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.
I’ve not been training like I have in the past before a hike. Today’s hike was a 2100 foot climb up local Murry Hill. Temperature was thankfully no higher than 82. I carried about 25 pounds of weight in the new Osprey backpack I bought at A16 in LA before the Baby Meeting. The hike was hard for me but I did it and without injury.
I always use my McHale backpack on hikes but was curious to see if my back pain would be less carrying the Osprey. I was surprised to find I liked the feel of how the Osprey carried the weight. I’ve always believed a McHale pack was the only pack for me because the pack transfers weight to my hips so well. I can’t have any weight on my shoulders or I really hurt. The Osprey kept the weight off my shoulders and felt quite comfortable. So I’ll try the Osprey again and with more weight in a couple of weeks. I’m thinking the Osprey works better in how I seem to have more space to pack up my goods inside. I attached the tent on the outside of the pack where one end slides into a side pocket. Keeping a wet tent on the outside makes sense. I can set up my tent without having to open up and go through gear in my pack if it is raining. I also like that the lower zippered portion of the pack has a very easily accessible and roomy sleeping bag compartment, separated from upper backpack gear by a fabric shelf.
Mt San Gorgonio north of the I-10 Freeway (Almost a 1000 feet higher than San Jacinto.)
New pack.
CRITIQUE: Linda Jeffers (Neon)
PICKFORD THEATRE
Shots like this are tough to compose for because basically
you’ve got a skinny sign in a vertical format and a lot of
“dead space” on either side, especially on the right. What
can we do about a situation like this? Not much. You
filled your frame as well as you could, but there’s still a
fair amount of empty space on the right, which isn’t
helping your composition.
I do like your colors — the yellows and reddish-orange
tones. Your zooming technique is impressive — very
smooth, no jiggles. The one negative about the sign is
how we can’t really read the words. The zooming has
distorted the individual letters so it’s not obvious what the
sign is saying. But that’s okay — this is all experimental
stuff, and some of it’s going to work and some of it isn’t.
The point is: we’re out there giving it a good shot.
SHOW GIRLS
Now see how we can more easily read this sign? The
letters are a bit more defined, especially the
“GENTLEMEN’S CLUB” at the bottom of the frame.
What I really like is the swirling element that the blue
lights make in your shot. The swirl/zoom combo creates a wonderful feeling of left-right
movement.
What causes some letters to show up well and other letters to become more blurry? I think it
depends on the style of the font
(the fancier the font, the more
difficult it is to read when zoomed)
and how quickly we zoom. If we
hesitate just a bit right after we
click the shutter, spend a little bit
of extra time not zooming, then the
letters will look more in focus. I
probably didn’t say that very well.
If your exposure is two seconds
long, and you spend all two
seconds zooming, the letters won’t be very clear. But if your exposure is two seconds and you
spend the first second not zooming, then the letters have more time to “burn” into the shot, and
will look clearer.
I like how you’ve placed the sign in the frame — you opted for symmetry, you filled the frame,
you created drama. And you didn’t crop in so tightly that we feel claustrophobic. Good one!
CAR WASH ELEPHANT
Ah, I remember this elephant — it’s at a
car wash, right? Palm Desert? This is a
TERRIFIC shot!
Your focus is sharp. Your exposure is
right on. I like how you placed the
elephant’s eye in the upper right-hand
sector pursuant to the Rule of Thirds. Our
eye focuses on the elephant’s eye, then
runs down the trunk, then down to the
word “Rancho.” Lots of movement in
your photo.
I think what might make your photo even
better — and this is something that’s easy
to do in Photoshop — is if you were to fill
in all the little dots in the “shower” with
light. Why, because there’s a lot of
contrast there, a definite demarcation
between light and dark, and so we really
notice that there are bulbs “missing.” It
becomes a distraction. (I realize that the
bulbs look burned out probably because
the neon hadn’t rotated into that area yet,
but it’s the APPEARANCE that matters.)
Here’s what I mean (below).
(I actually attempted to duplicate the example of filling in the lights on this shot. Carol’s example was much better but I can’t upload her changes here.)
Good shots, Linda. Kudos to you.
Carol Leigh
While out photographing stairs a couple of nights ago I heard a whimpering sound. The sound appeared to be coming from the lake near the Tee box of the 18th hole on the Pete Dye golf course here at my club.
There were ducks and coots in the dense reeds so I thought maybe there was some mating going on. I walked over with my tripod and camera hoping to get a good shot of the lovers. The closer I looked I realized the tiny black moving object was not a duck or coot after all but a drowning very tiny dog. My heart raced. I yelled hoping people in the houses nearby would hear me and come help. I yelled really loud. No one came out. The sun just went down behind the mountain. There were no golfers out playing. And I mention all this because in order for me to save the dog from drowning I had to descend into the weed/reed/choked lake down railroad ties that, once in the water, these ties were so high they’d prevent me from getting out on my own.
I kept looking around, trying to figure out if I should just jump in (I didn’t know how long this dog would stay above water) or drive up over the hill to find a golfer.
I decided to run up the hill to see if anyone was at the driving range. I was in luck. I yelled to this golfer. He couldn’t hear me. I yelled louder, “Do you have a ball retriever or something….a dog is drowning over there in the lake.” I didn’t wait for the answer. I ran back to the lake and slid down the railroad ties about 3 feet into the yucky water. Moving to get to the dog wasn’t easy. The reeds were preventing me from easily moving my legs forward. The dog is whimpering. I am so afraid I’ll get to him too late. I finally get close enough and lean forward grabbing the dog by the scruff of his neck, hoping he wouldn’t bite me.
I get him in my arms and fall. I am wet up to my breasts. I’m cold and the dog is shivering. By now I look up and the golfer from the range is standing at the break in the fence where I slipped down into the water (and probably where the dog fell in). I reach up and put the dog on the grass. The golfer asks if I need help. Yea….aaaah! But before I take his hand, I thought I’d show him how strong and agile I am by putting both my hands on the top of the ties, rehearsing how I will jump up and push myself up high enough to kick one leg up god knows where. I jump. I fall back into the filthy lake because whatever growth there was under foot caught my foot and prevented the foot from moving even though I was trying to jump up. It was comical as I fell backwards getting wet up to my neck. The golfer says, “Are you alright?” (thank god i didn’t think about the fact there might be things like snakes in this lake.)
Now I take the golfers hand and he gets me out of the lake. The dog has run away to a dirt hill where he is shivering and rolling in the dirt trying I guess to get the creepy cold water off himself.
I thank the man. I gather up my fanny pack I’d ripped off, I pick up the tripod I’d dropped on the grass and get in my golf cart to check out where the dog is going.
The dog is hiding way up high on a hill, under trees and close to a road. The road freaked me. Great, I’m thinking. I save the dog only to have the dog run over by a car. I can’t leave this dog. The dog is sitting, staring at me, shivering and apparently in some kind of shock. So, I go to pick the dog up and it growls at me. Great. But I show him I’m not afraid (right) and with dog in my arms I get in my golf cart.(all wet with the smelly lake water. Poor Ray – it’s his golf cart.)
I drive around to the front of the houses and go to the first door. A woman comes out. She doesn’t know who the dog belongs to. She’d love to help me out but she is going out of town in the morning. She does run back in the house and gets the dog a towel I can put on him…he’s really shivering now. Of course so am I by this time but I don’t get a towel. No. Just the dog.
I continue walking from empty house to empty house. No luck. I go to the guard gate. The woman will not take the dog. I don’t want the dog in my house. But I have run out of options because the one option the guard gate lady gave me was call the animal control people. I know what these people do with dogs. I was not going to call them.
So I drive back home, in the dark, both the dog and I are very cold and shivering. I get an idea as I approach my home. Our neighbors have dogs, love dogs. I ring their doorbell. They come to the door with drinks in hand. They have their couple friends there with them. All four people look at the dog, say how cute etc…..I say, “Please take the dog, I can’t take him home.” They do.
Long story trying to be short…..Fast forward… The next day the couple friend of my neighbor Pam fell in love with this dog. Showered it, sleep with it, took it to the vet to see if it had a chip in it to determine who the owner was, and bought and dressed the dog up in the outfit in the picture. I have the picture because my neighbor and his friend Pam came by to show me the dog in his new pink collar and pink sweater. Pam is now trying to convince her husband that she really wants to keep the dog.
But, even if that doesn’t happen, Pam has someone who wants to take the dog.
Now isn’t this is a nice story?
Well yes and NO! I have poison oak on the wrist and hand that was holding Mr. cute little dog and it itches like crazy.
I’m too tired to go back and read what I wrote. I hope I don’t have too many mistakes.
Good night.
There were only 3 of us on yesterday’s hike. (I was bad and only sent out the email to members on the PCT hike ,north from Hwy 74, on Friday before the hike.)
Meeting Christie and Kevin, who are new to MHCC, and having so much time to get to know them because we were alone on the hike, was a treat. I enjoyed their enthusiasm, relationship with each other and love of hiking.
Christie may even be open to learning to backpack!
More photos of this hike and other Saturday MHCC hikes are in my Flickr.com photo site.
Twenty five minutes into our drive to LA today on the I-10 Freeway. SNOW!
It snowed for about 20 minutes.
The clouds parted thank goodness. It was getting a bit scary. No one in LA knows much about driving in snow and on icy, slushy freeways.
And then beautiful Mount Baldy.
And some late night photo play on the way home from LA. In two weeks I have to turn in my 5th photo assignment. It’s reflections. I wonder if this shot qualifies?
Ok, so I’m posting my 3 Kitchen Art photos in anticipation of a critique on them tomorrow so you’ll have something to reference when I share my critique here.
I’m thinking this photo needs more light. It might be too busy too.
Maybe the teacher won’t like the ends of the spaghetti pasta showing.
After having looked at the other student’s work I’m finally getting that my photos are supposed to look like art. Hmmmm. Would I want to hang this on MY wall? I don’t think so.
I better move onto something else tonight. My head is getting the best of me. Don’t give me too much time to think.
Here is another Kitchen Art photo submission. I wonder what she’ll think of the darker gray shadows running southwest to northeast? I just now noticed them and wish they weren’t there.
I also feel like more of the lower right side of the burner should show.
I’m waiting quite impatiently for the critique on my 3 Kitchen Art photos I submitted for critique. My teacher didn’t do any critiques over the weekend. I know because I checked my email for notification of my critique every 5 minutes.We students were sent out the lineup for Kitchen Art critiques and I am next in line for a critique on Kitchen Art.
Click here to view the folder that contains the hikes I’ve organized. The Art Smith Trail is the hike I went on today.