Beauty is everywhere if you look

063007373
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

These were downtown outside the pharmacy today, I'll put up some of the others on flickr by tomorrow if you want to see.

ss 1/4000, f3.2, ISO 200, 50 mm

Garden update

063007374
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

Anyone have any good cabbage recipes?

Put your face to the sun

062807366
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

I have a mentor who has told me figuratively for years to "put your face to the sun" in a chin up sort of way. Every time I see sunflowers I think of her and how much I've grown because of her.

Unfortunately, too narrow an ap (yes, I have an excuse but that's all it is, is an excuse) and it's dark outside now so I can't reshoot.

SS 1/160 f1.8 ISO 200 50 mm

Those eyes

062607362
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

I know, I've said how 'easy' her eyes are before but it's the truth. I never spot process her eyes at all and they out looking like this.

ss 1/1000, f2.0, ISO 200, 50 mm

Share what?

062607359
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

SS 1/1250, f2.0, ISO 200, 50mm

Irish night at the USF!

062507350
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

We love to walk down to the Green Show in the summer, tonight was the first time we've made it. It was Irish Night :) Once again, I had no other adults, all 3 kids, and was running late I was shooting from too far back in too low of light with crap for a lens.

SS 1/250, f5.6, ISO 1600, 200 mm

I did add some grain as well, the image had just the wrong amount originally (too much to filter out, not enough to call intentional) As I was shooting I knew these would all be converted and it's a shame because the colors really are beautiful. I need to try to get down there early one day so I can use a better lens.

'Tis a pepper

06240711
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

This is my garden update for Friday. It's a pepper.

Cowboy action

062407302
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

I've toyed with the idea of naming my actions mostly because BW1, BW2, BW3 gets confusing. Really, it's a chocolate type conversion (one with one without grain), a light conversion and a dark conversion.

This is chocolate with grain, I think I'll call it Cowboy.

As for the shot, again at the rodeo (I know it's a big surprise) and I had watched this guy on Friday night and he was amazing, totally blew me away. His horse was beautiful, strong, and he looked like he completely belonged ontop of it.

I was shooting through a lot of people with my 200 mm lens so there are parts of this I would like to be different, but considering I'm happy with it.

Sunset at the rodeo

062407316
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

I was working the rodeo and ended up tending to busted up cowboys during the time my long lens would have been able to be fast enough to get any decent pictures so I was left with skyscapes.

Technical practice -- backlighting

062107298
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

I snapped this quickly before we ran to get her haircut (it's way too hot and she doesn't like it pulled up) and wanted to work on backlighting. I should have picked a day I could go back out before the sun was down, so next week I'm hitting backlighting.

Sisters

Sisters
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

I hate trying to save pictures, and typically don't even bother, but I had to try with this one. I was shooting Sunny 16 and counted wrong leaving me terribly under exposed (the grain full size is scary)

It's not a good enough fix to print, and of course this wasn't taken anywhere close for a quick afternoon return and the moment just happened, I have nightmares thinking of what it would be like to get them to pose like that.

As bad as it is, I'd still appreciate any CC especially on composition.

Monarch Waystation

butterfly bush
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

Thanks to a friend, C (who is working on an suburban homestead and I really wish she'd blog her stories so I could share them with you too) I found out about The Monarch Watch and monarch waystations.

Guess what I want to do now?

Yup, I'm putting in a monarch waystation along the parking strip and next year turning the strip where the SFG currently is into an extension of it.

I went out today and bought a butterfly bush and some echinacea when originally I was just pricing things and looking around. I think I'm going to have a hard time finding milkweed that isn't well, the weed everyone around here fights.

Continued Monarch Waystation

echinacea
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

I'm struggling to put 2 pictures in the same post using flickr and having them look nice, so this time the first post tells the story and this one will have the technicalities.

I will eventually figure out blogging to my liking. I hope.

Butterflybush

SS 1/1000, f5.6, ISO 200, 100 mm

Echinacea

SS 1/1000, f5.6, ISO 200, 125 mm

I used aperture priority, I probably should have pulled out my gray card, I've had no luck lately metering off of the sky. I've been afraid to mention it, hoping Andrea isn't too disappointed in me.

Also, for those of you who lost Opanda when they updated mozilla, I tried one more time to uninstall Opanda and then redownload it and it works now. Yeah! I was missing it.

Ladybug, ladybug

061807292
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

Here she sits, defending the garden against whatever has decided my beds are the kitchen.

What's the buzz?

What's the buzz?
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

I'm so tired, I put my blog entry in my flickr description (yes, it is bedtime!) So here it is, copy/pasted.

The latest buzz is that I really want a macro lens. I think I'm going to rent one so I can get some of these shots without using the crop tool for zoom *sigh*

I guess for sharpness I could tell that you that this is almost at 100% (I resized by 50 pixels) In case you are curious, bees are flightier (and fuzzier) than the wasps I was shooting on Friday.

USG -- Soccer finals

I've decided soccer players have beautiful body lines (yes, I'm generalizing, yes I realize not all soccer players have the same body type, no I'm not concerned about my generalization) and I enjoyed shooting a game today that I didn't have any vested interest in.

All 3 picts settings were the same. SS 1/1250, f5.6, ISO 200
Red #2 was very quick, graceful and has the beautiful body lines.



This kid was just amazing, he was also over the field and everywhere. It was like trying to shoot a hummingbird.



Look at the length of this kid running step (he was prepping to kick IIRC) And again, the beautiful lines.

More from today

Ok, I admit it, this post was more about trying something out, but I get some more pictures that are fitting for today.

The beans growing secondary leaves, yeah!



The SFG sunflowers. The sunflowers in the other bed got eaten and need to be replanted. If I could find a garden snake to have live in my backyard I'd be happy.

Friday's Garden update!

As always, pictures are clickable and clicking on the visitor we had will bring up some nice details.

Foxglove



Sweet williams (I think they aren't bushy but grew taller?!?)



Had a thirsty visitor that has me seriously checking out macro lenses.



Hollyhocks from the back



Spinach



Upside down tomatoes



Peas, starting to be not so patient with them this year.



Corn



Beans being OOF in front of the corn that is in focus.



Cabbage (I discuss someone being hungry in SFGville a little later, but he stopped at the cabbage dinner too)



Broccoli



Carrots



Lettuce



Pear tomatoes. There are some in the middle of the plant that are big enough to pick, just waiting for them to turn yellow.



Somethings hungry in SFGville (this is back though, not in the SFG) the other watermelon is down to just stems :(

Watermelon



Crookneck squash



Baby cucumbers



Onions, they add a nice aroma to the yard, especially when the kittens run through them and kick up the smell.



Peppers. Yum?

Denied!

061407160 copy
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

SS 1/1000, f5.6, 135mm, ISO 200

Yes, I'm messing with my watermark trying to find one that protects my work and doesn't ruin it at the same time. I'm not liking a lot of what I'm coming up with so expect some variety over the next little bit.

Both of these shots both have more impact big, clicking the image will take you to a larger shot.

IIRC, the second shot has the same settings as the first.

Cloudy afternoon

061307117
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

1/4000, f4.0, 18mm, ISO 200

Goodnight

061207107
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

I had hoped to have baseball shots for you, but it was getting late and my SS had dropped below freezing motion speed and I forgot to change my focus settings to continuous.

I had some other skyscapes from the sunset tonight, but they didn't work out so well (I was trying to shoot the sun itself before it dropped and a different location so the sun wasn't behind Three Peaks)

I'm really enjoying the evening sky this summer, I'm going to have to be practicing a little more.

John Deere Green

061107105
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

I'm going back tomorrow, I want a different perspective on the hay bales (I hope they aren't picking them up tomorrow!) and I hope the baler has moved, I don't like where the edge of the hay hits the tractor.

I had to clone out a sprinkler line, is it too obvious? I just hope I get a better shot tomorrow. I'm also open to any advice on perspective.

061107103
Originally uploaded by HDC Photography

Hollyhocks on histogram

I've had a lot of poorly exposed images lately, I have a couple of reasons for that. I've been shooting in more difficult lighting conditions and places I haven't had my gray card. I shot the first image relying on the in camera meter, then I viewed my histogram and adjusted exposure comp and rechecked my histogram.

These are both SOOC, I only resized and stamped them no USM or anything.

BTW, these are of my hollyhocks, finally almost ready to bloom. I'm very excited.



After adjusted for histogram



The technical info is available on flickr if you click the images.

Garden update

Last week I had a bunch of individual shots from the garden, this week I thought I'd step back a little so you can see my messy working area as well.

Here is the front SFG beds. Notice how well my bareroot strawberries are doing? /end sarcasm.



I remember being little and peas climbing up the corn. I don't know if Mom planted peas late or what, but I have plants wanting to climb and the corn is nowhere near big enough for them to be climbing up. This was one of the solutions. Yes I realize the peas are already at the top, I'm hoping they can climb horizontal.



The kids sunflower plants for the fair. Notice all the weeds popping up now too? The kids are thrilled. I initially told them it was their plants, their job, I would help them find information but I was not going to do the work for them. I keep sneaking out to pull a few weeds for them as thick as they are right now.

Something out there got hungry and decided to munch on some sunflower leaves too. I bought a new spray bottle, so we can go spray them with onion/garlic/cayenne spray tomorrow.



This is what happens when you leave instructions that say "please water all of the baby plants in the backyard" No one was aware of the broccoli I planted, how I don't know it's in a visible spot with the ground obviously overturned. I got some water on them, I haven't been back out to see how they responded yet, I'll edit an 'after fluids' picture in tomorrow.



Flowers haven't changed much, wind did a number on my little lily that was blooming, columbine is still just budding, and hollyhock is just hanging out too.

Pictures added 06/10/07

Rehydrated broccoli



Found part of what has been dining on my garden (in the cabbages and broccoli)