New Moon

I was playing around with the telesecope last night, and the moon was seriously lighting up the sky. Jupiter was incredible, too. I'm not skilled enough to get a photo of jupiter, but here is the new moon.

Taking a Break

This has been a wonderful endeavor. I have learned so much about photography, and I have been so inspired by everyone's photographs, but the time has come for me to take a break. I love the 365 challenge, but I have to give my family and my work some of the energy that I have been putting into photography. I am not going to close down the blog, because I still hope to participate in forum challenges and post my entries here.

Thank you, thank you for all of your comments and support. I hope to have a little more time to visit blogs and leave comments. Happy Snapping!!

August 21, 2009 - (201) Not Your Mother's Tongue

August 18, 2009 - Zoo

I have no idea what kind of bird this is, but, up close, it was very interesting looking.

August 17, 2009 - Zoo

What is a trip to the zoo without elephants?

August 16, 2009 - Zoo

This is more like it. You go to a zoo to get a shot of a lion, not a dragonfly :)

August, 15, 2009 - Zoo

Can you believe that I had to go to the zoo to get a shot of a dragonfly. The dragonfly was just sitting there waiting for me to shoot it. What could I do? I used topaz detail on it. Oh what fabulous sharpening. However...., it is slower than molasses in winter. It took over two minutes for "pre-processing."

August 10, 2009 - Unexpected

Right in the middle of the festival, there was a couple getting married. It was so unexpected. Everyone was doing double-takes.

August 9, 2009 - Action

Old Spanish Days - Fiesta Celebration 2009, Santa Barbara, CA

Don't miss the choreographer on the side egging the girls on.

August 8, 2009 - Clown (57)

August 7, 2009 - Hook

Challenge - Hook

August 6, 2009 - Discovery

Both of my kids tried buggy-boarding for the first time. Here is my 8 year old, waiting for the perfect wave.

August 5, 2009 - Feathered or Feathers II (96)

August 4, 2009 - Feathered or Feathers (96)

I liked this photo, but there was, basically, no composition. So, I added a frame to make it a little more interesting.

August 3, 2009 - Refugio Beach, California

Mystery Beach = Refugio Beach, CA

August 2, 2009 - Name That Beach

I tend usually to crop with the horizon in the top or bottom 3rd, but I liked the rocks, so I left it alone.

This is an even more isolated part of the beach. It looked like the water comes up pretty dangerously high during high tide. I didn't want to test it.

August 1, 2009 - Name That Beach

This is a part of the beach that people don't frequent very much. It is far away from the parking lot. You have to walk about 30 minute. There is lots of tar on the beach here, which is very difficult to get off of your feet and impossible to get off of your clothes. There are, also, lots of rocks, so there isn't much chance for beach volleyball. It is, however, a great place for pics. This is a tiny cave cut into the cliff by the surf.

July 31, 2009 - Name that Beach

I just recently returned from camping near the beach. Does anywhere care to guess what beach this is? It is in California. I'll post photos over the next few days. This shot is the view from our campsite. You can see our pop up tent in the edge of the photo.

I like this shot, but this lens is not the greatest. You can always see fringing. I don't know if that is the right word, but I'm talking about that blue halo around anything of contrasting colors. Does anyone know how to deal with that in PSE?

July 30, 2009 - Smoke (289)

I just got back from camping, so this one was easy.

July 27, 2009 - Candy

A Child Hitting a Pinata

July 25, 2009 - Hours, Days (152)

I have been trying to get a hummingbird shot for so.... long. I really want to freeze the wings, but I just don't think I can do it. I spent two days with the camera set up on a tripod with a remote. As I see it, I have two problems.
Problem #1: The feeder is always shaded. At ISO 800, my camera produces too much noise for the delicate features of the bird, and the shutterspeed necessary at ISO 400 is just too underexposed. The best I can do with my camera is 1/4000 which I think would be fast enough if I were in direct sunlight. I guess my only hope is to use a flash. I have no experience using a flash as a fill, but I will try. I hope I don't blind the poor bird.
Problem #2: The auto focus focuses on the feeder, rather than the bird, and I am not quick enough to get to the camera and focus manually. I'm using my macro lens with 2.8 aperture which means the focus really has to be right on. I have no theory as to how I am going to get around that problem. Humm...

July 24, 2009 - Costume (67)

This is the last Ren Fair photo. I know I was supposed to end the series yesterday, but I couldn't resist showing you my little jester and peasant. The kids were so cute that they let them in free. I was so hot, I thought I was going to faint.

July 23, 2009 - Queen

How could I end this series without a shot of the QUEEN?

July 22, 2009 - Dance

These were my favorite dancers in this troop. Their dancing seemed authentic to me.

July 21, 2009 - Foreign (109)

July 20, 2009 - Jousting

July 19, 2007 - Renaissance Faire

I wish that I had gotten better photos of the actual joust. I will show one tomorrow. I put the camera on the auto sport setting, which is almost never a fast enough shutter speed. I don't know why I thought this would be any different. Oh yes, it was that I was lazy and smoking hot in the crazy costume I was wearing.

Here is our Scottish hero.

July 18, 2009 - The Final Frontier - Mechanism (181)

I visited the NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, recently. Here are some photos of the rocket that took the men to the moon. It is enormous!! Each photo shows a different segment(s) of it. Due to blogger logic, only the third photo enlarges.

July 17, 2009 - Canine Companion (41)

Well, we've finally done it. We got a puppy. We went and saw this little gal and paid for her. We can't take her home yet, because, soon, we are going out of town. But, when we return, we'll take her home. My smallest son cried when we left. It was little condolence that soon she would be ours. We are thinking about names. Samba seems to be at the top of the list.


This dog is a Black Mouth Cur mixed with a Border Collie. That translates better as mutt, but I think she will make a good family dog.

Note: In effort to get this photo to enlarge, I published it twice in two different sizes. Nothing seems to work. If anyone has any ideas, please pipe in. Blogger enlarges randomly, from what I can tell.

P.S. Now, I tried it one more time, with the first size that I uploaded, and it is enlarging. I really think that it is just luck.

July 16, 2009 - Lock

A barge waiting to exit the Murray Lock and Dam in Little Rock Arkansas

July 15, 2009 - Sunset

I have been waiting for a sunset photo. I've tried many times. Finally, I got on I like. this is a photo of the bridge.

July 14, 2009 - Reflections

I took this photo from a bridge called "The Big Dam Bridge" in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is an incredible impressive structure. It is the longest pedestrian/bicycle bridge ever built, and it is also the only bridge ever built into a Dam.

July 13, 2009 - Reflection

I'm back from vacation and what fun it was. I went to Arkansas and Texas with my boys to visit family. I didn't bring my DSLR. All of the photos were taken with a Panasonic DMC-FZ8.

When I saw this swamp I just loved it, and I made my family stand in front of it to take a photo. Personally, I think that the reflection is beautiful, but everyone did NOT agree. Some people just can't seem to appreciate green slime :)

July 6, 2009

I'm out of commission for at least a week--vacation. I'll be back next week to catch up on blogs and start posting again.

July 4, 2009 - Mist

More camping photos:

July 2, 2009 - Skipping Rocks

I went camping recently and took some photos. I really, really worked hard for this shot. My kids love to skip rocks, and I have lots of photos of their backs or side shots of them skipping rocks. However, on this camping trip, I noticed that there was a peninsula not too far away that I could hike to and take a photo of the kids from the front. So I put the camera, tripod and the big lens in the backpack and went the long way around to the peninsula to take photos. We worked up a sign language so that I could tell them when to throw. What we 365ers won't do for a photo :)

July 2, 2009 - Skipping Rocks

This is a shot of where I went to to take the photos.

June 30, 2009 - Rockin in the Free World

My husband played at a festival Friday. It was lots of fun. I cropped this photo to take advantage of the cool backdrop.

Here is a YouTube Link to one of the songs: Neil Young's Rockin in the Free World

June 28, 2009 - Famous Authors

I am reading this to my kids. My oldest could easily read it himself, but they still like me to read to them.

June 26, 2009 - Dandelions

June 24, 2009 - More Swim Lessons

June 24, 2009 - More Swim Lessons

June 22, 2009 - Two Left Feet

Challenge: Mismatch

I came back from the store with two left feet.

June 21, 2009 - Swim Lessons

June 19, 2009

The posts on Monday through today are all from the grounds of the same beautiful home (not mine :) This is the last of them.

June 18, 2009

This shot had a difficult exposure. Since I had to edit it pretty extensively, anyway, I figured I would just go all the way. I used the dramatic topaz filter.

June 17, 2009

I saw a picture similar to this on one of the blogs, so I can't take any credit for creativity, but here is my stab at it.

Sony A350
Lens: Sony 18-70mm f3.5-5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/160 second
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 100

July 16, 2009

Sony A350
Lens: Sony 18-70mm f3.5-5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320cond
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 100