A quiet Saturday afternoon at our house

Colin on the sofa, immersed in AP Calculus and a latte to keep him going. He definitely got his mathematical genes from Brett (and his coffee drinking habit from me). I had to stop helping him with his math homework when he hit the 5th grade. Give me History, Language Arts, or something creative...anything but math!

It's been so long since I've taken a people picture, I almost forgot how.

Our living room walls are a light dijon color, and produce an awful color cast. How do the skin tones look to you? I usually end up giving up and turning to B&W.

A few more photos from the arboretum yesterday

Non-flower ones....

I have no idea what this stuff was on some of the trees. I don't think it's moss. It's small, maybe the size of a cotton ball.







I REALLY wish I had had my tripod for this one, then I could have slowed my shutter and had a wider DOF so the whole thing was in focus. These were really cool....they were on some sort of tree, I have no idea what kind it is.


Isn't this little guy cute? Reminds me of someone doing a backbend....


I'm going to try and go back next week. The magnolia trees should be in full bloom (in a different area), and I'd love to photograph them.

There is a Japanese Garden in the arboretum as well. I went there last fall and took some pictures. In a couple of weeks they have a 2 hour (8-10 am) shoot before it opens to the public you can sign up for. They only allow 10 photographers in, and it is the only time they allow tripods in. I am sorely tempted. Just not sure (for me) it's worth the $30 they charge. If I was a pro, I would go for it for sure. Plus, the way the weather is here in the springtime, there is no guarantee it won't rain, and there are no refunds. Decisions, decisions.....what would you do?

Went to the arboretum today

...and it was lovely. I tend to forget what a gem this place is, and it's nearly in my backyard. I just relaxed, wandered, put the camera in aperture priority (which I rarely do) and took pictures. Fabulous way to spend an hour for sure!

Hand held, so not as sharp as I'd like, but I'm fairly pleased with most of them just the same. I'll share a few flowers tonight, and tomorrow I'll post some other interesting finds I made.











By the way, doesn't nature provide the most beautiful backgrounds ever?

Still hurting, but doing better....

...trying to avoid going in to the doctor if I can, but will tomorrow if my back isn't markedly better. I am bored, bored, bored (I actually watched a movie last night which I never do, that's how bored I am).....but hurt too much to do anything.

Took a few photos this morning. I think I wish I had NOT put a water drop on it though. I like the colors and form without. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow I'll try again without anything on the petals. Been playing with a very shallow DOF, trying to get better at it.

And yes, these colors are as shot. I'm thinking this lens might require me to start desaturating the yellows a bit. What do you think?

Please don't think I'm weird, but as I was shooting this one I kept thinking if I titled it I'd call it "Don't Jump!" ;)


And a couple of others:





And here are a few from over last weekend:

It's been so long....

...I'd forgotten what a blue sky looks like! I had to take a picture of it ;) and yes, the bluest skies you'll ever see are in Seattle.



and is it wrong that I actually WANT the dandelions to go to seed this year so I can photograph them?




even the cat enjoyed sunbathing herself today....


I hurt my back on Friday. I'm hoping it's better enough that I can get to the arboretum tomorrow and wander around with my camera. There was no way I could have made it today. Fingers crossed for me please? This nice weather is only supposed to last one or two more days.....

Happy, happy, joy, joy....

Hands down my favorite macro I've taken so far....



I actually got a bunch more today that I like almost as well, but I'm too lazy to edit tonight. It was a good photo day!

A question mark....

The curves on the end of this calla reminds me of a question mark. So, I have a question for you if you're game. Do you prefer the shallow DOF or the deeper on these next couple of shots? I'm trying to get to the point where I'm not shooting macros at 3 or more different apertures to see what I like best (my camera does not have a DOF preview). Train my eye so to speak. So, what are your thoughts on these?

I like the way even the reflection in the drop has either a wide or narrow DOF too. Kinda cool, eh?

This one...

F 16

or this one?

F 6.7

This one....

F 19

or this one?

F 4

And just for fun....a big time crop


Lastly, I like how shallow the DOF is on this. Reminds me of abstract art in a way...

F 4.8

In regards to a couple of questions from yesterday's entry. The photo from 3 weeks ago was using a 60mm macro that I rented. I since have purchased the 105mm macro. But, really, it's not a lens issue that caused the improvement, just a lot of practice. As to what I am doing differently, I think there are 2 things. One is being decisive about where exactly I want the focus to fall, instead of kind of hoping it would be "ok." The second is much of the time I am using a narrow aperture...F16 or so. Sometimes as high at F45. Very rarely do I go under F4. Not to say a very shallow DOF is wrong, it's just that I'm not good enough yet to use it effectively much of the time. The DOF at F4 is a very small fraction of an inch. There are some people who do such beautiful work at very shallow DOF, and I aspire to be one of them someday!

Ok, I definitely see improvement in the macros.

Today:


versus this one taken 3 weeks ago


Yay me!

Just a couple of random pics from earlier this week

Not much else to say. Hard to believe, isn't it?!?

"Jewels"

It rained off and on today. I ventured out this afternoon, camera in hand, to see what I might find to photograph, and found the leaves of the "bleeding heart" plants covered in gems. At first glance, they looked like rhinestones to me:


And the railing by the front door:


The camelia is just beginning to bloom:


And I really like this last one (don't hear me say that very often), but I am disappointed with the lighting on it. It's a little flat. I've got to try and get the hang of how to position things relative to the light source...

Just a couple of black and whites...

...using the conversion method I wrote about yesterday. And yes, this first one is really intense. Out of the norm for me, but I kinda like it....







Also, for Ingrid. The settings on the shots I posted yesterday were ISO 200, F27, SS 1/2 on them both. The lens I use is the Nikon 105 VR macro. Hope this helps!

I'm not a pink kind of girl....

....green is definitely my favorite color. Maybe if I had had a girl I would like pink more, I dunno.

I bought this gerbera specifically because it is so light colored and I thought it might convert to B&W well. I've been trying to come up with a series of 3 B&W or duotoned images to go into 3 specific frames for the master bath.

I played a bit with the "calculations" method of converting tonight. I'd never tried it before. You can find instructions here: http://www.tutorialelf.com/photoshop/2/the-calculations-method.html

I think I really like doing it this way. I definitely need to work on it some more and perfect the technique, but here's one of my first tries:



and here are a couple in color: