Day 240- Urban Wildlife

My patient husband and I wandered around downtown Martinez looking for the shot of the day- and he was the first to spot it- a raccoon!  He was actually a pretty HUGE raccoon who wandered casually across the street and into the bushes.  I took a few photos of him crossing the road, and, when I rounded the corner, there he was again- STANDING straight up!  By the time I changed my settings, he was no longer standing, but I did get this shot of him in the partially shaded greenery next to the sidewalk.

f/5.6, 1/50 (!), ISO 200, 200mm

I used Aperture Priority- and look at the shutter speed! Good thing he was still!  The harsh lighting of midday drives me CRAZY, so I did a little Photoshop magic with the multiply blend mode to darken the areas around Mr. Raccoon.

Melinda3 Comments

Day 239- Train A-Comin’

Searching for photo ops, my husband and I drove around town today and ended up at Vista Point overlooking the Benicia Bridge. I was photographing the railroad bridge when a train chugged over, giving the photo a bit of a focal point.

 

Melinda3 Comments

Day 238- The Stapler

Homework and book orders and spelling tests- oh my! I spent the morning volunteering at the school where I taught first grade for over twenty years. I stapled homework packets, tore out math and reading pages, corrected spelling tests, and tested first and third graders on reading skills.

Best of all, I visited with my former colleagues and many of my former students!  I hope to return next week and set up a regular schedule to help out my teacher friends.

So, I present The Stapler- a symbol of the mindless tasks I foisted upon many a parent helper- and which I am glad to do now, just because it IS so mindless- and because I am helping a friend or two.

f/2.5, 1/160, ISO 500, 35mm

Melinda3 Comments

Day 237- Urban Geometry

The camera came with me today when I went across the bridge to get my hair cut, eat lunch out with my husband, and then go to a matinee of The Help (what an amazing job they did bringing this wonderful book to the screen!). I snapped a few shots at the plaza where my husband was waiting for me during my hair appointment- and decided this one was more effective in black and white.

f13, 1/160, ISO 250, 35mm

Melinda1 Comment

Day 236- Cloud Weirdness

Scott Kelby shared his favorite HDR settings a few days ago on his blog, so I tried it out!

I went on a mini HDR kick when I first started photography, downloading a free trial of Photomatix.  I lost interest when I quickly realized that I didn’t understand what I was doing (still don’t really. . .), although I liked some of the images I produced. When I bought Photoshop in January, I tried it again- but none of my images that I edited had that Photomatix look to them.

I think for someone like me, a preset is the answer. I just copied his settings and saved it as a preset- easy. I realize that this isn’t an outstanding image- just a quick look up at the the sky with clouds this morning- but it is interesting to see what happens to it.  I played around with it some more in Photoshop- even tried using it as a layer above the original image and blending it different ways (I want to try that again- interesting effects!)- but am posting it today just as is, the Scott Kelby way.

And here is the original shot (with a little definition and midtones boost).

As I understand it, HDR uses three images at three different exposures which are then blended into one. When I used Photomatix, I made 2 copies of an image- and made one lighter and one darker- then the software merged them. For this process, I used a single image- I have no clue what Scott does!

 

Melinda3 Comments

Day 235- (Un)Hinged

With a really busy day ahead of me, I actually thought about what my photo of the day would be last night. It is Texture Tuesday with a Back to School theme (a natural for me), so I planned ahead what my photo would be. Because of my 365 project, I am a stickler for taking the photo on the same day I post it, so I can’t work on the photo ahead and then just post it on the appropriate day.

But when I got up early this morning, I became entranced by the changing light out the window as the sun rays began to peek through the fog. Although I was planning an inside still life for today, I wandered outside in my nightgown and began snapping photos.  The light was changing quickly, so my original foggy shots were changing into sunny ones.

As I shot over the back gate (having abandoned the front porch for fear of what the neighbors might think of a nightgowned photographer photographing the fog over their houses), I became more interested in the details of the gate itself- hence this photo.

f/7.1, 1/100, ISO 320, 85mm

So from back to school to fog to sunlight to gate hardware- all in 27 photos. Symptoms of ADD? Hmmmm…..

Melinda2 Comments

Day 234- Souvenir

Happy Macro Monday!

This shell lei is one of several souvenirs brought back from Hawaii by my father after World War II.

f/7.2, 1/20, ISO 2500, 85mm

I had to close down my aperture quite a bit to get all the foreground shells in focus. I used a tripod and manual focus- and for the first time used Live View to zoom in to make sure things really were in focus. I don’t know why I never thought of this before; my friend Rudy mentioned this trick. Duh! Thanks, Rudy!

Melinda2 Comments

Day 233- On the porch. . .

We are all a little bit tired today from two weeks of children’s activities and getting up at 4:30 today to take them to the airport.  The house is a bit empty and quiet, and I’m not feeling too inspired.  I looked no further than my front porch today for today’s photo- a cheerful marigold.

 

Melinda1 Comment

Day 232- Out of Focus

Today is the last day with the grandbabies. 😦

Miles and I had some special time outside today, mostly involving moving all the rocks back to the places they were before he came to visit.  While Miles was trying to smell the lavender that was finally blooming, I took a few photos of one of the flowers with my macro lens.  When I uploaded the photos, there was Miles in the background!

f/3.8, 1/640, ISO 500, 85mm

Melinda2 Comments

Day 231- Deja Vu

Whoa- this photo takes me back to the seventies! Who is that mouse?

Miles is wearing his mommy’s homemade mouse costume from Halloween when she was his age. It’s fun to see how much he looks like her!

f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 500, 35mm

Melinda3 Comments

Day 230- End of Story

After months of phone calls and letters, our son, Matt finally received the correct license plate for the truck he bought last year (there’s a very long story involving a mess-up by either the car dealership or the DMV, depending on who you talk to).  Miles was right there to help put on the plates. Whew- end of story!

Melinda2 Comments

Day 229- Tables Turned

Miles has had his entire life documented in photos by his mama and grandma. Now that he is three and a half, he has turned the tables, using the iPhone camera to snap family photos.

BTW, he is WAY too comfortable with iPhone apps.  During our lunch out yesterday, he managed to send me an email filled with emoticons. I have no idea what he clicked on to get the address field filled out- so, if any of you received random, undecipherable emails from me yesterday, it wasn’t a virus- it was Miles!

Melinda3 Comments

Day 227- Zoo!

Memorable quotes from Miles:

“I want to see the flamingos, the camels, and the camelopes.”

“Now I blow them dry.” (after brushing the goats at the petting zoo)

Memorable moments:

Miles watching the river otters (his favorite animal is the sea otter).

Miles walking on “lily pads.”

Miles “driving” the little fire truck and play acting putting out fires with a group of children.

Matt and Miles on the merry-go-round.

Miles having fun with his mom all day, while Henry was attended to by the rest of us.

Ratio of good photos to photos taken- terrible!

But. . . a great family outing!

 

 

 

Melinda4 Comments

Day 226- Exploring

Baby Henry at eight months old is crawling, trying to pull up, and generally getting into everything.  One of the skills he has mastered since his arrival is going up steps. He can also go down the one step into our living room with ease.  It is getting harder and harder to keep him from going up the stairs to the bedrooms. And it is pretty hard to say no to anyone who looks so cute from behind!

f/2.2, 1/100, ISO 2000, 35mm

Melinda2 Comments