Graffiti!

This is in a skateboard/bike park for kids. All of the walls have graffiti on them, and I liked this the most. Beautiful colours, shading and curves.

Evening Glow

Evening Glow takes place after sunset. The balloons stay on the ground, and as they turn on the burners to heat up the air in the balloons, the entire balloon glows.

What's THAT for?

Admittedly, this is in reality a very large wrench to begin with.

All I did was change the angle I took the shot at. It makes the front look even larger than it already is, and makes the back look proportionally way too small. I like it!

Trumpeter Swans

We saw 2 pairs (breeding pairs?) of Trumpeter Swans this weekend.

From one pair.

The second pair. They have amazing necks!

Look up, waaay up!

There will be several pictures of hot air balloons over the coming days, thanks to a fabulous Hot Air Balloon Competition I was able to attend this weekend.

How often to you get to be almost directly below a hot air balloon? When you look straight up inside, if you get lucky, you'll see the burst of flame, like this one.

Highway accident?

Not quite! This is a view from above of a model train scene. The set was an N-Scale, which is about 1:148.

I love the detail these guys put in to their scenes. You can almost see the frustration on the guy's face, standing there on the highway, faced with this load all over the road!

Chip...

It might be a little hard to tell at the size shown here, but there is amazing detail and focus on this windshield chip.

Fall? Already?

It's not a stunning picture, but I'm kind of in denial...

Seriously, I'm sure this tree was fully green when I walked past it just the day before! What's going on here? I'm not ready for the seasons to change!

Moth

This moth invaded my house. Therefore, he became the subject of intense photography.

I'm amazed how clearly his legs and the detail along the wings came out.

Chatty magpie

I caught this guy in mid-caw! He was being a very chatty little fellow one morning. It's not the clearest picture, unfortunately, but I still like it. Didn't have time to dig out the tripod, birds tend not to be patient enough to stick around while you fiddle.

Cropped out some of the tree so he doesn't get quite as lost amongst the branches.

Black-Billed Magpie sighted Sept 17, 2011

Spider's web

I've really been working on spider webs recently. I've been given a few tips (you want the sun coming from behind them) and I've learned how to work manual focus on my camera - hey, it's not a DSLR, so this is no small feat!

I hate spiders, but have to admit their webs are pretty cool. This didn't come out quite as I would have liked, because there are actually multiple layers of webs, not just a single one. Oh well, it was good practice for macro shots.

Sunflare

This was an interesting bit of education... It was very sunflare-y when I took the picture, but the camera almost completely compensated! An excellent feature - unless you actually want sunflare.

Delicate feather

A nearly perfect feather, just sitting in the grass.

I just put the camera right down in the grass with the feather, and clicked. I cropped the picture a bit when I got home, but otherwise it is untouched.

Reflection

The image is not of the car, or its window, but of the reflection in the window.

Buzzzz

It's not a perfect image, but for one of my first tries at getting insects, I'm pretty pleased with it. Plus, the subject wasn't really inclined to sit still.

Taken in my first photography class, the bee is nearly perfectly in focus. Natural lighting, macro.

Hawaiian birds

Looking at the sunset pictures a couple of days ago reminded me of some other favourite moments from my trip to Hawaii. This was taken right after a morning spent snorkeling.

I can't claim any skill here, it was a complete fluke. I was taking a picture of my own hand stretched out, which isn't easy at the best of times, but even harder when you have two adorable little birds eating from your hand and perching on your fingers! What an incredible experience.

Gaillardia

The Gaillardia or Great Blanket Flower

A plane!

I've tried a few times lately to get plane shots, but they're hard! By the time you see the plane coming, it's almost past! So I'm quite pleased with this one.

The only post processing was to crop it, I didn't alter anything else.

What I read

Another of the 30 day challenge images was simply titled "what I read". Since I read a lot, I went for the book I was reading on that particular day, instead of trying to capture something at work, or a sign or even label. I wanted to so something different than just propping up the book somewhere and taking a shot of the front of it.

It didn't come out perfectly, I think I would have needed more than just 2 hands to properly execute my vision, but after playing with the manual focus quite a bit, I think I came quite close.

Sunset

Another 30 Day Challenge was to get a sunset. I played around with the settings and such, but in the end, letting the camera do its own thing on the "sunset" setting was the best.

While I was attentive to the time I needed to head outside at, I neglected to think of where I would take this picture, so the colours are there, but the view is somewhat less than interesting. It wouldn't be bad if not for the power lines. I think the dark frame on three sides really makes the oranges stand out. Regardless, here is a non-challenge picture of a much more spectacular view.

Imagine the colours if I had known about the sunset setting! Hawaiian sunsets (at least the ones I saw) seem to be very pink, while the ones at home are often very orange. I wonder if that has anything to do with altitude.

Yes, this picture breaks the rule of thirds "law", which I didn't know about at the time, but I think it really works. I love the frame of the dark foliage, particularly the little fringe at the top. I would not change the composition of this one, except perhaps to straighten the horizon just a hair - I took this free-hand.

Little bird, little bird...

I went for a walk at work, and stared at a bush for a long time after watching two little birds disappear in to it. I didn't catch them in the bush, but my patience was rewarded when they stopped on a tree not far away, and I caught this:

He's a little far away, I had my zoom at its limit, but I'm pleased that the little bird is in focus, and facing forward! I get a lot of views of bird butts.

Birds on a wire

It's not a fabulous photo except for one thing - it looks like I selected only red for a colour, but I did NO post-processing and NO mucking with the colour settings on the camera. This was honestly just the way it turned out - red berries, red breasted birds. Beautiful.

Pretty Pattern

The challenge for today's Photo of the Day was a Pretty Pattern. I took a variety of shots at lunch, mostly inside city hall. I had never realized what an interesting building it was! Too bad I had to get back to work, I could have spent all day sitting there taking pictures from different angles.

Anyway, here's the one I ultimately chose:

I'm sure others I took had a stronger pattern, but it didn't say strong, it said pretty. And I love the contrast between the metal and glass windows, and the beautiful trees and blue sky that you see through them.

Bigger fire...

No, I'm not obsessed with fire. Honest!

But it does make for beautiful pictures, and how can you go camping without a fire and roasted marshmallows?

Perspective?

This didn't turn out the way I had planned, and there's a very annoying shadow at the bottom, but I still like the idea.

I like how squat the spices look, instead of being tall and thin like the bottles (or people) in these kinds of pictures usually are. This was also part of the still life in the kitchen assignment.

Flower

It's a little dark, but otherwise I love this picture.

For the 30 day challenge, one was "flowers". Okay, yes, this is a single flower, but it's a really cool one, so I'm counting it. Besides, I did take a lot of pictures of flowers that day, I just liked this one the best.

Not-so-old Car

Corvettes are not my favourite car, but the Stingray is definitely gorgeous. (This is the 1968-82 model.)

Especially in this non-stereotypical blue. What a shine! For my own tastes, the front is too long, but as a whole package, THIS is what a muscle* car should be.

(*Note: Yes, I realize there is some debate as to whether a Corvette is a sports car or a muscle car. It's a big, V8 American 2-door, so it's a muscle in my books.)

Burn...

This was part of an assignment to take still life photos for class - in the kitchen!

This is a HUGE candle with some dried flowers pressed into the wax on the outside. It has a single wick in the middle, so it's burning quite a tunnel down the middle.

Playing with light

There are most definitely some problems with this image. It's not perfectly focused. It's too dark. But I love the composition.

"You old coyote in the sky / Magpie..."

Ian Tyson and I are both fascinated by this bird.

Magpie with a seed or something similar, sitting on my fence after the rain. The only post-processing I did was to crop the picture. Our instructor told us not to put the interesting stuff in the center, so here we are. How's it look? Not bad, to me. The fence is more interesting than the big chunk of road would have been, if I had centered the bird!

Purple flowers

I have no idea what these flowers are, but the picture turned out great!

Last class

Tonight was our last class, and this stuff was just so much fun, I have to share! We were writing with light!

The word Love

An outline

Making the lights dance!

Dark space, long exposure, low ISO and someone willing to move that light for the duration of the exposure. Love it!

Gift from Mother Nature

Sometimes, if you are really stupid and get up at 5am, you will catch the first show of the day that Mother Nature hosts.*

What a glorious sunrise, over-looking Lake Abraham near Nordegg, Alberta.

*Note: HHGttG fans, I think this is a little bit like going to the Big Bang Burger Bar, to catch the ultimate first show!