Melinda

Missing These Guys!

We are back home as of 1:00 this morning. Our travel day began with our daughter discovering a flat tire on her wonderful new car just as we were starting the trip from Yellowstone to Bozeman to catch our flight to Phoenix. We transferred our luggage and the kids and ourselves to Justin’s huge truck, which is not Caitlin’s favorite vehicle to drive, and off we went. We got to the airport with time to spare, had a quick dinner, and then waited at the gate for the incoming flight from Phoenix to arrive so we could board. As we looked out the window we could see dust clouds across the tarmac and debris being lifted into the air and swirling around. The inbound flight couldn’t land, so was diverted to Missoula. Although we didn’t see rain or thunder and lightning, it was all around Bozeman. Justin’s roof rack on the vehicle he was driving blew off as he headed into Bozeman from Missoula, and Caitlin and the kids had rain and thunderstorms the whole way home. Finally, two hours late, the flight came in from Phoenix (via Missoula), and we had an uneventful flight to Phoenix (Mesa Airport). Lightning flashed around us on our long drive home, but no rain. Ahhh summer storms!

I seem to have taken around 2000 photos on our trip- lots to go through! My plan to upload photos to the iPad and post from there didn’t work out too well. I think the number of photos on my 64GB SD card might have overwhelmed the iPad, even though I was only selecting a couple each time, and I found uploading seldom worked. Now that I’m on my computer, I see that my owl photo doesn’t display correctly (you can see about a fourth of it!), although it looks fine on my iPhone and the iPad; I’ll fix that next.

I’ll be posting more photos over the next week or so. You can look forward to seeing an adorable puppy, more photos of two handsome boys, a baby owl, wildflowers, a bison, and who knows what else?

June 30, 2015

Melinda3 Comments

Hoot!

We were taking a walk after dinner, when I heard the distinct sound of hooting from the tree in front of us. I looked up, and there was a Great Horned Owl on a high branch! This owl was in a better position for me to photograph than the nest of owls was last year. I don’t have a lens with a long reach (and didn’t have a tripod), but I was still able to get some decent photographs- and, amazingly, there were no other photographers around.

I’m finding importing to the iPad pretty frustrating; even if I select only 5 or 6 photos, they don’t all come in. I’m sure I’ll be posting more Yellowstone photos when we return!

June 25, 2015June 30, 2015

Melinda4 Comments

Baby

Penny, the puppy, isn’t the only baby around here. As usual, the house here at Mammoth is surrounded by elk for a good part of the day, and there are quite a few babies in the herd. This one was getting ready to follow its mother across the road.

By the way, yesterday’s and today’s photos were edited on the iPad with Snapseed and posted using the WordPress app.

June 25, 2015June 25, 2015

Melinda1 Comment

New!

We’re at Yellowstone visiting our daughter, son-in-law, grandsons, dog, and . . . their 3 month old golden-retriever puppy, Penny!

Could there be anything cuter?

June 24, 2015

Melinda4 Comments

Santa Fe, again. . .

And yes, there are even more Santa Fe photos to post today!

June 23, 2015June 19, 2015

Melinda1 Comment

Golden Hour in Santa Fe

I still have photos I haven’t posted from Santa Fe! Here are two Lensbaby shots taken during the golden hour of this magnificent building by the square.

June 22, 2015June 19, 2015

Melinda5 Comments

Gargoyles!

One of the first things our little group photographed on our trip to Flagstaff was the Greek Orthodox Church. I was particularly entranced with the gargoyles, which adorned the roof line.

I found this one amusing, because it looked like he was munching on leaves.

I edited this one to give it a dark and foreboding look- could it be because I just saw Jurassic World?

June 19, 2015June 18, 2015

Melinda4 Comments

Takin’ it to the street

As I wrote the other day, I had such fun doing street photography in Flagstaff! The gals I was with were both accomplished, experienced photographers, but what impressed me most about them was how confident and BOLD they were taking photographs out in public. I was carrying my most unobtrusive camera bag (the Lowepro Passport Sling) with the bare minimum of gear (camera, 18-200 lens, and my Lensbaby Composer pro with Edge 80). I- thank goodness- also brought a rainsleeve for the camera, which really came in handy during the downpour around lunchtime. I brought a tripod, which I kept in the car- and only brought out for a couple hours in the afternoon. My companions, however, wore big backpacks filled with gear (no clue what it was) and carried tripods as well as their (very large and expensive!) cameras.

I used to always feel self-conscious out in public with my camera stuff, especially on a tripod. I’ve somewhat gotten over it, but, introvert that I am, my shy self still emerges at times when shooting in public. But last Saturday, I found the spectacle we were creating fun and amusing. All the gear and tripods often caused a lot of attention to be focused our way, especially from young people, who I think were hoping we were doing a magazine shoot- and it made for some fun photographs.

These young guys were eager to pose for us, although you can see how cool they were being about it. I think they liked the idea that it looked like a potential album cover!

June 18, 2015

Melinda4 Comments

Saying Goodbye

I took my camera along to the cemetery when we attended my father-in-law’s graveside service last month, with the intention of getting some family group shots. There was a short service with military honors, and my husband was presented with the flag. It was a very emotional moment. When my husband got up to leave, he walked in front of me and paused at the casket. The photographer in me couldn’t resist reaching for the camera and snapping one quick shot.

Unfortunately, the autofocus on the camera had been turned off, because I had been using the Lensbaby previously- and, although this photo was in pretty good focus, all subsequent photos were out of focus until I realized what was going on- arrgghhh! I edited this one with Topaz Simplify and added some textures in Photoshop.

June 17, 2015June 16, 2015

Melinda2 Comments

On the Corner

On Saturday, I went with my camera club on an architectural photo shoot in Flagstaff, where we had a map and buildings marked on the map to photograph. I had so much fun tagging along with two expert photographers with fancy cameras, as we roamed the streets, eventually ignoring the map and photographing mostly street scenes. The photographs I took of buildings were pretty uninspired and boring and not very good, but I had a great time with street photography.

This shot of a street musician and his doggie is my favorite.

I processed it with one of the HDR filters in on1’s Perfect Effects and then layered it with the original photo is Photoshop, where I masked out the HDR edit from some of the areas.

June 16, 2015June 15, 2015

Melinda2 Comments

Leftovers in Black and White

Here are a few photos left over from various recent shoots- all in black and white:

June 15, 2015June 14, 2015

MelindaLeave a comment

Debbie’s Find

My Friday Find is borrowed from my friend, Debbie, who graciously allowed me to photograph it this week. You may see it again, because I have some other ideas before I return it. And my goodness, there’s that straw hat again!

This is a Lensbaby shot with added textures. I like the look that some of my textures give my walls- wish they really looked like that!

And here is the same photo (in the original proportions- I “stretched the canvas” of the top one in Photoshop) with a black and white preset I adapted from one I had gotten from somewhere. I wanted a light-ish black and white conversion, which I sometimes do by adjusting tones etc. This time I decided to save it as a preset, hoping it will work on other photos as well.

June 12, 2015June 12, 2015

Melinda5 Comments

In the morning

First I saw the God-beams. . .

and then the beautiful morning light- a good day for photography!

Have a wonderful day!

June 11, 2015

Melinda2 Comments

A Chair and a Straw Hat

Hats on Chairs- catching up on still life challenges for The Studio Online!

If you have been following my blog for awhile, you have seen this chair many times- and if you’ve been following it for a LOOOOONG while, you seen the hat. Oh well- you’ve seen them, because they’re great props for still life photography! And, no doubt, you will see them again!

These were all taken with the Lensbaby Edge 80.

June 10, 2015June 9, 2015

Melinda3 Comments

Playing with Dandelions

I think dreamy macros of flowers, weeds, or leaves are my favorite photos to take. There is something so relaxing about seeing objects so closeup, so different from the way you would ordinarily see them- and then moving the camera or changing the aperture or area of focus just a slight bit to get an entirely different view. It’s like a mindfulness meditation. And then there’s the editing- so much fun! I used different Lightroom presets as starting points in editing the dandelion macros below- I’m not sure which I like best.

Newsprint, from Clickin Moms Paparazzi Collection: