Butterfly Photography

I'm having the darndest time figuring out how to photograph the lovely paintings Ross has been doing over the last week. He's been experimenting a lot with color, pattern, and technique and has created some really beautiful stuff, but my photography skills are not up to par. I've taken the same series of each butterfly, and while some of them are close to good, none of them are excellent. Here's what I've got so far:  

I'm calling this one "Butterfly A" because I'm creative like that.

 Now we have Butterfly B, which is my personal favorite, even though (or maybe because!) Ross likes it least. I think it's perfect for my niece's room.

 Butterfly C:

And last but not least, Butterfly D. (Side Note: Blogger, why are you so crappy with formatting pictures? I would have loved to have each set laid out horizontally, but that's not even close to an option, and it messes up all my text! Argh).

So now the question is, do I put these up on the Etsy site? Or wait until I figure out my photography some more? I found our old Panasonic Lumix camera, which took some nice pictures, but what I didn't find was the cord that lets me download those pictures onto a computer. So for the time being, I'm using my iPhone, which isn't bad, but isn't great either. It did take this picture today, though, so that's not too shabby (if you like creepy clowns who hang out at playgrounds and check their email while riding unicycles)

Boat and Picture Day

I took a boat to work this morning! It's not the first time I've done that, but it is the first time that I noticed something about myself on these "boat days."

When I take the SF Bay Ferry to work, I also take pictures. Lots of pictures. And I think they're actually pretty neat. I've got no formal photography training, and I probably use my phone's photo editing apps way too much (I like snapseed and Camera Awesome, both of which I think are getting discontinued soon, because of course they are), but I think some of my photos would actually make pretty cool artwork. Get nice prints made, glitter or mod-podge them up a bit, mount them to a canvas, and they could be pretty cool! Here's a little sampling: 

 This is the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Really, a damn cool thing to arrive to.

 Trees, sun and fog...I tend to be drawn to this kind of thing

 More trees and sun (and a little fog). There's something about the way the sun makes these lines through the photo, and the way the trees become like silhouettes...just shadows almost.

Trees and very misty fog (not much sun). I liked this one more for the shape...like giant maple leaves, or Christmas trees that ate too much.

 So these things! They're at the Port of Oakland, and rumor has it that George Lucas based his "AT-ATs" on these guys, and they're totally reminiscent of them. Every time I go past them, either driving my car or on the ferry, I'm reminded of giant animal-like machine fighters. The kiddo calls them "camoos", which I think means camels, but I readily admit I don't know all of his words.

 Tilt-shift San Francisco and Coit Tower just after sunrise. Such pretty colors...I hardly even edited the colors at all, I don't think!

And finally a cool ass window deal from on of my favorite bars - the Wild Side West. This place, on Cortland in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of SF, is too cool. The backyard is this mashup of kitschy decoration, bird feeders, repurposed toilets and your adorable grandma's backyard. I take lots of pictures here actually. 

So yeah! I'm thinking about maybe throwing up a few prints on the Etsy store, and see what happens...they could totally be legit pieces of home decor!