Thanks to the weather this week I had to raid the January archives for the challenge. First it was non stop snow – over a foot and a half – and then torrential rain that added up to at least 11 ½”, not exactly weather to be out snapping photos, unfortunately!
Cold Wren
Our pair of Redtail Hawks.
Interesting challenge, I wish I had more time this week to get pictures of more corners. Here’s my lonely corner:
Any guesses on what it is?
This challenge was a lot of fun, never really tried doing this before!
Did some experimenting with the Christmas tree. I meant to take the flash light and set the camera up outside on the tripod but didn’t around ever doing it.
Love my new circular polarizing filter, it works wonders on clouds!
Click to view skies from all around the world:
Is it really a new year already? Seems like just yesterday we were heading out to cut the first hayfield of the summer.
Thanks to Linda at Colorado Farm Life for another great challenge! The end-of-the-year challenge are always, for lack of a better word, a challenge. I usually have several favorites from each time I got out shoot, so it’s tough to pick just one from the whole year, but this year I had a top three (usually it’s more!) to narrow it down from.
Speaking of haying, I discovered this Goldenrod crab spider and his catch while I was out checking the hayfield we were about to lay down for tansy. These spiders blend in incredibly well. If not for the moth and the tiny splash of red on the spider’s body, I never would have even noticed that someone was using the plant as his hunting ground.
I haven’t yet given much thought to my photographic aspirations for this coming year…. As always, there is so much to learn about photography, it is a never-ending learning curve. Sometime this year – for graduation, perhaps – I hope to upgrade to a DSLR. I’ve got my eye on the Canon EOS Rebel T3i (600D)…
Hope everyone is having a great New Year’s Day!
Hope everyone had a merry Christmas! One of my favorite gifts was this beautiful leather cuff with oak tooling that matches my saddle almost perfectly!
Nothing like a little “spring cleaning” thanks to a computer virus. It’s gone now but the computer is so giddy about all the empty space that it doesn’t know what to do with its self!
Happy Anniversary to the Sunday Stills Challenge! In honor of the first ever challenge, this week’s assignment is pets.
Keeping his eye out for stalking barn cats.
Enjoying some rare afternoon rays.
Posing for a quick photo. “Yeah, I know I’m cool.”
The last sunset of November; dramatic clouds and mist rolling down the canyon – certainly a beautiful way to end the month! I took another stab at HDR (High Dynamic Range), but I needed a couple more exposures to bring out the detail in the trees.
Click here to see more beautiful skies from around the world.
A shot from the archives to add a touch of summer to the winter weather…
This week’s Sunday Still’s challenge is bokeh. My first time authoring a challenge, I’m very excited to see what everyone came up with! A big thank you to Linda and Ed for the opportunity to submit our ideas for future challenges. I recently became obsessed interested in bokeh once I realized how much depth of field really effected a photo, and how much better the SX20 handled shallow depth of field than my previous camera. Now I could pretty much consistently get the blurred background when I wanted, not just occasionally. Push the limits of your equipment, you might be surprised at what you learn and what your camera can do!
For an added mini challenge, the next time you’re watching your favorite TV show, especially if the characters are outside, see if you can spot the bokeh in the background.
Barn cat “helping” by walking into the frame is optional…
Some moss on the rock pillar at the bottom of the shop stairs.
One from the archives (yikes, I cut off part of the left flower!), when I didn’t quite understand bokeh and how to create it.
Finally got a break from the downpour of the last few days and actually had a semi nice day. Not bad for the end of November!
A jay with his loot.
Click here to see more skies from all over the world.
Had our first hard frost of the fall last night; it actually got cold enough to freeze the puddles and leave a thin sheet on the water buckets. It snowed about an inch the night before, then the sky cleared…
Found this poor guy hiding on a fence post – he must have been freezing! (pun not intended).
Eek, portraits! I’m generally not a portrait person, especially people portraits (none of the humans around here are willing models… 
), but here’s what I came up with.
Thanks to the late, wet summer the chestnuts are considerably smaller this year, and just now starting to drop and be cut by the Steller Jays.
Another great challenge! The the trash bin can really force you to look at your composition and your exposure. The camera may be a “point & shoot,” but if you put the time and thought- the situation allowing - into the photo, it becomes more than just a snap shot.
(Dog and deer repellent) Classic snap shot – gets the job done but leaves quite a bit to be desired.
All the same elements, different angle and more visually appealing composition.
I actually like this shot, but the background, especially the the electric wire running through the bottom of the frame is distracting and detracts from the photo.
Since the drop and the barb are the subject, they should fill the majority of frame. I like the lens flare as well, I think it works for with the drop and sun rays.
This week’s challenge was to shoot in the dark. Too many things to trip over outside so I decided to do a slightly different spin on the challenge and try my hand a long exposures in the house…
I used the desk as a tripod – please excuse the dust and boring subject matter – and set the exposure as long as it would go (15 sec). I forgot the change the white balance so it’s a little warm, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I gotten the star effect.
Kind of cheated, but…
Choose a starting spot, walk 25 steps in any direction and take 3 photos. The 25 steps can be outside your home, inside your home, in your neighborhood or away from your neighborhood. Once your steps have been counted out, you must anchor one foot, you can pivot on that foot but your anchor foot may not move.
This was a great challenge, had a lot of fun with it!
Twenty five steps east of the horse barn, looking south.
West:
North; hedge:
50 steps south of the house:
Carrots for the house and barn (NE)
Faithful guardian (SE).
Some serious stretching required to get this one. That articulating LCD screen does come in handy, though! (South)
Sunrise from the kitchen window!
For more skies all over the world, click here.
Couldn’t find any interesting rock formations, but I thought this Thunderegg (Oregon’s state rock) seemed to fit the bill…
It’s the middle of October and the strawberries are still going strong!
This was tough challenge, but I did manage to get this of the Fremont Bridge over the Willamette River.
More Sunday Stills Challenge contributions here!
A year ago today I found this ad on Craigslist:
Red Dun gelding Quarter Horse. Registered AQHA name The Talk of the Town aka “Willy”. 19 yrs old, great for beginner/intermediate. Used for lessons, shows, 4-H, trail riding, beach and rodeo. He is a gorgeous, smart and all around fun horse, but haven’t spent the quality time he deserves. I took lessons on him for seven years and he knows everything and more!
The month before, at the beginning of September, I had to put Nick down. He was getting so old that his teeth were worn down so much that he couldn’t properly chew his food. No matter what I tried, I just couldn’t keep weight on him. His last five years had been good ones; it was time to put him out of his misery.
I had planned on waiting to getting another horse until spring when the grass was coming on. Though it certainly couldn’t hurt to look and get an idea about the market, right? When I found the ad, he was pretty much everything I was looking for – and a dun! – despite being a couple years older than the range I was considering. And, he was relatively close.
I quickly replied to the ad and we waiting anxiously for a response. After trading several emails, the owner, who lived a hundred miles or so away from the place where she was boarding him , said she couldn’t make it on the afternoon that we’d agreed on, but to go ahead and go look at him anyway. I’d asked my trainer to come along because she knew what she was looking at better than I did.
We found the place relatively easy. Willy was out in the pasture with a couple other horses, and immediately quit grazing to come investigate and beg some treats. He was very friendly and not standoffish at all. My trainer assessed him and said that he was slightly sickle-hocked and a bit cresty in the neck, and with exercise his back would come up; overall, he looked pretty good.
Afterward, we agreed to meet that weekend at a local arena so I could try him out. I was so excited! When we got to the arena, he was already tacked up and his owner was warming him up. After being idle for seven/eight years while his owner was in the army, he needed a little warm up. I got on him and he was great, did everything I asked willingly. His western pleasure-like trot was to die for! That settled it, I was definitely in love. And the rest is history!
Who knew it would be so hard to find a decent vanishing point?? My attempt…
More Sunday Stills here!
Despite it officially being fall and heading into the rainy season, there was a surprising lack of fog or rain to get some water/dew drops!
Raiding the archives:
Crazy week, didn’t get a chance to check the Sunday Stills blog for the challenge until yesterday. But, I did get a picture of the resident mosquito that likes to hang around the computer.
Found this cool partial spider web on a fence post on my way out to do chores yesterday morning.
Pitch on a firewood log.
Some sort of pollinator… not exactly sure what it is.
Loaded-down honeybee on a blackberry blossom.
I love sunsets; there is just something magical about them that never seems to lose its charm, no matter how many you’ve seen.
Bit of a tough challenge this week Since I missed last week’s, I went for extra challenge of getting ones that haven’t been posted about.
Mother & Daughter
Getting ones hair done is often a family affair.
Playtime!
Okay, I couldn’t resist.
Got so busy last week that I missed Sunday Stills! At least there’s always next week.
When I first saw the bee, I thought it had gotten too cold to fly, since it was pretty overcast. But then I noticed the white spider – practically the same color as the rose – with a death grip on bee’s neck. Without the two red stripes on its back, it blends in incredibly well. Did a quick Internet search and found out that the spider is a Goldenrod Crab Spider, which is either white or yellow, depending on what color flower they are hunting on, and they can change between the two colors.
It’s a toss up between the super macro mode and zoom – both are equally awesome!
The letter “F”.
Firepower
Friends
Field
God bless America and our troops! Have an great Independence Day!
I ordered this new beauty on Sunday from Amazon and got it late yesterday afternoon. I’ve only used it for a couple of hours and I already love it to death!
It’s a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS – it has 20 x optical zoom and 4 x digital zoom, which adds up to 80 x zoom altogether. No offense to Kodak, but I have only used barely even a quarter of the settings it (Canon) has to off and it has already proven itself to be absolutely amazing.
It’s bulkier and heavier than the Kodak, but I personally like having something to fill my hands, so that is a pro for me. The weight also seems to help reduce the shake produced from pressing down the shutter. The only complaint I have so far is that there is no leash on the lens cap, making it easy for it to slip off. So far my favorite setting has been the “Super Macro” which allows you to amazing macros without having to have a DSLR with a macro lens. I’m also very impressed with how it handles low light – took a couple of photos in the house with the auto setting and they were great. Can’t wait to see how it does at my next concert!
Here’s a couple sample shots I’ve taken:
From this…
To this:
A macro example:
Confession: these were all edited to B&W…
My loyal guardian, happy to pose for me.
I was not expecting to find this lurking in at the edge of the mud puddle, with the tadpoles – I think he scared me more than I scared him. It was a pretty warm day, so maybe he was trying to cool off… or maybe frog meat was on the menu?
Almost walked into it
And what would this be without an “old timey” bridge photo? This is the Oregon City bridge, over the Willamette, by the way.
See what the rest of the Sunday Stills gang is doing here!
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