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!