Miles had a busy afternoon, while Henry had a long afternoon nap.
First there was name writing practice.
Then there was drawing (he was drawing his bones in this photo).
Then he made muffins with his mom.
Then there was finger-painting.
And here he is savoring the first taste of his muffin- while finger-painting!
The playground was the highlight of the day for the kids. Here are some photos taken of Henry, who is little, but determined!
And here is Miles having cocoa earlier in the day at a local coffee shop.
Paths and pavements is the Flickr theme for today- whew! an easy one! We are leaving for the airport in a few hours- please keep good thoughts for me to get some good shots for my photography class!
It’s packing day- getting ready for our trip to Wyoming! This week’s assignment in my photography class is shooting an object with another object slightly behind it at different apertures and distances to learn about depth of field. I hope to do this with my family in Wyoming, but I’m not sure about the level of cooperation I’ll get. So I’m hedging my bets by shooting flowers before I go.
The weather wasn’t too cooperative this morning- April showers. Between showers, I managed to take all the required shots of my iris (from Day 115) with daisies behind it- and then took a couple different angles for the Flickr group. Then I looked again at the topic for today- and realized that the challenge was to have your whole photo be in only three colors.
Oh.
So here it is anyway- and I’m aware that there are at least 5 colors in this image.
And I’m aware that Day 115’s photo is very similar- and better- but I need to get back to my to-do list!
De-cluttering has become an obsession, as I go through bouts of determination to sift through our old possessions, as well as those of my grandmother, mother, and our children. We have this vision of a sleek, uncluttered, low maintenance smaller house in our future- and we know that we’ll never be able to even think of downsizing until we get rid of and organize the contents of our closets, cupboards, and garage. I have been working on this in fits and spurts since my mother died fifteen years ago- and it seems never-ending.
Today I went through old record albums, each one with so many memories. I still have about a hundred to go through (trying to black out my name and seeing if the right record is in the right album cover). I have no idea yet what I will do with them! I thought of photographing them for today, but decided to go with the theme from Saturday- RECIPE.
This recipe box is where I keep recipes from my early marriage years- all hand-written and many in the handwriting of the person who gave it me the recipe. My current recipes are in binders- and often printed out from the internet- not nearly as personal.
I used Aperture Priority with Easy Exposure Compensation and AUTO ISO. Because I focused on the recipe cards, I had to lower exposure by 1 stop (so easy since I changed my settings to Easy Exposure Compensation). It felt like shooting in AUTO- kind of like cheating!
Back in my comfort zone- manual settings, macro lens, flower, photo-editing- ahhhhhh! I am learning SO MUCH in my photo class, but it was a relief today to go back to where I feel competent. The theme today is CHANGE- and, since this iris just popped out over the weekend, I think it qualifies.
I’m using an image I took for my photo class this morning as today’s photo of the day (I’m tired and a little lazy this afternoon). The assignment was to take 5 shots at 1/15 of a second, then double the shutter speed and repeat until reaching a shutter speed of 1/1000 second. I did this last week- but wasn’t satisfied with the photos because I was too close (cutting off the top part of my husband’s body). My very supportive husband allowed me to repeat the series this morning, and this one is the one I like best. I posted the SOOC one for the class- and edited this black and white version for the blog. It was one of my first shots- the very low shutter speed (1/15 sec.) shows the movement of both ball and club.
We celebrated Earth Day with a hike to see the wildflowers on Table Mountain (near Chico). I don’t think it was as hot as yesterday, but it seemed much hotter as we hiked in the hot sun over rocky ground and down to the waterfall 300 feet below. I don’t like cliff edges, especially where the trail and footing is uncertain. There were children frolicking in flip flops around me, so it couldn’t have been too bad- but I was definitely relying on my HeartMath tools to get down those slopes!
But the flowers were beautiful! I relied on aperture priority again- and all my photos are slightly over-exposed. Yes, I do know about exposure compensation, but it was too bright to check my LCD display. Oh well- I adjusted exposure in batches afterward.
Here are some of the highlights of the day. Don’t let the first photo fool you- the path went up, the water went down- and then we walked down to meet it (no photos of THAT!).
We are spending the weekend in Chico, my hometown. We visit pretty infrequently, and every time I come back, I am reminded how fortunate I was to grow up in such a wonderful town. Bidwell Park, where most of these photos were taken is one of the best reasons to live in (or visit) Chico; it has miles of trees, trails, and recreational areas along Chico Creek.
A fence at the 5 Mile at golden hour
Lonnie exploring Upper Park (Yahi Trail)
Wildflowers
This is NOT a self-portrait! Lonnie actually took this with my camera using aperture priority, Auto ISO, and back button focus! He was amazed at how heavy the camera is with the zoom lens (yup!), and I was amazed that the photo is in focus! There is a big compositional error that I am aware of now that I’m taking this photo class- a MERGER! Leaves coming out of (or into) my head! But- all in all, he did a great job!
And now for my photo assignment for my class: a creative shot showing movement. I had this image in my mind of a perfectly (ahem!) focused bicyclist with a blurred background (showing motion). You won’t believe how many attempts I made to get the photo I had in my mind; this one is the closest I got. It was hard to pan smoothly with no camera shake at the correct speed to keep the bike in focus- and still show the background blurry. FYI: I took this shot across the street and facing my childhood church.
What a beautiful day in the neighborhood (RIP Mister Rogers. . .) it is today! The birds and squirrels seem to think so too. I snapped this one of a squirrel using shutter priority (which is what we are working on in my photo class this week) as he nibbled on the new shoots on our oak tree way up high above my head. Today’s theme is growing wild in my flickr group, and I thought this little guy was more fun to photograph than weeds.
I’m going with the theme today- on the street where you live. Sooooo. . . here is an easy shot looking down the street where I live:
I took it with my zoom lens using aperture priority, just because I’ve been reading about aperture priority for the class I’ve been taking (which is fabulous, by the way). I realized that I hadn’t been using exposure compensation with aperture priority- and that is why my photos haven’t been that great using that shooting mode. This one isn’t great either- but that’s due to the fact that I didn’t focus on the nearest flower (nothing to do with my shooting mode). I like this shot best, however, because there was a car going down the street.
These things won’t be used for awhile. 😦
Today I am putting away the last of the baby items- and mailing everything that wouldn’t fit into their suitcases.
The theme today is wash– and it seems like a sad state of affairs when I realize that I have already taken photos of my washing machine, my dish drainer, and soaps for my blog. I have SO run out of items in my house to photograph! No Project 365 next year!
I feel like I may have already photographed this ducky too, but probably not edited this way. I reduced contrast and added a white fill layer in Aperture.
The theme is above the rest. As usual, there are blackbirds above the rest in the neighborhood trees.
This is one of those days.
I’m uninspired by the topic and unmotivated to do my photo class homework. Lonnie is upstairs in the office with a Dell technician (don’t ask. . .) so I am editing and uploading with the iPad some random macro photos from the backyard.
REALLY random.
So here are some leaves. One looks kind of Google Earth-ish, I think. The other was an experiment using Snapseed ‘s texture feature.
melinda anderson photography 