Cloud formations and the promise of a good view led my husband and I to the vista point overlooking the Benicia Bridge and Suisun Bay this morning.
Here is a view of the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet and Suisun Bay.
And here is my favorite shot- the Benicia Bridge with a view of Mt. Diablo. After this shot was taken, we got in the Prius and drove across the bridge to buy new shoes for both of us- and to shop at the Pleasant Hill Farmers’ Market. All in all, a good morning!
My photo buddy Carol and I took a walk by the water today- always a great place for photography, even at midday.
I couldn’t help taking fence photos on our walk to the park.
Anise is always abundant by the water; this time I converted my photo to a black and white.
My pesky Canadian geese friends were there again. I liked this view of them best (Carol got some beautiful shots of them in flight with her D800).
And here is Carol taking a closeup shot of a feather in the weeds!
Friday’s photos of Olivia riding are still being culled and edited. I took way, way too many, most on burst mode, because I didn’t want to miss anything- and I am finding more and more keepers.
So I am posting a few more, followed by an animated GIF of her riding. I have no idea if the animation will show up on phones- so we’ll just have to see. I put together a random sequence and realized afterward I should have used some of the later shots where she was doing some fancier stuff (cantering with lead changes). Next time- video!
And before I forget, here is my photo of the day of one of my fading mums, to satisfy the topic, delicate.
And now, back to Olivia. . .
Olivia has been a part of my life since before she was born. I became friends with her mom, Barbara, when she joined our staff as a first grade teacher. At the end of the next year, Olivia was born. My daughter was her babysitter when she was just a few months old, and I became her teacher when she went to first grade.
Olivia always loved horses- and still does at age twenty-one. But how she got to be twenty-one so fast I do not understand! She goes to college, works at Fed Ex, is a Cross Fit trainer, and does work at the stable so that she can ride. She is beautiful with a great head on her shoulders- I’m so proud of her!
Today, her mom and I drove over to Sonoma where Olivia gets to ride Peru. I know nothing about horses, but I do know this one is gorgeous! I took over 600 photos during the hour Olivia put him through his paces. Here are just a few:
It was a cold and windy morning down by the waterfront today. I didn’t stay long, as my hands were beginning to shake! I had a lot of fun editing these images with textures to warm them up and give them some depth.
Low tide
Looking across at Martinez and Mt. Diablo
It’s Fence Friday! I began walking the neighborhood this morning in search of a fence I hadn’t photographed and ended up at the barbed wire fence nearby on the edge of our neighborhood. I’ve photographed this several times, but not with my newest lens. I remembered a shot of a wire fence that my photo friend, Carol, took a few days ago and was inspired to take these shots. I kept the aperture at 1.4, so the depth of field is extremely shallow. I have been doing photography for two years now and am still in love with blurry backgrounds.
Well . . . guess what? The date of the Scott Kelby Photoshop seminar was changed, and we weren’t notified. Read the details here.
However, it was one of those glass half full, lemons vs. lemonade, silk purse out of a sow’s ear kind of days. We made the best of things and amused ourselves taking photos around the Capitol, hanging out at Carol’s, and going out to dinner at Il Fornaio.
Here is Carol, photographing the Capitol.
See you in August, Scott!
I haven’t been keeping up with the Flickr challenges lately, so this morning I searched for something in the house that would fit the topic, keeping it clean, AND would also be something that I have never photographed (a much harder challenge). I was delighted to discover that I have never photographed paper towels!
We had an early dinner with friends, and I brought my camera just in case they had a dog (starts with D), so here is the adorable Missy, who was only too happy to pose for me knowing that she might just get a treat afterwards!
Just having fun at noon today with bright sun and shallow depth of field using my 50mm 1.4 (at 1.8 in both shots). . .
Occasionally, when my husband has appointments in interesting places, I ride along in hopes of photo opportunities. Today. we drove to Alameda.
We parked along the shoreline and . . .
looked across the bay at San Francisco. There was a a big fog bank over the city, so it was difficult to get a clear view. I played a lot with this photo in Lightroom. It ended up looking best in black and white; adding a lot of contrast to it in color caused it to look unrealistic.
I wasn’t planning to go with a Flickr theme today, but fate intervened. Within a few minutes I had three contenders for things with wings.
This great white egret was calmly standing by the water near where we parked.
A brown pelican flew by while I was shooting across the bay.
And then- a Southwest jet flew by!
Today we picnicked with friends from our HeartMath group, and the topic of the 1968 Exhibit at the Oakland Museum came up. Carl mentioned that he and Carolyn fell in love and got married amidst all the tumult of that unforgettable year. Since the topic of my Flickr group today is Young at Heart, I thought it appropriate to post this photo I took today of the Kids of 1968 (as Carl referred to the two of them).
Progress was made today by this often timid photographer- I asked to take people’s photos and then had them move into open shade! And they did!
One of my photo class assignments is to use the picture control feature on my camera to shoot images in different modes, such as vivid, landscape, portrait etc. This is a feature that is only available in JPEG, since RAW images are just that- RAW, undoctored, just what the camera records. For almost two years, I have only shot RAW photos- and only in manual. And that is still my comfort zone.
So this afternoon, Lonnie and I went downtown for a little photoshoot.
I felt like I had no idea how to operate my camera. I was also using Aperture Priority with exposure compensation- and went back and forth in my white balance settings, because I couldn’t remember if the picture controls took care of that or not.
And then it was time to upload. Some photos I evidently shot in both RAW and JPEG and others in just JPEG. I messed up the first upload, so did it again. I still haven’t gotten them sorted out- so I’m flagging JPEGs as I go and will deal with them later.
Unfortunately, my photo of the day was shot in JPEG only (!)- and it had a few issues that took a half hour to fix in Photoshop. I wonder if a RAW version would have been more cooperative. I would like to go back and take this shot again- but not today. . .
I’ve been having issues with Aperture and Flickr, so I now export to a folder on my computer again- this time using Photoshop (which is a more complicated process involving sharpening and resizing). Since I’ve spent the last three days winnowing 3000 family photos down to about 400 and editing and uploading them to SmugMug, the last thing I wanted to do tonight was edit photos.
Enough of a rant! I’m grateful I know how to edit. I’m grateful for my camera. And I’m grateful for having a husband who will patiently sit through a pretty boring photo session.
And here he is (and yes, I edited this one- but just a bit)!
And here is the other photo I shot for Flickr (with about 8 layers of edits in Photoshop. . .):
BTW, we went grocery shopping after our downtown jaunt- and then left all the groceries in the car for over an hour when we got home. We forgot- both of us!
I dislike waiting. But waiting when you have a camera with you is something entirely different.
I had the appointment time wrong for my doctor visit today and did not want to drive back across the bridge only to return an hour later. Fortunately, I had my camera with me, so I made an unplanned visit to Heather Farms, which is one of my favorite places to walk and enjoy the flowers. Of course, the light was glaring, because it was late morning, but I did manage to get some nice shots.
Here is some lovely lavender- I know, I know- third time this week for lavender! But this lavender is slightly different from mine.
And here are some roses.
I couldn’t resist being one of the many out last night photographing the “big moon”. My husband suggested a parking lot overlooking the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet (the Mothball Fleet), and it seemed many others had the same idea.
I enjoyed using the macro lens today after being away from it for a week. Here are some views of geraniums that bloomed during our absence.
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.
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