A baby is born!

A baby is born and I don't have photos to share yet. The post processing that is put into a birth is quite extensive and my partner who does that has been out of town. (Hubby in life, partner in business.) So, the image I am sharing here was from a previous birth experience I had the joy of photographing.

Every birth experience is different! This birth is number 22 for me and it was different! That's all there is to it. I am grateful to have been there, but due to unique circumstances, I was not able to capture some key photos. For example, I have no photos of friends and relatives holding the little princess. No grandma and baby pics or beautiful little girl all cleaned up and wrapped up in the arms of her loving mommy. Because with in 20 minutes of birth, beautiful baby girl had to go to NICU, Baby ICU. Mom had developed an infection during the labor and infections pass to baby. I am very happy that I had the privilege of going to the NICU with baby to capture baby being weighed and measured, a moment mommy had no choice to miss. And I was able to capture beautiful first moments between daddy and mommy! The best moments possible. But I even missed that baby being held up by doctor at the birth moment! Too many doctors in the way due to baby and fever.

However, at the end of the day, a beautiful baby girl has entered into the world. All 7lbs 3oz. At the end of this time that baby must stay into the hospital, mommy and daddy will still take home for the first time their prize! God bless this brand new family!

This time tomorrow...

By this time tomorrow, and hopefully sooner, I will have launched my website! I have owned the domain for over a year now, but did very little with the site. Turns out hosting is required. Who knew!?!? Everybody but me it seems. ;)

I am officially launching The 2 Of Us Photo with my own URL, brand new logo and my own branding. I am so excited to see where this takes me and The 2 Of Us Photo. My next blog will be with the link to my new site!

I love a good star trail.  This one is different then the rest though.  This one seems more circular.  I guess it has something to do with the 35mm which does not have distortion like the 14mm.  It takes doing something different to learn something.  I also like the processing on this one.

Currently I am in the planning states of my calendar for 2014 and I think the topic will be astrophotography.  I posted this suggestion on Facebook and only my sister chimed in saying YES.  For me to do this, I guess it will be a leap of faith and not necessaraly a public opinion.  That is quite alright with me.  As an artist I will do what I want to do anyway.  Often times, I take something that is a personal favorite and it turns out to not be so popular.  On the other hand, I have some shots that are not my favorite at all and folks seem to love it.  I will never understand my eye vs others.  :)  But, I am an artist, so I will move on as such.  Other then that, have a great day and blessings!

O Say Can You See

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays and I think that has a lot to do with the challenge of photographing fireworks. Perhaps I really do not look at it as a challenge, but for some it is. A challenge and a bit of luck mixed in there too. I took perhaps 150 photos, just me and my cable remote clicking away as the display danced in front of me. An outstanding performance of pyrotechnics for all of us to enjoy every 4th of July. Every time I clicked the shutter, I hoped I had the right exposure for that blast or all of my settings were spot on. Each and every explosion in the display of fireworks is different from the next and that gives the photographer a bit of a challenge not knowing how the image will turn out. What you get on film is nothing like what you see with your own eyes, that's forsure!

So, out of the 150 images I captured from last nights display, I really liked a small handful. Three of which, I have been sharing between Facebook, Flickr and various publications in the local area. Hopefully at least one will be published. The one here is perhaps my favorite. I posted three on Facebook and this one turned out to be the most popular of the three. That being said, I thought it was the right one to blog! So, I hope you enjoyed the 4th of July and I hope you enjoy this image. God bless the United States of America!

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The2ofusphoto, the start

That one photo...

This image was taken at a new point in time of my photography career. This is baby J and I was not just his photographer, but his nanny too. His mommy thought it was so great that I was both because he became my test subject often. New lens? Let me shoot baby J! (We all know what I mean by shoot? Right?)

Anyway, there always becomes a point in time when you go from one point to another. This photo was my pivotal point. Even though it's not my best, it is still my favorite. It speaks to me. My husband did the post processing on this photo and this became the point where I went from ME to The2OfUsPhoto. It was that eye opening moment where I learned we make a great team.

Stars and more stars!

Lets see if I remember how to blog. I know, it has been a LONG while. I am sure I can come up with a thousand excuses, but lets just leave it at that, and welcome back me!

Over the past month or two, I have done a few star trails and really, that is all the shooting I have been doing. I hope to go back out to catch a sunset sometime soon, but for now, my back yard is a lot closer to me then the ocean. I set up a couple of nights ago, and I wanted to make sure I had some foreground details, and not just the hill behind my house. So, I set up on the lower deck, where there are a couple of trees, and this is what I came up with. Not too shabby. Just looking forward to the day when I can really go all out, to the desert or perhaps even further south, where I can get the Southern Cross! Some day, I would like to visit an old friend in Hawaii, he says they can see the Southern Cross from where they live.

One of the reasons why I wanted to share this with you, is because I wanted to share a link. You see, for the past year and a half that I have been shooting these star trails, I have been using an OLD program, that had its last update in 2005! Whats worse, is that it is a program that is not MAC friendly! I always had to blow the dust off of my old PC laptop, just for the stacking part of the process. About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I took a class, offered by Oceanside Photo and Telescope, for star trails. I really did not learn too much on the HOW to take them, I have been doing this for more then a year. But I did learn about a new program for processing these, which included a MAC friendly version! OH HAPPY DAY! Not only do I get to leave my PC in the dust where it belongs, but the program takes a fraction of the time as the old program! Best part of all, its freeware!

http://www.markus-enzweiler.de/software/software.html

There is a link for you. They even have Flickr page for folks to show off their final images. I am more then happy to show off what this program has done for me!

Please, enjoy!

Neptune's Garden

So, I was going through a few of my most recent images on Flickr and saw this one. It's from the same night as the image before this one, but as I really got a chance to take a look, I realized it needed it's own post on my blog. I just love the movement of the water and the light of the sky. Even the two images are from the same night, they are still so different. This one from before the sunsets and the other one, after the sun sets. Different colors and different water movement, different rocks and different light.

It brings me to a very interesting revelation. I saw another photographer shooting on this sunset. He was SO focused on the rocks in this image. Later, I came across the same photographer on Flickr, who got the most amazing image of these same rocks. For a large amount of time, this photographer, Max, was photographing these rocks, only these rocks. Dodging the waves and back in for the next shot. For a while, I wanted him to move, because I wanted to get some shots there, but then I realized something. He was out for one image, one only! After seeing that image, I could finally understand why. It was all about that one perfect shot, and it was perfect! I keep moving around, trying for many shots. I want to be able to come back to Flickr with many useable shots, not just one. I learned something from Max, I learned it's OK to have one amazing shot. Just one would be a success!

Will I change my style over this lesson? Probably not. But eventually, I might have as much patience as my new friend Max, I hope!

Seeing as how I am having trouble sleeping tonight, I thought I would take this time to blog, because its been about 200 years between blogs these days.

I was so lucky to have a chance to go to La Jolla last week. While there, I captured one of my most favorite sunsets. Was it the most beautiful? No, but it was the most photogenic! Let me explain what I mean. When I go out to the beach for a sunset, there are 3 things I am looking for:

1) Clouds, truly and really, a must.

2) High surf, When all else fails, this provides great splashes on the rocks.

3) High tide, once again, can give you a great splash even if the surf is small.

If I have two of the three, usually I am happy. Even if there is no clouds on hand, I can still get some nice wave action. (However, notice that clouds are at the top of my list.) For those of you who have my 2011 calendar, you probably noticed that ALL of the images have clouds. No mater what time of day the image was taken. To those of you who do not have my 2011 calendar, why not? :) Just kidding, having some fun with you.

Well, last Tuesday, when I ventured to La Jolla with my 6 year old boy, I had ALL THREE! Clouds, high tide and not just high surf, La Jolla was actually on a surf advisory! YA! I was so excited when I saw the surf report. Of course, as I was shooting away, a nice, and large, wave came and made my dry clothing all wet, but thats ok. Little M was not hit by the wave, nor was my gear, so I was totally OK with that. I will say however, that I did have to carry a wet blanket to the car. The wave to the right, on this image, was the one that got me, and another photographer shooting next to me. It does not look huge, but at this point, my feet were already about half a foot in water from the wave that just hit. It was like a wave on top of a wave, very cool if you ask me!

I sure do hope you enjoy the image, and I look forward to making it back to La Jolla, the place that holds my heart. At least for photography.

A sunset most delightful!

I know, odd title. I am totally over it!

This was one of my most recent sunsets that I was fortunate enough to witness. I love going to La Jolla, only to find that God saved the best sunset of the week for that moment. Then again, last week, I could see from a far off distance two of the most beautiful sunsets ever and I was just not able to go out shooting! Perhaps someday, I will live at the beach with the ability to shoot every sunset if I want to! Perhaps there will be a day when I am not as busy too. Just goes to show, each and every time I am able to make it to La Jolla, it is a blessing. Wether or not it's this beautiful of a sunset.

Until next time, please enjoy!

Is different better?

In this case, I am going to suggest different is great. Perhaps not better, but I like this.

To get this, I had to get down low, between two rocks that were taller than I. Then I had to be there during the right time of day and right tide. In this case, sunset and medium tide. Why does the tide matter? All of this is under water during high tide!

Truth be told, I am tired of not living closer to La Jolla. I miss capturing the amazing sunsets we get in San Diego. Images like this reminds me I need to get back out there! Soon!

Until then, please enjoy.

14% Bigger and 30% Brighter!

Because I have not posted a blog in a while, here we go!

So, have you all heard about the super moon? The moon was closer to the earth last night, then any other time in 18 years. For those of you who missed it, you have another 18 years to prepare for it again! Actually, catch it tonight, it will only be 300 miles further then it was last night! Not that much when you consider the more than 220,000 miles away the moon usually is. I had a cloudy night last night, but as you can see above, I managed to capture the shape and size. Tonight? Well, the clouds are more intense tonight, so the chances of capturing the moon tonight are SLIM or NONE!

Why bring this up? For those of you who do not know, I am setting up to really get into astrophotography this coming year. So far, I do not have all of my gear, but I am very close! Hopefully by time we have our next clear night, when the moon is not full, I will be capturing a nebula or galaxy! We shall see! Until then, thank you for checking up on me and have a wonderful week!

Blog, blog BLOG!

I read somewhere, to be successful at a blog, you need to blog at least 5 times a week! WHAT!?!?!?! FIVE? Thats a lot! I am lucky at this point to get one blog in a week! But then again, I am not really blogging about my every day life, what I am cooking for dinner, that sort of thing. I am blogging about photos and well, thats it! Now that my 365 project is over, I am not shooting every day. Then again, this week has been a LONG week and I am ALMOST willing to call this the week from hell, but I wont, not yet any way. Now that its Friday, and I can blog about it, I still have nothing to say. Silly me, I always have something to say!

So for now, I will just post a nice picture for all of you to look at while I sort out my week and hope that when I get to Monday, I have a topic to blog about, just for YOU!

Timing is Everything!

That is true so often in life, timing is everything! Right? So when I am at the beach trying to capture that perfect splash, I take a lot of shots. When I say a lot, I really mean a lot. For example, if I were to go to my Lightroom3 folder and view all of the attempts of splashes, I would find hundreds of them! Most of which just are not that great! Sure, the composition is nice, I manage to find the composition before the splashing gets captured, but the splash is so unpredictable. Seriously unpredictable! At this point I am at the mercy of God. One of the things that I love about these splashes, is that each and every one is different. Each and every one also has different timing, so I guess what I am saying is that it is all about timing and luck.

The splash above is different then any of my splashes in a many ways. For starters, I have not had much luck with a nice splash when shooting directly into the sun. With this one, the golden hour of the sun really added a nice golden glow to the splash! Of course, I am sure that the power of the splash, meaning a LOT of water with in it, made a huge difference in the visibility on film. Or memory card in this case. How else is it different? Well, I guess I forgot the other reasons why it was different! It just is! OH how I enjoyed the difference the power of one splash makes. At the end of the day, when I get home and look at the images I have captured, I knew this was the one. I do not think I even looked back at the others. Really, why bother? Eventually I will, and I bet I will find a nice one here or there, but this one, was the one! The one I felt quite honored to share with you.

For information on the sale of this image, or any other image highlighted here or on my Flickr, feel free to contact me at any time!

Gail Edwards

Cuteasabugonarug@gmail.com

Thank you for looking and I sure do hope you enjoy!

Full frame never looked so good!

Well, now that all is said and done, let's talk about the recent changes, and new additions, to our home. The biggest change of all, is the camera. Some of you already know that I sold every thing in my gear bag. One Canon 40D and three lenses. Leaving me with an hand full of cash and the use of a 7D which became community property between my man and I. From there, we made the leap to a full frame sensor camera, the 5D MkII. What an amazing camera! My new walk around lens, Canon 17-40mmL 4.0, has not yet arrived, so my husband and I ended up sharing the 5D while out and about on an adventure in Winchester, Ca. I did get to take some shoots with the 7D when it was his turn with the 5D. But my favored images came from the new gear.

What I love the most, is all those filters I still have, would not sell for the life of me, fits on this new glass, as well on the glass that is a day away from my front door! For this shot, I did use the 3 stop filter, along with the soft grad to tone down the light of the sky. I sure do hope you enjoy this image, from my first 5D MkII outing!

For more information about me, check out my Flickr, to the right of the screen. For information about how to order this image, or any other image, please send me an email, I am officially putting all of my work up to sell!

The2ofusphoto@yahoo.com

Let's get together and fill your walls with art! :D

A VERY happy New Year to ya'll!

Hello and Happy New Year! Where have I been? Finishing off that darn 365 project! I also took some time off, because I wanted to keep that post up about the 2011 Calendars! Which, are still for sale if you feel you have missed out and still want one!

Out side of that, its a new year! And this year I am focusing on many new things, new gear too! No details yet, because its not been ordered, but my old Canon 40D has already been sold and there WILL be new gear by the end of next week! I have already ordered new glass.

Over the past year, I have been to La Jolla more then any other year of my life! Including the years of high school when friends would say, "Lets see if the grunion are running!" And over 2010, I have seen so many beautiful sunsets. So many beautiful high tide days. But not a single day ever matched up with one day last month. I was still in recovery phase from having shoulder surgery, and I knew I had no choice but to take it easy. Driving up, I could see that the tide was nice and high, with good surf. Something that had been missing from the entire summer months! Well, we always had high tide, but the surf has been quiet low for a while! But the thing I saw that day in La Jolla, that made me over joyed, was the color of the water! It was magic! The colors were so blue and green and just bright and perfect! As you can tell above. Not every day looks like this, but then gain, as a photographer, we are always looking for that "perfect shot" and even if that means making that drive 10 or more times before seeing it! That day, even though I was taking it easy, was the day for my "perfect shot." At least the best shot sense the surgery!

I hope that you all have a wonderful and delightful new year! Please keep coming back, I am going to work on selling prints this year. Prints of beach shots, black and white beach shots and even a few star trails. Send me a message if there is any image you would love to have for your self! It's going to be a great year! Blessings to you all and thank you for stopping by to keep up on my work!

The end of the year!

The end of the year is upon us! And I have quite a bit of calendars left to sell! I would love your help!

If you are interested in getting a 2011 La Jolla calendar from me, I can have it sent to you long before Christmas! The cost is $20, and I am asking for an additional $5 for shipping and handling. And if you are local, the San Diego area, I am SO willing to deliver in person, just tell me which Starbucks to meet at! :)

I went on a line, and ordered a LOT of them, and now that I am out of work for a few weeks, I no longer have resources to sell as if I were at work, dealing with lots of people.

They make great Christmas gifts and as a matter of fact, there is a total of 13 months in this calendar, it starts December of this year! What a bargain! Above is 12 of the 14 images used for the calendar!

To order one, please drop me an email:

Cuteasabugonarug@gmail.com

I take PayPal and cash, if in person of course.

I hope every one has a wonderful and safe Christmas season!

2011 Calendars are IN!

I am happy and excited to announce that my La Jolla, 2011 calendars, are in! I have MANY and I want to sell them all! There is a part of me that feels as if I have ordered too many! And another part of me that tells me, "I can and I WILL sell them ALL!" I know, its always best to listen to the "glass is half full" side of me, but I cannot help but wonder, will I be stuck with innovatory at the end of the year?

Enough self doubt! Of course I will do fine. After all, the subject is La Jolla, and who does not LOVE La Jolla! And if you have never been there, you gotta go! One of the most beautiful places I have ever been too, bar none!

Here is how you order. I am now a proud owner of a PayPal account. And, its the first time I have done anything like this. If I am correct, all I have to do is give you my email address, and that can get you "in" with payment on PayPal? Any one out there who does this often, please correct me if I am wrong. Like I said above, this IS my first shot at this. And at the end of the end of the year, I hope to have dreams of doing this for 2012! With your help of course!

And NOW is the time to buy! I will be having a procedure done on my right shoulder, and will be out of the game for at least a week, so if you wish to not have a delay, email me right away!

Any further questions, please feel free to email me at:

Cuteasabugonarug@gmail.com

This is, by the way, the email address that is connected with PayPal.

Thank you all for your support and I hope I can provide for you a beautiful calendar for 2011!

Why do the stars curve like that?

So often, I get questions. Questions of how I do this or why does that happen. I love it when people ask questions like that, and I love it even more when I know how to answer! And once in a while, I know the answer, but there are others who can answer it all better then I can.

For this question, about this image, I can answer, my my all knowing about stars sister, Karen, well she can answer so much better! Fact being, she was the one to originally told me the whole left to right, north to south answer to began with. So, here we go. Why do the stars curve to the left AND to the right?

"What are star trails and why do they look like that?

As the Earth spins around on its axis, the background of stars appears to move from East to West. Over the course of one day, the background of stars will have aparently moved 360º, a full circle. Stars closer to the North and South Poles do not move as rapidly as those closer to the Equator.

Timed photographic exposures or stacked exposures can be done in one of two ways: tracked counteracting the movement of the Earth (no star trails) or the camera kept still, moving with the Earth (star trails). In exposures that show star trails, the stars closer to the poles make a tighter circle around each of the poles. These stars are called "circumpolar" and most latitudes have circumpolar stars or constellations. They are visible through the night and the year. A couple of examples of this for the Northern Hemisphere are the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia.

Therefore, stars in the Northern Hemisphere arc toward the North Celestial Pole (Polaris) and stars in the Southern Hemisphere arc toward the South Celestial Pole (which doesn't have a pole star). Stars closer to the Celestial Equator do not arc either way, but appear to move in a straight line.

Karen I. Meddows-Carey

Harford County Astrnomical Society

Harford County College, BelAir, Maryland

One People - One Planet - One Sky"

The basic translation of this is: The stars that curve to the top left of the image, are over the Northern Hemisphere, the stars that curve to the bottom right, are the stars over the Southern Hemisphere and the stars that are straight, they are over the Equator. The whole thing is pretty cool, if you ask me. The way Earth turns and how we all stay on!

Putting together the calendar!

For 2011, I am putting together a calendar! Yes, I have mentioned it before, but now, I am starting to see it come together. Today, I got some images, in print, so I can see which will and will not work. Because printing something, is FAR different then just viewing it on your nice and bright computer screen. So, that all being said, this has been A HUGE challenge. And I really have not even gotten started.

Now, I am finally ready to assemble the calendar together. I have chosen at least 10 out of 13 images. And I have set the price point. I am thinking that putting them together and sending in the order to have them printed. I have even located a high quality printing company that only deals with calendars. I am getting excited! All I really need to do is find the buyers! So, I guess to sell outside of my home town, I need to set up PayPal account and let the show really get started!

Now, if this is something you would be interested in, feel free to contact me at Cuteasabugonarug@gmail.com and I will be more then happy to get the details out to you! I am excited to see the final project and I am excited to print a lot and sell ALL that I print, wish me luck! :)

Here is one of the images I have chosen and I hope you like it! Please enjoy!

I always want to do better

Through out my first year of photography, I have learned many things. And the one of the most important things I have learned, I want to do better and I know I can do better. Actually, when I first started to shoot, I thought I did OK and I had no idea that getting better was an option, but life goes on. At that point, it was all about passion. And drive I guess. Now that I am wrapping up the first year, I realize that I did get better! And, I still want to do even better. How do I get there?

Practice and gear! Practice, yes, I shoot every day. I might not post what I shoot, because I would rather post quality rather then crap, and not everything is great! And gear, there are some new filters that I want that I KNOW will make a difference with my sunset shots, I KNOW IT! I would not be able to shoot into the sun without the filters I own. I know they make a difference. And the new filter that I am getting, will help with the sunsets and NOT add the color cast that I so often get. And when I get the new filters, I will keep the old ones, because the color cast does work out for me at times. Right time and right place for everything! Right?

For this image, I did use an ND filter, the B+W ND 106, which is a 6 stop filter. As well has my Cokin hard grad filter. This does seem to be my most favorite combo of filters right now. It gives great blockage of light as well as toning down the intense light of the horizon. And then of course, the time and fun spent in LightRoom3. My new favorite tool to get the job done! I KNOW I have to sept it up when it comes to post processing. I have this calendar hovering over me for 2011 and I need to make sure it looks pro! LR3 can make it happen for me!

For now, I hope you enjoy this image and all of my images for that matter! And feel free to take a look at my photos listed on Flickr! Please enjoy!