June 30, 2009

Light. I love evening light, especially when it is at my back and beautifully lighting up whatever is in front of me. I think it makes a blah picture look fabulous.

June 29, 2009

This photo looks best when viewed on it's largest size (click on the photo) because you can see the details such as a the hair on it's legs and the light reflecting off it's eye.

June 28, 2009

Friday Jaremie called as he was leaving for work, and told me to go outside and look north to see if I could see the tornado that he was seeing. I wasn't surprised that I couldn't see it; our property is surrounded by trees and he was so much farther north than I was. I did however see some very dark menacing clouds. Add that to the fact that the outside temperature had dramatically dropped and the warnings on the radio.

This is what I saw:

This is what he saw (photo credit to Julia Bluettt at news4jax.com). Jaremie took photos on his phone, but this one I found on the news web site is so much better.

The tornado never touched down on land but stayed over water, so technically I think it's called a waterspout.

June 27, 2009

Ella loves Baby Tiger. Considers Baby Tiger and Kitty her best friends. Talks about them continually, takes them everywhere. Worries about them when they are not with her.

June 26, 2009

We have been doing a lot of swimming as of late, can you tell? Swimming, diving, jumping. You get the picture (ha, ha, I'm so funny).

June 25, 2009

June 24, 2009

June 23, 2009

The color of the setting sun changed very rapidly. Reds, purples, blues, pink. Beautiful.

June 22, 2009

This is my submission for i ♥ faces, ADULT category: "Let's Hear it for the Boys!"

How many Dad's would do this? Jim, (a Dad who came with his kids to a children's activity at church) took a seat, handed a bunch of kids some wet sponges and a challenge to see who could wipe the smile off his face! You would be surprised how few times he was actually hit. I like this picture because if you look closely you can see where the sponge hits him on his right temple. I also like how he is sitting so calmly, not even flinching a muscle. What a good sport.

This is my submission for i ♥ faces, KIDS category: "Let's Hear it for the Boys!"

Here comes Brennan, my fabulous nephew rounding the corner on his way to my house. I like his expression, because I have seen it many times before ... on both him and his dad. The early evening light was beautiful as he mixed up the dust. Yes, those are some cows behind the gate.

Go check out the great photos at i ♥ faces!

June 21, 2009

Last night I was working on my computer in my home office, which is right next to my bedroom. In my bedroom are sliding glass doors that face west looking out over the dirt road which leads to the barn, and on to one the pastures and pond. As I was working on the computer, I turned to notice an orange/red light coming from the bedroom. Curious, I got up to investigate. The blinds were pulled open and the light was pouring in from an amazing sunset. I quickly grabbed my camera, ran to the back door and pulled on my boots. I hopped the fence to the pasture, ran out to the pond and started snapping away. The light was changing very rapidly; in less than 10 minutes it was all over. In addition to what it looked like, I wish I could let you hear what it sounded like. Hundreds of frogs were singing, I heard crickets, an owl, and some bird from the grove of trees in the marshy area of the pasture was making a real racket. All that and of course the sound of me swatting mosquitoes and cursing their existence. Lovely, all but the mosquitoes of course.

June 20, 2009

One of three reasons why I love to take photos. She turns four in a couple days (I'm shaking my head). Can I just shrink wrap and keep her in this delightful stage?

June 19, 2009

My goal is to post a new photo every day. By new, I mean something I have taken in the past day or so. This is to encourage me to get out every day and use my camera, try different environments, different light, different subjects. I'm not so good with different. I like evening light, especially on our property with the beautiful green as a natural backdrop. Perhaps it's because it is easiest to shoot.

I have not been feeling very creative as of late, or had the chance to shot anything new. Sorry to say, but I am digging out a photo from a past outing I went on. This is from March 21, 2008 when I went to Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge. It was my favorite photography outing so far. I took so many fabulous photos and have only posted a few (check the archives of this blog for the month of March for more critters).

I will try to get some new material soon.

June 18, 2009

To me this picture just says, "Summer". Hot days spent at the pool! Great fun.

June 17, 2009

So many ways to edit. It's easy to go overboard. I'm still learning what make a good black and white photo. I personally like a lot of color in my photos, and as such I sometimes tend to over saturate the colors. Which is your favorite (or least)?

A. The sharpened Black & White

B. The soft Black & White

C. Just a bit of color ... perhaps not enough

D. SOOC for exposure and color. Perhaps it is a bit too pink. I cropped it a bit.


So fess up, tell the truth. Which one did I go overboard on? Any suggestions?

June 16, 2009

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken. I tossed out the "rule of thirds" on this one. Oh well. I think it looks great just the way it is.

June 15, 2009

This is my submission for i ♥ faces, ADULT category: Sepia toned

This is my submission for i ♥ faces, KIDS category: Sepia toned

Go check out the great photos at i ♥ faces.

June 14, 2009

Summertime. Splash. Soaking wet. Super fun. Slide.

June 13, 2009

She really wants to get his hat. It's never going to happen, but that is not going to dissuade her from trying. Good thing he is patient as well as kind-hearted.

June 12, 2009

Just a few more of the lizard and his tasty skin.

June 11, 2009

He ate it! Yum, yum!

June 10, 2009

The kids and I watched with interest as this lizard shed his skin. What do you think happened to the shed skin?

June 9, 2009

She raids my garden and eats all the baby tomatoes! At least she leaves me the big ones.

June 8, 2009

What are you looking at?

June 7, 2009

June 6, 2009

Check out the lighting on this:

I told you, all there was outside were horses, cows and the lone duck. This cow was a ways back in the pasture where it was very dark, except for a ray of light which was shining directly on her. I hopped the fence to get a bit closer, but I was still zoomed out all the way to 300 mm. This shot is cropped and slightly sharpened. The exposure and color is SOOC.

7:01 pm
1/80 sec
f/5.6
ISO 400
FL 300 mm

June 5, 2009

Here is the same duck and same day. Have you noticed how quickly evening light changes? Our property is covered with huge trees and once that sun starts to drop to the tree line, my time to get any more shots is almost over.

The difference between this shot and the previous is 7 minutes and I changed directions. Before I was shooting into the setting sun and now in this picture, the sun is behind me. I moved. Big difference.

Again, this is SOOC, minus crop and framing.

6:56 pm
1/125 sec
f/5.3
ISO 200
FL 180 mm

June 4, 2009

I have been feeling very uninspired as of late. It has been raining for weeks. The sky is gray and everything is wet. The light outside has been terrible. None of my kids want their pictures taken anymore; the novelty wore off years ago. That leaves me with cows, horses, all the flowers you have seen lately, oh yes ... and our duck that lives in one of the ponds. She is fair game.

So today, Thursday, it stopped raining around 6:35 pm. I was sitting on my bed looking out the sliding glass doors and the most beautiful evening light I had seen in a while. I grabbed my camera and shoved my feet into my rubber boots and dashed out.

Here it is, the only thing left outside after the rain.


This shot is SOOC (straight out of camera), except for a tighter crop. I have not adjusted any of the color or exposure. I did put the frame on it. The back lighting was beautiful. The pond had a bit of "steam" coming off of it to give the shot a nice hazy look. I had my big lens on (70-300 mm) and I shot this with as wide as an aperture as I could.

6:49pm
1/320 sec
f/5.6
ISO 400
FL 270 mm

June 3, 2009

June 2, 2009