Archive for July, 2010

Dayton Airshow 2010

July 17, 2010

This evening while waiting for the parade to start I captured this image.  It is my submission for today’s picture summer.

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As we left the parade the sun was setting.  Burn captured this from the moving vehicle.  I am in love with the tones in this image.

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Enjoy the airshow!

Anne’s infatuation with horses started at an early age.  Her first session was at the farm.  Anne and Sailor have an amazing bond.  Anne is beautiful and confident and I wanted to capture that in her photographs.  Sailor… she’s got a gorgeous coat and she is a bit intimidating (to me).IMG_0455

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A special thanks to Miss Rose.  Your help was invaluable.

XO-S

paper + ink

July 12, 2010

Looking forward to spending some time with these…

IMG_9497Shot with the 18-55 (kit lens) at 22mm, ISO 800, f5.0, 1/8 sec.  I rested the camera on the table top and held my breath while I pressed the shutter release.  Used available light.

Both books have been on my wish list.  Today while running errands I popped into the book store and treated myself.  Now for the self discipline… must get caught up on editing before I get lost in the books.  Hopefully that will be the incentive I need:)

XO-S

Peaches

July 8, 2010

I submitted a photo of Peaches the Cockatoo from Idle-Hour Ranch for picture summer today.   I took this photo during our Summer Photo Safari (you can read about it here).  I took several photos today, but kept coming back to this image for today’s prompt.

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I mentioned yesterday that I’ve gotten off to a slow start with picture summer.  This is a shot I took today and submitted for a previous assignment.  I still have 4 days of assignments to catch up, but I’m not going to stress about it…

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Here is a little tip I learned in picture summer… your kit lens is a pretty decent fill-in for a macro lens.  It will get me by for now!  I’ve added the 50mm macro to the want list.  Unfortunately for the macro it’s below the 70-200L.

XO-S

Field of Dreams

July 7, 2010

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Last week I signed up for a class called Picture Summer being led by the talented Tracey Clark of Shutter Sister’s.  Each day in July she’s gives a prompt, our assignment is to go document the prompt with our camera.

Tonight I picked up the camera for me.  It’s the first time I’ve done that in… I can’t even remember.  It felt good.  Tonight I reflected on my dreams.  This class is the catalyst that I need right now.

I have not completed the first few days of  July.  I am not going to stress over it… that’s not what this class is about.  I am going to do my best to complete the assignments and write a blog post.

A special thanks to Molly who inspired me to sign up for this class.  I enjoy reading Molly’s blog where she documents the antics of her goldens and cottage life in the south.

XO, S

The boys and I had our first Summer Photo Safari this past week at the Idle-Hour Ranch in Troy, OH.  It was our first visit to the ranch.  If you are looking for something fun to do with your family, we can’t say enough good things about the ranch and the owners.

I was inspired by Zack Arias’s GOYA posts.  If you don’t know what GOYA stands for as Zack says google it.  Both boys have an interest in photography and photoshop, which of course makes me happy!  We have 6 Summer Photo Safaris planned, where we GOYA and shoot.  We each have planned 2 of the safaris.  I picked the first and last.  I had heard about Idle-Hour Ranch and thought it would be a great photo opportunity.  To make things fun we are selecting one of our images, we submit them to a guest judge, we ask the guest judge to give us feedback, and to choose a winner.  All photos are submitted to the judge anonymously.  The winner get’s to pick where we eat lunch on our next Summer Photo Safari.

We asked our friend Paula Wessells of Doxzen Pet Photography to be our guest judge.  If you live in the Pacific Northwest and have a pet you need to call Paula.  Paula loves animals, has a unique style, and has a wicked sense of humor.

Here are our submissions and Paula’s comments:

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Photo A:  Fish

Color is just amazing and love the movement in the water. My favorite part about this photo is how the photographer captured a single gold fish amongst all the red ones. Great patience! Only suggestion I have on this one is maybe would have tried shooting more wide open so the lily pads would have blurred.

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Photo B: Bird (Peaches the Cockatoo)
Cockatoos are a favorite in this house! Gorgeous bokeh – just yummy. Great focus on the beak and eyes. Only suggestion on this one is to maybe not shoot so wide open or check your distance so the entire bird (head to toe) was in focus.

IMG_9160Photo C: Giraffe (Sam the Giraffe)
Love the humor in this one – the tongue and teeth… great capture! So much texture in this shot and great focusing. Because I know that you were probably limited on where you could position yourself I can’t think of any technical suggestions.

This is a hard choice because all of them are so good for different reasons! My choice for a winner is Photo A – Fish.

And the winner is “Crash” the 11 year old who loves photoshop. Congratulations!  Please remember that your brother really is not a fan of Asian cuisine. K?

“Burn” had a great capture of Sam the giraffe and I submitted the photograph of Peaches.

A big shout out to Paula for being our guest judge this week.  Thank you!

What we learned about photographing animals is patience and timing.

I’ll be sharing more about Idle-Hour Ranch and our experience in a separate post with more photos.

Our next Summer Photo Safari is going to be “Sunsets” in a couple of weeks.

We love comments.  Please leave some comments and let us know which photo you like.
XO,

Sherry, Crash and Burn