Month: December 2011

With this post, I have successfully completed my 365 project, to which I committed myself one year ago. I have taken, and posted to this blog, at least one photo every day for the past 365 days. As I look back, it has been a labor of love and I am now more committed than ever to make myself a better photographer. During this past year I stretched my comfort zone far beyond what I ever imagined I could and I have not only learned more about photography, I have learned more about myself. Most importantly, I have more confidence in myself and my abilities and I am thrilled to be learning a new and challenging skill. This past year, at the request of others, I have taken photos of babies and young children, produced head shots for aspiring actors, shot publicity photos for a blues band, and produced documentation of rescued raptors. I am now feeling comfortable in the role of photographer as I work to improve my expertise.

About 10 percent of the photos I posted this past year were of birds. I posted only two of Bobo. I thought she might be featured in my blog more often, but I found raptors and hummingbirds more compelling. My favorite photo that I took this past year was posted on June 19, 2011, Day 170 Fly Like An Eagle which I took in Friday Harbor, Washington. This photo did not have the best exposure or the best composition (I had to crop it) but it was my first bald eagle photo and I was thrilled to get that capture. I owe its existence to my friend Barbara, with whom I was traveling and who alerted me to the eagle landing in a nearby tree. It is fitting, then, that my photos today are all birds in flight: a great egret, a long-billed curlew, a red-tailed hawk, a snowy egret, and a pair of mallards, sort of representative of my taking wing.

Focal Length 300mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/200
Cropped

It is Day 364 of my 2011 odyssey to improve my photography skills. I have improved, I think. I have also repeated mistakes over and over. Obviously, I still have much to learn, and I am now more obsessed with photography than when I started. The day after tomorrow will mark the beginning of year two of my impossible quest for even photographic mediocrity, but I am certainly enjoying the journey.

Today’s ODC challenge, “stretching the truth,” has been a difficult one for me. Friends offered a number of suggestions, at least one of which was an X-rated subject so, although I took the photos (of statues) I decided not to use them. 😉 In the end, I decided that I’d stretch the truth with editing. Since my goal for this blog has always been to post photos SOOC (straight out of camera) as much as possible, significant editing of any photo is, for me, stretching the truth, or to use Steven Colbert’s term, “truthiness.” He defines truthiness as “the truth that we want to exist.” When I edit a photo, I try to make it be what I had hoped or expected it to be in the first place, but didn’t quite get my camera settings right for the conditions, so “truthiness” seems to fit.

Here is today’s “truthiness” photo. It is of a small creek by a park in Auburn. I wanted to make the rushing water silky by using a slow shutter speed and I liked the resulting photo but it was just a bit drab so I enhanced the photo to make it pop, using my HDR software.

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 320
f/5.6
1/50
Photomatix HDR

Out shopping with a friend this afternoon, we stopped at a nursery so she could buy some long, leather pruning gloves to prevent the painful scratches she got yesterday when she pruned the roses in her garden. While she shopped inside, I wandered among the plants outside in search of a photo that might represent today’s challenge topic, “many.” I came across a large cactus with MANY sharp, pointy (is that redundant?) thorns, perfect for today’s challenge. And if I ever get one of these babies, I’ll be sure to buy some long rose pruning gloves to handle them!

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/50
SOOC

Today’s challenge topic is “Money can’t buy . . .” fill in the blank. I thought I would take a spectacular landscape photo for this challenge, perhaps of majestic Mount Shasta or another Sacramento River view, with the title “Money Can’t Buy This View” but after days of beautiful weather, it was overcast this morning with nary a mountain or river in sight. As we left to go on our morning walk, I took a closeup photograph of the flag that graces my brother’s front porch and decided that what money can’t buy is the freedom we all take too much for granted.

I applied a slight curves adjustment to brighten the faded flag colors a bit.

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 200
f/5.6
1/80
WB-Cloudy
Curves

Today’s challenge topic is “Blue.” The photos I took today were uninspiring, even though the views I saw were inspirational. After rejecting all of the photos I took today as unworthy of either this blog or the Flickr challenge, my sister-in-law poured us glasses of Prosecco and suddenly the photos I rejected earlier were not only adequate, but possibly museum quality. So here is the Sacramento River as seen from the Sundial Bridge in Redding, enhanced with my HDR software.

This has been the Year of the Eagle for me. From my Fly Like an Eagle post on Day 170, to my Tesla post on Day 299, to my Bald Eagle post on Day 324, to The Eagle Has Landed post on Day 331 to Hog, I mean Hawk, Heaven on Day 338, to today, I have seen and photographed more eagles, both bald and golden, than I ever expected to see in my lifetime.

So, this afternoon, on another crisp, clear, sunny day in Redding, when four of us ventured out on Lake Shasta (my brother and sister-in-law and her brother and me) in search of bald eagles and fish, I was thrilled when my brother spotted another beautiful eagle, this one a soon-to-be adult (I think it’s called a four year juvenile) with a few remaining dark feathers on his otherwise white head and tail. The fish were not in evidence and an unidentifiable sound, possibly indicating some sort of electrical malfunction, brought us back to the dock long before we wanted to return but not before I photographed this eagle. Here are three of the best, cropped and enhanced because although I tried both manual and automatic settings, they all still required tweaking.

Today we all rejoiced when Louis, my grandniece Alexis’s husband, a deployed Marine, called from Afghanistan to wish us all a Merry Christmas. After days of no mail due to sandstorms in Afghanistan, packages from home arrived at Louis’s base this Christmas morning, so Louis and some of his fellow Marines celebrated Christmas today enjoying my brother’s brandy soaked fruit cake and the cigars he sent. Here’s Alexis, thrilled to talk to her husband this morning.

This morning as I was bustling around trying to get ready to drive up to Redding, I looked at the basket of remaining lemons where I’d stuck a Happy Face spatula to get it out of the way in the kitchen yesterday. It made me smile and so I wanted to share this utterly goofy sight.

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/1.8
1/8
SOOC

. . .Make Meyer lemon tart! I have dozens of Meyer lemons from my friend Barbara’s tree so this afternoon, I’m making a tart to take up to Redding for dessert Christmas Eve after our Dungeness crab feast. Yum. Today’s Flickr challenge is “what’s making us busy today” so I thought I’d make this an action shot. I couldn’t grate too vigorously, though, because I want only the yellow part of the lemon peel and none of the white pith.

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/3.2
1/10
SOOC

The topic of today’s challenge is “symbol.” I took lots of photos of ubiquitous symbols today at the gym, e.g., women’s room, men’s room, fire extinguisher, handicapped, caution, etc. I even stopped this afternoon and photographed some mistletoe in a tree, although far be it from me to understand why a toxic parasite that kills its host is a holiday symbol that requires anyone under it to be kissed. Late this afternoon, when I was at a loss about what to photograph, I reviewed my photos from this morning at the gym and one suddenly seemed the obvious choice. What better to symbolize the cold and flu season, which is upon us, than a box of Kleenex? I took only one shot of this subject and the depth of field is so shallow that most of the photo is sort of fuzzy but, that’s how you feel when you’ve got a cold or the flu. The photo also shows the “Kleenex” brand which symbolizes, er, well, Kleenex!

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 200
f/1.8
1/50
WB – Automatic…Yay! I remembered to reset it.
SOOC

. . . But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.” I felt like Clement Moore this morning, when out on my lawn there rose such a clatter, that I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter, and there he was. Yikes! It’s only December 21. Santa must be on a practice run!

Today’s challenge is “transportation” so I was lucky to hear Santa clattering around outside (he must have been waxing his sled runners). I grabbed my camera and ran out as I heard him calling each reindeer’s name and I’d barely focused my camera (learning back button focus so it sometimes is a struggle) when I heard him shout, “Now dash away, dash away, dash away, all!” And he and his reindeer were gone. I guess they’ll be back Saturday night. I was lucky to get this shot!

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/1.8
1/2 second
WB Fair Weather (dang I still haven’t remembered to reset the WB)
SOOC

Today’s challenge topic is “rope.” I have many kinds of rope around the house but I didn’t want to take a photo of “posed” rope, especially since I posed some rope for the “red, white and blue” challenge a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to find an interesting existing hank of rope hanging someplace, envisioning a rustic setting and rough wooden walls or rope coiled on the deck of a sailboat. Of course I don’t know anyone with a horse barn or anyone with a sailboat. As I contemplated what I’d do today, Bobo, my feathered roommate (I hesitate to call her a friend since she removes chunks of my flesh with her beak with some regularity), began attacking her favorite perch, a colorful ROPE that is attached to her cage. So my picture today is of the tattered end of her rope perch which obviously has seen better days and which will soon be replaced with a new one, upon which she will continue to hone her biting skills.

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/1.8
1/10
WB Fine Weather (I have still failed to reset the WB-at least the lighting in this shot was from a window)
SOOC

I took this photo as the sun was setting about 5:15 PM. I was headed to a Christmas party and was so taken by the colors in the sky that I made a u-turn and went back to photograph this sunset. I was late to the party because of the stop, but it was worth it to me. And I decided since my earlier post for this date was such a colorless and dreary picture, I wanted to brighten things up a bit.

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 200
f/1.8
1/60
WB Fine Weather (by mistake)
SOOC

It was incredibly foggy this morning. I took photos with my camera facing directly into the sun—and no lens flare! The sun is barely visible about midway down the photo behind the branch on the left side.

Focal Length 90mm
ISO 100
f/16
1/125
SOOC

Today’s challenge topic is “Through the Looking Glass.” To me it is a rather far-reaching and complex topic because the explanation for it challenged us to use mirrors, windows, or doorways as frames to suggest mood and psychological depth as an example of ways to shape the world around us. It was a little too deep for me today. I use frames all the time when I take photos because I think it gives depth. However, today I took lots of photos without mirrors, windows or doorways and none met the challenge. I got home after dark and cut one of the few remaining roses and placed it in front of a wall mirror in the upstairs hall. I struggled with whether to have the rose or its reflection in focus and decided the reflection had to be in focus in order to fulfill the challenge of “through the looking glass.”

I think it is interesting that the reflection has a ghost, even though I used my tripod. Hmmm. Maybe there’s more to Alice’s Through the Looking-Glass than meets the eye! I wonder if there are any slithy toves lurking in the darkness?

Focal Length 85mm
ISO 100
f/5
1/2 second
SOOC

. . .’cept for me and my monkey. Well, the Beatles said it and I agree, I ain’t got nothin’ to hide and my monkey doesn’t either. But considering today’s challenge is “arms,” maybe I do have something to hide. My flabby arms are certainly something to hide and, since I don’t have a hunky guy around whose bulging biceps would make a good photograph, I decided that my morning coffee cup would have to step in for this challenge. I hoped to add interest to the photo by pouring some hot coffee and capturing a beautiful swirl of steam wafting from the cup. Easier said than done, so, that is yet another item I must add to the many photographic challenges I need to learn.

So, here is my monkey, without me, and a paltry bit of steam rising, not the elegant swirl I envisioned but couldn’t figure out how to capture.

Focal Length 85mm
ISO 100
f/4
1/4 second
SOOC

Today’s challenge is to photograph a mystical figure. When I went out to get the newspaper this morning, the moon was surrounded by a glow so I thought it would make a perfect mystical figure. I attached my 70-300mm zoom lens and my tripod and went outside to get the perfect mystical shot. My next door neighbors, with whom I am not on the best of terms, were in the process of getting a carload of sleepy children off to day care and they didn’t even acknowledge their wacko neighbor’s “good morning” as she stood in the early morning darkness, adjusting her tripod, bathrobe tie loosening and threatening to expose god knows what. It was pretty chilly out, both the temperature in the air and my neighbors’ chilly reception to my early morning greeting, and so I worked quickly trying different exposures in an effort to capture the clouds and glow behind the moon. I did not succeed and my underexposure left the moon looking more moody than mystical. But I did get a good focus so with a little tweaking in curves, this is as mystical as I can get today!

Focal Length 300mm
ISO 100
f/16
1/125
Curves and cropped

Today, for the first time since I started this blog, I set out to take a photograph I knew I would not be using straight out of the camera. My goal today was to take a photograph that I could modify using my new HDR (High Dynamic Range) software, acquired yesterday at the encouragement of my friend Melinda. If you are a regular follower of this blog—however few you may be—my goal has always been to achieve the correct balance of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO when I take the photograph. I do frequently crop photos but I try not to make other kinds of adjustments, although I have resorted to that more often than I’d like. I finally feel confident enough in my abilities that I will allow myself to intentionally use photos on my blog that I have enhanced using HDR software and Photoshop.

I took this photo at a nearby park and as I photographed the trees, I expected a giraffe or an elephant to appear at any moment. It reminded me of the Serengeti, hence, today’s blog title.

Today I’m playing camera with my friend and fellow photo-blogger, Melinda, in Benicia. The challenge today is “hollow” and we both decided to photograph straws; I got to try out Melinda’s 85mm macro lens for this shot. Check out Melinda’s shot using the same straws and the same lens; click here

Focal Length 85mm
ISO 100
f/4.5
0.4 seconds
Curves and other adjustments applied

Today’s challenge is “gold and silver.” Late this afternoon, after spending an hour photographing what would be considered continuous motion: my trainer’s two young children and a puppy, I decided to take photos of their gold and silver Christmas tree ornaments since I have none of my own. After I reviewed the photos, I realized that I was reflected in the silver ornament, so that is my photo for today:

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 320
f/1.8
1/80
SOOC