January 29

 I like both these photos today and I'm not making myself choose just one. These were both taken at a tiny nature preserve near our house; I photographed here last month as well.  I was traveling light this morning and I only had my 55-200 lens.  This was a good thing for the hooded merganser shot, but maybe not so good for the foggy tree, because I've pulled back to 55mm there and still didn't manage to get all of the tree in the photo.  That's my criticism with the top photo.  The thing I like about it is that it reminds me of a Chinese ink drawing where the white paper makes the negative space.  I love that the water is basically "white".  I'm absolutely loving this foggy spell!

January 23

I thought we'd get this kind of fog more often in the winter here, but fog this thick has actually been pretty rare.  I can't say this came out how I wanted.  Guess I'm getting out of practice here!  This particular orchard is closest to my house, but wouldn't have been my first choice for photographing.  But as I headed closer to Winters (where the really thick orchards are) the fog was burning off, so I had to turn around and come back to this location.  I had trouble composing the photo here, and the big "private property" sign really limited my options. Still it captures the mood I was looking for.

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!

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.

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...

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.

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!

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...

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! =(

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

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

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

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

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

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