painting a rose red for the Queen of Hearts!

Snow White (so far):

Take a bite my Pretty!

My Favorite Photography Websites…

Sierra — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:51:43 +0000

I’m on the internet A LOT and have come across quite a few pages that I have fallen in love with. Some of the websites quite a few people are familiar with, while others might not be so popular. I grade the websites by many factors: 1. Does it keep my attention?, 2. How relevant is it?, 3. Do I like the people either on it or writing for it?, and 4. How often is the website updated? There are some other factors that play into whether a website becomes a favorite or just a forgotten bookmark, but they are site by site preferences.

At the moment my top favorite is photoSIG. It is a place to post pictures and get critiques. I like the website because I have to work to post pictures. It is set up so that you can either pay $25 a year to be a premium member or you can have a basic free account. Either way you have to work to post a picture. For the free basic (which is what I have), I can initially only post 1 picture for critique for 72 hours. However if I get 15 critique points I can post another picture. Actually every 15 critique points gets you another picture you can post. With the premium account you can post 3 pictures before having to accumulate 15 critique points. It is pretty easy to get critique points and there are a number of ways to get them. The obvious way is to critique someone else’s picture. If someone tags your critique as helpful you get a point. You also get points by how your photo is rated. To me it is just a great site and VERY addicting. I wish that I could do favorites and have a contacts list though, those are probably the only things I would change.

Another top favorite would be JPG. The site is a “created by you, for you” website. On JPG you can post pictures, write stories, and do photo essays. It is encouraged to post only your best work. With each entry you are basically competing to get published in JPG Magazine. You can post your pictures and just use it essentially like a photo sharing website, or you can put your pictures into the categories and get judged by your peers. I like that I can favorite and have a contact list.

deviantART is my favorite sharing site of all time. I didn’t say photo-sharing site because it is not only photography. It is a website for all mediums of art and I love that. Also the crowd on deviantART is more my age, which is really nice. The air of creativity always hits me when I look at the art on deviantART. I go there for inspiration because not everyone there is a professional, a lot of us are just learning which is really nice.

Flickr! is an awesome photo sharing website. I upgraded from a free account to a Pro account because I was tired of having limits on how many photographs I could upload. With Flickr! I get the sense of community that I crave for in a photo sharing website that I haven’t felt any place else. I have quite a few people in the same area as me for contacts, which is awesome because we can set up photo meet ups. Unfortunately I have to miss the first meet up because I’ll be at work.

Now those websites were all where I could upload my pictures to, the next set of websites are places I go for information.

digital Photography School (dPS) is amazing. It has posts by all kinds of photographers on different photography subjects. I really like the series of Photography 101. dPS has a forum that I like to troll because the information is as useful as the posts.

Photocritic is a great weblog. The guy seriously knows what he’s talking about (he’s written a book after all) and he writes in a way that is quick to read and keeps my interest. The post lengths vary, and it is like he gets in, gets out, and now you know. It is just a really great site for information.

Epic Edits looks like a magazine on the internet. The information is superb. I can tell that Brian Auer is very passionate about photography because of the care he puts in Epic Edits.

Neil Creek runs another very photography passionate weblog that is a great read. His also looks like a magazine on the internet and I think the change made it better. His is a very personal/personable blog and easy to get into.

Photopreneur is also a good information site. It is mostly toward the business aspect of photography, but a great site nonetheless.

DSLRBlog is frequented by me daily as well. There are photography tips, camera reviews, photography related news, and more.

And that would be the list of my top photography sites I visit EVERYDAY. Even if there isn’t a new article on the blogs there is always something posted in the past that is a good beneficial read. On the photo sharing sites there is never a day when great photography isn’t posted. I encourage you to check out at least a few of the sites if not all of them because they are all amazing.

If you have a site that is interesting please post a link in the comments because I’d love to check it out :)

(This was originally on my Sierra Koch.com and I decided to turn that into a portfolio and I didn’t want to lose this :O)

Just a reminder!

Sierra — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:51:28 +0000

I am here now :)

Well my portfolio is anyways :)

Trying to get things up and running, had some posts on it, but decided that I was just going to use it as a portfolio instead of a blog. Come check it out if you want :)

I bought my name…

Sierra — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:21:14 +0000

So I bought SierraKoch.com. It is gonna be…I’m not sure yet, but it will be awesome!…When I have it looking the way I want, you should check it out :) Or check it out now doesn’t matter. :)

Its been awhile…

Sierra — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:01:17 +0000

For my final project in Intermediate Photography I did self portraits. I did my idea w/cloning myself into the picture a couple of times. I thought they came out alright and I’m pretty happy with them :)

I thought about doing one self portrait and some things that I like. One of my ideas was doing swords and my mac–of course not in the same picture!

Lincoln Bicentennial Encampment

Sierra — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:02:38 +0000

Today I went to an event held by/for boy scouts, girl scouts, and the public. It was the Lincoln Bicentennial Encampment (Spencer county, IN). It had all kinds of neat-o things and the event was HUGE :) If I remember correctly one of the guys said that there were over 4,500 registered boy scouts at the camp. Thats amazing!

There were re-enactors from Abraham Lincoln’s time period *duh* which is always cool :) There were events going all day long, so rather than have to be certain places at certain times you could go hang out at one place and see the event any time of the day it seemed–I really liked that :)

The only problem I had with the event was the complaining of the scouts! But when it is learned actions from troop leaders and parents how else are the scouts suppose to act right?

…anyways…on to the pictures!

The end of the semester makes me happy :)

Sierra — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:30:42 +0000

I finished up my classes on Wednesday and I’m looking forward for 2 weeks of no school :) Yes, 2 weeks because I am taking summer classes. 3 summer classes to be exact! That won’t be much fun, but I want to get school done and over with. I can’t wait till the weather is “normal” rather than the icky it has been lately :) The flowers are blooming and the trees are pretty, now if only it would stop raining for a day, and not be so windy as to blow all the leaves away everything would be all good :)

Saturday is a Lincoln Bicentennial celebration in Spencer county Indiana, I really hope I get to go. It is suppose to be this massive huge event and I can’t wait!

Last weekend I went to Angel Mounds for an event that was pretty cool. If I remember correctly it was called Voices of the East. It was basically an indian camp. All the re-enactors were awesome. They seriously knew their stuff and were uber talkative. I like it when event people are genuinely passionate about what they do, it makes the even much more enjoyable :) I got some fairly decent pictures from the event. I used my Nikon D40, and I tried out my new Sony Cybershot. The cybershot I must say is an awesome little camera :)