Christmas 2012

Took some fun photos of my family on Christmas Day.

Shadows and Highlights

I took a picture of Mimosa seed pods for the last assignment in my photo 1 class. I like how there is a narrow band of focus and the shadow of the pod above dances on the pod below.

Christmas Ornament Tutorial

I ike to go to IceFlowStudios.com and try out his tutorials. Today it was the Christmas Ornament tutorial.

Dreamy Lights

So it is Christmas time and I put up a tree. Generic tree pictures are boring so I decided to purposely take a picture that was completely out of focus. This resulted in an interesting abstract with all the pretty lights looking like glowing orbs.

The Cat's Meow

I adopted a cat recently and now that he is settled I have to get photos. Now if only I could get him to like the dog!

Haley Black & White Version

 I thought I would try a black and white version of the picture of Haley. Here is how it turned out.

Beautiful Haley

I had the pleasure of photographing my niece, Haley, while home for Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun and the autumn landscape made a great background. Here are two of my favorites.

Long Lost Leaves

It took a couple of days of wind and rain and most of the fall leaves have fallen off of the trees. The colors are so blah when it is thickly overcast. Here is a picture of some brilliant orange leaves that glowed in the bright sunlight before they fell off. I wish we could have some sunny wind free days.

A Sliver of the Moon

The moon was a tiny crescent last night and the

temperature was comfortable so I went outside to try to

get some moon shots. Here is what I took.

A Rose as Beautiful

There were a couple of roses that I thought were beautiful the other day. Here is another.

I think they forgot it was autumn.

I was at one of the GTCC campuses taking pictures of the Fall leaves when I noticed some rose bushes in full bloom. I think someone forgot to tell the roses that it was Autumn. So as the trees become bare having shed their leaves, the blooms go forth.

Old Glory

I was out taking pictures for an assignment and thought the flags looked nice as they flapped in the stiff breeze. After taking the picture, I had to remove 3 power lines that cut right across the picture. I think that it turned out pretty good.

More Fall Color

Although the composition on this picture isn't perfect, I love how the veins of the leaf show up because of the sunlit backlight. Enjoy!

Graffiti Wall

I've been playing around with some photoshop tutorials and today was making graffiti on a brick wall. Here is my try at it.

The Light on the Leaves

I love how the light plays on leaves making them glow and making the veins stand out. Although Spring is my favorite photography season, Autumn comes in a close second. It looks like the weather is going to ruin photography for the next several days, so this might be the last picture until the weather clears.

More fall color.

I really like looking at the leaves changing. Here is another picture . I love to see the reflection in the lake.  This one is at City Lake Park in High Point.

Fall is in the Air

Went back to the park early in the morning before the wind started up. It made the reflections beautiful, especially since the fall leaves are changing. Here is one of those reflections.

Pretty Rainbow

As I was driving home from Greensboro, I had the good fortune to see a bright rainbow that stayed pretty for a good portion of the drive home. I found a side street to pull over and get a couple of shots. I haven't seen a rainbow in a while and it made the drive a lot nicer.

A Day at Hanging Rock Part 2

I'm still working on my latest photography assignment and decided to work on taking pictures of the Lower Cascades waterfall at Hanging Rock State Park. Here is another one of my assignment pictures.

A Day at Hanging Rock

I went to Hanging Rock State Park today and photographed the Lower Cascades. Didn't make it up to the actual hanging rock but it was a beautiful day for hiking. I took a few pictures that I liked. The lower cascades has the main waterfall and then a smaller fall off to the right. I think I like this picture the best.

Reflections

I'm still working on the latest project. The great thing about it is getting to shoot whatever I like. I went to the park this afternoon and the water was unexpectedly still. It made for some nice reflections. There is a boat house that looked nice with the sun on one side highlighting it. It reflected nicely into the lake.

It's a flying dinosaur

I managed to capture a picture of a great blue heron just after it took off in flight. It is funny because it looks like a pterodactyl. And to think that they went extinct. Oh yes, as an aside that has nothing to do with the picture, today is 10/11/12.

Chill in the Air

There has definitely been a chill in the air for the last couple of days. Makes me think of camping and using a campfire to keep warm. I thought I would revisit the picture of a mesmerizing campfire.

Focal Point

This week our assignment is focal point. Basically we can shoot whatever we want as long as the focal point (the subject we are focusing on) is easily discerned. I went to the park and took pictures of wildlife and insects and a couple fisherman. One fisherman was pretty lucky and caught several small bass while I was there. I think I will include a picture of him today.

Depth of Field

This is the latest assignment and it is called Depth of Field. Basically it is the area around the focal point that has acceptable focus.  We had to take pictures of the foreground in focus, the middleground in focus, the background in focus, and everything in focus. It teaches us how we can change where we focus by changing which part of the object we are pointing at. It also shows us how aperture can make depth of field more shallow or more deep. This picture is part of a sculpture that is located on campus. I thought it had interesting shape and texture. This is an example of the foreground being in focus.

Peek-a-Boo

The moon peeked through the cloud for a few minutes and the sky became clear.

About ten minutes after I took this, rain moved through and the moon was gone for the evening.

Whoosh

Another photo from the shutter priority assignment. This one is the blur, where the background is clear and the subject is moving past. I used a tripod and a slow 1/30 shutter speed. The result is one abstract looking dog moving quickly past my lens.

Duck, Duck, Goose...Not

Here is another photo from my photo assignment.

This time it is the stop action shot. I took a picture of the duck swimming along.

It's Your Birthday!!!

Just want to wish my daughter the happiest birthday ever.

 

Happy 24th Birthday, Sara!

Run Gizmo Run

We are doing a shutter priority assignment where we take a picture that freezes the action, blurs the action, and pans with the action. Here is a picture of Gizmo where I panned with her running.

My lovely daughter

I am so proud of my daughter, Sara. Her birthday is just a week away. I hope her card makes it in time for her birthday. If it doesn't, I just want her to see this.

Bugs at the Park

Went to the park and stuck a stick in the mud. They did come, the dragonflies, that is. I tried to catch some mid air but had to settle for one that landed on a stick. Here is the best one.

Night Shot

Here is an attempt at a night shot that I kept the shutter open long enough to get the car's headlights and tail lights to blur. The streak just above the trees with the dashed line was an airplane with its strobes flashing.

Checking Out the Moon

I couldn't help but notice how bright the moon was last night. When I got home from school, I grabbed the tripod and changed lenses to try to shoot the moon. Here is one of the pictures I got.

Yellow Swallowtail

I pulled into my parking place at school on Monday and was treated to a yellow swallowtail butterfly enjoying the flowers on a bush. I grabbed my camera and followed it around snapping shots. It was a pretty butterfly.

Love That Sunset

So I'm still going through all of my old pictures that I have managed to bring together in one folder on my desktop. Today's picture is a lovely sunset photo taken just outside of Asheboro, NC. I do believe I even got one star in it. Anyway here it is.

Rainy Day

I was looking at some of my old pictures and came across this photo of a rain storm with a huge shaft of rain coming toward us. There was lots of lightning but unfortunately I wasn't able to capture that.

What a Pear

I have this tray that has these sparkly little pink fruits. I had it sitting on the table and noticed the neat shadows and highlights that showed up because of the window light. I decided to take a picture.

Eye see you!

So I'm out taking pictures and come back in and am a little bored. I decided to do a self portrait with my DSLR. Not quite as easy as using your cell phone. I wanted to get just my eye, so I looked at the reflection in the lens until my eye was centered, held the button until I heard the autofocus beep and pressed the shutter. It took a couple of tries but here is one that I liked.

Where did that come from?

I walked out the door the other day to discover a whole patch of mushrooms. These weren't those little button mushrooms but big ones at least 5 inches across and 6 inches tall. Here is a picture of one of the smaller ones.

Where's the Spider

Found a cool spider's web but no spider.

Pretty Girl

My friend has the most beautiful German Shepards. Here is one of the sweeties.

Bless Your Heart

Don't remember exactly what was wrong with my friend's dog. I think it was some sort of sting but sadly, she had to wear the cone for a few weeks. It was like putting blinders on a carraige horse, she couldn't see to the sides and kept getting stuck. She is just fine now, so we can chuckle at the picture.

Twin Suns

Usually you try to avoid lens flare because it takes away from the picture but sometimes it gives the whole picture a pretty cool effect. I was shooting the sun through the bushes with a very small aperture around F 22 so I could get the starburst effect. The way the breeze made the bush move, I got the effect of two stars with a huge halo lens flare.

Birthday Burger

The nice thing about loyalty cards and clubs is that you get cool free things for your birthday. I got my free birthday burger from Ruby Tuesday yesterday. Yummy. Washed it down with a tall glass of water with lemon.  Red Robin is next and then Captain D's. I love my free birthday meals!

It's Magical

Childhood is a magical time. A little boy can be a prince and a little girl can be a princess. Here is another one of my children's portraits.

Make Mine Music

Here is another picture from my older people shots. This was shot at his birthday party, while everything was being set up. He tried his hand at the cello.