Month: May 2013

The thing about sunsets in the Grand Canyon, when you are viewing the canyon from the South Rim as we were in February because the North Rim is closed in the winter, is that the sun is mostly behind you. Until my visit to the Grand Canyon, whenever I thought of photographing a sunset, I pictured the intense orangey red of the sun dipping behind a mountain or the sea as the sky changed color. At the Grand Canyon, the one time a few of us faced away from the Canyon to photograph the sun as it dipped in the west, Moose smirked at us and looked back over his shoulder as the setting sun splashed its light and bathed the layers of this geological marvel with unimaginable color. We all turned back to where the real photograph was, humbled by that lesson.

I brought only one camera and lens with me on this particular day. Everyone in the group was taking time lapse sequences and I was reticent to relinquish my only camera to a tripod letting the camera’s intervalometer take control. Almost on a whim, and without really assessing the scene or my lens, I decided to try a time lapse so I set up on the rim and took my chances. The sequence started at 4:52PM and ended at 6:33PM. I focused mostly on the canyon rocks instead of the sky because there were no clouds to speak of which was fortunate because the drama was on the rocks, not in the sky. The lens I used was the 70-200mm f/4 set at 70mm. While at the Grand Canyon, I discovered that wide angle lenses produced the most spectacular shots. I can only imagine what this would have looked like with my 24-70mm lens set at 24mm, or at 14mm lens which was the lens of choice of many of my fellow workshop particpants.

After about an hour, Moose realized I was camera-less and allowed me to use his Nikon D800 and Bob, one of my fellow students, loaned me his 24-70 lens. I was happy not to be wandering aimlessly, peeking at my camera and watching it click every 30 seconds. Today, as I processed these shots, I noticed that the metadata from the camera indicates that the “creator” of this photograph is B. Moose Peterson! Ha! Does this mean that I have an original Moose Peterson photograph? This is a Grand Canyon sunset, Moose Peterson style and from Moose’s camera, taken by Carol Smith. I took this shot about 5 minutes before the end of the time lapse.

And this is my first attempt at time lapse photography. It is not quite as dramatic as the other time lapse I posted a couple of days ago because the movement in it is very subtle, the clouds are almost nonexistent, but the dramatic color changes are striking.

I spent Memorial Day working on the books. Mo’s books. I hate numbers; I was never good at math; I am a creative person but creating the books for Mo’s has almost finished me off. Late yesterday afternoon, after immersing myself (somewhat successfully) into Quickbooks for 6 straight hours, I decided I had to take a break. I poured myself a glass of wine (Hot To Trot, a lovely red blend from 14 Hands Winery in Washington state),scooped some goat cheese onto a few rosemary raisin pecan Raincoast Crisp crackers, and settled myself onto a patio chair, my fountain gurgling soothingly just a few feet from me. Despite the time of year, it was cloudy and the air was crisp. My D800 was nestled in my lap. I was ready for some right brain activities. When I heard the hummer’s squeaky sounds, I was prepared. I snapped just a few but these three were in pretty acceptable focus with the 70-200 lens. I haven’t seen the hummers at the feeders for a long time. It was nice to take a little time to enjoy them.

Memorial Day. Up early. Raise the Flag. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Read Melinda’s blog. Gotta do this orb thing again. I tried it a couple of years ago when I took an on-line Photoshop class but forgot about it until Melinda started posting orb pix. Cannot resist. In honor of today, I’m posting one of the shots I took after I raised the Flag. And photo of a Flag I took at the Grand Canyon in February. . . orb-itized!!

I started thinking about the moon the other night at my camera club meeting when guest judge Jeff Burkholder told us that moonlight is white not blue as was often depicted by Hollywood films in the early days of color film. Blue gels were added to the lighting to simulate moonlight which is not blue at all but rather a reflection of sunlight. So, last night, as I sat in the cell phone lot at the Sacramento International Airport, waiting to pick up friends returning from Hawaii, I decided to take some photos of the almost full moon. I used the Sunny 16 rule to set my camera (Jeff taught me about the Sunny 16 rule when I took a class from him a few years back) but I wasn’t happy with the focus–too much camera shake so I used my monopod, part of my Cullman tripod, for the first time. I’ve had the tripod for more than two years. Sometimes it takes a while for me to get around to using something!

This is a color shot of the moon. I changed the setting from f/16, shutter speed 1/100 to f11, 1/320 to help with camera shake and I think the tripod would have been a better choice than the monopod for a moon shot because I have had much more sharply focused moon shots using the tripod. But you need to try things to find out what works. Also, this is a bit underexposed. I should have slowed the shutter speed just a tad.

It’s Day 142 (I think) and I’m probably not going to be able to take a blog-worthy photo today. So I am posting a photo from my February Grand Canyon adventure. Sunday, I went into the archives of my Grand Canyon with Moose shoot and found a photo I hadn’t yet processed and since my monthly Placer Camera Club image evaluation was coming up, I tweaked it a bit and submitted it for judging. I was nervous about this month’s image evaluation because the slated judge was Jeff Burkholder, a professional photographer from whom I took a class through Sierra College in 2010. I really liked his teaching style and his expertise and I still refer to my notes from that class from time to time. And, since I respect him and his work, and since he was going to be judging my work, I wanted to be very selective about the shots I submitted so I knew a Grand Canyon shot had to be one choice, as well as some bird shots.

The meeting was last night. I am thrilled to report that I got a 12 for my Grand Canyon shot, the high score for this type of judging. I also got a 12 for my shot of Mr. T that I took on Sunday and 11 1/2 (!) for a hummingbird shot. I must hasten to add that Jeff found many of the photos submitted last evening worthy of 11 and 12 ratings so mine were not the only high scores received by club members.

I caught the hummer preening after his bath this morning. I couldn’t decide which shots I liked best so I posted several. I used my speed light and the 70-200mm lens but I snapped the shots so quickly the speed light didn’t recycle in time. Bummer. But a little tweaking in Lightroom seemed to remedy the situation. I think I am finally over my SOOC fixation! I tried getting the light area behind its head in all the shots but didn’t manage it. The first shot is my favorite because the beak is open a bit and the lighting is very different despite all of these shots getting almost identical processing in LR. I think the flash was at its lowest recycle point.

Ozzie, a screech owl who was found as a nestling with an injured eye a year ago has replaced Bob, the 18 year old CFBP screech owl ambassador who was retired last year. In the first shot, looks startled but his injured eye doesn’t blink normally; and in the second shot, Ozzie reacts to being scratched on the head by his handler, Liz.

A baby red shouldered hawk snuggles in its towel nest, observing the surroundings.

Mr. T, a Tundra Peregrine Falcon, has a deformed beak, the result of an unknown encounter that also damaged his breast bone. Mr. T hitched a ride from Alaska to Hawaii on a cruise ship and was rehabiliated for a period at the Honolulu zoo before being adopted by the CFBP and becoming one of its ambassador birds.

Beside my two favorite canine Goldens, I realized today that I have a third favorite Golden, an aquiline one. Cleo, the Golden Eagle, has been featured on more than one occasion in this blog. I spent the day taking photos at my hawk rescue group’s annual open house. The California Foundation for Birds of Prey rescues and rehabilitates raptors, releases those that can be released, and makes education birds out of those whose injuries prevent their release.

I captured a few shots of Cleo that I like. Since I am reflected in Cleo’s eye in all of the shots, I consider them all “reflections in a golden eye.” The irony of this is that the 1967 movie, “Reflections In A Golden Eye” starred Elizabeth Taylor who also played Cleopatra in the film of the same name. Cleo the Golden Eagle is named for Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, after surviving West Nile Virus which destroyed her near vision so she cannot see to land or to find food so she cannot be released. I have known Cleo for about three years now and she is a beautiful bird with a distinct personality. Cleo’s handler and caregiver, Mike, loaned me his newly acquired 500mm lens to try. I had trouble getting far enough away to get in focus shots of Cleo. I guess this wasn’t a good test of that lens.

I took the first two shots with my 70-200mm lens; the second is cropped to show my reflection and that of my friend Carly who is an aspiring wildlife biologist so I took her with me today so she could meet the hawk people. I took the third shot with the loaner 500mm lens.

Kyle Rowland is a blues harmonica prodigy. He told me that his father placed a harmonica in his crib. He started to make a name for himself by age 8 and now, at the ripe old age of 19, he has a huge following, has released two CDs, and played at Famous Mo’s Saturday to a packed house of enthusiastic fans. After the show, when everyone had gone home and we were cleaning up, Kyle noticed Ron’s acoustic guitar hanging on the wall and asked if he could play it. Of course I gave him permission. He tuned it, strummed a few chords, and then played it in a very personal and emotional concert for me. It was a thrill to hear that guitar again after it has set idle for so many years. Thanks Kyle. You made my evening.

Friday night at Famous Mo’s was fun, crazy, phenomenal. Rick Estrin and the Nightcats appeared on our stage and what a night! Rick is the consummate entertainer.

My brother John has a green thumb. His garden is not planned nor is it meticulously groomed. But it is a riot of color and his roses are breath takingly gorgeous. Most seem to have fewer petals and large clumps of buds on single stems. At least one is an old rose, whose name and ancestry is probably lost to the ages. We call it the Sunset rose because it was planted in the late 1800s at the Sunset building in Petaluma, once a Belding Corticelli silk mill, where my father’s fishing line business was housed from the mid 1940’s for more than 60 years. John took a cutting from the rose and it flourishes in his garden. Here are a few of my favorite shots from yesterday. The first photo is the “Sunset” rose.

George Gerwshin has been on my mind lately, ever since the Jim Martinez Trio played Gershwin at Famous Mo’s last week. Today while I was in Santa Rosa to wish my 96 year old Mom a happy Mother’s day at my brother’s house, I explored his beautiful garden filled with an abundance of gorgeous and colorful blooms. The one that struck me was John’s Bird of Paradise. It had only a single flower but the bloom was exquisite. I photographed it from several angles to try to elicit the most interesting photograph and I preferred this unconventional view of a bird of paradise bloom. ‘S awful nice, don’t you think?

A couple of families of Canada Geese cross Rocklin Road every evening to forage in the grass near Famous Mo’s. Every time they’ve come, I’ve been inside and by the time I get out, they’ve disappeared across the road. This time, when Jesse shouted to me, I already had my camera in hand for another purpose. We ran outside and as I approached, they decided to return across the street to the field. They seem very confident that they will make it across without being run over and they waddle nonchalantly making sure all the goslings are with them. We don’t have the same confidence in our local drivers, despite the fact that there is a prominent Geese Crossing sign a block away so while I stalked behind the geese taking photos, Jesse stopped traffic for them (and me) and herded them across to safety. This is the first time I have seen any of the goslings and they’ve grown quite a bit since I first heard about them.

I came across a pot of petunias and marigolds at my friend Annie’s place of business and spent a few minutes sprawled on the asphalt taking photos from various angles. I wasn’t happy with most of the shots but I did like this lone petunia. However, my focus and choice of aperture were less than ideal and I wish I’d used the tripod which was in the trunk of my car which is pictured, however abstractly, as the gray in the lower background of the shot.

For the first time in more than a month, I saw one of the hummingbirds. I considered taking a minute to change to the 70-200mm lens but I was afraid he’d disappear before I got outside so I ran out with my camera with the 24-70mm lens attached. He’d finished his bath and was preening in the shrubs by the time I got outside so I turned on the flash, focused on him high up in the shrubs. I was happy to see that the hummers are still around. I thought I’d lost them because my fountain was on the fritz and there was no water in it for them to bathe for about 6 weeks. It’s been working again for over a week and this was the first time I’d seen one bathing again.

This shot is cropped. . .cropped a lot!

One of my two favorite Goldens spent the night with me and this morning I took a few shots before she left with my brother and sister-in-law. I seem to have forgotten just about everything I have learned about photography and most of the shots of Mady had giant stumps growing out of her head. I was trying my 14-24mm lens to see if I could get a looming snout (an unsuccessful attempt) and I liked this one the best, despite focusing on her eye instead of her nose. The crape myrtle seems to be growing from the top of her head so I used a bit of vignetting to minimize it.

Later today, at Mo’s where there is an official Goose Crossing sign and which the geese never heed, crossing wherever they want, I went out to photograph the geese and their goslings but found the goslings all gone and only the mature geese in our parking lot feeding on whatever emerges from an asphalt parking lot after a rain. This shot looks almost as if the goose were on a sandy beach instead of asphalt.

I took a bit of poetic license to title my blog today. I have a shot of Mady and a shot of a goose. Mady and the goose were never in a position to photograph together.

A little tequila, some lime, some ice, and family. Happy Cinco de Mayo. Sue was happy to make the blog for the first time. Left to right, sister-in-law Sue, me, brother Arthur.

I don’t know if San Julia cigars were any good but Jonny Mojo of the Achilles Wheel Trio rocked this 6 string cigar box guitar tonight at Famous Mo’s. I was intrigued by the guitar and its pin up girl cigar label, a first for In Focus Daily. The lighting was weird again; I’m finding it difficult to photograph in our theater lights. There is absolutely no yellow tone to it but I guess we’re stuck with it for now. I changed the photo to sepia to soften the harshness and to give it a more vintage feel.

My Italian parsley has bolted and it now sports several stalks of flowers and it will go to seed soon. I recall reading someplace that parsley is a biannual herb and since I planted it a couple of years ago, I guess it’s time to plant a new one if I want to continue getting fresh parsley. The flowers at the ends of the stalks reminded me of star bursts when I looked at them this morning. Even with the tripod, I had trouble keeping focus because a slight breeze kept the long spindly stalks in almost constant motion.