A beautiful sunset!

So, it has been a little longer then normal sense I have done anything here on my blog. Partly due to pain. Been dealing with pain in both arms, which means less typing. Have I been on the computer any less? No, but I have been limiting my activity. So perhaps a little less. Any way, I thought sense I went out earlier this week and got some pretty cool image, I wanted to share one with any one who came across this and wanted to see it. I am still not sure any one is even reading my blog, and I hope people are. Perhaps I need to promote myself? :) I will have to think about that one. Any way, here is one sunset that I really enjoyed, and even though I came home with a broken DS light, took a swim at the hands of my 5 year old, I was still happy with the actual sunset. Please enjoy!

Why do I care?

Oh, I have to say, I Like attention. I like it a lot! You might even call me a ham. I love attention wether it be at work, or online with flickr. Even facebook, bring it on! I have to admit, facebook has not seem much of me. And Flickr has, but much to my pain. Typing is not easy these days with my pain level, but I still love attention.

As of late, I have not been getting noticed much on Flickr. And I know why. When I show off my art work at my store or out and about with my iPad, I get noticed. But in the wonderful community of Flickr, my work is OK compared to the pros! And there is a good chance that my work is the same day after day after day! The point is, I need to do better. I need to get better. Otherwise I will get lost in the shuffle.

So, here is what I want to show, even though it is just more of the same, I cannot help but like it. This particular evening, my husband and I met up with a flickr friend and just enjoyed the beautiful sunset and evening. What I found is that his few images he posted on flickr were much better then mine! What? :) But thats ok, because I have a lot to learn still and he had been shooting for years. I will get better! And I will learn to step out of the box I am in!

Please enjoy!

Why do a long exposure, when not necessary?

Often times, I am out there in the field taking LONG exposures when not really necessary, I mean, the mountains and the cattle gate, there is no clouds or moving water! Why bother?

Thats a great question, and has come up recently with my flickr post. Yesterday, I took an image of some mountains, that were just sitting still minding there own business. And there were no moving clouds in site, so the 51 second exposure was an over kill! Right? For that image, yes, it was an over kill. I keep telling my self that I am adding a larger depth, and for the most part, I really do believe that. The 51 seconds coupled with the post processing, yes, I do see a difference. But why do the 51 seconds when I can just put the camera on f/11 and get the same job done at 1/50 of a second? Practice! Practice makes perfect right?

A couple of weeks ago, I went down that same hill that I pictured yesterday, just to see a 100 foot waterfall. "The Devils Punch Bowl" in Ramona, California. And when I got there, I took with me my husbands 17-85mm lens because my wide lens was still in the shop. I though that my 28-135mm would not be wide enough. But, I did not have a step up ring for my B+W ND110. So, I not only had a lens I was not use to, but I had a filter that I could not put correctly on the lens. I ended up holding the filter over the lens, and only ONE image came out. All the others were destroyed because of light passing through where I did not do a good job holding the ND110 over the wrong size lens. Long story short, I was not prepared! That was a hellish walk and it was almost all for nothing! That one image made it worth the 4.2 mile hike which 100% of it was up or down. There was no level out areas! And for the record, I am NOT physically fit like the average person. Far from! I have spent the past 1.5 years NOT working out due to an unresolved work related injury! Now, I am always taking image with that filter at a much longer exposure needed because of that water fall day! Because, next time I put my self through that physical hell, I want to be SPOT ON with the photography. I want to come home with 20 great images to choose from! I will never become great until I practice, practice, practice!

And that, in a nut shell, is why I spend so much time taking an image, long exposure, of something that does not require time to be perfect! The image above, no clouds, no water, but I had a filter in hand. That was the day I received my B+W ND110. I had to run out and take a picture quick! That was the first thing I saw that I though would be a good subject, the cattle stall. I felt that the long exposure with the darkness of the filter really added such style to this image. And to convert to B&W just adding icing to the cake! Did it require 30 seconds? No! Did I learn a thing or two while out shooting for the first time with the ND110? YES!

Black and white

To start off with, I must say, it is a rare thing to see me pull out all the stops with a black and white image. However, not too long ago, a contact of mine, on Flickr, did a light house image and converted it to black and white to create a more dramatic look. I posted a comment on that image, "Oh man, its amazing, how did you get that image to POP?" His response was, "some talent, some PP." Oh, that darn post processing!

Here are the things that I DO know. I know the image was an instant pop for three reasons. The image was taken with a wide lens, and was at close range. The image was taken with a small aperture and a longer exposure. And, the image, during the conversion from color to black and white, had a great deal of depth added to it thanks to contrast. OH, and the clouds, so that makes 4 things that I do know. I waited a LONG time to get my wide lens back from the shop AND a day where I had time off and clouds in the sky. Finally the day came, and I picked up my 4 year old and we ran off to Cabrillo National Monument. The clouds were great! It was very windy and the American flag was wiping around. All in all, a great set up for me and my quest to emulate the image that was my inspiration. And, please, no worries, I am my own photographer, I am not out to COPY others! I was out to put my stamp on the same subject, thats all! :) My goal was to create the depth that my contact friend had accomplished. He spoke of talent along with post processing skills, I hope I have something in there. :)

Please enjoy my image of The Cabrillo National Monument, in San Diego, California. Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know that you are here checking out my work!

StarStuff!

And I do not mean Carl's StarStuff! I am talking about stacking! Lots and lots of star stacking. One of the things that I am really getting into, is stacking star images making star trails. Over the past week, I have had many attempts, most good, one bad. And that is how I learn. So, for these images, which are impressive in there own rite, with or with out me, I take MANY images in a row. Once all the images are taken, I open the folder in one program, hit the correct button, and bam! It's done! And is all I had to do was set the camera up. Oh, and I had to upload and download and load, load, load! :) Jumping though hoops are easy when they are not on fire! Its all so much easer then it looks. But sure does end up looking good! :) Please enjoy, the early days of my star trails.

This particular image is 149 images that are 30 seconds long.

The sun rises awfully fast!

I have been brave enough to wake up for sunrise twice over the past 4 months. Both were on a Sunday morning, before the family woke up, so I could get my beach time in. The goal was to not spend time away from the family and do this type of work while every one was still in bed. Works for me! Well, other then being tired for church! The image above is from the first time I made such an adventure. The alarm clock went off and I almost changed my mind! But did not, I got up and headed out to La Jolla. Beautiful La Jolla. I found the place I wanted to shoot rather quick, and I am grateful for that. Because by time I got there, dawn was approaching. What did I learn that morning? For the sunrise, I was not expecting how quickly the sun rises and make things bright! I did this exposure at 184 seconds long. During that time, conditions kept getting brighter and brighter. I finally though to my self, thats the exposure I wanted, so I closed the shutter. In the end, I though the image was totally destroyed! After careful post processing, I was able to save this image. Despite it being way over exposed. Upon posting this image on Flickr, I received high marks. A few even mentioned it was there favorite of my 365 project! Oh, thank you! :) Long story short, I ended up falling in love with the image my self. I hope you enjoy!

What I was looking for!

How many times, in the past, was I viewing other peoples photos on Flickr and wished I had a following too! How many times have I viewed a photo from someone else and wished that I can take such an amazing image! One night, from the pit of despair, I saw this image as I was walking up to the beach at Torrey Pines State Reserve. It had everything that all those OTHER photographers had in there amazing line up of photos. It had the ocean, duh, it had standing water, even a set of wispy clouds in the back. And the one thing I was missing, under the standing water was rocks and details! OH, all the good photographers have that in there set of photos to look at!

All I had to do to get there, was take my son to the bathroom, and well, I kind of had to go too. SO, we made it to the rest rooms only to find a sign that said something like "Budget cuts." and "bathroom closed!" What?!?!?! He is 4 years old! No bathroom? OK, so I take him to the restrooms that are at the OTHER end of the beach only to see the SUNSET on the way and to see the "budget cuts" sign on those doors! WHAT!!!!!!!! Ok, so I RUN back to the truck, hand my son over to may man, and RAN to the beach, where there was standing water and rocks under the water. Oh ya, did I mention, the tide was coming in? :) Ok, so by time I was able to fire off my first image, there was no standing water left, it was a once in a while rush, which stirred all the sand below. SO, in the image above, I was able to get some under water details, but really, very little compared to what I saw before the sun went down. OH and those wispy clouds? Over to the right and not the direction of my rocks and standing water. But the silhouette of the couple to the top left, I love! But at the end of the day, the set of photos I came home with that night, were some of the best I have had in a while. The lesson here? Learn to see what you want and compose the image instead of just shooting! And that was 2 months ago? And I am still learning that today! :) Foreground, foreground, foreground. That will be my goal for April. Look for the foreground element.

I thank you for stopping by and I hope you check out my flickr photo stream. There are a lot more photos there!