I took both of these pictures at the Roseville Thanksgiving Parade. My goal was to catch some clean, crisp shots as the participants moved past me. I set my camera manually to a high shutter speed to stop the motion and kept my aperture high as well to capture all of the detail. Since it was a sunny day, I had no problem keeping both numbers high.
My mother-in-law always sets a beautiful table. I took this opportuntiy to practice in low lighting and with candles. I laughed when I saw you post Heather ... we were thinking the same way. :) I have a couple of other pictures that I will post later, but this was my favorite. The only thing I don't like about the picture is how grainy it is, but that comes with the high ISO.
Took these last night after coming home from Thanksgiving Eve service. My mom laughed at me. She says I take pictures of the strangest things. She'd never thought to take a picture of the fog (she just moved from Eureka). I thought it sounded like a cool idea :) I set up the tripod on my front porch and used a super long shutter speed. I also used the 10 sec timer so that when I pushed the shutter release I wasn't moving the camera. 10 second timer plus a 5 second shutter speed meant I didn't always time it right and a couple times a car would drive though my shot. I thought it looked pretty cool though. They weren't even driving fast. The stop sign is right there. Might be fun to do this again on a street with no stop sign :) Hope you both had a Happy Thanksgiving!
I've really enjoyed watching this little shoot of a branch change colors along with the big trees in the neighborhood. It's all lonesome and small sticking out from under that metal fence and looks so out of place. I've had my eye on it and knew I wanted to get a picture before it died altogether. I boosted the colors in photoshope and ran an unsharp mask.
From last month... Too bad they don't put the ball on the 50 cuz that would have looked really cool. I'm including the 2nd one Heather, cuz if you look over the head of the ref in the center of the field, you can see Lance and Brendan sitting in the stands :)
Assignment: Field Trip! Lance wanted to go to his favorite restaurant for his birthday and suggested I take my camera in search of photo opportunities while we were out of town. We had no plans, just drive, stop, snap. We stopped at this quaint Church to admire the stained glass windows. With the bright sun, I used my polarizing filter to deflect the sun's glare in the windows and to deepen the blue and green hughes. I will have to assign Lance the credit for the cabbage flower shot, he has a good eye, the colors and curves are really interesting.
I saw this as we were going home from my conference. To the right of the hydrant is a guy working on it. He just didn't blend into the picture, so I cropped him out to get this neat shot of the water coming out. This picture was also taken as a portrait, but when I cropped the man out, I made it a landscape.
This one is just for fun... I like the look on the guitarist's face
I took this picture in front of a strangers house. We were visiting a friend and the setting begged me to take a picture in front of the gate and stone. ;) I played around in lightroom to get the coloring for the picture. I noticed that blogspot cut off the right side of the picture. She was supposed to be in the thirds rule, but it has been cut off. Oh well ...
I'm pulling from my stash today. I took pictures this weekend but they're still in the camera. This was from last month. I have the advantage of being on the sideline during the games and when Spencer turned toward me and I tried to take the pic fast enough before he got too close. I use the long lens for games so close ups end up being really close up. I've already scrapped this pic and when I did, I processed it somehow that made it look really cool. I can't remember what I did though. I tried playing with it tonight. Maybe I'll find the other one and post it too.
So are you like me?? I get an idea for a picture and then end up taking about a hundred to get the great shot. But then I have to weed through them all and most of them end up looking the same anyway. My intent was to get some shots like the first two with the sun shining through and around the flag. My dad gave me a crossgrain filter that makes lights kind of look star-ry (??) I took a couple like the last one just at the end and I think I like it better than the others. 
I have set some goals for myself as an aspiring photographer, and one of them was to come up with a good self portrait. I have read in several photography forums that this is a great exercise in learning. It was! I took the time to try out different poses, play with composition, and to adjust the exposure levels without inconveniencing someone else.
My brother brought over his 7 day old daughter yesterday and yes... I took 164 pictures of her :) She got kind of upset with me at one point cuz I was putting her in different positions and she didn't like it. But I got a couple cute ones. I love the bottom one of her sticking out her tongue. She was dressed for Halloween and doesn't look very girlie so I think I might have him come again with a big bow or flower ribbon on her head. She sooooo sweet! Both of these were in front of my big slider in the family room. I had taken some in the kitchen and the lights made her look so yellow. I was trying to use only natural lighting. Maybe I should designate a room just for pics :) TFL!
