Sunday Stills- Powerlines and Landscapes

Powerlines and landscapes were the challenge for Sunday Stills.....well, I have never looked at powerlines the way I have this past week! However, I didn't snap many pictures because I was usually driving when I saw them! Except for this sunset shot from my deck. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, for Sunday Stills!) the lines that run along my road are right in the way of getting a clear shot.



Here are some power line shots from the archives. These are from one of our trail rides last year. They were taken on my Sony point and shoot, and my sister took the ones of me, obviously. We haven't been trail riding this week so I wasn't able to get any current power line shots from where we ride.

Stop on over at Sunday Stills and see what everyone else did!

Alien Praying Mantis

My thoughts exactly when Sares said she thought the pictures looked like a very stylish praying mantis. However, Paint Girl was right. Remember these glorious pink Rhodie blooms I photographed for Pink Saturday? The following weekend, they were beginning to be just a memory.



I thought the resulting "dead heads" were pretty neat. Like long-legged botanical spiders.



This is the new growth on the Rhodie.



This is the mess of pink blooms.



I have a thing for beautiful messes, don't I?

What is It?

{any guesses??}

An Eyeful

I told Paint Girl the other day that I love taking pictures of her horse Fritzy's eyes. I wasn't sure why that was.



I think I figured it out. It's her long forelock. It is wispy and hangs over her eyes like fringed bangs, and I love how it looks in photos. (The hair in the above photo is actually her mane blowing in the breeze.)



It is interesting how the ends of Fritzy's black forelock are reddish-brown, bleached from the sun.



Would you recognize your own horse by just a cropped picture of it's eye?



I think I would recognize My Boy's eye in a heartbeat. Not hard to miss the 6 frizzy forelock hairs he has.

Mellow Yellow

Thanks to Ed over at Sunday Stills Challenge for hosting this fun photography challenge every weekend!

{a sleeping dandelion}

{the butter yellow fringe on my elk hide chinks}

{yellow rope tied to a plastic bag of cans, for desensitizing the horses. can you find the spider?}

{invasive scotch broom}

{yellow rhododendrons}

{trying to bee the paparazzi. again. can you find the bee's head on the right? coming in for a landing....}

{the end}

Bee Paparazzi

Last weekend I was walking up from the horse pasture and noticed bees buzzing all around the rhododendrons. I stopped to take pictures.



Now I know where the term "busy bees" comes from! Those bees were workin' those blooms! I could barely snap a shot before they'd zoom out of a bloom and into another.



Like a Hollywood movie star stalker, I even tried just posing the camera on an empty bloom in hope that a bee would do a fly by and land, but I swear they were camera shy and stayed away.

I managed to catch these two bees working side by side.



The bees did not turn out very good. I was hoping I could get a better zoom on them. A macro lens might have helped.

The petals on these rhodies ended up being the star of the show. I like this one the best, because the petals look so blurry, delicate, and dreamy.



These petals are my favorite shade of pink. It is just fabulous! If I were to ever paint a room's walls pink, I would want them this color.

A huge thank you to Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound for hosting Pink Saturday every weekend. It is always fun to see what all those creative bloggers choose to post about!

Help Me Find the Light

I took this picture of Brandy last weekend, in a shady spot under the cedar trees. This picture is SOOC (straight out of camera.)



I was able to edit it and lighten up the mare. Here is the resulting image.



Definitely an improvement. However, there has got to be a way to get a lighter shot or better exposure in a shady location, without using a flash or editing the photo afterward. Yes? No? What would you do? Remember, I'm a rookie. I could use your help!

Thanks!

Subtle Details

This isn't one of those games where you look at two photos and find three things that are different. But it kind of is. Look closely at the following two photos. I took one after the other, at about 170mm and I did not crop either of them.

{picture one}

{picture two}

There are slight differences in expression on the goat's face, and the layout of the trees. I could not decide which photo I liked better! I love the slightly tilted head of the goat in picture one. But I liked seeing less of the cedar tree and more of the green background in picture two. This was shot late afternoon, when the sun was lowering behind trees, so it was very shady where I took this from.

Which one do you like? Do you take more than one shot of an animal or scene, and notice the subtle differences?

Remember, this is Walter, my favorite goat. He is hanging out in his "jungle gym" of old stumps and trees. Walter is old, and probably has arthritis. His front leg looks a bit crooked and it is. He's a bit of a gimp.

A pretty photogenic gimp, nonetheless.

Next time, I'll have a few more from this particular series and want to talk about light.

Monday Morning Muzzle & DSLR Musings

I never, ever tire of seeing this muzzle.

Jan inquired about my camera. I recently purchased a Nikon D40 from Ritzcamera.com. It was a package deal. I got the camera, two lenses, two DVD's, and a gadget bag (I've linked you to the ad, although the package has changed and no longer includes the bag and DVDs, I think there is a printer offer now. They change them frequently.) I personally was satisfied with my purchase from this site, but do your research. There are good and bad reviews for most online camera retailers, I've noticed.

It was funny because when I found the camera on Ritz (after Costco had backordered it), I noticed they were in the same "family" as Kit's Camera, which I've seen retail stores for. It turns out that Kits and Ritz's online camera sites are not affiliated with their retail stores at all.

When I looked at the D40 camera package, I noticed another one that seemed exactly the same, except for a little more money. I read all of the fine print and could not figure out what in the world was different. Of course, I ordered the less expensive one. Guess what? I discovered later, after I received the camera, that the more expensive one had a 55mm-200mm lens that had VR- Vibration Reduction. It was a small detail I hadn't noticed. In retrospect, I probably would've paid more for VR, but too late now!

Why Nikon? It wasn't a hard choice. I was influenced by bloggers and their cameras and photos, people around me who have Nikons,reviews, and cost. The Nikon was a little less expensive than a comprehable Canon. I also went to camera shops and played with the Nikon D40. Just holding the camera, it felt like a good "fit" for me.

At this point, I have read my manual and watched the DVD's, which were very basic. I probably only know a 1/3 of what I need to know to fully operate this camera.



Somebody needs his whiskers clipped!

Let me tell you that I can hardly stand to use my point-and-shoot anymore, although it's a necessity for some activities, especially riding as the Nikon is a little too big for my saddle bag! To me, the quality of the DSLR from my point-and-shoot is night and day. However, I am still shooting mostly on AUTO, or the various modes (sports, macro, portrait, etc.) I am still pretty much using it as a point-and-shoot. And I am not afraid to admit that. I just haven't had time (and probably won't, until the school year is over) to really explore more about the camera's capabilities. But I also feel when you pay that much for a camera, it should meet you halfway, and it does. The other half is "in your head," as a photographer told me. It's the artist's creative eye. You can have the best camera on the market, but if you don't have the eye for photography, it won't matter.

So that is the beginning. If you are feeling intimidated by a DSLR- don't be! Before I bit the bullet and got the DSLR I was going to move up to a Nikon Coolpix P90, which is in the class of point-and-shoots they call "ultra-zooms" (Canon makes a great one too, that feels like a DSLR in your hands and is probably a bit nicer than the P90 from the reviews I read.) But the price of the P90 was still $400. I knew that I would "outgrow" that camera within a year and want a DSLR anyway. So for around $150 more, I got a DSLR, which I can grow with. I will probably never need another camera, since I plan to stay an amateur, my photography is just a creative outlet for me. Now, I will admit that I'm already eyeing other lenses, particularly this one.

I'm not one to give particular technical shooting advice because I don't have the skills to do so, but I can share my experiences and hopefully that will help you in some way, at least if you are just starting out or thinking about getting a DSLR! I'll write more camera thoughts in the future.

Sunday Stills- Eyes

This is my first time participating in the Sunday Stills Challenge. The challenge for this weekend was "eyes."

I reworked a few shots of eyes that I took of Morgan the farm cat a few weeks ago.






It is hard to capture eyes without getting a reflection. I just love the colors of Morgan's eyes. Had I not taken these pictures, I don't think I would have ever noticed that how multicolored her eyes are. It also never ceases to amaze me how tiny a cat's pupil can get....just a sliver of black!

It's a good thing this challenge was on eyes and not ears, since I cropped Morgan's out on both pictures. Sorry, Morgan. I'm informing everyone right now that you have the cutest little ears!

Please head over to the Sunday Stills blog to check out other contributors!

A Beautiful Mess

It's Pink Saturday! This weekend, I decided to post over here at the picture blog.

{beautiful}

{beautiful}

{mess}

{but still beautiful}

A big thanks to Beverly over at her How Sweet the Sound blog for hosting this pinkness every weekend! Head on over to get some ideas from the other participants, maybe you'll even want to try your own pinky post!

Under, Behind, and Between

{under}

{behind: photographing the photographer}

{between: spotted squish}

My Favorite Goat

{walter}

{gray ears. gray muzzle. amber-colored eyes}

{no horns!}

{that's why he's my favorite}

Soft and Fluffy

On a simple walk around the farm I saw many soft and fluffy things.

{dandelion seeds}

{goat hair on the fence}

{bridle path clippings}

{feather attached to a salmon berry leaf and twirling in the breeze, a one-of-a-kind-find}

{dog hair wrapped around a blackberry vine}

{my favorite ears}

The White Wonder Pony

Let's start off the week with some pictures of Brandy from this weekend.

{goin' all out}

{yee-haw}

{paint girl hugs}

{snowflake eyelashes}