Grape Ivy Leaves

Packing to move, rediscovered some lovely dried leaves tucked into a stack of papers. And some naturally dried ones for flavor. Canon 70d, 100mm f2.8L lens.

Interesting how the leaves and basket are matching colors.

Spring Daffodils

We got daffodils!

Canon 70d w Canon 100mm 2.8L lens. Lightroom 5 edits.

Imagining with Nature

An image I truly enjoyed making. A leaf in the grass, twirling camera technique. Canon 70D, 100mm f2.8 macro lens. Lightroom split toning.

I am an abstract expressionist photographer at times.

Goth Broccoli

Fun with photoshop and filter forge today.

Encaustic Branch

An 8x10" encaustic art on cradled board. photos show front, texture, and side. Wax is a great mixed media material, it can be smooth or textured in myriad ways and is conducive to embedding items such as this branch of leaves from a houseplant. I used some metallic gold wax for added interest.

First Day

I wonder how many people are posting on their blogs today!?

This year I will do more photography! In this shot of a neighbor's outdoor xmas deco, I turned the sky green with Lightroom to be more seasonally fitting.

Natural Fall Beauty

The lensbaby spark is a fun and arty addition to my lens lineup.  Tho my professional photographer friends might not agree, I am thoroughly enjoying the spark's ability to capture the beauty of imperfection.

Outdoor Love

The world is so full of beauty!

top photo was taken with the Lensbaby Spark, a recent purchase, and the bottom with Canon 17-55. The endless variations in nature's art keep me happily ever enthralled.

Fall in the Garden

Delicious autumn in the backyard!
My favorite season, esp in northern California. We've had some life-giving rain, the night temps are mild and afternoons sunny and warm. So here are a few photos to illustrate.

#wwpw2014 Redding, Ca

A little behind in posting! Geez, I have been very busy with work but gettin a just right slowdown now. I went with the Shasta Photo Club to participate in this year's world wide photo walk instigated by Scott Kelby. About 9 or 10 of us went to the McConnell Arboretum @ 7 a m on Oct 11.

And here is a photo of some native grasses (or weeds) highlighted by the morning sun.

Gravensteins

I like all the roundness here, and the colors and patterns. I actually made the ceramic bowl many years ago. The apples are Gravensteins; when I was a girl we had some apple trees of this type. So this simple photo of a bowl of apples has some meaning to me; some connection to my past. And I feel quite satisfied creating this photograph. Canon 70d, 40mm stm lens.

Online Photography Class

I have taken an online class in nature photography over the last month with Kathleen Clemons at ppsop.net. I learned a new processing technique and have been using my Canon 40mm 2.8 stm lens in the reverse macro position quite a lot, as this allows me to focus very close to a small subject. Changing my point of view this way helps me see differently and create images not just snap photos. There is a lot of trial and error involved, but I do enjoy the process!

Oak Bark Down

Bark texture from a fallen oak in an empty lot in Lake California. I enjoy using my dslr to capture in and out of focus areas so it's not an ordinary eye view. Canon 70D with Canon 40mm f2.8 stm lens, my fav walk around combo of late.

Bobcat with Shasta View

Bobcat with Shasta View,

from my morning walk.
I like this little bobcat as an addition to a landscape photo. Used my (Canon) 70D with the 40mm 2.8 stm lens. The "shorty forty" is small and light  and a great morning walk partner with my camera.

Canon 70d and 40mm 2.8 stm Lens Shooting Grapes

So yay, I got the fancy new camera, and what the heck a tiny lens for video. I am so far very pleased with both the 70d and the Canon 40mm 2.8 stm lens. And because I spent a week with the 7d the 70d has not been all that hard to learn. Also updated my Fine Art America gallery a bit.

For some reason, we have a bumper crop of grapes this season. Perhaps the early hot weather?
Til next time,
Sarah

Sad,Then Glad, Then Resigned, Now Hopeful

A couple weeks ago after photographing the tiny waterfall in Lake California, I dropped my Canon t3i in the miniscule creek that flows from it. Ugh! Aaak! Doom!
Well, I dried it out for a week and it won't autofocus but other than that it will take photos. Unfortunately, my vision isn't that great to determine when the picture is in focus; I heavily rely on the autofocus ability of my camera! Meanwhile I decided to upgrade to a weather sealed model and found a used one @ bandh for a good price.
I chose 3 day shipping, and while I waited I downloaded the manual and a kindle book by Doug Klosterman to get some idea how to use the new guy. Arrival day I actually was home at noon when it came, so charged the battery while I went out for the afternoon job. In the evening, then, I started shooting with the 7d. More buttons, more menu choices, same megapixel count, but focus was really fast and precise at times as I figured out how to use the 19 point system. Then it suddenly stopped working. I checked everything, changed the battery, switched cf cards, reset to factory settings, changed the lens-everything I could think of. Soon it started working again. hmmm. Figured it was user error somehow, what with the more complicated nature of the 7d versus the t3i. So over the next few days I happily shoot some hundreds more photos, trying all my lenses and got some really pretty shots of weeds in an empty lot and sunrise in the backyard.  Wednesday morning my schedule was open, so drove a little ways to get some peeling manzanita bark photos, and the ding dang camera freezes up again. Grrrr! this time it ain't me for sure. Fiddled around as b4. Nothing helped. Then suddenly fine again. Drove home, got tech support, they tried to help, but concluded as I had, that the camera is defective. Ok, bye. Sadly, it was only a brief affair.
 What next? While researching at the 7d I studied the 70d, too. It is a new release and has a completely new processor, wi-fi, touchscreen and cost an additional $200. It also has the articulated lcd which was missing (and missed!) on the 7d. So decided to spend the extra $ and ordered one. It will be here mon. I will have to make do with my broken t3i until then.

Osprey Parent Looking at Me!

Went out this evening for a while in Lake California and got a few decent photos of one of the osprey parents guarding the nest. This nest is on a new pole put up by PG&E this year to move the annual osprey nesting activity off the actual power pole.

Yeehaw! Mother's Day 2014

I went to the Cottonwood Rodeo on Mother's day, with a group of shutterbuggers.
Shasta Canon Photo Club is a friendly fun group that I am glad to have joined!  I used my longest lens, the Tamron 70-300 f8 @ 1/250 to1/400th of a second  but it wasn't really fast enough to capture the action. Should've asked, duh! Learned something and had fun, awesome day! And there were handsome cowboys and lovely cowgirls and beautiful horses as well. This was the first Mom's day I didn't spend with my son, who is  about to graduate from UCDavis.

 

 

A New Orchid

I bought a new orchid @ Trader Joe's. It was difficult to choose ONE, the store in Redding had so many lovely orchids to pick from. I now have two orchids, so it's the beginning of a small collection.  ;)

A Duotone for Thurs

An unusual bit of fog this a.m. due to some actual precipitation here in N California.

And always fun to play around in Lightroom.