Me and Google

20141206-IMG_0067_melinda_andersonA year ago last summer, when we were looking for houses to buy, my friend, Debbie, noticed a listing on the internet for the perfect house (which we did end up buying), but the Google map for the neighborhood was confusing- there were two consecutive streets with the same name.  Which street was the one with the house for sale?  From time to time, I noticed that Google glitch on the map- and last week decided to let them know their map was wrong.

I guess it’s not an uncommon thing for Google to make mistakes, because there is actually a form to fill out when you spot an error.  I compared their map with the satellite image and discovered that several little streets off the thru street were labelled incorrectly. The error started when they misidentified a driveway as a street- and then got off for the next four streets ending up with an extra street, which they named the same as ours. I filled out the form, and they responded that they would look into it.

Less than a week later, they wrote me an email saying “You were right!”, and that they had corrected the problem. I checked the map and discovered that they had now correctly named the street before ours with its correct name- but had left that name on the street before that one and continued the incorrect sequence (including labeling the driveway as a street).  Aaack!

So, on Saturday I walked the neighborhood taking photos of houses, streets, and signs to make sure I was accurate- and wrote them again.  I haven’t heard anything back yet.

I took my husband’s new Canon Powershot SX50 with me on the walk. I’m trying to learn it, because its zoom has a fantastic reach (and it shoots RAW!), and I plan to use it for wildlife photography.  I’ve already customized 3 buttons on it with my settings, so I won’t interfere with his AUTO settings.  All of today’s photos were taken with this nifty camera. For me, the most difficult part is controlling the zoom- so I need to practice on some backyard birds.

leaveslayout

 

 

Up the Hill

Our house sits on a hill on a half-acre wedge-ish shaped lot with the most of the backyard on a steep slope, covered with rocks to keep the hill intact.  There is a rickety stairway going up the hill on one side to an unlandscaped area that is mostly, um, weeds.  We had the weeds cut down this summer, and this week I finally ventured all the way to the top of our property! Before, I had been concerned about what might be living in those weeds and didn’t really want to walk through them, chicken that I am.

At the top, I could stand at the edge of our uphill neighbor’s property and enjoy the view over our house to the hills and also see our neighbor’s fields at the top of the hill. Pretty!

20140917-DSC_4127_melinda_anderson 20140917-DSC_4132_melinda_anderson-EditBTW, I did play with the color in the bottom photo; the fields are actually pretty green.  Artistic license!

I’m linking up with Friday Finds today.

Milk and Cookies

milk_and_cookiesThis week’s BeStill 52 assignment was to to create a milk and cookies still life.  Having been blessed (cursed?) with a sweet tooth, I was delighted to take on the challenge!  We were also encouraged, following Kim’s example,  to critique our own images- and this simple photo was the one that seemed to work out best.  There were various other incarnations that had additional elements, including lavender in a Mason jar, a napkin, and a two tiered Blue Ridge serving plate.  As usual in my world, simple turned out best.  I kept subtracting elements until I ended up with the composition above. I edited with One Willow presets from the Palette collection (my Friday Find for this week- they are fabulous!).  The first version has the Divine preset applied and then two layers of Kim’s sybil texture in Photoshop.  The second version was created by starting with the finished first version (complete with texture)and adding a black and white preset from One Willow (I think it was Story). And now I’m off to finish eating that cookie!

Say cheese!

20140822-DSC_3171_melinda_andersonPhotography seems to run in the family. My earliest memories involve being wakened by the glare of strobe lights as my father filmed every moment of  Christmas morning (perhaps that’s why I avoid having my photo taken to this day). In his retirement years, he took college classes in photography and captured some wonderful photos of my children when they were little. Today’s photo includes his Nikon on the left and my first good camera, an Argus rangefinder (right), as well as a toy camera (middle) which I picked up in an antique store when Joan was visiting.  In the front are two issues of Kodakery magazine from the 1920’s, which I bought in an antique store a few months ago.

Linking up with Friday Finds today.

Kim Klassen dot Com

 

 

 

Country Drive

Today I’m posting some photos from our drive through Peeples Valley and Kirkland a couple weeks ago.  I love country roads and all the charms of barns and fences and horses- maybe it’s because I grew up in a small town in a rural area. horse_farm_layout

Textures (all from Kim Klassen): top- waterfront 7; bottom- nutmeg and unleashed

Linking up with Texture Tuesday
“Texture

Morning Bokeh- Two Ways

These days our morning walks are taking place earlier than before. We used to say that we needed to be finished by 9:00 to beat the heat. Now we say 8:00 is too late; we need to be on the trail before 7:00.  The upside is that there is some beautiful morning light!

I processed these photos first in black and white (my preference most of the time).  But I cannot deny the beauty of color in nature- even in weeds and grasses- so there is a color version as well.

20140730-DSC_2186_melinda_anderson-2 20140730-DSC_2186_melinda_anderson 20140730-DSC_2183_melinda_anderson 20140730-DSC_2182_melinda_andersonI couldn’t resist this one as well- the two of us on the trail.

20140730-DSC_2161_melinda_anderson

Spooning

I have just one photo to show so far from the last BeStill 52 lesson on light. The challenge was to photograph spoons with the light hitting them from different angles. You would think this would be easy for me, as I have many, many spoons, but the light was the problem- the sun kept going behind the clouds, which took away the shadows I was trying to capture.  Perhaps I’ll get it right next time!

I chose to photograph a few spoons from my grandmother’s souvenir coffee spoon collection from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  I used to play with these spoons when I was a little girl, and I still treasure them today.

20140728-DSC_2112_melinda_anderson

The rain- and after . . .

We had our first HUGE monsoon storm yesterday- thunder, lightning, heavy rain, flooding (not at our house) and power outage!

20140725-DSC_1972_melinda_anderson

After hours and hours of rain and sky drama, the rain subsided in the early evening.  The hummingbirds dashed to the feeder, and all was back to normal in the high desert.

hummingbird_layout

And then the storm resumed . . .

 

Still Life Play

I am continuing to play with still life, but not going too far outside my comfort zone for this photo session (maybe NEXT time. . .).  In fact you’ll notice these images are all VERY similar. Feather and book, book and feather.  The last two have an added hat, and the book was changed from The Red Badge of Courage to The Secret Garden (and I moved outside).  I think my favorite is the second one (I like the blue book).

20140627-DSC_0483_melinda_anderson-Edit 20140627-DSC_0482_melinda_anderson 20140630-DSC_0627_melinda_anderson 20140630-DSC_0634_melinda_anderson-EditEditing notes:

1. converted to black and white in Lightroom, kk_celebrate texture added in Photoshop

2. edited with Kim’s moody preset in Lightroom, highly tweaked

3. edited with Kim’s days of old preset in Lightroom, and tweaked

4. basic edit in Lightroom, Kim’s kk_happyheart texture added in Photoshop (2 layers)