Morgan & Madison

I had the BEST Christmas. Ever. My nieces and nephew were here (with their mom and dad, of course) and we all spent it at my mom's. Plenty of picture taking insued. The girls, as always, were happy to model for me. Although they didn't seem to eager to share this chair. But the Christmas spirit won out. Or did it?

I Can Hardly Wait

One of the fun things about photography is seeing your photos on the wall of someone's house. All of my family & friends have my work on their walls - some landscapes, some flowers, but mostly photos of my nieces and nephew. For Christmas, both my mother and my sister asked me to do photobooks of Max. I can't wait til they open them! I also made collage prints of the girls for both of them (and one set for me). I turned photos of the girls into puzzles for them. And I made calendars for my stepmom and my aunt. Will Christmas never get here?

I also heard from Mo that they had 4 of the photos I took this weekend made into 16x20's for the grandparents and themselves, a few 8x10s and various other prints. She was very happy with how they turned out. So I'll get to see those too when I go over there. Yeah.

I haven't printed any of my photos for me lately. I was thinking I would print this one of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes that I took a few years ago.

I took this photo during a birthday trip to Utah to see Zion & Bryce Canyon. I thought it would be warm since my birthday is in May but the nights were freezing cold still. I ended up using my Yashica 6x6 camera (thus the square) a lot since the batteries in my 35mm kept dying from the cold. One plus though was that there was a little rain and clouds around during the trip so it made for some very dramatic skies. The birthday fairies were definitely making sure I saw these parks to their best advantage. Anyway, I remember the sand being cool and soft and quiet. No one was around, just me and the critters that made those tracks. Funny thing is that I don't remember being nervous about that.

My Grandma - Part II

A while back, I posted this post - My Grandma but didn't include any photos. You would think that since she gave me my first real camera, I would have tons of photos of her. And there are a lot of her around from when I was little. But by the time I really started taking photos, she was sick and didn't like anyone taking photos of her. These I just scanned a couple of nights ago. I had picked her up from dialysis that Saturday and she was tired but she let me snap a few. I think more than anything because she didn't want to discourage me. I took them with Scala B&W slide film which has sort of a greenish tint to it so I toned them, or the one anyway. The dog was my grandparents dog, Punky. She was a really good and smart dog but she also hated for me to take her photos. Something about the sound made her skittish. She only let me on this day because my grandmother told her to stay. Otherwise, she would have been hiding in the back yard. I was trying to take a photo of her to give to my grandfather.

Photo Shoot

Work and the Holidays are crazy right now. I haven't had a chance to blog here or on my trifuel blog at all in the past week. I have been posting my photos on my photoblog which I really like. And I have been shooting like crazy this past week or so. More than I have in a long time. I had a photo shoot on Saturday. The weather said it was going to be rainy but we went down to Laguna and the weather held for us. These are my friends Dave & Mo, their son Kyle and Dave's brother and nieces. It was a lot of fun. I took these in color but kind of like the black and white set.

Leaf Expedition

I joined photoblog.com a couple of weeks ago. It's a more photo oriented blog group. There are hundreds and hundreds of photos posted every day of everything you can imagine. Looking at the photo's that my "friends" and others post has inspired me to get out my camera more. Saturday morning, I planned a photo expedition. All week long, as I ride my bike to work in beautiful, sunny, southern california, the light has been fantastic. That perfect lighting that spotlights the leaves and adds a glisten to the dew. That makes the trees glow in yellow, orange, red, and green. As if the world I was riding thru had a ceiling of made of stained glass. Every day it's like that and every day I feel blessed to be able to ride my bike to work so I can enjoy it...stop to smell the leaves, if you will. And every day, I wish I had my camera with me. But numerous falls and getting hit by a car once has made me nervous to carry my camera for extended rides or around traffic. So I usually only take it out on my bike on the weekend. So Saturday, by golly, I was so there.

And then, wouldn't you know...Saturday dawned a gloomy and cloudy morning. Aaahhhh! Where is my light? But I went anyway. It was fun. I'm sure people thought I was crazy peering at leaves on the side of the road. Another cyclist paused to make sure I was okay. My mom's boyfriend came by and made a u-turn for the same reason. A co-worker mentioned today that he saw me out there.

The gloominess meant more even lighting but it also meant slower shutter speeds or less depth of field. I "pushed" to 800 and shot mostly at F5 to get enought shutter speed to reduce the chance of shaking (by me or the wind). Hopefully, the light will be there next weekend and some leaves will still be there. Cross your fingers.

Zebras, Giraffes, and Wolves...Oh my

I really need a longer zoom lens. I have a 400 lens which is pretty cool. I thought about taking it when I went to the Living Desert but I have to use a tripod with it and since I was going with other people, I thought it would be rude. Then I thought about taking my 70-180 macro lens. But it's kind of heavy and I'd also really need a tripod for that. Plus, since it's a macro lens, it doesn't focus too fast. So I took my 28-105 which wasn't long enough for some of the animals. In the interest of full disclosure, I did do some cropping on these pictures (besides the sometimes crop to 8x10).

The zebras is the most obvious because I cropped it to panorama. I also cropped a little off the right side.

I cropped a little off the bottom of the giraffe to get rid of a rail the giraffe was peering over and then cropped it to 8x10.

The wolf is also cropped to 8x10 but this one has the most significant cropping on it (top and bottom as well as the sides) to get in tighter on it. I cropped maybe a 3rd of this photo. Which niggles at me a little but it was just too far away. Sigh.

Anyway...I am looking at the 70-300 VR (vibration reduction) lens that is coming out from Nikon soon. Hopefully soon. It should come in handy for tri photos as well. I put my name on the list at B&H to let me know when it's in. Cross your fingers!

My Favorite Models

I entered one of my photos in the bimonthly NikonNet Photo contest. It wasn't selected. I am a little bummed about that. This is only the 2nd time I've submitted a photo in a contest. The last time, I entered "On The Edge" and 4 others to the Photography Exhibit at the Los Angeles County Fair about 7 years ago. "On The Edge" won an honorable mention but the other 4 were sent packing. Sometimes all you get is praise for your photos and you start to think you are all that and a bag of chips and then you try something like this and it brings you down to earth. There's a qoute from Ansel Adams that I have to remind myself of often. "Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop." So I'll keep trying. I think I might submit this one next:

I like the color and the framing and the way the light hits Maddie's face.

These next two I took this past weekend. I didn't take a whole lot of photos and these two I liked but there are some if only's in them. I wish Maddie's had a more uniform/darker background to make her face pop out more. I wish Morgan's sweater hadn't left fuzzies on her shirt. But I like the fact that both of them are side-ish views and I caught them while they were pensive. I think they were both wondering if they had been good enough this year for Santa to visit!

Wedding Photos

No, not my wedding. Photos from the wedding I took in October. I shot the wedding in color but they also wanted b&w versions. These I toned in Sepia. I think it works with the setting. Weddings are fun to shoot but intense. I like capturing the candid moments but it's stressful because you have to make sure you catch all the important moments too.

Birds of a Feather

These aren't the greatest pics of birds. They are a little too dark and I wish the eagle was looking at me. But I still like them. They are also from the Living Desert - usual suspects D200 & 28-105. I would also have liked to use a flash, especially on the owl but that would have been rude. Both of the birds are unrealeasable. The eagle was found and hand raised and doesn't know how to hunt so it can't be released. I can't remember why the owl can't be. A lot of the birds that are there have been rescued.

This is a Golden Eagle:


And I think this is a Screech Owl???

Butterflies Alive

I went to the Living Desert on Saturday with my friend, Jackie, from work. Her brother and his wife went also. It was my first time there and it was good to have Jackie (who is a member) there to be our cruise director. There is an exhibit there called Butterflies Alive where you can get up close and personal with them while they flit about you. I loved it. I've never taken a picture of a butterfly before. Oh sure, I've chased bees around but never a butterfly. Anyway, I had a blast and it was quite challenging because, you know, they don't stay still long. I only wish I'd had my 70-180 macro. All of these are with my D200 and nikkor 28-105 lens.

This one is my favorite. Some kind of sulphur butterfly.


This one is a Giant Swallowtail


This one is a Julia


This one is a Zebra Longwing


Another Julia


Another Sulphur

A few of my favorite things

You know what's cool. I remember exactly where I was and the exact moment I pushed the button of every picture I've taken. Every photo for me is a memory keepsake of a new place, a beautiful sight, someone I love, or just plain fun. These are a few of my favorite photos and memories.

This one was taken at Joshua Tree with my 4x5 view camera. The kind with bellows and you have to use a black cloth over it and your head and you have to load the film one by one in the cartridge in a black bag. It was cool, late afternoon, silent. No one else was around for miles except the coyotes, birds, snakes, lizards. I remember hauling that camera and all my gear in my backpack over rocks and thru the desert. I almost fell backwards one time because my backpack was so heavy. I only took a few shots with the 4x5 but it was definitely worth all the effort.

This one was taken at Bryce Canyon on a long weekend I took to celebrate my birthday. I took it with my Sigma 35mm camera (which I don't have anymore) and it was freezing cold that morning, literally. I remember driving in the dark to get to the park before sunrise. There were a couple of other photographers there waiting for the sun to come up just like me. We were all blowing on our fingers to keep them warm. I took my camera out of my bag and put it on the tripod and got only a few shots before my batteries died from the cold! The waiting was the hard part. Waiting for just the right light.

This one is of Zion and I took it on that same trip. I used my Yashica 124G box camera, an old camera where you have to look down thru the viewfinder and there's a crank to wind the film. Love that camera. It shoots 6x6 squares. It was warm and there seemed to be tons of people in Zion that day. I remember waiting for people to finish crossing the bridge so I could take it.

This one is also from Bryce and I took it with the Sigma. I remember walking up to the rim and seeing this tree standing there and being so amazed I almost forgot I had my camera. Then I bracketed the shot to make sure I got it just right. This one and the one of Joshua Tree at the top are, I think, my two best landscape shots.

Leaf Musings

I picked up a few leaves on the ride home from work a couple of weeks ago. I thought they were colorful and interesting. This one I shot on top of my light tablet. It's what gives it the white background and it's what gives it that glow. I was afraid it might come out cheesy but I like the floatiness of it. Oh yeah, that's a technical photography term. No cropping.

This one was lit by room light and flash. It's of the underside of a leaf. I thought it was more suited to black and white. I also applied a slight antique tint to it. Again, no cropping.

This one I cropped to 8x10 (as opposed to the normal scale of 8x21) and it is also lit by flash and again from the back. I liked the curl of the leaf on this one and the almost leathery texture. As you can see, it's also the underside of the leaf. I often shoot flowers and leaves from their backsides. I also chose a black background for this to isolate it.

Last, but not least...an extreme closeup. God, I love my macro lens. It's as sharp as a pin. This one is also lit from behind by the light tablet. I wanted to fill the frame with the leaf. It's almost like a view from a plane of some exotic other world with roads and fields and rivers. No cropping on this one either.

What A Triathlete Looks Like

So what does a triathlete look like? You never know. It could be the man next to you in line at the grocery store. It could be that mom picking up her kids from school. Heck, it might even be one of those school kids. The other day I ordered pizza and I answered the door wearing my volunteer shirt from the BOD (Bonelli Olympic Distance tri). The delivery guy said "oh, I raced there that day". Small world, eh? Sports photography is a new thing for me. I'd never tried that til this year. When injuries prevented me from doing the Danskin, I thought I would go and take pictures of it. And what do you know? I love it. These are some of the photos I've taken at recent tris.