02-14-09 - Seal Beach Pier Pilings

My husband and I went down to the Seal Beach Pier to get today's shot.  Once we were done taking photos, I realized that I need to learn about the focal points on my camera.  Time to pull my book out again.  

I love this shot.

02-13-09 - Black Sheep

Not sure if I should call this photo 'black sheep' or 'ugly duckling'.  We've got an odd man out here!  

Everyday I think I'm going to have trouble thinking of what to take a photo of, and then, WHAMMO! something catches my eye.  Today, as I was driving to work on a gorgeous day, there were a ton of various fowl at the little lake on Springdale.  I pulled over and took some photos.  It was relaxing. 

 

02-12-09 - Kite Surfer Quits for the Day

At 5:00 today, I ran down to dog beach and parked my car.  It was windy and c-c-cold, so I snapped a few shots and quickly got back in my car!

For some reason, when you click on this photo, it will enlarge, but if you click on any of the others, they won't enlarge.    It'll be nice when I can do things on purpose.  :-)

02-11-09 - Flag in Cloudy Sky

Grabbed my camera at the grocery store to capture a flag flying in a cloudy sky.  More rain expected tomorrow!!!

Next time, I'll move to the side of the flag pole where I can capture a better shot.

02-10-09 - Major Pitcher

My son's baseball practice created a photo opportunity.  Here's one of his teammates practicing his pitching.  

Settings:  ISO 500, Shutter speed 6400, F5.6.

The Daily Posting Begins....

02-09-09 -  You gotta love a stormy day.  We've had many in a row now.  This is a picture of the guard gate in my community.  I tried to use Photoshop to 'transform' it, so it doesn't look crooked.  I'm so frustrated with my lack of Photoshop knowledge.  I know what my next college course will be!

So - on another note..... here are my equipment frustrations today..... Being a new Mac user (just got mine over the Christmas break).... I don't know 'the Mac way' of doing the tasks I used to do on my Dell.  It seems all of my pictures are losing their properties when I import them.  They all take on the same date and time.  They are also coming in at a much smaller size.  I take them at 15.1 megapixels, and they import at about 500KB.  FRUSTRATING.  

Also - being new to photography, I'm just starting to shoot in RAW.  iPhoto 6 isn't recognizing raw format, so I'm having to choose another program to download my RAW pictures.  iPhoto 6 should already have the RAW converter for a Canon 50-D.  Not sure what's going on there.  Also - I don't yet know what to do with the RAW photos.  I feel really photo-uneducated.  That oughtta be ok, because I AM photo uneducated.  :-)

My HP printer is printing my photos dark.  Grrrrrrrr.  Time to pull out my Canon i950 again.

I need a photography / Photoshop / Mac and peripherals mentor.   Waaaaaa.  :-)

What This Blog is About....

I've been wanting to force myself to spend more time with my camera.  Unfortunately I'm not that disciplined.  Fortunately, my photography instructor has given us an assignment to take a photo a day, and place it in a 'sketchbook'.  Another fortunate thing....he's letting us do a blog in leiu of a sketchbook.

I've been taking a photo a day since class started on Tuesday, 2/3/09, but I just got this blog going today.  I'll post the photos I have to date.  

I'm expecting my creativity will build as the days go on, because right now..... uhhhh ... it's not so great!  I'm hoping you'll see a transformation of an elementary photographer to a more seasoned one as the months and years progress.

02-03-09 - I took a photo of my little guy after baseball practice, just before my first class.  I had asked Todd at Bill's Cameras awhile back what I need to do when the subject is back-lit.  I thought he had told me to change the metering to spot metering, but now looking at my book, I can see he must have told me to put it on partial metering.  Live and learn. Next time, it'll be on partial metering.  :-)

02-04-09 - Here's a flower from my back yard.  You'll be able to tell by the photos I take, that I'd much rather be outdoors than indoors.

02/05/09 - I love this picture because the rain is dripping off of the unopened bird of paradise.  So much rain lately!

02-06-09 - When the day goes by, and you didn't get a great shot - you take whatever is available!  This is Roxy, my border collie mix.  Note:  I had actually chosen another photo of someone close to me, but since posting the photo would've caused a fight, I chose to go with the dog!

02-07-09 - A very cloudy, rainy day.  This picture was taken at Peter's Landing in Sunset Beach.  I love the reflections on the water and the gray sky.

02-08-09 -  A windy day at Bolsa Chica's camping area.  We had burgers, hot dogs, and SMORES using this BBQ.   Happy Birthday Andrew.  Thanks for inviting us!!!