Saturday, April 25, 2009

Last Saturday in April

Since it's the last Saturday in April and my taxes are not done, I told myself yesterday that I would not be allowed to touch my camera until the taxes were finished. Woke up early this morning, cleaned the kitchen and ready to do my taxes. The next thing I knew is that the truck was parked at Lakeview and I was getting out of it with a camera in my hand.




Truck


I thought that as long as I was there, I might as well take a few pictures of fences, trees, the fireplace and practise shooting crows.


Crow


The truck then took me down to Al Oeming's where the buggies are starting to line up for the buggy sale next weekend.



Wagon2



Wagon5


Since I was out, I needed an "Industrial" picture we headed down to New Sarepta. Nothing industrial, but found another wagon.

Wagon1


The trip into New Sarepta turned out to be good practise for taking pictures of moving trains. I have always been fascinated by graffiti and today I got lucky.


Graffiti 1
Graffiti 2


Ended up at Joesph Lake where I finally found my pump jacks for an Industrial picture.

The Brothers Jack

Long morning. Returned home, downloaded all the photos and took a break in the side yard. Spring has finally arrived in our yard. The rhubarb is sprouting.
Rhubarb Sprout
Rhubarb Sprout2
Tomorrow I will do my taxes.
Tomorrow I will do my taxes.
Tomorrow I will do my taxes.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

10 gal nano contest

I was informed tonight that I have won the best theme tank in the nano contest on www.canreef.com. Red Coral Aquariums in Calgary has sponsored the "Best Theme Tank" and I have won $100 gift certificate at their store. This is so exciting. Now I have to go to Calgary to spend the money on my fish tank. I'm also thinking a full day road trip with my camera. Can life get any better. Before I forget, I must thank my daughter for her hours of gluing little rocks together for me and doing the great job on aquascaping the tank. Without her help, it just wouldn't have looked as good.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

It's been a good week.

This was a good week for me and my camera. I attended my first class at Metro College (old Bonnie Doon High School) on Thursday and it was good. No friends, no back ups, just me. Forgot to take a notepad but got past it. My daughter told me before I left for "school" not to let anyone look up my dress and not to let anyone dunk my head in the toilet. Not one of these things did I let happen so the night was a success. But seriously, one of the goals after the class was to take the camera off automatic. I haven't taken one picture in Automatic since. I am now using "P" which is basically the same as Automatic, but doesn't sound so bad.

Took some pictures of Rick's Golf Cart in different exposures and put them together using Photomatix, did a little photoshopping and I like how it turned out.

Rick's Golf Cart

Today's FightClub went very well for me. I shot all the pictures using one lens and did not use Automatic. I'm happy with 4 out of 5.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

It must be spring

Today driving in the yard I noticed the willow tree was "blooming" pussy willows. Time to bring out the macro lens.

Pussywillow 1

Pussywillow 2

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

10 gal Damsel in Zoanthidland

For the past 6 months I have been keeping a 10 gal saltwater tank, filled with Zoanthids and one lovely Yellow Tail Blue Damsel. Time has come to take the tank apart, transfer the corals to the big tank and put the little blue damsel up for adoption.

10 gal FTS

Slide show of Corals in 10 gal nano tank



Monday, April 13, 2009

More Time

Sunday's FightClub challenge continued with the theme of time. Five words are posted and one hour is given to take, process and upload 5 images relating to the topics. This weeks words were, Hands, Like Clockwork, Face, Minute and Alarm. It can be a challenge to think of the picture, take it and process it in the time allotted. The contest forces one to look at an object and try to see the best picture without retakes and retakes. Each Sunday I look at this challenge as a learning experience.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Time



This weeks' photo challenge was time. Time was spent finding the old watches, time was spent taking them apart and much time was spent trying to take this photo. Time I think would have been better spent taking a class so I don't have to spend so much time taking a picture.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

I am obsessed with my camera

I am obsessed with my camera. My house is a mess, laundry hasn't been done and the tank is starting to grow long green algae. All I do is think about taking pictures. I can no longer look at something without seeing a picture. Monday night
I went to a 2 1/2 hour class on taking classes on photography. Last night as I was going to bed, I noticed the moon was looking pretty good. After 2 hours of taking pictures and downloading them, I actually went to bed. After looking at the pictures I realized that I need alot of classes. I can see a pattern starting to develop.

At work I noticed a strange little part sitting on a desk. Of course, all I could see is the picture. The part ended up coming home with me and once again the house is a mess, laundry isn't done and the algae is growing longer.





I noticed that the moon is out again tonight.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Water and Oil

A challenge on a Flickr group was to photograph oil floating on water. When the sun came out it was time to head for the deck with my used saltwater and a bottle of hydraulic oil. Just a note for anyone going to try this, if you put your oil in a used water bottle, don't accidently mistake it for the water bottle. (More on that another day) It was the first time I had to use manual focusing with the macro lens and was a learning experience. The results even amazed me. There must be something to do with these photos instead of hiding them in a blog. Note: I cannot find a way to have Pictobrowser centre the pictures. If anyone should know a way to fix this, please let me know.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Art at work

DSLR photography is something that is new to me. I did take pictures with a little P&S film camera years ago when the kids were young, but in the past few years I haven't done much. I have a good friend at work, Boerseuntjie, who has spent months showing me the amazing photos he took with his new Sony A350. I must have caught him at a weak moment as he sold me his equipment in February when he was planning to upgrade. During the week we decided to practice in the shop after work.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

First Post

It's April 1st and I've decided to start a blog. No, it's not a joke. Why am I doing this? It will be a photo journal of time and a way to challenge myself with photography. I could file away the pictures I take and they would be like the photo albums in the shelf that no looks at. I hope to use this blog to train my mind to see new photo opportunities and learn to think outside of the box (or the camera). Please feel free to add comments on my photos, posts or even my spelling.

We are babysitting for a couple of days, so I took this opportunity to do my first portrait sitting, and a couple of action shots, playing ball.