Waiting for Santa

As many Christmas trees as I've helped put up, ginger bread houses I've made, and boxes of seasonal decorations around the house tells me that it's definitely Christmas time.

I was working on over exposing the scene to get the Christmas lights to reflect and to get the outdoor lights as well. As luck would have it our devoted dog was waiting for my husband to get home. Since she wasn't moving at all, it was really easy to get the shot overexposed with her in it.

This is the picture I picked for our Christmas card this year. The cards I should probably be doing instead of writing this entry.

Game of Tic-Tac-Toe

Although he's not that in to winter at all, this is one of my husband favorite pictures. His fondness of the photo is from the composition of the piece. Typically this game would be photographed n the summer, but choosing to do it with the snow on the ground made it much more interesting to him.

I've had this picture for a few years now, and I never really though much of about it. It's definitely grown on me and made me explore composition a little bit more. It's the one of the great aspects of owning a digital camera is that there's not limit of how much film is used. Taking 20 shots to see if any of them work out is a reasonable possibility.

Fall in the Black Hills

One of my husband favorite parts of the Black Hills is going through them in the fall. The dark evergreens along with the bright yellow leaves changing colors is just amazing.

We went through the Black Hills on a hike recently. It was absolutely amazing. For awhile we were walking around a huge rock formation. There were so many trees that were just beginning to change colors. I got some really great shots of the family and some really neat fall colors.

Winter Scene

It's interesting what turning around can do for a scene as well. One of my favorite winter pictures is one of the first ones I posted. This is the other side of the parking lot.

Although obviously still snow covered, it's amazing how different these two scenes are to me. The interesting part of this landscape to me is that the snow is only sticking to one side of the trees. I really like the trees in this picture.

Now that everyone is "better" in the house I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to get out and take more pictures soon.

Motion

Another technique that I learned from the book Understanding Shutter Speed by Bryan Peterson was keeping one thing in focus while there is motion all around it. I placed the camera on my arm and took the picture while moving my arm and the camera at the same time.

I love the yellow leaves against the bright green grass in this picture. With all the sickness in our family these days, I haven't had a lot of time to actually take any pictures. I do have a gorilla tripod that I can put on my camera and have something other than my hand in focus while the other things are out of focus. In the book, Bryan used a broom for a really neat effect.

Flower Fairies

These lovely flowers were in my front yard this summer. Although it's not snowing here or anything, it seems like a day that needs a little more sunshine. When we were picking flowers out this summer, my son picked these completely based on the book The Spiderwick Chronicles.

There's nothing really to talk about the actually photography of this picture; except that I like taking pictures of flowers. Sometimes even just point and shoot photography is fun and the pictures turn out nice. Here's to just a few more months of winter.

Popo Agie Falls

I've come to the conclusion that I really should get my kids hiking boots. I love hiking, but I really didn't realize how many miles we put in every summer until I started this blog.

This summer when we went to my nephew's graduation, we went for a 3 mile (round trip) hike to the Popo Agie falls. My sister has lived by them since she was 5 and had never been.

The falls are magnificent, and I loved taking pictures of them. I love the motion of the water and capturing it with a high shutter speed that stops ever drop in the rushing water so that it's frozen in time. I like the slow shutter speed (although harder with my current camera) and how it makes the water misty and the motion is still showing in the picture.

Morning Hike

When we went camping on time this summer, I got the pleasure of waking up before everyone else. It was pretty obvious that I had some free time on my hands, so I grabbed my camera and went for a hike around the lake.

It was such a beautiful morning and with the sun just rising, I got some really amazing shots of the lake and the surroundings. Bonus points for using the tree to frame the mountains!

The hardest part of finding great shots was working around the bark beetles. So many of the trees were brown and dead and ruined my pictures. It was sad to see what a tiny little bug, well millions of tiny little bugs, can do to a tree.

I talk a lot about landscape photography on my squidoo site.

Hiking in Germany

Antibiotics still aren't kicking in yet. I'm wanting to get better so that I can actually take some photos.

When we went to Germany, we went on a wonderful walk through the country side. This house was just so amazing to me, so I took a picture of it. It's so simple yet I really like it. I like it so much that it's actually hanging in my living room.

I enjoy taking pictures of architecture quite a bit. I wouldn't say it's something I do a lot of, but it's fun when I find a really good scene like this one to enjoy.

Misty River

One summer we took the kids to Estes Park, Colorado. We went on a great hike to some falls in the National Park. I think it was about 5 1/2 miles round trip. The kids were troupers, and we had a really good time.

With all the water around, I spent quite a bit of time over exposing the river to get the motion of the moving water. Since my camera is a little older, I do have trouble not over exposing my pictures. I am learning quite a bit about that though. One thing I've noticed about the pictures I take when I'm out hiking is that I fall in love with them more after a few weeks. At first being right there or having a vivid memory does the picture no justice. After a few weeks I really get to liking them quite a bit.

This one turned out well. The river is very misty from the over exposure, yet the rocks and the nice green trees are so crisp and clear. Over all it was an amazing hike, and I got some really good pictures.

Juxtaposed

I went out early one day for a walk with my camera. I usually go alone, but my daughter begged to go. It had just snowed and the wind was blowing so hard that the snow was drifting in places on the sidewalk.

As we walked along, we came across footprints on the side walk. It was the perfect illusion. Even seeing them for real, for a split second on that cold morning I wondered how the footprints had appeared in the cold. I felt kind of silly the next second when I realized they're even a bit yellow and match the house paint of the home we were standing in front of at the time. My daughter agreed that it looked interesting as I snapped away at them.

My husband went to a library sale a few weekends ago. I told if he found any photography books I wanted them. When he came home he had found a few old photography books. I was reading through one called Creating Special Effects; The Kodak Library of Creative Photography. As I was looking through the book they talk about illusions that you can do with your camera. Basically, two things coming into a frame that creates something completely different. It made me think of my snowy footprints. It's not often that I find these perfect shots that come together to create a magnificent illusions.

Fun Still Life

I did get in some photography this weekend. As unbelievable as it sounds, I'm still really sick. I wasn't feeling very artistic while I was doing it. However my son had fun with it. He was taking pictures behind or using my still life set up while I was thinking through my next set. He had a good time, and my pictures weren't horrible.

When I was flipping through a photography magazine, I read an interesting article about the use of light. Basically, over exposing the photo will allow for the light source to be moved around. My camera is not overly robust, so I have 16 seconds to move the list around.

I few weeks ago, I took two of the champagne glasses sitting on a shelf. I thought filling them with red colored water might look interesting with moving the light source around. They didn't quite turn out how I expected, but I like them. I wasn't going to do just red. It really wasn't my intent to make it look like wine. I was going to do other colors later, but never felt motivated to do all the set up again.

What I really like about the content of this picture is how much orange is coming through with the reflection from the light. I'm going to feel better soon (I'm calling the doctor first thing in the morning), and when I do I may pull these glasses back down and try another color. Green might be neat. Blue might be a good effect too.

Reflecting

I got already to take some pictures earlier today, but there's too much light. I'm going to try again later once the sun isn't so high in the sky. I have some fun ideas that I was trying. Hopefully they'll work out.

Since I can't do any photography yet today, and I'd rather not argue with my daughter about cleaning her room, I thought I'd stop in for a quick post.

My sister-in-law got married last year at an outdoor wedding. While the reception was going on, I started taking photographs of the surroundings. While I was taking this shot, this dog wandered into the shot. At first I was going to wait until he found something better to do, but then I realized how great of picture it would make. I messed with the lighting to try to give it more of a blue hue. I really like how it turned out.

Having Fun

I've been sick most of the week. Day time TV wasn't that appealing so I've been surfing the internet. I found a really great website to post my pictures to that I can get feed back from other users and join groups with people with similar interests in photography. My gallery is here.

As I said before, I've been sick most of the week. I did get to go to work today. (oh right... Yeah!) Anyway, I'm looking forward to this weekend. I'm finally feeling better, and I'm itching to go take some new pictures. I haven't taken very many lately. When the kids first start school and it gets a little cooler here, I tend to slow down on the pictures. I haven't decided if I'll go to landscape, but I'm thinking about trying some of the new lighting techniques I've been reading about or doing more abstract pieces. It feels good to be excited about something again.

Snowflakes

One morning I awoke to a beautiful winter morning outside. I love being able to get great photographs in my front yard. Sometimes the hardest part of photography is finding something amazing to photograph. The snow covered world outside was so amazing. The snowflakes were so big that you could even see them individually on the tree.

I had to work fast to get the pictures. There wasn't a cloud in the sky so the snow was going to melt fast. As I was out taking my pictures, a lady stopped her car and took a picture of our weeping birch in the front yard.

I'm not much for the cold weather, but I love winter landscape. The pictures from this day turned out amazing.

edited to add: It was snowing just a few minutes ago. I guess writing about snow makes it happen here. Now I see blue skies, but I'm wondering how much we're going to get tonight.

Hiking the Trails

In August, my husband and I convinced the kids to go on a five mile hike up in the mountains outside of town. Admittedly, we didn't mention it was going to be five miles. There was a little bit of complaining early on, but as the trail wound through the hills the settled in for the walk.

I of course brought my camera along with me. My favorite picture is this one. As far as photography trees, I like aspen trees with their contrast of green leaves and white trunks. When I'm in a forest like this I'll often take bracketed pictures so that I end up with three with different light settings. That way the trees would not get washed out with too much color. I've got my eyes on a polarizer for Christmas as well. From what I've read, they really help with the natural light not over taking the picture.

It was an amazing hike. Not only was it a lot of fun, but I took some really good pictures too.

Speaking of Rainbows

One day when I went home for lunch there this rainbow was just lingering over the tree in the neighbors yard. Sometimes photography is just about opportunity; having your camera ready at the right time.

I've tried to photograph rainbows a few times. They seem so vibrant in the sky and then when I get the results back they seem a little dull. When I went to Hawaii years ago I remember taking a picture of a rainbow. When I got the pictures back, I could barely see the rainbow. I was even kind of wondering why I would have taken the shot at all. It's the great thing about being digital. The first being able to see it right away and then of course taking as many shot with as many different settings as time allows.