Painting is just another way of keeping a diary ~Pablo Picasso

Friday, December 31, 2010

December 30

Tah Hoooh!
Could be my January photo for next year's calendar? 
At least it's a rare opportunity for me to photograph snow this year!

Friday, December 24, 2010

December 21

This didn't turn out like I thought it would at all.  I run past this scene with Clover almost everyday, and it always catches my eye because at first glance there's the illusion that you can see the roots of these trees.  Then I realize it's the reflection.  In the photo though, the trees blend into the background too much, so the effect is somewhat lost.  I know I'm drawn to this scene because I relate to it.  Moving so much like we do, the idea of roots is someone illusory to me right now, and definitely something I'm longing for.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

November 16

Took this one just for fun...there was something reptilian about this seed pod and I found it amusing.  And I like how the background turned out.  Plus I haven't posted in a while so...

Monday, November 8, 2010

November 8

So here's today's attempt at minimalism.  If yesterday's photo was too "Pacific Northwest" then today's photo is much more "Central Valley".  I imagine I could turn out a different minimalist photo a day for quite a while here...at least it's a theme to explore this year...but probably not everyday.  I do think today's photo fits the category better than yesterday's.  The focus and lighting are better too.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

November 7

It wasn't my intention to photograph pavement two days in a row but...
here it is anyway.  This photo was supposed to be for my photo group topic this week: minimalism.  But I'm not submitting it there, at least not yet.  I don't think it exactly hits the mark for one thing.  And given the terrain around here minimalist photography is something I think I could pull off.  I think this photo would be a dime-a-dozen photo in Olympia anyway.  Here in the central valley, on the otherhand, puddles and clouds are not that common.  This scene made me very happy.  And very homesick!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

November 6

Not exactly the road less traveled, although it does look that way in this photo.   This is California 49, which runs through the canyon where gold was originally discovered.  In fact Sutter's Mill is just down the street.  You have only the follow the yellow striped road...

Friday, November 5, 2010

November 5

I'll try not to get too photo-Freudian here, but I do have this tendency to psychoanalyze my photo moods, and this is definitely a time when I need to focus on the details of life.  One small step at a time, because the big picture is really overwhelming right now.  And for the record, I'm really missing you, Kristen! =(

Thursday, October 28, 2010

October 28, 2010


Well at least I'm posting today which is an improvement on this past week!  It was a hectic week, and pretty rough actually.  It's hard to feel creative in certain moods.  Today is the first day I actually felt like picking up my camera, but I have to say it felt good, so I'm happy about that.  I spotted these puffer fish-like berries walking Clover this morning.  The colors caught my eye, and so I mainly tried to photograph color.  I've used the +10 macro filter again, but I think the effect is different this time because the change in focus isn't so apparent...the front berry is in focus and the background berries are not.  I see this with f/2.8 lenses, and so I'm happy to have created this effect with my filter!  The color is nice, but the thing I like most about this shot is definitely the focus.  These clusters of berries were growing on a large tree in someone's yard.  I don't know what kind of tree, but we're calling it puffer fish.
f/5, 1/25, +10macro filter, 55mm

Thursday, October 21, 2010

October 21, 2010

Well this was either my third or fourth attempt at photographing rice at the Yolo Bypass, and opting for another photo instead.  That is rice in the background, but as for a closeup I have no idea how to compose that shot.  I think this field will be harvested very soon.  I did see harvesters out in the vacinity, and this field has been drained and dried for several weeks now.  So it was the dried mud that ended up being the most interesting, especially all the tracks.  I tried focusing on the track in the foreground, I think it's probably raccoon.  This is my f/5 shot, but I ended up going with it because the composition was better than the higher aperture attempts.  I wish I had this composition with f/22. I also don't really like the darkness of the shot.  The sun was still pretty low, and if I photographed the patches in the light the contrast was way too harsh.  I probably should have switched to manual here and overexposed a little.  Or bracketed.   I alwasy forget about that setting.
f/5, 1/60, 18mm

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

October 20, 2010

So the good news is I found my filters.  I left them at a stop in the Sierras yesterday.  I should say the bad news is I had to drive all the way back to get them, but the fact is the drive is lovely so I didn't mind a bit.  And everytime I've been up there this week I've driven through this controlled burn.  The first day I actually rolled down the window to try some photos, and my van still smells like a smoked ham.  This one is taken through the glass.  It's another moody "see the light" photo, but all my aspen photos were starting to look the same, so I decided to post something different.  I was trying to make the photo dark and moody, so I was working in manual to underexpose, probably by three or four stops. 
f/5.6, 1/200

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

October 19, 2010

I headed back for the hills today, i.e. Sierras ;)  along with many other photographers based on the number of cars parked along the side of the road and people with cameras.  No one else at this spot though, which was sort of surprising; the red barn was so...red.  It's a bit harsh, but this is how the light was today.  So here's a very primary color photo...
f/10, 1/160, 34mm

Monday, October 18, 2010

October 18, 2010

I spent some time working on this photo, I have to admit.  Getting the water droplet in focus was difficult.  This was my best focus, but it's also the shot that was the most underexposed and the highest saturated.  I don't mind the high saturation...just noting.  It's my 10+ filter which I'm afraid I might have lost (along with all my other filters *sadness!)  but it still didn't get as close as I wanted.  So I ended up cropping this one so the droplet would show up better on the blog.
f/25, 1/30, +10macro filter

Saturday, October 16, 2010

October 16, 2010


Referencing Jim Brandenberg for a second day in a row:  This time I'm thinking about Looking for Summer.   That's definitely not difficult here.  The problem for me this month is more like "Looking for Fall"!  So today I drove up in the Sierras south of Lake Tahoe and even though it's mostly pine, there are some groves of Aspen to be found and they were very colorful.  I had my choice of photos to post today (finally!)  
f/22, 1/6, polarizer, ISO100 

Friday, October 15, 2010

October 15, 2010

Today's photo has lots of references.  For starters, Jim Brandenberg's Chased by the Light, because this is the only photo I took today.  I took this photo for my class blog topic "togetherness".  I was trying to use an abstract/modern style here, but I think I'm pushing the envelop because abstract photos aren't supposed to have meaning, and I've purposely used this style to impose my own meaning.  So it's editorial/abstract;  I really love this photo.  I love the texture and shapes, and the solitary togetherness.  Clover's pathetic face helps (she hadn't had her walk at this point). 
f/2.8, 1/800, ISO80, spot meter

Thursday, October 14, 2010

October 14, 2010

I really needed a change of pace after yesterday's sunny adventures.  This closeup was done with my 10+macro filter.  I should have used this one for my class "What Is It?" topic.  I kept the ISO at 100 here but used a low aperture so the focal plane is very small but still clear.  I love the calm color on this one; it's converted from a raw file which gives more muted tones.  Enough said.
f/5.3, 1/2sec., ISO100, 10+macro filter

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

October 13, 2010


I really wish I had something else to post today.  I went on a photo outing with a group today to see Sandhill Cranes.  They're beautiful birds, but the lighting was so awful I can't bear to post any of the photos here.   We got there at high noon and it was hot, hot, hot!  We continued on to a Consumnes River trail where I took this photo.  I've only focused on the backlit orange leaf, but it's the blurry water background that I like most. And the color.
  f/5.6, 1/200, ISO400, polarizer

October 12, 2010


Photo from the 12th.   This is some sort of soil preparing plow that gets pulled behind a tractor.  It's a great photo of the dust around here; this place is so dusty!  I was driving and pulled over to the side of the road to try this shot, liking how the morning light was filtering through the dust (ha!), but forgot that my aperture was set to f-25 so the shutter speed is so slow and there's lots of blurry movement included which I don't really like.  If I'd known that the rest of the day was going to be so busy I would have tried a few more shots here. 
f/25, 1/10

Monday, October 11, 2010

October 11, 2010


Windy day!  I tried to see if I could photograph that at the UCD Arboretum and Putah Creek.  This is using my highest aperture and polarizer to expose for a long enough shutter speed to capture a gust of wind.  I wasn't expecting to see the wind moving across the water too, but I'm glad that is was.  Initially I didn't intend to include the sun in the shot, but I ended up liking how elemental it felt.  I really don't like the color here, and I don't like the light pattern on the water either, but I'm going with this photo today because I do think it's cool that you can "see" the wind and the sunshine.
f/22, 1.5 sec., 19mm, polarizer

Sunday, October 10, 2010

October 10, 2010

Variation on a theme.  I took this one this morning when I was out with Clover, wondering how the leaf would look in the early morning light.  This was in the park near our house and the sprinkler system had already run, so there's lots of water droplet reflection, which is sort of dreamy.  Between the two photos I like yesterday's better; this one tries too hard.  It's also true though that I'm not quite as wild about yesterday's photo when I look at it today.  It needed to be just a little bit brighter.  Oh well.
f/5.6, 1/160, 165mm

Saturday, October 9, 2010

October 9, 2010

Boy does this photo suit my mood perfectly today.  I heard James Taylor on the way home, and I was just thinking that I can listed to James Taylor no matter what sort of mood I'm in and it feels right.  Plus his music always reminds me of fall in New England.  Today this photo reminds me of a James Taylor song.  I really love the setting sun feeling of it, plus the really shallow depth of field that makes the pavement glitter in the waning light.  If I could have taken this photo one minute earlier it would have glowed even more.  I tried just setting my camera on the ground and letting the auto focus search but it wouldn't lock in on anything.  So I had to cast off my pride (and my shoes) and lie down on the pavement to take this, and in that short amount of time the light had dimmed considerably.  It still gives me a really easy-going feeling though, and I like it today.  I'll have to see what kind of staying power it has and look at it again when I'm in a different mood...
f/5.6, 1/25, 200mm, portrait

Friday, October 8, 2010

October 8, 2010

This is a really nice blue for a sunset here; usually the sky gets very orange.  It's also a rare occasion when I feel like I've accurately captured the sky color too.  I was out taxiing when the sun was setting, and when I realized it was going to be so pretty  I tried to think of where I could go quickly to silhouette something against it; this cactus patch came to mind.  I didn't realize I'd get all the power lines in the photo, but I'll definitely notice them driving past this spot again, that's for sure!  Anyway it seems a nice end to the week, and appropriate since I started last Saturday with a sunrise photo.
f/8, 1/25, 18mm, polarizer, vivid

Thursday, October 7, 2010

October 7, 2010

I was just playing around with photographing old farm equipment in the Ag Farm area at UCD today.  I ended up picking this photo because I liked the angle on it, although I realize I mostly photographed a plank of wood.  I think the angle gives it a lot of visual depth which is interesting.  I wish I would have set up my tripod and used a really high f-stop here so the gears in the back were in focus too.  The thing I found amusing about this location was that the building next to this was named "Antique Mechanics"!  Ha!
f/5, 1/40, 18mm, vivid

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

October 6, 2010

These little birds fly in huge flocks, and the move like a school of fish.  It sort of reminds me of a stadium stunt, like the wave or a placard routine, as they shift from all brown showing to all white showing.  I wonder how they know to move in unison like that!   I especially like the three bird landing sequence in the right of this photo, so that's what I cropped for.  This photo took a pretty big crop; it was too busy in the uncropped version, so I focused in on the landing plane.  I remembered to work in shutter mode (1/400).
f/10, 1/400, 145mm

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

October 5, 2010

This guy is called a Western Scrub-Jay.  He's about the same size as a Blue Jay, which we don't have out here.  He's the western cousin.  He was hanging out on an airconditioner at UCD this evening.  I inadvertently left my camera set to 1/80 shutter priority and ISO 1250 which is a crazy number for outdoor photography, but I think he still came out pretty nice. I especially like the colors.  This photo complements yesterday's pretty well, and since I'm heading back to the marshes tomorrow, I'm sticking with a theme.
f/20, 1/80, ISO1250, 150mm

Monday, October 4, 2010

October 4

There are a good variety of shorebirds staging at the Solano and Sonoma County Marshes.  I saw them yesterday on our way to Point Reyes, and wanted to photograph them right away because I'm not sure when they'll take off for their next migration stop.  Could be they stay here all winter, but I highly doubt it.  As for the photo, I was really happy to catch this blue-stocking bird landing.   I'm not totally wild about the overall effect, and I'm not sure why.  As if often the case, I didn't have a lot of time here today, but I am going to pack a lunch and head back in the next day or two to really spend time photographing.  I'm not sure bird photos are by best photos, but definitely my favorite to take!
f/9, 1/320, 165mm

Sunday, October 3, 2010

October 3

We visited Point Reyes National Seashore today.  This photo of the Point Reyes Lighthouse doesn't adequately show how desolate this place is.  Once we entered the park, we drove for over 20 miles on a narrow winding road to get to the lighthouse at the tip of a peninsula.  And we never saw another car during the entire drive.  We thought we'd be the only ones out there, but not the case.  Still, an amazing location.  This was my best angle with the stairs and railing as the lead in.  It was actually pretty foggy, so this shot is overexposed by either two or three stops. 
f/4, 1/400, 55mm

Saturday, October 2, 2010

October 2

When I got up this morning and read in the paper that today is Annie Leibovitz's birthday, I thought I'd do a portrait today (I'm currently reading Annie Leibovitz at Work).  I was up at the crack of dawn to go to a debate meet so I thought I could take some photos there.  But a few things got in my way.  First I had to drive into an inspiring sunrise, and second, I'm not all that comfortable with portrait photography.  It seems so intrusive.  So I chickened out, which was easy because I had already photographed the sunrise.  This is approaching the Yolo Wildlife Area from the west.  I like the power lines in the photo a lot, but I wish I'd given the grain house a slightly higher spot on the horizon.  It really was an inspirational sunrise, and so I think the photo falls short.  Too bad I couldn't have given it more time.  It's the first time I've been really excited about photography all week!  I'm going to try resuming daily posting, but if I don't have time or don't like what I've got then I just won't post that day.  So that's the plan...

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

September 28

I'm calling this one Postcard from My Front Door.  I'm pretty sure it's a pigeon feather, because we have pigeons roosting in our roof (a communal living arrangement not to my liking, but apparently they're nesting and can't be moved yet).  It lodged itself in the grass near the door and got photographed.  The usual settings of late, f/5.6 at 200mm, but I like it because it's neither flower nor farmland.  Feather!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

September 26

Ok, technically I am still "on vacation" but I did like this photo.  Maybe because it's not my usual photo.  It's got a nice idyllic look, I think.   And the color and composition are ok too.  If I'm just looking at the shapes and not looking too closely at the scene then the farmhouse reminds me a little of Mt. Rainier.  What's amazing is this is just a few miles from my house.  In only one mile I can leave town and am deep into farmland, and it's like another world right around the corner.  So the fact that I posted this photo on my first vacation day shows my weakness for this blog.  It's a lot of fun (when it's fun).

September 25

I'm going to take a vacation from the blog for a while.  It's become sort of a stress point for me lately, and I'm not really enjoying it.  I'm not wild about the photos I'm taking, and so I think a break might do me some good.  Maybe a week or two...we'll see.  In the meantime, I might post if I feel inspired, but it's sort of a relief not to have the daily photo weighing me down.

This is the Death Star again.  I was thinking I should take the kids there with our old lightsabres and see if the sunlight wouldn't make the reflection glow a little.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

September 23

A fun photo for today.  This box showed up at our house this morning, so Luna had to try it out.  She really hates being photographed, but I caught her off guard.  I called to her as she was getting comfy, and she looked up for just a second.  I didn't know that she was going to give me a one-eyed look like that, but I think it looks really cool.  I really bumped up the ISO because the indoor lighting wasn't that bright, and still it's a pretty slow shutter speed.
f/5, 1/13, ISO800

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

September 21

There's a casual old car show in our grocery parking lot on the third Tuesday of every month, sort of an unlikely date if you ask me.  This is the first third Tuesday that I've remembered about it since we moved here. This black 1950 Ford Custom Deluxe Coupe was my favorite; it was so polished!  I feel like I've hardly photographed it here though; mainly I used its great polish as a canvas for the red 1967 Ford Mustang reflection that ends up being the focus of the photo.  Varying my angle just a little made a huge difference in the shape of the reflection.  I had trouble getting more of the 1950 Coupe in the photo without warping the Mustang, so it was hard to know what to include and what to leave out.
f/4, 1/40, 55mm

Monday, September 20, 2010

September 20

I've got a book to finish today, so I'm posting early and sitting down with a cup of coffee...
I tried using my polarizer to get rid of the glare on the mugs, but it didn't make a difference.  So I'm not sure how to fix that.  Otherwise I like the steam, which was the point of the photo.  I did use my tripod for the first time in a week, and I can tell.  I'm keeping my 55-200 lens on until I get done with school portraits, which will hopefully be by the end of this week.  That means some form of close-up on the blog until then.  I just can't risk any dust on my sensor until I'm done with the portraits!
f/4.2, 1/50, 62mm, polarizer

Sunday, September 19, 2010

September 19

Today we went to this huge corn maze in Dixon.  It took us 1 1/2 hours to work our way through it, and we were moving at a pretty fast pace!  I was imagining lots of photo time, but as it turned out I didn't have much time to stop and photograph or I'd be abandoned in the maze pretty quickly!  I could either follow the maze map or follow the others while looking for photos.  I took this photo just as we were entering the maze, and it's pretty rare that I go with the first photo I take.  I think I ended up liking it because it shows the height of the corn best (and there are clouds in the sky which is still exciting to me here).  All photos taken here were hurried ones, and this one is no exception.  At 1/800 of a second I certainly could have gone with a higher f-stop.  I really don't like how out of focus the corn stalks in the foreground are.
f/4, 1/800, 55mm

September 18

I forgot to post yesterday's photo, so here it is.  This hawk was perched in a field treeline yesterday morning surveying his morning breakfast options.  I was hoping to catch him taking off but he wasn't very obliging.  So this is what I got.  It's only zoomed to 150mm, I guess because I was trying to compose with the tree branches.  I can zoom to 200mm, but sure wish I had a 300 or 400mm lens whenever I see a bird like this!  f/5.3, 1/125, 150mm, polarizer

Friday, September 17, 2010

September 17

I got my camera back tonight so it seemed like a good time to include sky in the photo just to admire my clean sensor.  These birds congregate here every evening at sunset.  I didn't realize until tonight how much jockeying for positions goes on with them though!  The top wire is preferred.
f/5.6, 1/320, ISO250

Thursday, September 16, 2010

September 16

I dropped my camera off for repairs today in Sacramento.  I couldn't help but stop along the way to photograph, this time using the macro filter, which also disguises my sensor spots.  I wanted to photograph rice growing, but I couldn't get close enough with the macro filter without stepping into the water. I need to be about 2-6 inches away from the subject matter depending on how much I'm zoomed in.  So I tried just standing right at the edge of the field, leaning as far over as I could with the camera up close to the rice stalks, and randomly shooting, but (surprise surprise) no spectacular results came from that. Next time I need some waders!  This isn't rice, it's just some sort of wild grass/grain that was growing right along the edge of the rice field, so I could easily stand close and see through the view finder to focus.  Rice field closeup someday soon...
f/5.6, 1/500, 55mm, +10macro filter

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

September 15

So these seeds grow on the same tree that I photographed when I first arrived here (July 16th)...the tree with the pink puff balls.  This is what they turned into after pollination!  I wanted to do a f/5.6 blurry background photo today because it turns out that I do have some dust spots on my sensor that I can't get off, and at my lowest aperture they don't really show up.    Tomorrow morning I'm dropping my camera off at a repair shop to have the sensor cleaned, so hopefully I can get a decent photo before that.  I'll get my camera back Friday afternoon, making the next two days iffy for photography.
f/5.6, 1/100, 110mm

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

September 14

I was thinking this old fence leaning over would make a nice photo, so I tried a variety of different angles and apertures with it.  I think about half the photos turned out pretty nice, and I just had the hardest time picking between them.  Looking at this photo almost crosses my eyes now because I ended up with so many similar shots that it just got confusing.  I went with this one because I liked the depth of fence it shows.  I don't like where I've placed the two closer posts though.  The one thing I would have liked to try was photographing here later in the day (this was about 9am), but there was no time for that today.
f/25, 1/10, 110mm

Monday, September 13, 2010

September 13

I only photographed these little sunflower weeds today so there wasn't much option in what I would post.  The flowers are about three inches in diameter, and they grow along the side of the road around here.  These were growing at the Yolo Bypass.  I was pretty set on the idea of photographing backlit. 

Sunday, September 12, 2010

September 12

I decided to try to photograph at the dog park today, and it proved to be much trickier than I'd expected!  I wanted a side-view motion shot (legs in the air) but I was usually zoomed in too close or out too far.  And Clover was usually running straight at me or straight away from me.  This one ended up being my favorite, largely for lighting.  Again the focus isn't that sharp.  One thing I did right this time was to work in shutter mode, so that's an improvement!
f/8, 1/200, 200mm

Saturday, September 11, 2010

September 11

Well this is another f/5.6 200mm photo, but at least this time I get some effect from it.  I do like the points where the fence falls out of focus.  Too bad the horse isn't focused better though.  That's just me being lazy, I guess.  No tripod.  And 1/13 is way too slow for no tripod.  I didn't expect the horse to come up to the fence like that, and I wasn't prepared.  I like the puckered mouth on the horse, plus all the fence colors.
f/5.6, 1/13, 200mm

Thursday, September 9, 2010

September 9

I guess this is a pretty good photo for today as a metaphor.  This is me looking back at the day and wondering where it went!  And also wondering why the sunset is so easy to photograph as a reflection!  This was just one of those throw-away photos that I ended up liking.  In this case, by elimination, because I spent some time photographing a plant at the arboretum, but all the shots were slightly fuzzy when viewed on the computer.  And then the day was gone...
f/5.6, 1/30, ,55mm, WBcloudy, vivid

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

September 8

I was trying to take a photo of a eucalyptus grove this afternoon, but it just wasn't turning out.  In the meantime, a dozen squirrels had gather around this man,"The Squirrel Whisperer," who was sitting in the grove and feeding them and they are very tame.  I ended up liking this super close-up.  They actually get much closer to the camera than this, but it's impossible to focus on them.  Focusing was my issue again anyway...I have this tendency to focus and then try to frame the shot, and when I'm photographing animals like this I need to just point and shoot a lot more.  I like the eye on this squirrel, and also the crumbs on his chin.

f/5.6, 1/25, 200mm

Monday, September 6, 2010

September 6

So this isn't really the photo I wanted tonight.  I set out with my camera to a different location and when I got there I realized I didn't have my SD card in my camera.  A sure sign I'm tired; but then I already knew that!  This is a scene I've thought about photographing though, and it's a photo that needs to be taken just after sunset, so that's what I did tonight.  I'm bothered by the spots on the photo in the sky...I hope those will wash off my lens and are not on my sensor again!  f/22, 3sec., 18mm, vivid

Sunday, September 5, 2010

September 5

We had a picnic today at Golden Gate Park so I really wanted a photo from here today.  This bridge is so beautiful from any angle. I was wanting to get a photo of it that wasn't the usual angle, and this one ended up being my favorite of all I tried.  Actually, I saw the bridge earlier in the week when the upper towers were shrouded in fog and sun was filtering through under the bridge.  And I wanted that photo so badly but we couldn't stop then.  So of course today it was harsh sunlight and I'm a little disappointed.  On the other hand, warm and sunny is best for a picnic so it was fun day.
f/10, 1/30, 26mm

Saturday, September 4, 2010

September 4

This photo is simultaniously amazing and gross.  This fly had the good fortune to rest on the kitchen table flowers while I was eating breakfast this morning.  The lighting was perfect, so rather than reaching for the flyswatter, I got my camera instead.   I've seen macro photos of bugs where you can see all the eye lenses, but this was the best my filter could get.  I am happy that I caught it with its tongue out though. And I have to admit, the little buggie eyes got to me; I don't think I'll be able to pick up the flyswatter today.  Especially after it was such an accommodating model!  Tomorrow, however, is a new day...
f/5.6, 1/4000, ISO800, vivid, +10macro filter

Friday, September 3, 2010

September 3

We had this neat opportunity tonight to watch the bats fly out from beneath the Yolo Bypass I-80 Bridge.  There are an estimated 150,000 bats that fly out each night, and they only emerge from this one spot, flying right over this tree.  Evidentally this makes for a safer exit.  I have a bunch of pictures of this, but I decided to post this one with the bike in it.  The bike is actually strapped to the top of a car heading east on I-80, but it's perfectly lined up with the bridge wall.  I was working in aperture, as is my bad habit, so all my photos are f/5.6.  In this particular photo my camera read much lower light, so it's only 1/80 and the bats are a little blurry.  (Luckily traffic on I-80 was crawling along because of the holiday weekend so the bike isn't too blurry!)  I really debated about posting this one because I didn't want to detract from the bats, but I just couldn't help myself.  I still think the bats look really cool, and the bike adds to the photo.
f/5.6, 1/80, 55mm, vivid

Thursday, September 2, 2010

September 2

This has been a pretty hectic week here, and not a great week for photography.  I did take my camera out this morning on my walk with Clover.  I'm crediting her with finding this photo because she was sniffing around this shrub and I spotted the scene...water droplets on spider web glowing in the sunshine.  It's my 200mm lens so I have to be about 4 ft. away to get it to focus.  I never really got it sharply focused to my satisfaction.  Now I'm wondering if my 18-55 lens would have been better.  Just dreaming about buying a higher quality lens today.
f/5.6, 1/200, 200mm

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

August 31

This is my second time posting a vineyard photo, and I'm not really satisfied with either of them.  I like this one better, I guess because it's more colorful.  It really didn't turn out how I wanted it to though.  The vineyard is pretty small, probably about 10 acres or so.  I was surprised by the number of different varieties of grapes growing.  I started in a section with tiny dark purple grapes.  The owner said they were merlot and pinot.  They weren't good for this photo though because they were opaque.  He directed me to a section with muscat grapes.  I think that's what I've photographed here, based on description.  They glow more in the light which was what I was looking for.  I wonder if this would have turned out better if I could have gone closer to sunrise, but I've got school time constraints now so no sunrise photos except for the weekends. 
f/5.3, 1/60, 145mm, polarizer