Sunset

After dinner tonight I looked out the window and noticed that the clouds were all bright orange. I grabbed my camera and tripod and rushed out the door to get some good sunset pictures. By the time I got out there the clouds were not as colorful as they were, but I got quite a few good photos anyway. There was a Great Blue Heron feeding in the water, but he wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a good photo of him. I think I will need some camo gear, a lot of bug spray, and an expensive telephoto lens to get a good wildlife shot. But I'll keep trying anyway.

Reflections

Wow, today was a good day. Went rock climbing with a friend, then had Thai for an early dinner, did some shopping, had some pizza for a late snack, and babysat cats while watching a movie...then got my camera out. I did take some nice scenery pictures while rock climbing above Santa Barbara, but it was pretty hazy out, so they didn't come out well. I like how the reflective surface in this shot is dirty. 

Presto Reverso

Today on my lunch break I played around with a spray bottle, a blade of grass, some colored paper and my macro lens. The wind was blowing just a bit so this shot only took about a million tries. Plus, even when the wind wasn't blowing, this shot is pretty hard. I've tried to take pictures of drops of water on blades of grass countless times and this is about the only shot that was mostly in focus. Practice, practice, practice.  

More Flowers

Today while walking around the building where I work, I noticed a patch of flowers down the hill that I had not seen before. So naturally I decided to take some pictures. I've been trying to pay more attention to the background when taking flower pictures. The background in this one could have been a bit more out of focus to more isolate the main flower, but I kind of like how it is. These flowers are all over our garden area, but I haven't been able to get a good photo of one until now. I may have gotten my pants a bit dirty trying to get low enough to take this shot. Oh well. 

Upside Down

No, this picture isn't upside down. These are flowers on a tree outside of where I work. I tried to get  a picture of a humming bird feeding at this tree, but I wasn't quick enough. I love the shape of the individual flowers. It was really interesting to watch the humming bird feed from them. Someday I'll get a good humming bird photo.

Home Decor

Well, I had some ideas tonight on what to take a picture of, but as it turns out, those ideas were not so good. But I looked up at our wall and decided to take a picture of some of my ceramics. This is a simple picture, but what can you do? I do need to get better at taking pictures of my ceramics, and I need to not take my daily photo at 10 pm. 

Hmmm, Nelfi

Yay, more portrait practice! And my favorite subject, of course. Duh. This time I had her pose differently so she has that slight sideways look while she's smiling. I get this sideways look from her a lot, but not always the smile. ;-) Oh, and the background is a quilt she is working on, which is very cool. 

Lost My Marbles

Yes, most of you know I lost my marbles a long time ago. But here is a photo of some anyway. I bought these marbles with the idea of incorporating one in a picture each day. Not so much. But you may see them in some future photos. Today Nell and I went for a bike ride, and then to a cookout.

Yellow

I revisited the sunflowers in the garden. This time with my macro lens. I like taking close up pictures of flowers. 

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Today Nell and I went to L. A. to see Les Miserables. We got there a bit early and discovered that it was across the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall, a building by Frank Gehry. Since I had my camera with me, of course, I immediately wanted to take some shots. But we weren't there to take photos, we had things to do. Luckily after 16 quick shots, I came up with this one. Photo of the day? Check. We then walked around downtown L. A., had a very nice dinner, and enjoyed Les Miserables. This was my first time seeing it, and I loved it. They did a fantastic job. As far as the Walt Disney Concert Hall goes, in a couple of hours I could easily take more than a month's worth of really good, compelling photos of the building. I'm a fan of Frank Gehry's work. I love the vast variation of curves and lines and surfaces. It's a different building from every perspective that you see it. The kind of sculpture that I want to do would deal a lot with lines, surface and shape because this has always intrigued me. 

Sunflowers!

Today I spent a little over five minutes in the garden area, took 34 photos, and ended up with 7 really good shots. Most of them were of this sunflower. The sun was somewhat low, so I put the sun at my back and took this shot. As with one of my shots from Tuesday, this gave the sky a nice blue color and lit up the flower nicely. I've always loved sunflowers so when I noticed them in the garden on Tuesday, I knew I had to come back when there was better light. 

Look Into the Light

Another busy Wednesday. Fortunately my friend Tara was gracious enough to help me out with some night photography. I've taken shots of  these yellow lights next to trees on campus several times but they have been lacking a subject. So I put a person in the shot. Done. My original thought was to make this a monochrome picture, but the color from the light gives this shot more substance than a monochrome.

Front Light and Back light.

Tough day with the camera. I took about 170 pictures that were mostly horrible and/or out of focus. On a good note, I came up with two pictures that I like. The one above is a flower that I've taken pictures of several times. I just keep going back to it. The second shot I stole the idea from a photography book. As it turns out though, it's really hard to hold a flower seed head up towards the sun with one hand, and hold a camera with a 100 mm macro lens with the other hand, and take a picture. I like how the feathery bits of the flower are highlighted by the setting sunlight. These two shots are also somewhat opposite. The first one I pointed the camera away from the sun, which lit up the flower nicely and gave the sky a nice blue color. The second shot I pointed the camera in the direction of the sun. Both shots were taken within a couple minutes of each other. 

Another Shell

This shell has been sitting on a shelf in our living room for quite a while, and every time I see it I think, "That would be fun to take a picture of." So tonight I took some pictures of it. It actually took me a while to get the aperture correct so that all of the shell was in focus. It's taller than it looks. 

Red

I will admit, this was a happy accident. The background is white because it is overexposed. But I like it anyway. Today was a pretty laaaaaaazzzzyyyy Sunday. We didn't do much at all, except go to dinner at a friend's for some home cooked Indian food. MMMmmmmmm, so yummy. I did take some time in the afternoon to wonder around the garden area and such with my camera. The leaves on this tree are all dark red. I've taken shots of them before because I like the color,  but none have really come out well. I'm sure I'll keep trying though. And just as an added bonus, here's another photo I took today of a bee on a California Poppy.

Tree Hugger

I've taken this style of photo a lot. It's one of my favorite ways to photograph a tree. I love trees and tend to take a lot of photos of them. This particular tree is in our apartment complex and is crazy tall. I wish I had a super wide angle lens so I could give a better idea of how tall it is, or maybe a fish eye lens. This shot reminds me of the view while sitting under a tree relaxing. 

Jujubes

I was at a loss today as far as what to take a picture of. Plus, I was lazy. I saw Nell's bag of Jujubes, and I thought, why not? Then, while taking shots of them on our dining room table, I noticed a bit of a reflection. So I grabbed the furniture polish so the reflection would show up better. Kind of a silly picture, but I had fun and I like it. 

My Nelfi

So, Nell told me that I should work on portraits. Check. This took me quite a few shots. Since I wasn't working with natural light I had to sort that out. You can't just shine a light on a face, it helps to do it in a way that it adds shadows using natural features. But the shadows can't be too harsh. Then I had to spice up the background just a little. Fortunately Nell was patient and posed for me. It helped that she had a book to read. It also helps that she's got such a pretty smile. 

This one makes Nell giggle, for some reason.

Another Wednesday, which means work, dinner, then ceramics. Luckily I noticed these stairs fairly quickly into my walk around campus, so I took a few shots. I love the mix of lines and angles. I also love how some buildings and such take on a different look when lit up at night. For instance on this one how the light comes from below and adds a different contrast. These stairs are interesting during the day, but much more so at night. 

Devereux Slough

Yay for sunsets! This is the Devereux Slough, right behind where we live. According to the Coal Oil Point Reserve website: it "is a seasonally tidal estuary that is impounded most of the year by a sandbar. It supports an abundance of species, including several endangered birds, fish, and plants."  

There are always lots of cool birds here: great blue herons, white egrets, great white egrets, ducks, cormorants, and some occasional swans. When this has more water, the reflections of the sunset and trees on the water are much better. 

Not a flower.

It was actually cloudy all day today. Yes, cloudy in July, in Santa Barbara. Very odd. Cloudy days are supposedly good lighting for taking flower pictures. Unfortunately I was at work so there were no flowers. These are all over though, and they look interesting enough. 

Yes, another flower.

The sun was low on the horizon so the light just lit this flower up. I couldn't resist posting this one. Although, admittedly, the other shots I almost posted were of flowers. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm good at taking flower pics...so deal. ;-)

Framing the Tree

While walking under these bridges for highway 101, I glanced up and saw this palm tree nicely framed. Luckily I had my camera with me. 

Snail Shell

Not much camera time today. I found this abandoned snail shell while walking outside around work on one of my "breaks". I grabbed my camera from the car, with my favorite lens, the macro, and snapped a few shots before my break was over. So, I'm a full week into this challenge. Hmmm, feels like a month. ;-) I'm really enjoying it though and loving the challenge. Nothing like a challenge that also excites you. 

Up

Again with the last picture that I took today. I've noticed these stairs before, and I actually took a picture of them earlier in the daylight. But as we were about to walk up them to leave and they were lit up with yellowish lights and with the evening sky in the background, I had to stop and take a photo. I will admit that I had to do some slight rotation of the picture in Gimp, (the free imitation of Photoshop),  because I have a problem lining up photos. I think I'm inherently off kilter. Other than the rotation, the photo is untouched.

Lights

Hmmm, busy day. I worked all day, then had dinner, then had ceramics. I had about an hour of free time after ceramics so I decided to play around with some night photography. It took me a while to get this tree lit up so you could see it. I had to use my external flash and up the intensity. Which was kind of fun because it was my first time using it. It was a tough shot, and not the best composition, but by the time I got to this spot I only had a few minutes. Photographing car lights at night is fun because they add so much color to the picture. Oh, and interestingly enough, this was my very last shot of the day. 

I love color.

This is the very first picture I took today! These trees are outside the building where I work and I have wanted to take a picture of the leaves for a long time. The end leaf on the tree is always red. Color that stands out like this always catches my eye.

Fireworks!

I thought that posting a picture of fireworks was kind of cheating. But, as it turns out, taking photos of fireworks is really difficult. I had to try several different camera settings to get the right exposure. Then there's the matter setting the length of the exposure, and pressing the shutter release at the right moment. Then, by the time I think I have it sorted out, the fireworks are over! Who's idea was that? Anyway, I ended up with a couple of decent ones. Nell and I did take a nice walk down to the beach today, which was good, but I didn't come up with any good photos. All and all, we had a pretty busy weekend. Lots of activities with friends. Happy 4th of July.

Dawg!

This is Flummox. He is a big Great Dane, and the most gentle, laid back and somber dog I have ever met. Today we went to a goat roast. Yes, a goat roast. It was lots of fun. There were dueling babies, fun cats, homemade ice cream with liquid nitrogen, and of course a roasted goat. Very fun day.

Light!

I love how the light shines through this flower. To get this shot I had to wade into the bushes, which apparently were occupied by quite a lot of ants, and other bugs. I would like for this background to be a bit better, but I had to make do with what I had. And yes, I do plan on limiting the number of flower pictures I post, because I tend to lake a lot of flower pictures, and flower pictures are easy. But I couldn't resist this one.

Bees Bees

I woke up late and the sun was already out in full force, which made it a bit bright for photographing. But, I got lucky with this shot. Lesson learned: be patient! I walked out the door with my camera set to a very narrow aperture, and the white balance on tungsten. I didn't realize this for the first 15 minutes because I was in a rush to get a good shot. Great shots don't come to those who rush.