February 5, 2008
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Weekend Photos and Update on Dan
An update on my brother inlaw, Dan Nordheim. Things seem to be turning around. Prayers help, I am confident of it. Dan is eating more normally and in fact going to work with less trouble. Bunny is sounding more herself. I am greatly relieved. As Dan’s eating habit turned off like a faucet after his fall and has now turned back on like a faucet, my prayer is there will be no backsliding. Thanks to everyone who is remembering Dan. All of your prayers and continued prayers are much appreciated.
Saturday outing for photo playing.
From the bike trail, a different location and actually on the road before the entrance. The quality of this shot was purely accidental. I was tickled with it. CLICK HERE to see a sized down version of the image the above was pulled from.
This photo wasn’t accidental but set up and didn’t turn out too bad. Lots of nice color and I can see some spokes in the rear wheel so nearly stopped all motion in it. I’m not unhappy with the image but will get the shots even better over time and practice. I may even understand what I did with enough of both (time and practice).
I really want to take some nice night time photos. We are out in the dark a lot and it’s a good thing for practice as I don’t do it well. I have decided I don’t have the quality lens for exactly what I want so will add an inexpensive one I have discovered on Amazon. If I ever get really good at this, I’ll buy an expensive lens. Anyway, this McDonalds is very colorful plus lots of lights around from incandescent to neon so it’s a good practice spot. Again not the best photo but I’m getting better at figuring settings.
On Sunday, Lake Isabella, a favorite close and nice park. The only real drawback, for me, is how unconcerned fishermen are about the grounds and animals. They leave yards and yards of line and dangerous hooks to tangle and injure the ducks. I’m not sure what it takes to have someone appreciate their surrounding ecological situations personally, if they don’t, and it’s obvious too many don’t. Is it really so hard to trash the crap line into a bin instead of throwing it into the lake or on the ground?
I had to doctor these ducks for display. I didn’t get a good focus on them. The lighting wasn’t particularly good and of course they move. I sized the image down to display and had plenty of size to work with. Anyway, this is a duck couple we have been viewing for several years. They are very devoted and very sexy when the time is right.
These sunsets are Sunday evening at Lake Isabella. It came on suddenly and really magnificent going from this to
this which we drove around the lake to get.
The sky turned pink and the lake reflected it all.
And driving out of the park we took this.
The day had to end, we were really getting hungry, needed a potty break plus we wanted to see the football game. I fixed a nice super bowl supper, shrimp in a light white sauce over a bed of rice and a salad that was really yummy. Dessert, nothing really special, applesauce with walnut halves and a bit of extra brown sugar on top. Later we watched House, ate again, Salami and cheese on Rye with some mayo. What a great day and a good game I am glad I didn’t place a bet on.
Have a great week,
Becca
Comments (15)
What a gorgeous sunset! We had nothing but gray skies here. I’m jealous! : )
Some day I should practice those night shots, too. I never thought about it but you’re right, McDonanld’s would make an excellent subject! My night shots are always awful, even using the setting specified on the camera.
So glad to hear that your BIL is better!
I have been praying for Dan so am glad to hear that they are being answered. TG. The photos are brilliant ( as usual ) but the evening ones are really superb, my favourite one is the ” pink ” lake and sky.
Marie
Well now lets have a look at this, starting at the top. Nice detail in the pictures of the Cyclists, so much so that you can actually see the spokes in the wheels, so you obviously had a fast camera speed which did the trick. I like the duck picture too, as I think you just about fixed the Focus in PSP. Now then these sunset pictures are something else. They are lovely! Beautiful pink setting across the water. Nice photography Becca.
The 4 pictures of sunset in the wood make me dream . Bravo Becca . But the first ( cyclists ) enjoyed me too .
I am sorry to hear Bonnie ‘ s husband had health problems . Thanks to keep us informed . i hope things go better and better for them .
Love
Michel
I checked up your previous posts and I realized I knew Dan fell ( post of the 10 th of January ) . I had commented . I believed it was healed since then . But he is just better at this moment , after almost a month .
Bonnie must be worried .
Love
Michel
The pictures are lovely. I love the hues of the landscape and the bright colors of the others. I’m glad Dan is improving.
Good news for your brother in law, happy to hear that! also love your sunsets, re my feb header, i was very lucky, i looked out the window and there it was! after much rushing around finding the tripod setting it up , my batteries went flat, more rushing around, insert new batteries, light fading fast, looked around saw Carolins camera sitting there, put my card in it and took the pics with the minolta, very lucky again as i dont use this camera very much, hardly ever in fact, so i just kept clicking away, changing shutter speed and aparture as i went, i got some good ones,and a lot of rubbish too, i did nothing to change to colour of the header pic, just made it look a little like a painting.
So glad he is getting better. What a worry that has been. Your photos are magnificent as usual
Nancy
Hallo Becca, re your question, being where it is Alsace has a very strong Germanic flavour, for example we have the same bank holidays as germany , that means we get a few more days off than the rest of france, and carnaval is celebrated german style as well.
I have been remiss. Somewhere down the line your site has been moved on my list and I have not been visiting you as often as I should. Cyn will try to do better. I can understand about the serious falls. I have had several in recent months. A couple were bad. I am glad your bil is doing better.
gorgeous pics…and so happy BIL is doing better! God Bless!
hugs,
sage
so glad your brother-in-law is doing better.
and what great pictures, I wish my pictures turned out that well. MKD even bought me a new camera last fall specifically because a friend said it took great night time pics (i have yet to try it out however hah!).
The pictures you’ve posted are exciting and show a lot of work and improvement on your part. I’d really like to comment on a couple of them individually, but thanks to this new xanga set up, I can’t find how to do it. I’ve clicked on the image, which gets me just the image. I went into your photos and saw nothing and nothing inside your new album. I can’t say I’m happy with whatever is going on around here. It sounds like a very good excuse to move.
Okay, to the pics. The bicyclists are great. Yes, you did stop the action. Sometimes, when something is moving, it’s good to show action though, and there are a couple of ways to do it (maybe more). One, is to allow just a little spin on those wheels. So maybe a shutter speed of 1/100th of a second or thereabouts might have done that. Another way to show motion while not blurring the subject is to pan. Panning just means to move your body at the hip, following the subject while you take the photo. This may take a little practice, but it is a nice skill to develop for sports or animals.
The other pic that I wanted to comment on was the one across the lake, 2nd to last. This image has an interesting pink color and a lot of mood, so I can see what you were trying to capture. However, the trees in the front of the lake are a big distraction, when what I really want to see is that beautiful, calm, water. It might also work a little better if the house/building was more at the bottom, right, 1/3 of your photo. Meaning, 1/3 horizontal and 1/3 vertical. In this small version, I think it’s just about 1 inch off of that intersection. One more thing about these water shots, it’s very easy to get that horizon line skewed just a little. With water, it creates the feeling that it’s about to spill out, so we must be very careful to get that straight water line. You may be able to correct this some with PSP, but it’s best to try to get it straight in-camera.
I don’t care much for power lines in photos, so I’m not crazy about the last pic, but the first few are pretty nice, even the ducks that you managed to save (maybe a little more detail in the green head of the male?) would be nice. I love the colors in pic #2 of the bicyclists and think you did a great job with #1. It looks like you’re having a great time and learning very quickly.
Hello Becca . I hope all id fine with you and your family .
Love
Michel
Hi Becca!
As usual your photography is gorgeous! Sunsets are my favorite!
Glad to hear bil is improving!