Rainbows

We had some storms come through last night and as they were ending the sky got brighter just around sunset. I peeked out the window and there was a huge double rainbow. It stuck around for at least 10 minutes as the sun set and the rain continued lightly. I think I need to work on my processing to make it stand out more.

Rays

The clouds and sun make so many neat shapes and designs that come and go so quickly. Maybe one of these days I'll figure out how to use all these sky shots and put them in other photos that need a new sky.

ibook Cozy

The people in the fabric stores must think I'm insane. Most people carry their fabric over and know exactly how much they want of each kind, but not me. They ask how much and I reply "uhh, uhm..." , then I unroll a little bit, and ponder quickly and give them an answer in the form of a question. "Half a yard?" The results aren't bad though. Here is a little ibook cozy I made.. no patterns, no pinning. Sew, snip, flip... and voila! As for the ibook, I don't prefer it for editing picture, so I hope it looks ok :)

Fading...

Just playing around for this shot. I started out with a rubber duckie and a single light source thinking maybe I'd come up with a unique idea for this weeks challenge. Somehow, I doubt this would do well though since it's not fancy and polished and people would think I had cheated or something.

So I set the camera on the tripod, put the duck in the first spot, and pointed one light towards the right. Used the remote to open the shutter and kept it open about 5 seconds. Placed a dark sheet of paper in front of the lens, moved the duck and removed the paper for about 3 seconds. Repeated that process for the 3rd spot and only left it open for about 1 second. The hard part was getting the ducks evenly spaced.

Chrysalis

One of the neatest things I get to do with my kindergarteners is hatch butterflies. We order the caterpillars and they come in a little cup with their caterpillar food at the bottom. We watch them grow and molt their skin, and finally climb to the top of the cup where they make their silk button to hold on, hang down, molt for the last time and turn into a chrysalis. After they're all changed, we move the paper they're hanging from into a butterfly tent and wait for them to hatch so that we can release them.

Well, the tape wasn't holding so well, and they've fallen down 3 times. I finally decided to pin it so it can't completely fall again. Unfortunately, this little guys silk button didn't hold, and he fell off. The instructions said to put the chrysalis on a napkin and leave it in the bottom of the tent, but before I did, I took his picture. He's still alive, since the end with the silk button (left side) was wiggling as I was putting him back in the tent. Hopefully when we get back to school on Tuesday we'll have butterflies! Here's another view of the spikes going down the.. front? Back?

Star Trails

Ok, so you have to look close. This is one of those shots that I keep trying to improve. I'm getting there. I like the little plane trail near the tree since it has a little bit of a curve to it like the star trails. I'm sure there will be a few more of these shots coming up as I get the time (and clear skies) to try again.

Self Portrait #4

I was getting really tired of the other self portrait as my little thumbnail picture, so it was time for a new one. The aim for this one was some trees in the background, but it came out really overexposed on the left. I ended up playing with it way too much, and the background looks bad in the big versions, but as a thumbnail it'll do for a while.

Spring

It was rainy for too many days in a row, and once the sun finally (sort of) came out, it was still chilly and windy. The end of May and some of the kids at school have actually dug out the warm coats and I even saw a pair of gloves for recess. But today, the trend is finally supposed to change. I sure hope so. I'm ready to see more flowers.

Architecture

I don't take a lot of pictures of architecture and buildilngs, but I went back into my shots to see what interesting stuff I had that I might recreate/improve on for the architecture challenge. I came across this show, which I like, but it wasn't taken where I live, so I can't reshoot it for the challenge. It is part of the front entrance of a Veterans' memorial at a national cemetery in Pennsylvania.

Aged

This shot was another attempt at recreating something I'd seen. There is a "nature" screen saver on my computer that flips through a bunch of very simple pictures of things in nature, one being the rings of a tree, so this was my attempt at the same thing.

Passing Storm

It's been raining... and then raining some more. I know I've seen the sun sometime during the past week and a half, but it's starting to feel like maybe I haven't. Then today, finally... some wind and more rain and finally blue skies. Looking east and west was like two totally different worlds, and unfortunately the widest my lens goes is 28mm, so this was the best I could do to capture it in one shot. But, as I type the sun is shining and the skies are once again blue. :)

Apple

This was one of those shots where I saw someone elses version and thought "I can do better than that." I only had a green apple though, so I needed a red background. I painted a piece of paper with a few different shades of red and used it as my background. I played with a bunch of settings and this one turned out the best.

Waving Hello!

There is usually at least one of these little bugs hanging out at one of my windows these days. They're about the size of a pin head. This guy was walking around and waving his legs in a funny way, so I wiped the pollen off of the windowsill, and took a few pictures. Played with it in PS to get rid of the rest of the dirt and dust and make the background white.

Seeds

I saw these the other day and took a picture of them, but then I saw some yesterday again on my windshield. I have no idea what they are, but they're interesting. Anyone know?

Keys

Yep. Another example of running out of ideas/inspiration and asking someone "what should I use for my PaD?" Not bad compared to what the first shot looked like that I took of these keys, and it only took 6 tries.

A New Toy

I stopped at the pet store on the way home for a few things, and picked up a new little catnip toy for the kitty. She spent the rest of the day randomly chasing it around the house, pouncing on it, and sleeping on it. Silly kitty.

Tulips

A few more tulips for my PaD.

Clouds

The weather forecast is rain, drizzle, showers, some more rain, and a few more showers. Ugh. It managed to stay dry most of the day yesterday, and there were some neat clouds at night. This was a 6 second exposure with the lights reflecting off the clouds. I bumped the colors a little, adjusted the levels and resized.

And... Happy Mother's Day, mom! Love ya! :)

Sepia

Was driving down the street and liked the signs on all the stores. The brick building in the background was strangely colored with reds and a splotch of a purpley color. So I played with it in PS and made it sepia tones instead.

And a few days back, I'd posted a possible challenge spoiler of the ferris wheel. Well, here is the shot I'd entered. I didn't have a tripod with me, so I sat in the car and used the dashboard to help steady the camera for the 3 second exposure. All of the shots I took came out squiggly except this one. The bottom lights were blown out so I darkened them a little... and there you have it!

Chipmunk

Just a little chipmunk shot that I fixed up from a while ago. Happy Friday! :)

Rubber Duckie

I've always liked these little duckies. Something about the little yellow guys just makes me happy. So when I found them at the craft store yesterday for a dollar, how could I resist? :)

Albany's Tulips

Yes, another shot from the weekend.

4 Leaf Clover

There is a patch of clovers right by my door, and every time I unlock the door I do a quick scan to see if there are any 4 leaf clovers tucked in there. Yesterday, I finally found one! :)

More Flowers

The original thinking as I was looking at taking this shot was that I liked the way the purple flowers created a curved line heading into the shot. I needed to make sure I was low enough to not have any of the ugly walkways in the shot, and I needed to keep as much of the chain/fence out of the shot. Oh, and shoot quick so no raindrops clutered up the lens, but wait long enough to let the driving cars pass by. When I got home and looked at the shot, I was disappointed with the ugly grey (white) sky, so I added a little color to it in photoshop.

Pollination

Another shot from yesterday with the flowers. I saw a few bumble bees, but they all seemed interested in these little purple flowers, and could care less about the tulips.

Pointy

When I got my camera from Ritz, it came with a bunch of coupons to use for classes. So, I went to one this morning that was held at a park where the annual Tulip Festival will be taking place next weekend. It was drizzly most of the morning, so none of us did too much shooting. One guy was walking around with his Nikon over his shoulder (no bag) and I just kept watching the raindrops pile up on it as I cringed in horror. Anyway, there will probably be a few more shots from today's excursion throughout the week.

Negative Space

Took this one the other night and I keep looking at it deciding if I like it or not. I was just about to leave and I noticed the little sliver of a moon in the sky. I didn't think I'd be able to get both the moon and the goose in the shot, but I did. Both are too small to be really noticable, but I kind of like the negative space in the middle of the shot.

Odd Birthday Present

So this is the only thing I took pictures of yesterday... my cat earning her keep as a mouser. Yea, the background is distracting, but my attempts at blurring it just looked fake. There's a harsh shadow, but I wasn't brave enough or fast enough to turn the lights on, so the flash was the quick option. But I did manage to grab the camera and not just freak out. I haven't had many mice, but she's getting much better at doing her job and earning her keep!

41 Seconds

So this really isn't the most exciting or technically great photo, more of a test of some new toys. I had every intention of taking another picture of star trails when I got the remote for my camera, but of course the skys were cloudy. I stuck the camera on the tripod and faced it out the window, then tried out the bulb setting with the new wireless remote. I took the shot around 9:30 p.m., and left the shutter open for 41 seconds. After that I tried out editing in PS with the new Wacom tablet and edited out the wire that went across the entire shot.

Challenge Spoiler!

Today's shot isn't a challenge entry, but probably a spoiler since it was taken at the same time.

I took this one a few nights ago at a little carnival that came to town. I saw the ferris wheel being set up a few days before and knew I wanted to get down to try to get some neat shots. I went right around sunset so that the sky wouldn't be completely black and I really like the deep blue color of the sky. I was really pleased with the way a few of the shots came out (this one is straight from the camera). I'm not so fond of the stuff at the bottom of the shot, but at least none of the other rides were up in the air to be more distracting. I'll post the other shot that I chose for the challenge after voting is over.

Silhouette

Stopped at this lake right around sunset aiming to practice a few landscape shots that didn't really have any focal point, and ended up seeing a couple of geese hanging out. This guy was less than happy about being photographed. As I was shooting though, I found that I wasn't thinking about getting a close shot of a goose (which is the way I've usually taken pictures). I was thinking about getting a picture of the goose in relation to the reflection of the sky in the water, making sure to wait until he was in a position where he made a good shape, trying to not center the goose OR the horizon AND trying to make sure that there were no cars going across the highway in the background. This shot was cropped and saved for web... no other post processing.