late Sunday Stills/Macro Monday

If you mock a weatherman for not being able to predict weather out of a wet paper bag enough times, then they predict a big storm – which of course you don’t believe them – that knocks the power out.  I knew I should have just scheduled my Stills post Saturday night! And since I to do so, today will be a late SS/Macro Monday post.

Regular old post-growing moss.

Sunday Stills Challenge:

As it turns out, I did manage to find a horse to photograph… my own!  Not that I was worried about finding any. =)

Just coming back from a ride.  Nick was so patient and hardly moved a muscle while I snapped away and asked him to pose for me.

This is one of my favorites, I took it this summer right before I went for a ride.  I just love the look on his face.

Sunday Stills Challenge – Fins, Feathers, and Fur

Interesting challenge, but fun!  I thought of this photo that I took back in July as soon as I read the title of the next challenge last Sunday.  This was in one the little islands in the road on the way to the meat processing place that we take our beef.

Blue Herons are supposed to be good luck, right?

Blue Merle fur…

Black Tri fur.

Sunday Stills Challenge – Currency

“I’m afraid currency is the currency.” – Lord Cutler Beckett, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End

ISO: 64, f/stop: 4.8,  Shutter speed: 1/250

As soon as I got the challenge, I immediately thought of the $1 gold coins.  The one on left is the older version, and the one with Andrew Jackson on the front is the new version, from either this year, or 2008.

The all-seeing eye… ($1 bill)

I love this eagle!

How do they make the 100 in green look so bumpy??

I think this is a really cool idea!  Got every quarter except for Montana.

Home state…

 

 

Sunday Stills Challange – Halloween

In the spirit (pun intended) of Halloween, this was just too good to pass up and not post!

This week’s challenge couldn’t have come at a better time!  When I looked to see what the next challenge was last Sunday, I couldn’t been happier to see it was Halloween because I was going to a Rascal Flatts concert Friday night and I was pretty sure the backup band would dress up like they did every year during a show.  I wasn’t disappointed!

This year they dressed up as Chewbaccas.

Scared, Jay?  That’s just….Jonathan? I think.  A great way to end the tour!

Sunday Stills Challange – The Letter C

One of the most gorgeous sunrises this fall….  And a nice lenticular cloud over Mt. Hood.

More clouds…

An hour later.

The compound.

Della loves to soak up the sun after being up in the field all day, grazing.

Critters.  This three are the Three Stooges, they go practically everywhere together.

This reminds me of one of those clouds you would see somewhere really open, like a prairie.

Wordless Wednesday

Macro Monday

Sunday Stills Challange: Photoshop

This week’s assignment was fun and interesting one.  It’s amazing all the things you change and do to a picture!  I used a photo editing program called Photo Pos Pro, it’s free and pretty easy to use; I love it.

Super Sepia!  I did a custom sepia, which allows you to choose how much sepia is used, and changed the saturation a little bit.

Duotone.

Changed the saturation to heavy on the red.

Metalized.  This feature is really cool!

Embossed.

Metalized.  Again.

RGB -> BGR.  I like this effect!

Macro Monday

Since I never did get around to answering my comments on the last Macro post, I’ll just answer the question on this one. 

“What the heck is that thing?” Well, it’s a Chinese Chestnut.  Very prickly, but the nut is very sweet, and well worth scraping the bitter skin off.  The sweetness of the nuts seems to vary tree to tree.  The cows and Nick love to munch on the leaves when they can reach them.

My new shoes!  The 2″ heel took a little getting used to…

Sunday Stills – Happiness

I didn’t really have much time to take any pictures this week because I was buried a mountain of school work, but I did find some time to go through the archives.

I love country music with a passion.  While some may argue that the new country isn’t country anymore, I love my Johnny, Hank, and Waylon along with the newer artists.

(L to R:  Joe Don, Gary, and Jay)  My favorite band, Rascal Flatts.  This was back before we figured out how to take the date stamp off….  When you’re in the 300 level, the 12x zoom really makes a difference.

My all-time favorite singer, Keith Urban.  He puts on a truly amazing show!  Never seen anything like it.

Brad, Jerry, Keith, Chris, and Brian

Keith and his opening act, Little Big Town. (Jimi, Kimberly, Karen, and Phillip)

Absolutely no zoom at all!  We were in the 100 level, just off the floor and 11 rows back.  I though it was kind of cool that the shutter went off the same as the other camera and caught the flash.

I’m going to take a minute to brag about the camera…  I must say I was very impressed with the camera.  I only used the complete manual setting, where it lets you set the ISO, shutter speed and the aperature, and didn’t use the flash even once.  I was a little worried that all my pictures would be blurry because Keith moves around so much.  Even though I had semi good results with the automatic settings at the Rascal Flatts concert, I didn’t want to take a chance and have grainy photos.  I had the camera set on Landscape, the aperature set on 2.8, and the shutter speed ranged anywhere from 1/8 to 1/30 when there was more light.  Sure, there’s motion-blurred ones, but that’s to be expected.  This camera is a amazing!!  I must have gotten a really good battery because I took nine hundred plus pictures at the concert, and Mom and I had taken like thirty or so pictures earlier in day of canning or whatever and I was too lazy to load them before we left, and it never showed low battery once.  I kept waiting for it to come up and have to put a new battery in.  It even lasted the twenty some minutes it took to load the pictures on the computer and still go the rest of the day.  I wish all the batteries were like that!

Mom said on the way home that I would be too advanced for my digital photography class!  Which is probably true, it will still be fun.

A beautiful sunset will make almost anyone happy.

Late Macro Monday

Sunday Stills Challenge – Signs of Fall

A sign of Fall is not always something you can take a photograph of, such as how suddenly your fingers are freezing in the morning when it was just 70F the day before, or the equal amounts of daylight and darkness.   You can take a picture of being able to see your breath, but it’s not exactly easy to time it just right.

Fall officially started last Tuesday, but this tree was already starting to turn for the last few weeks!

Gold!  The Chantrelle mushroom usually comes out in September and October, after some of the fall rains have come.  This year they’re a bit early, but not a moment too soon in our opinion!  They’re delicious!

Dogs posing for a quick picture.  They love getting to explore when we go mushroom picking.

Some of the Chantrelles all sauteed in butter.  Mmmm!

Brr! It’s freezing!  Some people I know would consider forty something to be summer…

This last picture is more about the color than the actual bird and that one actually landed twenty feet from me.  As you can see from the color of the cones on the fir trees in the background, the sun has a beautiful reddish tint that only seems to come when there’s smoke from a forest fire, or in fall sunrises.  It’s simply beautiful.  The bird is a Pileated Woodpecker (known to some as a Shaggy-headed Woodpecker.

Sunday Stills Challenge

This week’s challenge is anything that runs on fuel and seats at least two people, aka mechanical transportation.  Every vehicle that we have other than the new Chevy Colorado, is an Int, so it’s kind of going to be an Internation fest…

1974 International Harvester ¾ ton pickup.

The main truck, a 1975 ¾ ton pickup.  Random fact of the day #845:  ‘75 was the last year that International made pickups.

1948 International tandem axle flatbed.

Picking up a load of hay.

One of the semis loaded with stage equipment for Keith’s show in Portland on Friday night.  The concert was great!!!  I didn’t see the front of the truck, so I don’t know what it is.  Probably a Kenworth.

Escape Together World Tour

Keith Urban is back in Portland tomorrow night!  It’s been a long two years since he was last in town and I’m thrilled to go see him again.  Never a dull moment at a Keith show, that is for sure!

His opening act is Little Big Town; I like a lot of their music, but have never seen them in concert, so I’m excited to see what kind of show they put on.

And, what’s even better, I’ll have pictures to show for it!  My first concert, in 2007, we didn’t have the digita camera yet, so no pictures.

Sunday Stills Challange

This challenge is a little different from the others – the rule of thirds.  Instead having a certain subject to shoot, this is a type of shooting.  Instead of centering the subject, you shoot the picture with the subject in the left, right, bottom, or top of the viewfinder.

I didn’t get too many pictures with all the rain that’s been pouring down on us lately, but I did get these.

Macro Monday

Macro Monday time again!  Food and trees with super wicked thorns make an interesting mix, but what the heck?

This is the common Hawthorn tree.   Their berries turn the most beautiful shades of red and black as they get ripe.  A little history:  the fruit, called a haw is used to make jelly, jam, wine, syrups, and add flavor to brandy.

The plum/peach pie that Mom made yesterday.

Skywatch Friday and Digital Photography

f 4.8
ISO: 64
Shutter: 1/30

You know the digital photography class that I’m taking as an elective this year in school?  Well, I just discovered yesterday on my first day of school, that it’s only a one semester class, and it starts in the spring, not fall.  As you can imagine, I was upset.  I already waited almost three months, and now I have to wait another four months!

Sunday Stills Challenge – The open road

I’m a little later than usual getting my post up, but anyway.  We haven’t really went anywhere recently, but I did get this on the way down to a friend’s to pick some fruit.

(click to enlarge).  The Portland Women’s Forum Viewpoint, aka Chanticleer Point is a little over three and a half miles down the mountain from us, and on the main drag through town.  Usually hazy, this is the clearest the Gorge has been for quite some time.  The river is so low that if you look closely, you can see how far the sand reaches out into the river.

The rest of the pictures are from the archives.  We took the scenic way up the Gorge to Hood River get some ice cream cones.  It was a fun trip, the view was amazing.

Heading out.

Coming home along the freeway.

The Crown Point Vista House from below, along the freeway.

And finally, the Columbia river, right before it forks.

Macro Monday

Sunday Stills Challange

When I checked the Sunday Stills blog early Monday morning and saw the challange was clouds, the sky was as blue as the ocean with not a single cloud in sight.  I was thinking, when the challange is supposed to be clouds, we don’t have any, of course.

As it turns out, there was an onshore flow later that day, so clouds showed up around three or four in the afternoon.  Finally something to shoot!  Over the next couple of days, there were some pretty cool and amazing cloud displays.

This week I’m doing something a little different.  I took so many pictures of the clouds, to put the ones I narrowed down to would make the post about fifteen miles long, so I’m putting them in a gallery.  Click to enlarge.

Wordless Wednesday

Macro Monday

Success at last!!!

I’ve taken my first shot of the moon that hasn’t been a misshapen blur with absolutely no detail at all!!  *cue high-pitched squealing*  Okay, I’m done now.

Anyway.  It was the day before the full moon (August 4th) and while creeping home through Corbett at the grand speed of 25mph with a full load of hay on the old truck, the nearly-full moon looked huge as it peeked over the tops of the trees on a bluff behind the grade/highschool.  Until just a couple of days ago, the moon had been the bane of my photographing life. I sighed, knowing that there was absolutely no way a picture from the truck would turn out.

When we got home I grabbed the camera and prepared for another disappointing batch of pictures.  I finally decided to try some of the “custom” settings.  I didn’t know how the pictures would turn out because I didn’t know that much about the manual settings and had never had good luck with them.

I set the camera on M (Manual) and played with the settings a little bit.  The aperture was set to 6.3 and the ISO 800.  I used the available dog food bag for a tripod and hoped for the best.  Dog food bag tripods would fit into the category of “You Know You’re A Redneck When…“, don’t you think?  Anyway, I was astounded by the results. The moon was actually in focus!  Dropping the ISO down to 400 turned the moon a lovely orangey-red color.

Computer research this morning revealed that instead of using the highest ISO on my camera, I should use 800 or 400 ISO and then there wouldn’t be so much blue and purple noise in my shots.

Aperture: 6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1000.  With the fast shutter speed you don’t have to have a tripod to insure that you get a clear picture, just a semi-steady hand should work just fine.  You’ll get a few out-of-focus ones but the majority will be in focus.
ISO: 1600.  I probably should have set it on 800, but that was before I found out that that smaller ISO makes a better quality picture.

This is by far my favorite shot.  It also helps to set the camera on Landscape as well.  It keeps it from focusing on whatever is in front of the  moon and instead brings them both into focus.

Isn’t this picture just love?

I took this one before the big breakthrough, but I still think it’s cool.

I chose digital photography as one of my electives for my sophomore year of highschool this year.  I can’t wait to see what I learn with it!

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Still Challenge – Fence

This Sunday’s challenge is fencing.  I must confess that a couple of these will be from the archives.  I got some really great shots last summer of some our fencing that would be kind of hard to duplicate.

This one and the picture below are from the archives.  I love the stripes on his/her wings; don’t know what kind it is, though.

Experimenting with Aperture and ISO…

Back in the saddle and a macro Monday

Well, not literally, I mostly ride bareback.  But that’s beside the point.  I’m back in the blogging saddle for awhile.  I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I was posting semi-regularly!

With one and a half hay fields left to finish, I should be posting pretty regularly until it’s time to go out and actually pick up all the bales and put them in the barn.  With this triple-digit heat wave passing through for the next few days, it’s certainly good hay drying weather, but not so good for us humans!  It’s stay in the shade all day and then come out at night like the deer and work.

Bull Thistle, Cirsium Vulgare

Sunday Stills Challange – Toys

boys, or what you consider toys challange this week was really fun to shoot.  Some very interesting stuff…

My vast Breyer model horse collection.  I have over fifty, including the dogs, two cows, a cat, and chickens and rabbits.  Now that I don’t play with much anymore, they sit on top of my dressers.

Affirmed, winner of the 1978 Triple Crown. The tenth, and so far the last horse to do so.

Hidalgo from the 2004 movie Hidalgo.  Beautiful chestnut paint.

Holstein milk cow.  I also have a Hereford bull.

My new baby, a Takamine EG530SC acoustic guitar as payment for my work over the summer hauling hay, weeding, and whatever odd jobs.

I’m putting these next two pictures on in behalf of Dad since he doesn’t have a blog, though he has to “share” some of his toys with me. =)  The emblem on our 1948 KB-6 flatbed hay truck.  I love this truck.

The 1/2 scale 12 pound Napoleon cannon.  It makes some serious thunder!

And finally, can’t forget about the camera that makes posting pictures on mine and Mom’s blog possible…

Wordless Wednesday

Macro Monday

A new idea from Ed for those of us who are looking for another challenge to shoot.  It’s a great idea, Ed!  I’m looking forward to seeing what everybody as posted pictures of.

Dewy Green Arrow peas.

This guy looks like he’s had a rough time – I wonder how much the tear in his wing would affect his flight?  I didn’t even notice the bumble bee on the other flower until I was cropping the picture!

This is straight out of the camera, despite the enhanced look…actually, all of them are SOOC.  I love the color on this one.

Sunday Stills Challenge – silhouettes

I think this week’s Sunday Stills challenge was one of my favorites so far.  All we had to do was have a sunny day and something to get a silhouette of!  I got quite a few, plus a couple from the archives.

Took this in the in one of the fields left for hay.   Had a gorgeous sunset that night, too.  With this picture I was trying to duplicate a picture I took last July in the same field. 
This is the one I took last July.  It actually happened by accident.  I didn’t know as much about the camera and had it on the wrong setting and got this amazing silhouette of the grass instead of the sunset.

Blue Jay on the house roof.  I can’t believe he actually stayed there long enough for me to go get the camera.  They’re so flighty that you usually only run to get the camera, come back, only to discover that he’s gone.

This one’s from the archives.  Took this back at the end of April.  He just had to come over and investigate!

In the hayfield again.  Trace is just waiting patiently for me to stop clicking away so he can go back to the house.

Out for an evening ride….

And now my absolute favorite out of all my silhouette shots.  The colors just come together so well.

Sunday Stills Challenge – Yellow

Japanese rose

Monkey flower

Mute Monday

Sunday Stills Challenge – Eyes

This week’s assignment as been fun and a bit, well, challenging! It’s all in getting your subject to hold still for more than ten seconds…

Nick ♥

Sylvester the cat.

One of our resident Siamese cats.

A calf we named Ty, after Ty Murray - the bullrider

Melvin's right eye.

Sunday Stills Challenge – Black ‘n White

This week’s challange is a little bit different than the previous ones we’ve been having.  For this week, we were supposed to pick two subjects from past challanges and reshoot them, either in black and white, or edit them and change the color to black and white after they’ve been taken.

Trace posing so beautifully for the camera (I think he loves his job as a model….)  This is from the pets challenge, which I believe was the very first Sunday Stills Challenge ever issued!  Shot in black and white.

Shot in black and white.  Do you consider your non-working horse a pet?  I do, so I figured Nick would fit into the pet category.

Shot in black and white.  Finally, our Siamese kitten/yearling, Gretchen.

Shot in black and white.  Black cherry from last week’s macros of flowers challenge.

Pale pink/white Rhododendron.  And finally, my favorite flower shot of the week!  Shot in black and white.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Stills Challenge – Flower Macros

This week’s challenge was to shoot some macros of whatever is starting to bloom for the folks who don’t have much green and no flowers yet.  This is the perfect challenge for this week, almost everything has greened up and is flowering like crazy.  I took so many pictures that I had a hard time narrowing it down to a select twelve or thirteen to post!

Big Leaf or Oregon Maple

Johnny Jump-up

Oregon Grape

white Trillium

Trillium, complete with spider

ornamental quince

Slender Toothwort

Bleeding Heart

Match-stick lichen, also known as British Soldiers

purple and periwinkle Vinca minor

wild flowering currant

Mute Monday

Sunday Stills Challenge – Barns

This week’s challenge was to get inside a barn and experiment with angles on the different stuff inside.  I can only speak for myself, but but this was an easy and fun challenge, since we have several barns.

This is the "Horse Barn," just out from the house. This is just to give you an idea to what it looks like on the outside.

These are the horse tie stalls that we used when we still had draft horses. Even though this is call the Horse Barn, only part of it is actually used for horses. One side of the barn had the tie stalls, the middle is used for hay, and on the other side, is a small feeding shed.

One of the two or three swallow nests in the barn...

Sunday Stills Challenge – the color red

A stack of cinnabar-colored fiesta platters. These are actually my favorite color....

Late Sunday Still

I would have had my post up earlier, but I forgot to schedule my post and then by the time I remembered, we were busy putting plastic on the brooder that had it’s original plastic slashed to save it from collapsing under the weight of the snow.

This week’s challenge is animals of husbandry.  For a little extra challenge, Ed told us to try and get three animals in the same shot. 

Taking a relaxing afternoon nap in the warm sun.....