In a world of so many great photographers and writers, I am venturing into some unknown territories, leaving comfort zones, finally very willing to practice the art of seeing. By maintaining the practice of posting daily photos, I hope to continue learning about the possibilities that I trust are out there for the taking.
Connie came over for a 7am hour long walk with me on the back nine before the golfers arrived.
Then Connie and I joined Ray on his morning walk.
I’m happy I’m finally scheduling myself into the day and getting some regular exercise. Exercise and photographing daily is time consuming, but absolutely necessary so I feel good about myself.
Ray and Connie on Ray's exercise walk.
Water providing this a.m. reflection.
Ray uses his cane on the return part of the morning walk.
An interesting reflection after focusing on the brightest part of the water.
Shooting at the sun in the reflection created this shot.
I shot twice today; both times with Ray. The morning photos were taken while on Ray’s 1+ mile walk in our neighborhood. I took off the 24 extension tube I had been using and am only shooting with the 50mm 1.4 lens on the Canon 40D.
Morning photos
A weekday worker must have left this behind.
Some first cactus blooms.
9:30 am light on this cactus.
Found these at the end of our walk on a nearby neighbor's lawn.
A volunteer model arrive as I was shooting.
Afternoon photos.
Ray and I went out around 2:30pm to putt (and I hit a few balls at the driving range), and then went for a drive on the closed Pete Dye golf course because it was such a warm, sunny, pretty afternoon. Very relaxing.
A sunny Sunday golf cart drive on the closed Pete Dye course today.
Pete Dye course reflection that caught my eye.
A lone Coot.
I think it’s time to change something up. For the last week I’ve gone out with the same camera setup…….50mm lens fitted with a 25 extension tube. Each morning I go out thinking I won’t find anything interesting to shoot. Each morning I’ve come back with something. Not this morning.
I haven’t been shooting with a tripod. The range in depth of field, that which is in focus, requires only minute adjustments for the 3.5 inches I hold the camera from the subject trying to focus. I have learned it’s much easier to move to handhold the camera and myself and the camera back and forth to get closer or farther for the focus I desire than use the focusing ring on the camera. Having the camera and lens on a tripod (to help steady the camera movement) is awkward and inconvenient when focusing by moving the camera back and forth as I do with this camera setup.
My problem is always the same……trying to see that what I want to be in focus, is in fact in focus. That was the case today. What I chose/hoped would be in focus wasn’t. Why? Because as I’m hand holding the camera, I am weaving ever so slightly back and forth or up and down. That ever slightly movement changes the focus because the plane of what is in focus is so shallow with this lens setup.
So…….either I use a tripod or I start using another lens. Why I have stayed with this 50mm lens and extension tube is that everything right out my front door where I shoot is so similar or uninteresting. The very close up shooting with the lens I’ve been using at least generates some interest (I think).
I pulled this photo from my photo archives. Seeing this shot of me and Ray on Forester Pass in the Sierra back in 2001, 6 months before my 2002 PCT thru-hike, makes me sad. My body and strength have changed so much in the last 8 years. Damn, I might just be getting old. Two months before I turn 65!!!!! How can that be?
Linda and Ray - When we were fitter and younger.
Deep sigh.
Yesterday I downloaded the new Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta photo software. I presently use Adobe Lightroom 2.5 and was curious to learn more about this upcoming new version. I thought I’d get a head start on learning about what’s new from a Lightroom 3 Beta tutorial by Matt Klowskoski.
I fumbled around in the new Beta version, sometimes mindlessly, not remembering what I’d done. This morning I went to upload some morning shoot photos and Lightroom showed none of the 39,000 photos normally located on the external D drive where I store all my photos. Hmmm. That’s weird I thought.
I left Lightroom and looked inside the actual external D drive. The 1 Terrabyte drive read I had 680 gigs left. I opened the drive and gasped. There were NO photos. Then I looked inside my external G drive that backs up this D drive every night. Oh no, the G drive was also showing empty….No photos! I noticed this at 8:55am this morning. At 9:00am I had someone coming over to do stepwork for 3.5 hours. Needless to say I was not very centered to put it mildly. Canceling the 9:00am appointment was not an option.
Patience is not my long suit. Living with unresolved issues is more than difficult. I called Justin, my computer guru, and begged him to come over even though he said he didn’t have time today. He said that he’d come at the end of his day after telling him I’d go crazy if he didn’t.
Connie arrived and I told her I needed a moment to get myself centered, that I believe I possibly lost every digital photo I’ve ever taken. I amazed myself by making the choice to turn all my attention over to Connie and my time together.
Justin showed up later this afternoon and I now have all my photos on the D drive and they are backed up on the second drive too.
What happened? Who knows but somehow the D drive was showing no photos when the G drive backed itself up following the programmed directions to delete all deletions. So somehow the G drive read that everything was deleted. Was any of this due to the Beta version I installed? Who knows. But it is uninstalled now. I’ll wait until they release the real Adobe Lightroom 3.
Justin had unplugged the D drive when he first arrived and later plugged it in again, only to find that all the photos were now showing up. Crazy. Don’t understand it.
Now the second drive is set to never delete anything that is deleted on the first drive.
Before all this happened this morning I’d just shot some photos and finally, here they are.
Looking for faces; found a head.
While looking through the lens for something interesting, I spotted this piece of bark on our lemon tree.
Bark of a lemon tree.
Phew. I’ve been hitting the floor running and was so glad my sister (who is in town visiting with girlfriends) arranged it so we could spend some quiet time on a hike yesterday morning.
We began our hike on the Art Smith trail around 7:30am. The weather here in the desert is ideal, not too hot and not cold at all. Prior to about 6 days ago, I haven’t made exercise of any type a priority since getting back from Jackson a month ago. In order to regain some conditioning for the season start up of the MHCC hiking club that I’ll be leading Saturday hikes for starting November 21st, I’ve made a commitment to email Paula everyday that I exercise. I don’t want to look bad in front of Paula so I know this emailing her would be just the thing to kick start me back into the discipline of regular exercise.
Here is my sister Leila. I love my family. They are my very favorite people to spend time with in the whole wide world. Soon, this Thanksgiving, we will all be together again.
My sister Leila on the Art Smith trail.
Before meeting for dinner, we had an hour to kill. We went to the book store, got coffee and browsed the books in Barnes & Noble. I remembered I hadn’t shot with my Canon 40D for the 1/2 hour and used the hour to roam the store looking and shooting things.
I’d shot about 12 things before a worker came up to me while shooting the books below and told me cameras are not allowed to be used in the store.
Pad of scratch paper at Barnes & Noble.
It was while I was shooting this shot of the books that the woman said that I had to stop taking photos. I explained that the lens I was using wouldn’t show any text on any book. I showed her this shot and her mouth fell open. She thought the photo was great.
Three book corners on a table at Barnes & Noble.
While waiting for others to arrive for the meeting at Milly’s, someone started playing their favorite songs on their I-Phone. Before long, others pulled up songs on their I-Phones.
Connie got up and started movin’ to the music first. Everyone roared with laughter. We like laughing.
Connie bopping out before the Baby Meeting.
When Taye started playing my Abba music, I couldn’t resist. I took Taye’s I-Phone and held it to my ear as I snapped my fingers while dancin’ to the music. We were all laughing our heads off being silly.
Linda movin' to Abba on Taye's I-Phone.
I picked my camera up and went outside. That’s it.
Here’s the proof.
As an asisde – While I’m blogging, I get to decide what size a photo will be in these posts. I’ve noticed a pattern in the photo sizes I decide to use. Smaller sizes mean I’m not particularly thrilled with my shots and larger sized posted photos mean I like them better.
Cactus trapped leaf.
Front patio small blooming buds.
Cactus threads outside the front door.
Off to LA again tomorrow.
Last Thursday before the meeting, boy does that seem like ages ago, I shot photos of Katya per her request. I was in the process of tweaking the photos at 1am on Thursday night when Ray said, “Linda, I’m sorry, but would you take me to the ER at Eisenhower.”
This is the first time I shot head shots of someone since I started taking photo classes two years ago. I learned a lot once home and while looking at the photos I noticed what I wished I’d done different. Katya was a wonderful model. Need I say how beautifully she photographs. Not only is she beautiful but she is willing to take direction. I only wish I’d had more experience giving the direction. Actually, that’s not even correct, I wish I’d taken more time looking at what wasn’t working for me in the photo. Now I know why photographer’s shoot tethered (their cameras hooked up to their computer screens.)
I must admit I do like shooting people. I know most people don’t like shooting people but I’ve always enjoyed it. A number of years ago, Susan L. and I had a great long session outside the Tarzana house shooting head shots and then again in NM.
For a long time now I’ve wanted to learn lighting. I shoot with natural light because I know very little about how to use lighting. I’m always looking to see if Joe McNally is offering workshops nearby.
What I learned from the shoot with Katya is how important the background is. I should have known this because Carol Leigh is always talking about that. I figured because I was shooting Katya with the 50 mm 1.4 lens the background wouldn’t be an issue. Wrong.
I learned too that I needed to open up the lens more if I wanted to get Katya’s eyes and the dog’s eyes both in focus. I’m not sure I could even do this with the inside lighting that was only filtered westerly afternoon sunlight. I guess I just needed a different lens, one that had a bit more depth of field (more in focus from front to back). With this lens opened up………..Oh my god, I just looked at what my camera settings had been on the head shot of Katya: ISO 200, exposure 1/100 of a second at f 1.6! No wonder so many of my photos weren’t in focus. Katya and her dog would have to be still as can be, which of course was impossible with all the laughter that was going on.
Dumb dumb that I am I just looked, I shot all the photos with this same setting. I didn’t bracket any shots either (take 3 shots at 3 different exposures or f stops). Next time, I want a plan and then be consistent with it. I didn’t think, I just got caught up in shooting. We really didn’t have that much time either. So I need to remember to allow more time so I don’t feel rushed.
Here are three of the photos I think are the best.
Coco and Katya
Pretty Katya giving me that look of hers.
How beautiful is beautiful? This beautiful.