Over The Meadow and Through The Woods

The Players:

My mom: Dusty Devoe riding her Quarter Horse/Morgan gelding, Dusty.

Tony: stable manager, riding his Morgan gelding, Profile.

The Ride: The stable yard, the meadow, and the woods.

Day One

the warm-up

the gate keeper

far away

close up

the boys at the end of the ride

Day Two

out on the trail

Head's Up



a ride by

heading back home

The end of the trail

Thanks for letting me document these great rides!

Bits and Pieces

Just a collection from my life this past month....

Guest Rider

Guest Rider hint: whose jeans are almost always too short for her long legs?



Yep, it's Paint Girl! I had my sister ride My Boy two weekends ago, so that I could play with my camera settings and practice my picture taking, but with my own horse as my subject. Here are a few of the resulting pictures.










As you can see, I like filming pieces of my horse. I rarely shot his whole self!

Thanks Paint Girl, hope you enjoyed your ride!

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.

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!

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.

Under, Behind, and Between

{under}

{behind: photographing the photographer}

{between: spotted squish}

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}