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.
Another shot of Ray before our 5 minute session ended:-)
We could have had this backdrop but the football game called!
Each week for 3 months, we who have signed up for Carol’ Leigh’s online Photomotivation Class, receive a new subject to shoot for the week. This week our shooting assignment is Faces in Unlikely Places. I had no luck seeing anything late this afternoon on a walk in the neighborhood.
I went into the bathroom to get ready for the evening meeting. Leaving the bathroom, I was blinded by this sky that had probably reached peak color a minute before. I only broke one nail racing to get out the glass slider with my tripod.
Almost missed seeing this tonight at 5:20pm.
Both these photos were shot with my pocket Canon Powershot A650.
While home sick (I didn’t drive into LA today with Ray for the Thursday night meeting) I’ve been getting my money’s worth watching Adobe Lightroom tutorials online here at Scott Kelby’s Training Center. He also has a new good tutorial on WordPress (which is the journal I use) and another new great tutorial called Light It; Shoot It; Retouch It. I think I have a serious interest in learning studio lighting. In this Light It; Shoot It: Retouch It tutorial Scott starts at the beginning of a photo shoot, showing a bare studio and then building the entire lighting system from the ground up to the end of the shoot where you learn to work with the photos in Lightroom as well as Photoshop. I learn best watching video tutorials as opposed to reading about something.
Carol and I walked the Palmer Course last week at 6:30am.
Sky a few nights ago. This is the actual color of the clouds.
Lane called tonight. What a great talk we had. He called because he knew something was up with me. I hadn’t blogged for the last 5 days. He figured it was computer related problems. He was correct.
So, to please my son, and you readers, I am posting some daily shots I had taken and intended to post as blog photos. They’re not master pieces, just my life.
I’ll start with a zoo photo I took:
The afternoon of the Academy Awards, not having seen one of the nominated films, Ray and I went to the movies and saw Slum Dog Millionaire. The movie was great. But what was really great was this was the first time Ray and I went to the movies and did NOT eat popcorn. We actually ate lunch and then went to the movies (on a full stomach). I never understood why people went to movies after eating a meal. I always thought the point of going to the movies was to eat popcorn. You don’t eat the meal, saving the calories, and load up on the refillable popcorn. I couldn’t imagine going to see a movie and just sit there with my hands in my lap.
Sitting there with my hands in my lap before the movie actually started was difficult, so difficult I took out my pocket camera and started taking shots of the theater to record our first ever movie without popcorn. Mind you, this was a big deal. I’m not sure I can do it again. But we DID do it once. 
This shot was taken last night as I was driving over to Sandi’s to pick her up before our 6:30pm meeting. I was a few minutes late to pick up Sandi. I stopped and clicked off two photos. This red sky was not going to go unphotographed by me. 
I took myself out on a date today. I packed up all my camera equipment, tripod and camera. I used a 70 -300 mm lens and shot photos of the migratory birds at the Salton Sea. I’m doing the Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and in Week 5 of the 12 week book I’m finally taking the time to go on the required weekly Artist date. I had a ball all by myself. It’s funny how I had to talk myself into doing this too. I wasn’t in the mood.
I’ve posted a couple photos (I took over 300).
I’ve also uploaded two videos from today.
I filmed a video when I first arrived at the Salton Sea and then a second video during the wonderful sunset about an hour and a half later. I know Lane, you don’t like sunsets, but this one was really something. All alone, I found myself saying outloud, “Oh my god. The sky can’t get any redder.”
I hope I remember this the next time I feel too lazy to take myself out on an Artist’s Date. I really never want to do anything, especially in the afternoon or night. But, invariably, when I do what I don’t think I want to do, I have a great time. So….I don’t need to be listening to my head anymore.
Check out the Salton Sea in the videos below.
Ray had just returned from Trader Joe’s, when he told me to go outside and look at the beautiful moonrise, still rather low in the sky. I went out with my Canon 40D and tripod to see if I could for once capture the moon with some detail as opposed to capturing it all blown out and overexposed as I usually do.
Not only is exposure a problem for me, but the moon and clouds are always moving even though I can’t really see the movement. So I tried to shoot with the fastest shutter speed I could and still have the moon exposed correctly for detail. While in Mammoth trying to shoot the moon, I got frustrated and gave up. But last night I actually got some detail in the moon with the 28 to 200mm lens I was using.
I’d read that shooting the moon when it is closest to the horizon line (rising or setting) helps in generating a sharper image. By the time I finally fiddled around with all my equipment, the moon was much higher in the sky.
Color over Mt San Jacinto.
An hour ago, I was drawn outside with my camera and tripod by the vision of billowing, backlit, cumulus clouds over the San Jacinto Mountain range. A phone call distracted me from taking more than 3 photos.
Moments ago I went online to see what exhibitions were at the J. Paul Getty Museum, hoping Sandi and I could catch the end of a photography showing while in LA Tuesday. Online checking out the exhibitions now at the Getty site I found a photo from the Landscape photo exhibition named “Songs of the Sky”. (shown here)
Alfred Stieglitz was a great promoter of Modernism in America and an advocate of photography as art. He began pointing his camera skyward in 1922. His images of evanescent clouds were meant to express his own fleeting emotional states and reflect the dynamism of a world in constant flux. Originally Stieglitz titled these cloudscapes “Songs of the Sky,” but he later came to call them “equivalents of my most profound life experience.” The works focus on abstract qualities of proportion, rhythm, and harmony, presenting pure form as music for the eye.
Now lookie here at two of the photos I snapped off around 5pm tonight.
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And here you have my “pure form as music for the eye”.
p.s.
syn·chro·nic·i·ty Listen to the pronunciation of synchronicity
Pronunciation:
\?si?-kr?-?ni-s?-t?, ?sin-\
Function:
noun
The coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality —used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung
Kenny, Katie and Rick on our way up the Bump and Grind at 5:30am.
Rick and Katie.
Sunset taken on the I-5 near all the smelly cow lots.
I have been trying not to listen to the news. I don’t turn on my car radio. I walk out of the room when Ray has the news on TV. I avoid reading the newspaper. It’s the only way I seem to somewhat quiet my head and my heart.
I am on the road, headed to Half Moon Bay to meet Carol Leigh and 12 other photography students for a 3.5 day shoot for a book Carol is publishing depicting Half Moon Bay. Last night I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express 2.5 hours from Half Moon Bay. This morning I ate their complimentary breakfast in front of the large screen, high volume TV. I’m back in my room, with my friend, my computer, trying to numb out from the news of other nightmare day in the stock market.
So…..here are a couple of photos I took yesterday. The first two I took on yesterday’s morning Bump and Grind hike with 3 very special people. The last photo I snapped while driving on the I -5 last night.
Once Ray spotted the hummingbird nest and bird right outside our front door, I spent at least 5 hours in the early part of the day trying to take good shots of the nest, eggs and bird. I was on a mission, obsessed and having a ball. I learned a lot about my camera settings after looking at hundreds of failed (poor lighting ) photo attempts on the computer. So much for the other things I had planned for that 5 hour slot in the day.
When we first looked at the empty bird’s nest yesterday morning around 8am there was only one white tiny egg inside. After one of the next few nest sittings, the newest member of the Jeffers family – Mrs. Hummingbird – had layed another egg in the nest. We read that they usually lay 2 eggs. So we have the exact time and day of the baby’s beginnings.
Ray went online and googled hummingbirds. Here is what we found:
Male and female hummingbirds establish separate territories–she to build a nest and feed her young, he just to protect a reliable food source. The male takes no interest in nests or the care and feeding of babies. When females enter his territory, he does aerial displays to keep them away. The males and females mate on neutral ground.
Incubation takes 12 -19 days before the eggs hatch.
Here is a video someone took from birth through the moment the babies actually leave the nest. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG59PaCiiDg&eurl=http://hummingbirdworld.com/h/nest.htm
Photos of our hummingbird and nest outside our front door on a cactus that broken off a month or so ago. Lucky for Mrs. Hummingbird. 
She flies away every time we walk by the window too quickly. If we move slowly, she won’t fly away. Ray gets mad at me for bothering Mrs. Hummingbird when I am at my camera and startle her. Then I get mad at him when he goes in and out to the garage past her nest. We are having fun with our new family member.
Then late in the day yesterday, Ray wanted to go out in the golf cart and play some golf. I went along with my camera. He golfed and I shot photos.
I took this shot just after the sun set behind Mt. San Jacinto.
photo 1- 5::00pm last night. A pose before the 3 of us – Me, Sandi, and Cindy head off to dinner before our 6:30 meeting.
photo 2- On our way to dinner last night, I noticed the color changing quickly. I hoped we’d make it to the intersection where I knew I have a better view of the color change. I stuck my camera out the window for this deeper-than-red-ever sunset.
photo 3- Today, Cindy sitting on the floor with her P-Touch working on the files. My mood picked up as Cindy got closer and closer to completely relabeling all of my files. Cindy did a great job. She and I also set up some new files in anticipation……..of what?
photo 4- …..of the upcoming photography class I’ll be starting while I’m away in the Bahamas!!! I’m so excited. And now I’m ready to walk through the fear of what others might think and begin to learn more. All of us (Carol’s 25 students plus some auditing) were asked to introduce ourselves briefly and share our photography experience. From all the student’s introductions I’ve been reading online (in this Yahoo Group our teacher Carol Leigh set up for us all) almost every one has taken Carol’s classes more than once. I’ve checked out some of the other student’s photo websites. They are REALLY good. And they still keep taking Carol’s classes.
