July 9

I'm not really a food photographer, as you can see.  But I think I'm a pretty good pie baker!  This one was a labor of love.  Key Lime Meringue Pie for someone's birthday today.  Cooling on the counter for later today...one question is where will we put the candles?

July 4

Happy 4th of July!  This was shot at our local 4th of July celebration here in Davis at the field behind the high school.  We arrived sort of late, so we ended up at this spot under a tree, which worked for viewing about half the fireworks.  Too bad the rest opened behind the tree.  I liked the idea that there would be some framing in the shot, but I don't think the tree really needed to be in that much!  I definitely wanted the people viewing the fireworks to be part of the framing.  We didn't realize it when we arrived, but we sat right under a street light, so I think that helped add light to the spectators.  This particular fireworks was the one that sizzles and pops.  I think it came out really nice in this photo.  It sort of looks like a space ship just went into hyperspace mode. Or maybe like a swarm of fireflies. The other thing I like about this photo is the blue twilight glow in the sky.  They did actually start the fireworks before it was totally dark, which I've never seen done before.  It seemed dark at the point this was taken, but it's a 3 second shutter speed here, so it just brought in all the residual light, and made that deep blue color, which makes a really nice graphic night sky.

June 30

I took this photo for my nephew's birthday card.  There's a theme for the birthday gift, but I won't give too much away here, since maybe he'll check the blog before his birthday :)  It's pretty obvious anyway, right?  I'm happy with the photo...it came out just how I was imagining it, which is pretty rare for me.  I guess I wasn't imagining a guitar/violin combo, but the patterns are pretty I think.  It's my prime lens set to f/1.8 again, which creates the blurry background.  The folks at Watermelon Music in downtown Davis were kind enough to let me set up my tripod and have fun with the camera.  It was a cool store; large and casual with lots going on.  It would be the perfect setting for a sitcom, with a cast of regulars (the employees) and a group of regular customers who stop in and work through life's little issues while playing a lot of guitar music.  Just being in there for a while makes you want to play guitar!  It doesn't hurt that I just read the Keith Richards book either...

June 29

We took a little detour driving to Antioch today, and ended up winding through the Montazuma wind farm.  It was the crystal clear air and clouds that drew me astray.  The clouds and the windmills of course.  I photographed plenty of windwills and clouds, but in the end it was a photo of this little old dinosaur of a windmill that I ended up liking best.  You can see just a few of the hundreds of modern windmills peeking over the hills.  But this little guy has such nice contast...and character!  It's a great place for a wind farm; near the delta coming from the bay, it's a breezy spot.  You don't live here long without loving the delta breeze in the summer!  I could have driven around and photographed here all day today, but for my son complaining from the back seat (after all, it was his errand we were on.)  Still I never would have driven to Antioch without him, and I'm so glad we made the drive on such a photo friendly day! And that I remembered my camera!  I used to complain about photographing here in California where it's blindingly sunny all the time.  But I'm adapting, I think.  I love that I can fill all the pixels in a photo like this.

June 26

Question: Peaking at almost 4000 ft, why did we drive to the top of Mt. Diablo?  To see the other side?  We drive to Doug and Cora's coming down 680 from the north, so here is the view of 680 leading south toward San Jose.  To see the view from the top?  Clearly hazy... but it did make for a nice vista shot.  I like the road leading into the photo, and wish I'd positioned slightly to the left so you could see it trailing off toward the distant peak (will update later with its name), but this was the shot with the deepest tones so I went with it.  I think it's underexposed by about three stops and I wish I would have tried underexposing even more!  We passed many cyclists making their way up the winding path.  It was an easy climb in the car.  I'm glad we went to the top though, because we can see this mountain all the time in the distance from our town.  Thanks Doug and Cora!

June 23

So this is very cool.  It's called Titan Arum...this one is named "Ted the Titan", and it only blooms once every two years for 48hrs.  It started blooming today at the UC Davis greenhouse!  When it blooms it gives off a smell like rotting meat.  The smell wasn't as strong as I was expecting but it did sort of waft out a scent like the garbage needed to go out a day or two ago.  It turns out this scent helps it attract flies to pollinate it.  Weird.  Technically it's not a flower but an inflorescence...a huge leaf holding hundreds of tiny flowers.  As for the photo itself, I wish the photo included the top and bottom of the flower.  Also compositionally I wanted a photo with just the bloom, but I realize that makes it harder to tell its size.  You can see a little bit of someone's elbow poking in the right had side of the photo under the leaf, just to give and idea of the size.  Here's a link to the greenhouse website if you're interested in reading more about Ted: http://greenhouse.ucdavis.edu/conservatory/

June 21

Not much to this photo really, but I haven't posted in so long, and that was really eating at me.  Just too busy.  I was thinking this morning that I probably wouldn't have time to go out with my camera today, but when I walked out the front door to get the newspaper, the light was just right on these stems, so voila!  No it hasn't rained here...we're well into hot and dry summer...our sprinkler ran this morning.  At the end of these stems are little purple flowers, and they smell like chives.  I've photographed them before (maybe in September).  The flowers aren't chive flowers though they're obviously related.  Anyway, hoping to turn over a new leaf and post more often.  Twice a week would be a good goal I think! :)

May 30

Attempting a Memorial Day photo, I went early to the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery.  This isn't a usual Memorial Day activity for me, so I have to say I was amazed by the number of cars filing in for the morning service!  And I don't know where the wind was coming from but it was harsh, which is why that flag looks like it's ready for a lunar landing...it actually was that windy!  As for the photo I have to say I'm a little disappointed in it because it seems so cliche.  I'm not sure what I was looking to photograph, but I don't really feel like I captured it here.  Too bright, too windy.  Maybe too empty given all the people there today.  I'm glad I went out there though.

May 28

So how bout that!  I got myself a 50mm prime lens with a 1.8 aperture, and I'll tell you what, it's going to be a while before I can make myself switch out of f/1.8!  Such a new experience that I'm addicted for now.  I'll admit the effect is a little exteme, but it's a new effect so it's fresh.  This was shot in manual mode, which is also something new for me from my workshop a few weeks ago.  I'm happy with the overall lighting and effect. 

May 14

So this was a new experience for me.  I attended a photography workshop over the weekend, and the focus was portrait photography...babies, kids, families.  I've been saying for a while that I need a new lens and this workshop really solidified that idea for me.  I'll probably get a 50mm prime lens, so I can get a 1.8 aperture.  What I really want is the 70-200mm professional lens, with 2.8 aperture, but I'm not going to spend that much just yet.  I might rent it for the weekend though just to try it out.  Wish I were closer to family right now, because  I've got some babies I could photograph :)

April 24

I've counted over 30 baby goslings at our neighborhood pond.  This particular family has 11 babies, which is really amazing to me because typically a family has about 4-6.  In this case, I was waiting for them to swim into the sunshine and just as they did, one parent went to the left and the other to the right.  10 goslings followed to the right, but one shot off after the other parent, so it's not a complete family photo, but still pretty impressive.

April 13

My new hobby...sock-knitting :)

I had a rough time composing this photo!  This isn't how I envisioned it looking at all.  Just how it goes sometimes...

April 4

So this is my attempt at "panning" to capture bike movement on campus here.  I've got this idea to capture the bike scene between classes, but I found out that I needed my shutter speed to be about 1/20 sec. and in order to do that I had to find a somewhat shady location to not bring in too much light, because all the main thoroughfares were too sunny.  But my idea is to capture a lot of bikes all at once.  If I try this again, it will be on a somewhat cloudy day or much later in the day.  I'd like to keep the slow shutter speed but capture a busier location.

March 11

How cute is this little guy?  He was preening, and I'm not sure why he stretched his leg out like that, but it really was cute.  It looks like bird yoga!  I think he's maybe a juvenile merganser.  Lots of turtles around too.  The pond is pretty high right now, so they were all sunning on this log.  I converted this one to black and white (and cropped) because I really liked how the water looks like wood grain here.

March 9

The otters showed up again today!  Finally! I was starting to think they weren't coming back!  This is out at the Yolo Basin Wildlife Area, and the pond gets stocked with trout for a festival in February.  After the festival the otters show up for dinner.  There were four of them there today.  Many good shots to choose from, but overall I really liked this one.  The expression comes with a snort.  They're curious and come up kind of close, then they stick their heads way out of the water and snort at you.  I like that the tail is out too so it gives an idea of their size.  Plus the reflection is just how I like it.  Happy day!