#back when I first got my first DSLR

[opticalnomad]

[strwberri-milk]

hi hiii :D

i was hoping you’d take in this request of the lads men at reader’s graduation ceremony/party after she completes a hard degree she’s been studying for all this time :3

like what would the boys reaction be as they see her name being called out to get her degree on stage, and their interaction after the ceremony is over :D pretty pleaseeee

i’m gonna use this as motivation to study hard for my upcoming exam week hahaha

thank you take care <333

ughh tbh i skipped my graduation so i just made stuff up LMAO also i didnt define a degree bc hard degree is v v subjective lolol

He would clear his entire schedule to be there with you. It doesn't matter what he's doing that day - it doesn't matter. You can argue with him all you want, especially if he has an event that comes up you perceive as being more important. Rafayel and Sylus basically make up their own schedules so they've made sure that nothing is planned. Zayne and Xavier have booked the day off months in advance, knowing that they wanted absolutely nothing to get in the way.

He's also got his camera - phone or DSLR in Rafayel's case - to take a bunch of photos. He's going to commemorate this special occasion of course and is more than happy to either stage some photos, or just take dozens of photos of you. He also got a special bouquet just for you.

You can see Zayne in the audience clapping and smiling at you proudly. He doesn't do super big displays of affection, especially since this is an event for you, not him. When you walk the stage he's taking a bunch of photos, both for your reference and his.

He gives you the flowers he bought out to the event, passersby looking a little jealously at how extravagant and luscious they look. You don't notice at all considering all you can focus entirely on his little speeches about how proud he is of you.

Xavier's incredibly excited to be present at your graduation. He's smiling and clapping for you, also not a big cheerer but the happiness in his eyes is pretty obvious. When you finally step off of the stage he opens his arms to you, letting you run at him and hugging you tightly. His bouquet for you is super cute, a slight mess but still adorable. He put together a bouquet of treats - whatever it is you may like - as well as little plush or trinkets that you adore. It's not traditional but the grin you give him is more than worth it.

Rafayel's your personal photographer, nobody questioning the guy with the giant camera as he comes closer to the stage. You're a little embarrassed by how happy he is but you also can see that he's trying to keep things lowkey as much as possible. He showers you in affection once you step off the stage, taking you back to his car where he's got a giant bouquet hiding in the trunk. You stare at it, wide mouth and slack jawed as he just shrugs it off, telling you it's still in there because he couldn't carry it to the auditorium without destroying it.

Sylus sits in the audience, absolutely bored until your name is called. As soon as he hears the first syllable he brings his fingers to his mouth, letting out a sharp whistle that startles everyone, including you. He heard other people doing it and he wanted to outshine them all for the love of his life. His bouquet is very fancy and he's decided not to take it out in public just in case, presenting you with a lavish bouquet of flowers made of hundred dollar bills.

[sirfrogsworth]

This was one of the first photos I took of Otis after I got my DSLR 12 years ago. I had been studying photography for months before I got that camera. I wanted to make sure I would be able to take cool pictures of my new furry pal. And while all of that study helped, I was still a novice when it came to photography. I wasn't even a photographer at that point.

Otis is the reason I picked up a camera in the first place. Perhaps you could even say my passion for photography was his gift to me.

I took this photo with a shutter speed of 1/1000 and an ISO of 500. That is a low ISO by today's standards, but on the Canon 60D that was still enough to get a little noisy. I definitely could have done 1/500 at ISO 250 and captured this moment a little cleaner. And my current lens is about 50% sharper too. But it's still a great photo and I was proud I captured it at the time.

I was good at photoshop, but I wasn't great at photo editing. I didn't realize those were two different things at the time. So adding the cape was easier than processing the RAW photo. His patch of white fur is nearly blue.

Eventually I started over and re-processed the photo and added a new cape. I had a few years of photography under my belt and I think I made some improvements.

This edit is probably one of my most shared photos of all time.

So what could I do with this photo in present day with everything I've learned in the last 12 years?

And could I do a better job at adding a cape?

I think maybe I could.

I'd like to thank donlad for inspiring me to go back and redo this photo. It was a lot of fun seeing how I've progressed. I didn't care for him claiming Otis as his own, but I feel some good came out of all of that.

I miss you, Otis.

You were always super, with or without the cape.

[mckitterick]

Aurora deep into southern Midwest!

After Friday night's less-than-stellar experience hunting for a good spot to watch the aurora near LFK (short answer: there is none), tonight we decided to drive north a couple hours to get deeper into the aurora zone, and a little east to reach truly dark skies and skirt the clouds creeping across Kansas and Nebraska. Still pretty far south in the grand scheme of things (northern Missouri), but the darkest skies we've seen in a long time.

At first we parked as planned near a nature preserve in what is billed as a town (really just a handful of houses), but the northern view from there looked over a house that sits beside Loud Frog Land:

So when the sky began to dance (see this image), we drove a bit farther along hilly, winding country blacktop until finding a little gravel turn-around.

Just as we set out our folding chaise lounges, the sky really heated up, and for about 20 minutes it was amazing:  

This image and the top one (by @bugs-are-buddies using her Android S22 Ultra) are much better than from mine (Note9); thanks, darlin'.

My tripod-mounted DSLR was a bust, though I managed to snap the below Moon image once I got the telephoto lens working - had to turn the autofocus on and off again to manually focus at all (always the same story with tech), so we missed imaging the burst of aurora action with that machine.

(Left image is me fiddling with the camera by the light of the Moon and the aurora's fading glow.)

We stuck around for a while after the dramatically waving red-pink-green curtains diminished from their peak, hoping the huge Coronal Mass Ejection had more to offer, but things tapered off around Cassiopeia. And it was getting cold. So home we went.

The drive back was dinner of nut bars and pears, and introducing my sweetheart to some 1990s bangers on le Wedding Trip Jag's awesome speaker setup.

Two nights of dramatic aurorae - visible as far south as Kansas! Wow!

I hope you got a chance to catch some of the Sun's beautiful assault against Earth's skies. Ad Astra!

[canmom]

NieR Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] (London, 15/2/2024)

NieR concert was incredible just as expected. Honestly, from the moment I got there - the cosplayers, the general atmosphere, it was just a good place to be surrounded by NieR nerds lmao. So many people happy to chat with the stranger next to them, kind of a con vibe.

But of course we were there for the music! And it was fuckin amazing. The emi evans/j'nique nicole duets😭These were special orchestral arrangements specifically for this concert, and the way the sound of the orchestra fills the space, how you can see a phrase physically ripple across the orchestra... I don't get to go to a lot of concerts but I really should try to go more often, because it's something else to hear orchestral music.

below: further comments on the concert, lots of cosplay photos.

The multimedia elements also worked really well - every piece was accompanied with backing videos using either demosceney abstract visuals or images from the games, along with text that told a short story over the course of the concert, with some segments voice acted by the English voices of 2B and 9S (Kira Buckland and Kyle McCarley, who have previously made their own performances of the original Japan-only concert readings). I won't spoil the story in this post since there are still concerts to come, but it was... not that substantial I'll admit, but sweet, and a nice framing device to create a flow through the songs and various moments from the games.

Hearing J'nique Nicole's voice live though, that was incredible. Emi Evans was there just as last time, and just as amazing as always - but this time we had both of them on stage together, and it was absolutely sublime. We all went wild. They performed duets in several songs, with the standouts naturally being A Beautiful Song, Ashes of Dreams, and of course Weight of the World. I think we all thought that was the end because we gave it a standing ovation but then Emi came back out to perform Kainé. After that we got into the groove of standing up and stood up again like three more times lol.

Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito showed up at the end and made a bunch of rapidfire jokes in Japanese that the translator couldn't keep up with, bless her. But we got to give them like the fourth standing ovation of the night, and made a lot of noise when Yoko Taro suggested it would persuade the president of Squeenix to fund a sequel. I'm sure they appreciated it lmao. I think it must be so weird for Yoko Taro to go from someone with a career of niche, unsuccessful games to being internationally renowned to the point that a massive auditorium full of people in multiple countries will go absolutely nuts just to hear him speak a language we mostly don't speak.

Good mix of people who were at a NieR concert for the first time and people who'd been to the last one. There was a guy near me who had apparently been to the Berlin concert just a few days before, and snagged a ticket for this one literally yesterday just to get it again with better acoustics. I respect it lol. Everyone I spoke to was remarkably friendly - last time I went to one of these things I felt really nervous about approaching anyone but it seems I've gotten better about that kind of thing in the last few years. Anyway, people had come from all over - I chatted with a pair of Americans from Boston all the way down the merch line.

Here are some pictures, mostly of cosplayers. I am still getting used to shooting with the DSLR my friend gave me, so not all of these came out perfectly steady and some of them the exposure wasn't right,, but there are some nice ones in here...

bokeeeeehhhhhhhhh... I spoke a bit to the owner of this 9S doll. Her mum was there too, and it turns out she's a haberdasher who makes cosplays for her daughters and has now done over 70. That's a legendary mum right there.

The 9S cosplayer here gave me his instagram. he's a pro photographer so I feel a little embarassed at the quality of the photos I took of him ^^'

I got some merch too, since I understand it's the main way events like this support themselves.

That Kainé thing isn't a print, it's a vinyl record with a few arrangements of Kainé. Though I was totally prepared to buy it as a print because it's a lovely drawing. I don't actually own a record player, but one day I'll surely listen to it ^^'

I was too fatigued to make a cosplay this time, but I'm sure there will be another concert and next time, for sure, I will go as Devola or Popola. Unless Yoko Taro comes up with another redhead character in the meantime lmao.

[spiritofthemountainnaturephoto]

Lets talk about Wildlife Photography

I think social media makes it a hard thing to get into. Amazing locations are shown, awesome gear, and fit people that go on crazy long hikes.

I would like to share my perspective from someone that is far from well off. I feel it's easy to look at something online and wish for that life. I do it to often myself.

I started fully getting into wildlife photography myself around two years. I have both autoimmune and neurological issues so my hikes are often limited. When I do get out on hikes (usually only up to 2 miles at most) I can't do much else for a week. My gear is either pre owned or was financed over small payments. 95% of my photos were taken from my car.

Good places to look and when

(Some things may vary from state to state all of my opinions are formed from my experiences)

First off timing, dusk and dawn. Timing it out where the animals are out and you still have good lighting is rough. Preferably, you would like every animal to be out during golden hour, but that often doesn't happen.

Try finding Facebook groups for any refuge or park to get an idea of where and when the animals may be at your local parks.

Wildlife refuges are a great place to look for animals, but can be limited on access and be a bit more seasonal. You'll almost always see atleast one animal, but timing out when the animals you are looking for tend to hangout here may take a bit. For instance the elk at my local refuge winter here but are basically non-existent in the summer.

County roads are a great place to cruise around looking for wildlife. The farms tend to hold deer. Especially if your in an area that grows alot of corn 🌽. They can also have a ton of pronghorn if you live in the prairie.

Neighborhood parks. Especially with mule deer, I find more bucks wandering neighborhoods than the back country. These parks tend to be great for some of the more common birds as well.

National parks, State Parks, and National Forests are always wonderful places to find wildlife. Depending on location, they can be far and few. There's usually more info about animal locations for these. Whether that be social media groups or large groups of stopped cars when your in the park.

You'll probably have to drive a bit unless your in a prime location. My favorite place to see wildlife is 2 hours away.

Frequency

You will have amazing days that feel like pure magic with a bounty of awesome opportunities. Then you will have a week or weeks where you don't see anything. Maybe you do see an animal, but they are in a junkyard, too far away, or the lighting is just too bad and they aren't there the next morning. You will be frustrated, and no matter how much you think you know these animals and their habitats. They are still wild animals. Maybe it was a warmer winter or the hunting pressure that year was higher? Either way, there are times you just don't get lucky.

Gear

Start with something beginner friendly don't jump into a super high end DSLR. They are complicated and can be very confusing. I would recommend a D3300 or something from that series. You can find some on eBay with lenses for around $300. The 55-200mm kit lens it often comes with is a wonderful lens to start off with.

Practice

It's good to practice on domestic animals. Whether that be your pet cat or a horse alongside the road. I did horse photography for years before I got into wildlife photography. Going to horse shows can be a great way to practice motion shots and get a feel for your settings. Oftentimes, with wildlife the opportunity window for a shot is only seconds.

There's a ton of wonderful camera specific help if you look up your camera model with the word "guide" "help" or "tips" on YouTube.

Nikon Teaching Photography on Facebook is an abundant resource. There's many wonderful camera help groups on Facebook.

Random tips

Write down everything and try to put an answer to these questions in the summary. What animal did you see? what time was it? what day? how cold was it?

Some animals are creatures of habitat, and others tend to be more random. For me, my local elk tend to generally stick to more of a schedule, and the mule deer are pure chaos lol.

Bring basic survival items in your car if you plan on heading out into the back country. Extra food, water, battery packs, jumper cables, a shovel, first aid kit.

It's better to turn around than to be stuck miles back into the forest without service. The super muddy or snowy trail isn't worth it unless you plan on walking it.

[lewiswhatshisname]

I suppose I ought to introduce myself

I like taking photos with odd cameras. I am by no means a professional. I just have loads of cameras I've picked up second hand from various places, and like mucking about with them in different ways.

Right off the bat, I don't care about taking the perfect shot. That's boring to me. While I don't go out with the goal of intentionally taking wonky shots – I do actually try to make sure each shot is focused and exposed properly – quite a lot of my cameras are broken or weird in some way. My main film camera technically works, in that the lens attached to it is in good nick, and when I push the shutter button, it goes click. But the shutter fires inconsistently, and will often misfire at the lightest touch, it doesn't really fire at the speeds it's set to, the ISO dial is loose as hell and is always changing itself, and even if it wasn't doing that, the light meter really has no idea what light is in the first place.

It really only gets better from here. All of my cameras have some sort of physical malady by dint of being second hand, and in many cases, straight up antique, or because they're Holgas and have a deliberately imperfect design. I've got a couple of "toy cameras" as well, with cheap plastic lenses that make any given shot look a bit weird. None of these categories are mutually exclusive either.

But I also just like to do terrible things to both my cameras and the film I shoot on. My favourite thing to do is shove the wrong format film into the cameras. Sometimes I don't feel like cutting down film to fit into my 127 cameras, so I'll cram a 35mm roll in there. Or I'll stick one into one of my 120 or 620 cameras just for the hell of it. I like to redscale film, soup it, and just generally fuck it up before and after shooting. When I develop the film here at home, I don't put a lot of attention into making sure everything is perfect down to the tenth of a degree and to the second. I am not that fussed about any of it, frankly. As long as the roll comes out of the tank with photos on it, I'm happy. If they're messed up, whatever. That's part of the fun.

Right now, I'm slowly working through uploading my backlog over here. I've got even more photos on deviantART, and I post them to Patreon a month before I put them anywhere else. I also try to remember to put prints up, but that's a whole process on its own. In addition to uploading my backlog, I've been spending much of my time just working on scanning and editing a whole other backlog of negatives.

And according to Lightroom, right now that comes down to nearly 400 photos that I've yet to post, and a further 5,000-odd that I've not even looked at for editing. Plus the five or six rolls sitting on my printer waiting to be scanned.

You'll find a mix of birdwatching and urban photography, along with some random other things. I have favourite subjects I like to go back to again and again, and you'll get used to seeing them through a variety of lenses.

TL;DR, I take a lot of photos, many of them odd or wonky, and I'm never going to be done with this backlog. And the photos I have in Lightroom are only from the last few years. Multiple hard drive crashes have caused me to lose all of my digital photos a few times over.

Current Gear:

Canon EOS Elan II E (35mm)

Canon EOS Rebel XT (dSLR)

Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 (instant film)

Holga 135BC (35mm)

Holga 120 WPC Panoramic Pinhole (120)

Kodak Jiffy Six-20 (620)

Kodak Brownie Target Six-20 (620)

Kodak Brownie Starmatic II (127)

Kodak Brownie Starflex (127)

Kodak Ektar H35 (35mm)

Kodak Ektar H35N (35mm)

Minolta Maxxum 3000i (35mm)

Minolta Maxxum 8000i (35mm)

Pentax MG (35mm)

Ricoh KR-5 Super II (35mm)

Sawyer's Nomad 620 (120/620)

Super Ricohflex (120/127/35mm)

Plus photos from a variety of iPhones

[poupeesdecirque]

Photo Challenges - Why I do them & why I do them alone

Time for a new blog, my topic this time: Photo Challenges!

With the new year a lot of people attempt to do the "A Doll A Week" a weekly photo challenge, some are even that ambitious to do the 365-Challenge, a photo for each day.

Back in 2014 I started my very first attempt to do a photo challenge, I got a DSLR as gift 1 1/2 years in before and kinda wanted to do more with it than just taking photos here and there. The weekly challenge of the ADAW seemed fun. On the top of this entry you can see my very first entrance for it. As you can see it started with a quite random photo.

I can tell I didn't make the full 2014 according to the ADAW but as I checked my files I noticed I indeed took photos each week?! Therefore I failed but .. also did not. It was somehow weirdly motivating for me to see that I can do it.

2015 was the first true attempt for me to finish the ADAW, this time with more effort. Because just taking photos is boring right? Aside taking more photos I wanted to feature each doll I had, around that time that was still very much possible with 52 photos for the 52 weeks of the year.

I was prepared, this was the first pic of 2015 .. well.. no. It wasn't I took it in advance and this is one of the points I later on disliked how I approached the whole thing. I was in a flickr group for some time and the same theme was going against my own liking, that people just took 20 photos at a time, posted them (all looking alike) and were finished with the whole challenge within half of the time.

I asked myself if this was what I wanted? The whole thing started to frustrate me, as I tried to come up with cool ideas and I saw other people half-assed their entries. Of course each to their own but no passion for the project, 'cheating' with multiple photos from one photoshoot just to make it "full" that seemed wrong for me.

But I managed to finish 2015! My first year with 52 weekly photos taken. The next year started with a photoshoot as well but I didn't use it for the ADAW.

Instead I took a break to regain and started with another idea:

Names! Like this one was named "ADAW 01 - Frost Pattern" I made it into an own challenge to add creative titles to go with the photos, also I added more and more photos, not just one but multiple. This was to challenge myself more and more. Still I tried to be motivated by others and motivate them but somehow... it still was turning me off that people approached the whole thing less .. uhm.. strict? I can't really put it into words, I just can tell as I later on within the years tried to build up a guide how to do the ADAW I got so demotivated seeing others doing it that I had to put the thread in the forum on full ignore and do my own instead? It's super weird.

What really got me going though was that I started to print my photos. 2 Photobooks for one year, having my photos printed made them more precious to me. I still make photobooks and last year I reached the maximum page count for the books and uhm.. might need to do three a year if that continues.

I can tell I got hooked by photos. Sometimes it felt hard to start over though, to start with "nothing" all over again, as I tend to null & void my own progress in my mind and well.. "new year, nothing done" got me hard sometimes, that's why the first days of the new years were hard for me to find ideas.

Also the fact that I still tried not to feature a doll twice got harder and harder even given I had more than enough dolls. But you know how it is, right? When you restrict yourself you want to do exactly that what is restricted.

Did I feel drained in the process of taking photos weekly? Oh yes, I did. Especially because I decided I have to take WHOLE PHOTOSHOOTS and sometimes even posts with outtakes to share fact about the characters. Some weeks I was so demotivated.

But a thing that helped me going was ... routine. And the photobooks. I picked a day during the week I was taking photos, which for me is Saturday, and it's still mainly Saturday to be honest.

It was 2019 already and you can see I returned to taking new year's photos, 2020 was similar. But I got tired of the ADAW thing, because it was kind of still setting to close borders for me. Taking photos weekly was becoming easy for me because I did it for so long. I still kinda tried to keep up with other hobbyists but in 2020 with the pandemic I cut ties with my local community and decided that 2021 would be the first year of me not doing a 'A Doll A Week'

Wait? What? Yes, you read that correctly.

Welcome to my own challenge the ... Weekly Photo!

This might seem not much of a difference but allows me to take photos, not just of dolls but of landscapes, people, animals and that was important to me. I still mainly use it for dolls but I wanted to do an own challenge, without any link back to the 'rules' of the ADAW and without the mental connection to the community I had left behind.

With the Weekly Photo I started to thrive. No more (own set) boundaries, every doll could be featured, even 20 times in a row, no rules, no titles, no themes, just me and my camera. For the sake of being creative.

And that's what I can tell you about my challenges... do it for the creativity, do it to challenge yourself. Don't be that dumb like I was and think you have to stick to what everyone else does or that you have to do it a certain way.

Now taking photos became so easy for me I see it as challenge to use the seasons as canvas to come up with something, to learn what light/time is the best.

I can tell my photography has envolved because I dared and tried, I challenged myself, revisted ideas but didn't try to set boundaries to my own creativity.

To be honest I now see photo ideas everywhere and almost have to stop myself from taking TOO MANY PHOTOS because .. I still need to sort them out :')

Oh a little thing that still is a rule for me ... I didn't bury them all: the first photo has to be taken in the actual year. Yes, I stayed up super late to take Tamani's photos as the first set of 2024 just to be sure I have that done.

I'm not sure if this entry is helpful for someone, for me looking up the old photos (I put in one for each year of a challenge) was super interesting and with a super busy week and weekend behind me I wanted to do a lighter topic for once.

I can tell writing down really helps me to reflect the hobby and to think through some decisions.

[r3dships]

So ,, , this is my Spider-Sona!! Hi!! I've never formally posted him! i need to draw him more rip

He's Spider-Man to most of Atlanta, but he prefers the title of The Jumping Spider. His real name is Mason Anderson and he's a 21 year-old barista that's just trying to make ends meet while also being a superhero on the side. Average young adult things, right?

Tons of lore-dumping below the cut ^_^;

Mason's entire life changed at the age of 17 while he was working on a car with his father. A radioactive jumping spider bit him on the neck, leaving him with spider-like abilities and super-strength. His webs are too weak to hold his body weight while swinging, so instead, he uses his enhanced leg strength and sticky hands to jump from building-to-building. The webs are still useful for tying up criminals, though!

He used to wear glasses, but after getting bit, his vision has been enhanced significantly. His eyes have the same visual definition as a DSLR camera, able to see the tiniest details from far away.

Back in high-school before the bite, Mason had a boyfriend named Felix Thompson. He was a jock type and would get into trouble in and out of school ( his universe's version of Flash Thompson ). One day after Mason had eventually gotten the hang of his powers, there was an emergency at his high-school. A super-villain had emerged and was tearing the place apart, trying to find the local Spider-Man.

During the fight, Mason, as The Jumping Spider, got slammed against a wall, causing it to collapse into the first floor of the school. Felix was on the first floor trying to escape the building, but got crushed under the rubble. After the fight was over and the villain handed over to law enforcement, Mason's spider-senses triggered. Felix wasn't outside the school.

Mason ran inside, tripping over rubble and running towards the sound of coughing. He lifted up a heavy piece of wall to find Felix underneath, barely alive and severely injured. Still in costume, Mason ripped off his mask and held his boyfriend's face, trying to keep him conscious as he told him it was going to be okay. He yelled for paramedics to come in, putting his mask back on and backing off once they came to the scene.

Later, Felix died at the hospital from his internal injuries. Mason's heart broke, never fully healing. After that, Mason made a promise to himself that he'd never go into another relationship. He didn't want to hurt anyone else like he did Felix due to his recklessness.

Years later at age 20 when he joined the Spider-Society, he met Spider-Man Noir and felt romantic love again for the first time in years.

[chromatophorium]

Right, the second abandoned soma project i talked about. This one isn’t as abandoned, I worked on it today actually. Got some inspiration yesterday. But yeah. It’s Splatoon au fanart, so, like, if you don’t know splatoon all things might not make sense. And If you find this from knowing splatoon and not soma, things might also not make sense. 

The project is two pieces of fan art for Soma x Splatoon that I haven’t finished. oh yeah. See other soma splatoon stuff I have made here. (there is more unfinished artwork and refrence I made for the boys in more splatoon proportions, ha. I’ll show that off here too, at the end. I like it.)

they’re battle pose things for turf war. The fist one I even colored, and I mingt shade and texture it sometime, Idk. Feels like a lot. I’ve got the brushes for it now though. 

Agent 8 and agent 4 are there in plain clothes too. making their ink color black since the boys can’t change their ‘ink’ color. Lol. Yeah. this is basically ink=structure gel. they’re both goops. so yea. Also this is from before splatoon 3 was a thing and that’s why the agent’s inktanks are the splatoon 2 version. I copied poses from official artwork, because I could and the poses are awesome. 

Second artwork!

This is just a sketch, as you can see. (I’m actually working on line art/my cleaner sketch, but idk when that will be done if ever so you get this)  (also stole the poses here too, from more official splatoon artwork.)

they have custom weapons now! Based on cameras, since that is a splatoon-ish thing to base a weapon on that also has a Soma theme. When getting scanned, the first two times at least, they reference cameras, and Simon has a camera and a bit of a photography hobby, as seen by the pictures and camera in his apartment. I made the weapons in blender because I love 3d modeling sometimes and I love getting reference pictures of complicated objects wit hthe right perspective. 

here are the renders that I used as ref

the polaroid slosher! You can see the inspiration better if you turn it around upside down. Should maybe chanfe that but it works for the pose of the sketch. It also has a inktank that is a previously used diver’s air tank (Simon 2′s in fact the top one of his back pack thing!) because I wanted to get references to diving equipment into the design, since that is also a soma/simon theme.

The DSLR brella! Based on a dslr camera, zoom lenses for a dslr camera, a camera tripod and the umbrella light things that photo studios have. Sadly no diving equipment in this one, tried to get it in but it just wouldn’t fit with the design. Brellas are pretty sleek, can’t fit that much on them, designwise. 

oh yeah. And the reference for the splatoon-style design of the boys. 

they can turn into little ink creatures, my god! they have four limbs/tentacles in that form, no more, because that is how many limbs they have in humanoid form. also icons. Because i love the style of the splatoon dialogue box icons. 

(Also you may have noticed the inconsistent prosthetic of Simon 3 in these designs. In the sketch thing, I just forgot about it honestly, only noticed it now. we all make mistages. Like that one. Mistackes. Mistakes. we all make ‘em.)

[eclipse89]

how i take moon photos, and how you can too using the same method (regular camera version)

long post

ok so this is the first of a 2 part thing, one part (this part) will go over how i shoot moon photos with my regular photography camera and the other part will go over how i make larger mosaics with a telescope.

this is a method i've developed over the past 6 months, mainly for getting the most i can out of just a telephoto lens.

going to start by going over the equipment you need/the equipment i use for this:

a basic dslr/mirrorless camera. i use the nikon Z5, but it doesn’t matter which one really. it helps if it can shoot video at full resolution.

a telephoto lens, on a crop sensor camera it should be at least 200mm (and on a full frame, 300mm is preferable). i use a nikon F/4.5-5.6 70-300mm.

a tripod. this is really basic, any tripod works, it’s pretty much irrelevant as long as you have one.

that’s all the equipment you need, to take shots like this:

yes, you can do this with a regular nikon and telephoto lens. i took this with the gear stated above, using the processes i will now describe below.

alright so the first step is what i call gathering data.

this is when you’re actually outside shooting, all the images you’ll need for later processing. assuming the conditions are ok (meaning the moon is out, not blocked by clouds and isn’t right on the horizon), i go out and set up the gear.

during this period of time i’m trying to get 1 thing, but if the moon is full; 2, possibly 3 things.

the first thing is your main moon data. depending on whether you have a camera that can record in higher resolution, this can take the form of either recording a video or snapping a bunch of single shots (if you do the latter, make sure to use an inbuilt intervalometer if the camera has one. or get a regular one if you don't, it's a big help)

i usually do a 10 minute recording, which is about how long it takes the moon to move across my camera frame. at 30fps, this equates to about 18,000 frames.

the point of recording isn't to have a video, but mainly to 𝘯𝘰𝘵 have 18,000 individual photos. a video is just a concise way of producing and containing a TON of images really easily.

so you took a video, or depending on your camera you took a bunch of images, that's the first part done.

remember how i said, if there's a full moon or closer to it, i'm trying to get 2-3 things here? that's for me personally, because i often shoot composites during a full moon. skip this next part if you don't plan on that.

for reference, here's a composited vs non-composited version

now the second thing i want to get is my composite shot. it's only feasible during a close to full moon, because otherwise the edge in shadow will always look weird with the glow added. the composite shot itself is usually a few overexposed images (all at slightly different settings), to show the moon's glow and/or sometimes a few bright stars.

typically i just change the settings around, and shoot like 5-10 different exposures manually, but exposure bracketing could probably work too here. i haven't tried it.

as long as you can't see any features on the moon, and the sky around it is noticeably brightened, you're good in terms of exposure. just make sure the edge of the moon is still visible, that's necessary for compositing later.

if there are any nice clouds out, i also try to wait and get a few shots with those near the moon.

the third optional thing (still under compositing, keep skipping if you aren't) is taking a shot or two of the blank sky with stars, to composite a shot like this:

this is a very quick thing, just point your camera somewhere away from the moon where you see a few stars, and take a couple second exposure to bring them out. you can zoom out more than whatever you're at for the moon shot to get some more stars, or keep it the same. either way works.

alright now we're back to the main part of the guide.

you've got your moon data at this point, your equipment is brought in, now you just have to do the processing.

with this method most of the work is the processing, i'll try to cover it all quickly here

firstly you need to process the main moon data. all i have is a video at this point, i need to turn that into a real finished image

doing this processing requires a couple programs (most of which are windows-only), but are all 100% free. if you intend on doing moon photography often, i would recommend getting a very cheap windows laptop for this purpose. quality doesn't matter whatsoever.

the first program i use is called PIPP (planetary image preprocesser), and this is mainly used to get your video in a state where it can be processed.

i typically upload the video, set it to crop every frame right around the moon (all that black space is extra processing time!), sort the frames by quality and cut out maybe 50% or 75% but this depends on how many frames i took. in my case of 18k, this cuts me down to 9k or 5k or so.

the resulting, processed video (once again using video as an image holding format because it's easy) is then exported to the next program: Autostakkert.

this one is to stack the images, into one really nice image. stacking is why i took so many images in the first place, i won't explain all the logistics of stacking here, but just know that it works and you should do it. stacking is one huge improvement you can make to your shots that's very easy to do.

so in autostakkert, i cull about 50% more of the frames, and stack the remainder of them.

personally i also drizzle 1.5x (drizzling = image upscaling basically) because on a 300mm telephoto lens and full frame camera, the moon is just not that many pixels. you can do whatever on this, if you're at 600mm or 800mm it's probably not as necessary, but it's really helpful at anything below that.

once it stacks, i take the resulting image into a third program: Registax.

this one i use for one sole purpose, wavelets. it's an optional step, and once again i will not explain in any detail how they work, but the result is basically a good sharpening tool. like REALLY good. i recommend trying it.

it's a simple program, i just upload the image and then change the wavelet sliders until it's sharpened to a nice degree.

and lastly, i export that image over to a regular photo editor. photoshop if you have it, lightroom works too only if you aren't compositing, i personally use photopea which is a very nice photoshop clone website that's free. look it up.

what i do here is just basic photo editing stuff first, expand the crop and add black (remember, in my case the stacked image was cropped all the way in), sharpen it a little more, up the saturation maybe for mineral colors, etc.

in here i also usually upscale the image again, this is optional

if you did not intend on compositing, and don't care how i do it, you're done! you should have a very passable moon shot at the moment, or if you're just reading out of curiousity, a very passable understanding of how i take them.

if you do care, here's the process:

so firstly i bring up the final cropped and finished edit of the main moon in the photo editor, and the composite shot on another layer above it. lower the opacity, then line up/resize the glow moon with the regular moon.

next you basically just get a low opacity/low hardness eraser, and erase the center of the glow moon so the regular surface detail shows through in the middle, but the edges stay glowy- and then i increase opacity back to full again.

it can take a few tries and messing around to get this part to look right, but making sure they're lined up perfectly is half the battle.

now you have a composited full moon, that looks something like this!

whether you're using it as a guide with your own shots (if so, good luck on them!) or just wanted to know how i take them, i hope you enjoyed the guide; i like to be transparent with how i make stuff, especially with something like this where most people have no idea how the photo is created behind the scenes.

- all the photos in this post were taken solely on my nikon Z5 camera, F/4.5-5.6 70-300mm lens and tripod.

- part 2 for the telescope mosaics will be coming in the near future most likely

[nikki-rook]

I just discovered that my $1700 camera lens is broken and I am NOT the one who did it... more rant below

I want to preface this by saying I am very VERY careful with my shit. I never break my phones, I've had a DSLR camera since 2012 and bought a new one just last year and I am always careful and have never dropped or bumped or broken my camera equipment. Last year I decided to finally spend some money on a new camera and a nicer lens (because better glass is where it's at, so I've read). I used this lens on my trip to Europe back in March, and really haven't touched my camera since. (I wish I would - story for another time I suppose).

I've just picked it up to go take an on the whim photo of a road and some trees because fall is pretty and I'm standing on the street corner and my lens WILL NOT WORK. It no longer zooms when I move the ring. I look around at it, and I can tell based on the white marks around the edge of my lens protector filter (thank god for that) that this lens seems to have been dropped.

Read that first paragraph again. I DON'T DROP MY SHIT. I haven't touched this thing since March but once to take some photos of my cousins art. I would have a clear and precise memory of dropping this expensive and still kinda new to me lens.

So either I have literally lost my memory and do not remember doing something like this to my lens. My husband is lying to me when he says he didn't drop it when he randomly decided to use it this summer on a tripod. Or his brother is lying to me, and he used it at some point and dropped it. Based on the last photos on the camera, vote goes towards my husband, or vote goes towards me and having absolutely lost my fucking mind that I can't remember this happening to me.

If the zoom just didn't work I would think it got fucked in my bag on my trip home from Europe. I would think it fell off the shelf it sits on onto the carpeted floor of my office. Its those damn white little marks and the inability to remove the lens filter from it that make me believe it was dropped and on CONCRETE. (I have concrete in my backyard around my pool where my husband was taking photos).

I am just LIVID. this has ruined an otherwise lovely day that included beautiful weather, lunch outside, buying books, and a lovely coffee. I was going to go off and take a nice photo, something which I haven't really done in years outside travel, and it was going to be nice.

And now I'm looking at Canon's repair website quoting me $539 to repair it. And my husband just says "you can take it out of savings" thats NOT THE POINT. Thats $539 on christmas presents, on travel costs because we have to go see your family for christmas, thats new clothes, thats a new winter coat that I want so badly, thats a new bookshelf to fit all these fucking books we keep buying, thats a renovated bathroom, thats the feeling of financial security and having a backup because we spend too much money as it is. THAT IS $539 I HAD NO INTENTION OF EVER SPENDING TO REPAIR MY CAMERA I NEVER DROP.

so I am livid and pissed and on the verge of tears and I don't know what to do. And I truly don't know where to put my anger because it's either on myself (but how the fuck could it be because I DONT DROP MY SHIT) or on someone who has decided to not tell me the truth, or worse, used my expensive shit and doesn't even remember fucking it up.

If you read this far, bravo. I feel like I'm going to cry and throw up. I had hopes maybe it wouldn't be that expensive to repair. but of course it isn't cheap. I would honestly have better luck just buying a new different lens to use instead of repairing this. I am gutted.

[alchemiclee]

ayaka, plastic figure fix/repaint!

I decided I wanted to get into 3d figure painting because I have a huge urge to paint figures. I bought a resin printer and all the stuff that goes with 3d printing. I even joined a patreon/discord to get files for figures.

in the discord, someone posted their blog story of their process for repainting some cheap plastic figures. they advised it's a good way to practice when you first start out painting because these figures are cheaper than resin printing. I liked the ayaka figure they got, so I went to aliexpress to find one for myself.

if you're interested in their blog post, you can find it here. they go into more details than I do in some parts, if you're interested in that! (and more pictures since tumblr has a limit)

read my adventure below⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇

she came in the mail with a few broken pieces, but nothing a little super glue probably won't fix. (at the time of writing this, i'm realizing I forgot to purchase glue...) generally she's pretty decent for a cheap plastic bootleg of this impossible-to-get garage kit figure:

the painting inconsistencies are where I come in to get my practice. the broken pieces can be fixed later.

her bangs in the front are top long and cover her eyes so i'll have to figure out how to cut those. the hole for the umbrella is way too small, so I need to figure out how to fix that. but I will focus on painting first.

her eyes are the best painted part. I won't have to mess with those luckily haha. she is clearly supposed to have socks/tights on from the way the model is made and based on the original figure design. I need to paint the leggies! there's a few very small details on her clothes that need some extra added paint. there's some details missing like the little flowers which I will try to add. lastly, the umbrella is a plain blue blob. I plan to add some color and paint flowers onto it before I glue the broke rod back on.

first things she needs to be dismembered! plastic figures aren't the hardest to take apart, but is still a struggle, at least for me it was. in the blog post I shared above, the person used a welding heat tool to get her apart. I don't have anything like that, so I used hot water for the smaller parts (hair, ribbons, vision) and a hair dryer for the legs. you need to soften the plastic/melt the glue to pop things free! I held hair dryer on her butt against the connection point of the legs for 30-60 seconds on highest heat and lowest power, then wiggled the leggies until it cooled down. repeat a few more times until I could twist them and pop them free. unfortunately, the shoe wouldn't come off with either method, so I ended up having to cut it off with a knife. as long as I line it up and glue it on straight, it should be fine. hopefully 😅 the leggies were really stubborn, but with careful heating (while trying not to bend any of the super thin pieces, like the skirt. which also got heated up in the process) I managed to gently twist them off eventually.

the leggies!! they're free!!!!!

now she's ready for painting!

i did the first coat of paint on the legs and a few of the details on a twitch stream to try to test out a painting setup for future painting of figures, as well as test if my VOD tracking I tried to set up worked.....both kind of went wrong 😅 I also broke a few things along the way.

I tried to set up using a tripod with my DSLR camera for high quality video stream. I downloaded a thing enabling me to use it as a webcam. my large tripod was too big to fit in my tiny desk area, so I switched to a smaller tabletop one. somehow, the screw to that tripod broke off in my camera as I was screwing it on.....I have no clue how to remove it. I can no longer use a tripod 😭 I had to set my camera on my desk and have a side angle that made it hard to see anything I was doing on stream. I also had to keep my hands in one place when I like to move them around as I work. it was quite uncomfortable, haha.

the lighting I had set up was too bright, but it was my only option. it's a photography light box with its own built in lighting—very white and very bright. I folded the box so all the flaps were folded in except the one with the lights on it. I had that one sticking straight up at the back and placed a plastic cover over the folded part to paint on. it helped stream see and i could adjust the setting on my camera to keep it from being overexposed, but since my eyes don't have camera settings, I couldn't even tell where I was putting white paint because it was washing it out too much. when I inspected it in another light away from the overpowering white one, I realized I had more paint on it than I thought.

it wasn't the best setup, but it wasn't the worst. I added some silly little things on screen to make it more fun 😆

I managed to finish the first leg coat, do the little hair wrap things (not sure what their called. the white and gold things) and a couple small details on her clothing (fixed some of the gold lines for example because they weren't fully finished)

unfortunately, my VOD tracking didn't work so my video got dmca flagged and twitch decided it shouldn't be published so I decided to just delete it. my stream died after the first 20 minutes survived because my stream died and none of the music in that got flagged, but I didn't actually paint anything within that time because I was trying to make sure my setup was working decently. the painting lasted around 2 hours I believe. then my camera died!

I have decided not to stream the rest of her painting and do it in my spare time. I will work on fixing the VOD tracking. the camera setup is too much of a hassle and I can't charge it while it's in use. I didn't know what else to try until I found (and ordered) a cool overhead mini lamp that also holds your phone so I can basically have a movable desk light and/or use my phone as a webcam for streaming or record video for a time-lapse at the same time! so look forward to that!

between that first painting attempt and the next session, I got another figure in the mail. this one is a mini resin figure and I will have a separate post for her! (link soon)

back to painting ayaka.

my cool desk lamp came in the mail! you can find it here (not sponsored/affiliated! just like the cool lamp. i got the MINI version because small work area) i played with my streaming stuff and turns out they added an easier way to vod track the way i want, either before or after my failed attempt, i'm not sure. i found a way to stream my phone camera to my streamlabs! things are easy to set up for figure painting streams!

I added some details to her clothes and cleaned up some small spots. I added flowers and other small details to kind of match her original outfit. for some reason I decided to add some makeup to her. her mouth looked a little funny so I added some lip gloss and try to make her smile a little more. not sure if that came out well or not 😅 to finish, I did a thin layer of some blue in her hair to give the solid blobs of plastic some subtle variation and also slapped on some sparkly metallic paint to brighten it up a little.

the umbrella was way top plain, so I painted the under side pink and tried my best to paint cherry blossoms on top. i've never been top great at draeimg or painting flowers, so they're a little odd, but it's good enough.

I don't really care for the flowers that came with it, so I planned to add some mini fake flowers. in the end I decided to just use them as well instead of throwing them away, since I needed something to keep the fake flowers more stable. they are a decent filler. the fake paper flowers add a bit more to it, making it feel more full. I have more flowers coming in the mail, so I may add a but more.

I gave up on the plastic base she sits on that goes on the top of the glass. I couldn't get it to stay in place or stick to glue, so she's just sitting inside the glass now, directly on top the flowers, which actually makes her more stable!

I didn't go too adventurous for my first practice paint, but she's better than she was, and I learned a bit from this that I can now apply to 3d prints!

and she's now complete and ready to go live on my shelf!

[dansnaturepictures]

Focus on seeing Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers at Acres Down in the New Forest 26/02/2023

A week ago, after not seeing one here on an afternoon visit on a day off work the Monday prior, we did our usual Sunday in reverse. To help with being back in time and ready to watch our football team Man United in what would be a triumphant League Cup final, alone making it an amazing day and pivotal one in my year, we tried something likely to be more successful for trying to see the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers that had been seen a lot here and headed for the forest to be there at 8am. Taking a further walk to Shatterford in the morning. 

It certainly did work as to make it quite a perfect day, alongside a surprise couple of Crossbills the first for the year for us and other great birds seen, we saw the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. On arrival it was wonderful to be out on a slightly frosty morning in the relative wilderness and the calm of the New Forest I do want to do more early morning birdwatching as it’s just such a precious time to be out waking up with the day and I feel focused and appreciative of my surroundings in those early hours, and after a few cloudy mornings as hoped the sun was out which lifts such an occasion instantly. After hearing Lesser Spotted Woodpecker drumming we took a bit of a blow though when we arrived to a group of people looking at the distinctive bare tree the woodpeckers come to, as they said one had just flown off. Were we too late? 

The soft caressing drumming of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, compared to the harder firm sound of Great Spotted Woodpecker which we also heard that morning, piped up from behind us and wondering if this might be a quick sighting type day of this species which I’d have taken as we had at nearby Millyford Bridge on an early March morning last year we investigated. I was thrilled to spot a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker briefly, my Mum got onto it too and we’d seen it. Then it flew towards the bare tree and landed on it once more. We would enjoy two luxurious bouts of seeing a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on the bare tree in the golden early sunlight, the first of which there was another around behind it on the tree and we saw the birds chasing each other through a nearby tree. My Mum’s partner, usually lagging behind us when out as he has some mobility issues made it and saw one too. I was in my element as we watched these striking and elusive birds with their keyboard and ladder black and white markings and the male’s alluring red cap. It was a pleasure to take photos with both my DSLR and bridge camera, of the five times I’ve now been so lucky to see these brilliant birds I’ve photographed them three times now and this is the first time I’ve ever managed it in the sun which really pleased me. 

This will go down as one of my birdwatching moments of the year, and I was so thrilled to get it so soon after all the euphoria of the Norfolk trip and in a strong run of birds for me. I have told the story before about how this is a bird I dreamed of seeing from my early birding days due to my love of woodpeckers and there became such a quality goal about it being something unattainable for so long making it so sweet when we did see one. Then when we first ever did see one I spotted it first and I’ve always seemed to be able to predict when we might see them. Every single time I am so fortunate enough to see one of them it never loses that magic for me, and I feel I have seen a glorious bird of my dreams. To have seen one three years in a row now is amazing. As my last post rounding up my week mentioned it was such a woodpecker week with three species seen in three days at the start of it so this sighting felt right at the core of my woodpecker love. I loved spotting it first once more too. It was good to chat to so many fellow watchers including two men we’ve seen at places before. This was a Sunday of sensational moments in a place close to my heart, with a bird species equally so on a very successful day for me which made me smile so much. 

[ivan-o-vich]

"My journey as an amateur photographer"

My journey as an amateur photographer

Hi im vich I just want to tell you how my journey starts as an amateur photographer. During the pandemic (2020) i've always played online games because I cannot go outside since there are viruses spreading across the country. One day my sister bought a camera (dslr) but i do not know how to use one since i'm not very familiar with it. I ask my sister if I can borrow the camera from her, then I explain that I would like to gain some experiences from using this dslr. After that my sister considered my reasons and she lent it to me with no hesitation.

I tried capturing my first shot pointing at my dog and here's the result. 

(Date captured July 21 2020)

I'm so happy that it turned out pretty well, since then I always take photos every time. Tomorrow that day my sister went to shopping along with her friends and she seems not bringing the camera with her and i've come to realize that even now i still do not know how dslr camera works, I only have six hours so i prepared my table, my pen, my notes, and the camera and then I started researching and studying the true essence of a camera from manual to auto, buttons and settings, angles and taking raw pics, body and lenses, and blending the customized settings.

After studying a little bit I tried immediately taking photos of my pets and realized that I've improved a little by using the dslr camera and my knowledge about it.

(Date captured December 18, 2020)

 Later that day my sister got home and took the camera because she's going to a birthday party celebration.

One year later (2021) after not holding or using the dslr camera. I've always thought that if I'm still able to capture some great shots even though one year has passed I'll ask my sister for her permission to borrow her camera and she lent it to me as always. This is my first time taking pictures outdoors so I've prepared my things and am going to a nearby campus. I'm truly mesmerized by using the dslr outdoors because I can take pictures of great sceneries and here's one of the shots i've taken on a campus.

(Date captured October 11, 2021)

Since then I added photography as one of my hobbies changing my algorithms in social media and becoming aware of other native and foreign photographers. Watching some great works of other photographers has become a habit of mine since I can take some ideas from them and apply it to my own style of photography.

Another year has passed (2022) I got a call from our neighbor who wants to recruit me for some kind of travel/networking job and I accepted it. I packed my things and then again I asked my sister if i can borrow and bring along her camera since the camera always piled up and she does not know how to use it properly and i've always wanted to give meaning to that camera from using it and she always agrees. 

When I was at my job I focused on studying the camera since I have plenty of time using it. Months have passed working on my job. We got a call from our support that our next location is some far away city and I'm so excited that I packed my stuff and will be ready for the trip. The next location assigned to us needs a ship transportation so we booked and waited for the ship to come. While we waiting i capture some scenery across the port 

(Date captured May 23, 2022)

And then our ship came. While on the ship some people approached me and asked if i'm a photographer and i replied "yes, an amateur one". After we arrive at our destination we rest for our duty tomorrow. 

We travel and do our job and I've met a lot of people and also a native photographers. They teach me some basics of all kinds of photography and I'm really grateful for that. Sadly I've got no pictures with them but anyways I'm glad I met them. Almost two weeks have passed and we got a call from our support that our job here is done so we can go back to our main staff house and get some days off. But before we came to say goodbye i've taken at least one picture and off to go. 

(Date captured June 3, 2022)

January 2023 is a new year with some great resolutions of mine im participating in contest and note to myself that I can improve my progress little by little and right now I'm still an amateur photographer with 2 years experience of photography and with that I found my interest doing nature photography, animal photography, landscape and portrait photography. Hope that one day I am able to meet some photographers and become a professional photographer and can't wait to tell my parents.

Some link that might help you if you're starting photography

This photographer inspires me to take my own photos.

https://instagram.com/kevertai?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.tiktok.com/@iamjeanblack?_t=8Zaigt6XusM&_r=1

Here's a guide on how to use a dslr camera.

Here's the camera that i used and the complete guide of it.

The lens for the camera that i used.

Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED VR DX AF-S

You can also find some ideas in this link

digitalcameraworld

[cursmudgeon]

When I was fifteen I told my mom that I had an idea for a music video. It was for a song by one of my favorite bands. (I had weird taste in music so this was an extremely underground band that I wouldn't even call indie cause "indie band" implies more press and attention than they ever got.) When I finished telling her about the idea I guess I said something like "it's too bad I'll never get to make it." She was horrified.

In a lot of ways what happened next was insanely lucky and only worked out because despite the fact that we were dirt poor, my mom's band had actually played a few shows with the lead singer of that band years earlier. She sent him a message and he agreed to let me come film stuff around the bands new album release.

So my mom bought me a cheap dslr, we packed up a car full of whatever lighting gear we could piece together from thrift stores and an old wheelchair we'd found to do dolly shots and she drove me 400 miles out to Denver for a weekend of filming. Then when a hard drive crash meant we lost 80% of that footage she took me back to reshoot it all.

That weird little idea for a video wound up being my first paid job. I went on to make a lot of other music videos, some for that same artist and some for other musicians. The connections and skills I got from doing that got me gigs doing photography for magazines and working on short films that wound up in festivals. All of that because my mom didn't want to let me sink into that cynical view of the world. She put in the effort to make me see that I could make whatever I wanted if I put in the work and asked for the help I needed.

I don't think many people realize how much they've been turned into a bunch of casually cynical jerks.

Someone may come to their parents and say "I want to write a book" and their parents will say "it's really hard to get published".

Someone might confide in their sibling and say "I want to sell my art on "x" platform" and that sibling will say "do you know how many people you'd be competing with? Do you know how many shops are even on that platform?"

I know a kid who once told his best friend "I think I wanna start a dnd podcast" and the friend was like "do you know what the word "oversaturation" means?"

Personally, I don't know why any of that matters? And even if it did, perhaps your response should be "Do it! Do it and see where it goes!"