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.
Ray and I aren’t going into LA tomorrow. But here are some shots of the ladies from last Thursday I took during dinner at El Rancho.
After hiking in the morning tomorrow, I’ll be meeting with Stacy as she’s coming for lunch. Then Mary Kay comes to dinner. Both ladies will be getting some chili. It doesn’t look like Jerry will be getting any of the left over chili I made two days ago (I usually give Sandi’s Jerry a portion of the chili I make).
Tomorrow is Susan A.’s 29th Birthday.
My computer has been acting up for the last couple of days. Thank goodness Justin (the computer man) came today. Justin says that I really should be using a desktop computer as I do too much with all my programs on this Lenovo laptop. It’s overworked.
A little early Christmas caroling outside El Rancho. L-R Taye, Lauren, Angela.
Heidi and Paula at El Rancho.
Heidi and Heather after dinner at El Rancho before the meeting.
Dog in back of truck in Manzanita, OR.
Thanks for driving me in today Ray. I know you didn’t want to.
Up 5:30am.
Walk MHCC at 7am with Connie.
Breakfast with Connie and Step work – 8:00am.
Sandi – Step work – 9:45am.
Early lunch: 11:30am.
Plan MHCC Hiking Club Kickoff meeting agenda.
(Ray kindly picks up veggie dip tray at Costco for Kickoff meeting for me.)
3rd Annual MHCC Kickoff meeting at the Spa and Fitness Center – 3pm.
Popcorn and news for ½ hour 4:45pm.
Drive to pick up Sherali on way to Step Sisters Meeting – 5:30pm
Meeting – 6:30 to 8:00pm.
Home 8:30pm.
Troubleshoot and uninstall Mozilla Browser and upload a hopefully free of problems version.
Phone, email, and blog.
Tomorrow drive into LA for a lucky (someone canceled) eye doctor appointment. My eyes have something going on. Everything is just out of focus.
Get it? Get it? Get it? A CL assignment.
My browser still isn’t working. G’night. Computer tech isn’t coming until Wednesday at 2pm. Be back on the page then.
Hiked two days in a row! I may have muscles again soon.
Connie joined us on the Mission Hills CC hiking group hike yesterday. Why this photo looks like it does is because I happened upon Scott Kelby’s blog last night and found this notice on his December 4th entry: “This Weekend Only Killer Deal on Topaz Adjust Photoshop Plug-ins.” I just had to buy it as there was a $60 savings on the Topaz Bundle. You can read about The Topaz Bundle here. Or you can watch a video of how Topaz works from a link on Scott’s Dec 4th blog entry. I made this photo below with one click on my computer. Fun.
Connie and Linda photo taken with Connie's I-Phone on MHCC hike yesterday morning.
Ray thought I was crazy getting out of bed at 5:30am to meet Connie to do the Bump & Grind at 7am this morning. Driving to the trailhead the temperature registered 49 degrees. We just don’t have cold mornings here.
The walk from the car to the start of the sunny trail was the only cold part of the morning. I love hiking on cool days.
Connie starting out at 7:15am this morning up Bump & Grind. Burrrr.
In the little time I have between activities today, I’ve been going through all the 2009 Thanksgiving photos. I usually work on any photos I post for viewing but decided to do the bare minimum tweaking on the many photos I’ll be uploading to albums in my Portfolio site. I shoot fast, without too much thought when shooting to record my family over Thanksgivings. I take tons of photos. I just need to get the photos up so my family can view them. Spending time or believing I need to spend time I don’t really have only makes me procrastinate and never get the photos up.
I was stunned when I went to set up a 2009 Thanksgiving album to find I hadn’t uploaded the 2008 Thanksgiving photos from last year.
I actually got the 2008 photos up today. I just uploaded them with little or no tweaking. I quickly picked the photos to upload and believe it or not they are up. Now I need to do the same with the 2009 Thanksgiving photos. Pride kills.
This photo of Me, my brother Don, sisters Leila and Ginny was taken in 2008 back at my sister Ginny’s house in Virginia. Aren’t we cute?
The Shers: Linda, Don, Leila and Ginny
Life is getting in the way of my photography. I’m not shooting. I’m not editing these Thanksgiving photos and I know if I don’t get them done soon I’ll not get them uploaded into the portfolio section of my website. I promised my family I’d get the Thanksgiving photos up.
Today I lead the first Mission Hills CC Hiking Group hike. I maintain a photo Gallery in the Portfolio section of my website of all the MHCC hikes since the hiking group started in 2007. I did get some hike shots taken with with point and shoot up already.
Following the hike I had an hour and a half massage, the recurring Friday massage I changed yesterday to today so I would have the time to hear a 5th step from 8am to 4pm on Friday.
In our Thanksgiving dinner photo below I set up an off camera flash but really needed another side flash. I bought a Really Right Stuff Wedding flash bracket to help get the flash off the camera. I’ve only used the Canon Speedlite 580EX E-TTL II flash a few times and don’t have a clue how to do anything other than let the camera tell the flash what to do. Setting up the new Wedding flash bracket and the off camera shoe cord prior to the Thanksgiving dinner taxed my patience since all this gear is new to me. I practiced taking photos of the empty set table but was really reluctant to set everything up on the tripod for the dinner shot fearing everyone’s impatience. My sister helped settle everyone and sit still for a couple of shots. Thanks Lee.
The stats for the shoot:
I set the exposure to manual on the Canon EOS 40D, metering mode partial. Shot at 1/15 sec at f7.1. ISO 500. Focal length 17mm on my Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 lens.
I was pretty happy with the shot once I worked on the photo in Adobe Lightroom.
The Sher kids family around the Thanksgiving dinner table.
I would be farther along in working on my Thanksgiving photos except for this new problem I’m having. When I work on the computer, specifically when I’m working in Lightroom or Photoshop OR when I’m obsessively playing Word Twist on FB), my eyes start burning. A couple of days now I’ve woken up in the morning where the burning was so intense I could barely keep my eyes open. I think it’s time to go to the eye doctor for the way over due annual appointment I haven’t made time for.
Driving in to LA for the second time this week. Ray will be taking his 32 year cake at the book study meeting. We are going to leave a bit early and see, The Blind Side. A movie with Sandra Bullock. Popcorn for lunch!
Day after Thanksgiving morning walk into the small town of Manzanita.
Oh I wish the mountain wasn't blocking my family's silhouette.
Fire hydrants need watering too.
This caught my eye as something that didn't seem right.
All that was on the side of a moving van.
Attempting to work up to jogging?