Day 68 POTD Raspberries and a Fountain

This is just a little photo of a little "serenity pond" I have. It has a very soothing sound, and adding a little humidity to the super-dried air in these winter climates is quite welcome. I used my 18-135 mm lens at 120 mm, custom white balance, RAW, ss: 1/13; f/5.6; ISO 400, levels adjusted. I liked the look of the water with the slow shutter speed. My elbows were my tripod.





This picture may be technically horrible, but it's very exciting for me, and this is where my groveling will start! This was shot with my brand new, just received, I am such a lucky person, 105 mm 2.8 Macro lens!!!! I am so excited!!! But I can use any and all suggestions for learning to shoot macro images. One basic thing I realized after taking this picture is that even though I set this dish of raspberries next to the window for the light, it does not work well to shoot toward the light; I need to rearrange furniture tomorrow so that the light will at least be coming from the side. It seems like somehow, I need both diffused light, but bright light. Maybe.

Please share with me any and all suggestions you might have for Macro shots! Thanks!



105 mm lens, ISO 400; wb: cloudy; manual mode; manual focus and tripod; f/22; ss: 8".

Uninjured!

Liv Esteban's Adventure Kit; travelin typewriter, and Justin fonts

It's amazingly therapeutic to digiscrap something distressing. . . like this 3 am phone call from my son about his car accident.

Day 67 Bonanzaville, Fargo, ND

In Fargo, ND, there's a museum with preserved building from the late 19th century. Not surprisingly, it's closed in the winter. But I wanted some photos anyway, so I shot these through a locked fence, while a police officer sat in his cozy warm car keeping an eye on me (and me on him!) I'll go back to the museum again in the summer, because there's much more to see, but this is one photo of a street, and then I cropped it in to one of the stores. This was shot in manual mode, RAW, with my 18-135 mm lens, at 52mm, f/13, ss: 1/250; ISO: 200.



I slightly adjusted the exposure, defogged, and framed.

Thank you everyone, for all the nice comments on my photos. I'm enjoying this POTD much more than I ever thought possible, and it's definitely taking the edge off winter for me. Its prompting me to look around and see more of what is all around, and I just love hearing about the variety of lives and circumstances of everyone who particpates and comments! I count you all as part of my circle of friends in this crazy adventure called "life"!

Day 66 POTD A Woman's Perspective on Compassion

This is one of the exhibits in a very unusual art project in Moorhead, MN (across the river from Fargo, ND). It's the "A Woman's Perspective on Compassion," and involves exhibits of shoes. All kinds of shoes, symbolically representing a perspective on compassion. This exhibit is by Karen Hartke and is called "Bird Song". (see the nest among the shoe?) This is what Karen writes, "'A bird does not sing because it has an answer, a bird sings because it has a song.' Chinese proverb. In contemplating 'compassion' as a theme for an art piece, I turned to the little bird and the Golden Rule. Considering all the pain, suffering, and inequality in the world is overwhelming to me; the little song of a little bird without an answer but with a song is comprehensible to me. I can practice love and kindness; I can act with understanding and compassion; I can widen my circle to embrace all of human nature. I can sing that song."

Isn't this beautiful?


Shot in RAW with my 18-135mm lens at 32mm, custom white balance (which was off because it was for another room entirely!); ISO 400; f/4; ss: 1/60, using camera flash. I adjusted the exposure and colors slightly, defogged, added the frames, and that's it. I wish that I could have spent more time composing the photo better to get rid of some of the stuff in the background, but we were rushing to get on the road ahead of a storm . . .

Day 65 POTD Viking Ship

A Viking Ship! Or at least a replica of one. But the really cool thing about this ship is that it sailed from Duluth, MN to Oslo, Norway. It was modeled after the Gokstad burial ship from 800 AD. This ship, the Hjemkomst, was constructed in a potato warehouse in Hawley, MN. It took 8 years to build is 76 feet long, 17 feet wide, and weighs 16 tons. It took 100 oak trees to build! The man who built it, Mr. Asp, completed the ship in 1980, but died before he could sail it. Four of his children, as part of a crew of 12, sailed and ROWED it across the Atlantic in the summer of 1982! The last photo is the opposite side of the viking ship than what is portrayed in the 3rd photo. The huge log in the center of the mast is an extremely straight, gigantic 72 foot long, oak utility pole that was ordered from Oregon in order to to build to support the mast of the ship.

The ship is in a specially constructed building, the Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center, in Moorhead, MN, about 70 miles south of Grand Forks, ND.




This was shot in manual, custom white balance, RAW, using my 18-135 mm lens, ISO 400. I'll bet this would be a cool shot to take with a fish-eye lens. Then again, it just might make me dizzy!

Day 64 Legos

Looking down at Lego Land from the 4th floor in Mall of America. This brings back such memories, and I still think of legos as some of the best toys ever invented! Recently, my 24 year old son in the Navy was visiting the DMZ in Korea. What did he buy? (for himself) Yep, you guessed it: Legos! (DMZ legos!)

Also, I needed SOMETHING in color. One day I was taking some photos outside, and had this moment of panic, thinking something was wrong with my camera and everthing was showing up on the LCD in black and white. And then I looked around. oh.


Both photos were shot in manual mode; ISO 400; wb: shade; with my 18-135 mm lens. The first photo was at f/4.0 ; ss: 1/80 and 18 mm.

This second photo was shot at 75 mm; ss: 1/40; f 5/6, and then cropped in further. For both, I adjusted levels, and ran EZ action Vivid color pop.

Day 63 POTD The Bronze Boot

Just another fine eatery in Grand Forks. This one is, like all fine eateries everywhere, is up against some grain elevators. Since this week's theme is "cropping", I'm first posting the photo that might give you the context.

And these next two photos are cropped "boots." All photos are shot with my 18-135mm lens, ISO 200, manual mode, RAW, wb: shade; ss: 1/80. The top photo was shot at 135mm; the bottom photo was shot at 62 mm, and then cropped in further.
The top two photos had levels adjusted, and then I ran EZ Vivid Color Action on them.
For the bottom photo, I used EZ Rustic Charm action.

It was tough deciding which "boot" photo to use. I ran a number of other actions, and lots of them looked really cool. (And besides, you can never have too many shoes!)
For the top photo's composition, I would have liked it if the "boot" were facing inward, and you could still see the additional lettering in the bottom. But they just didn't consult me when they put up this sign! Go figure. . .

Book Review: Crones Don't Whine

If you want to read a wonderful book that helps you get beyond the cliches about aging in America, this is it! This book provides a very different perspective than the usual junk offered, particularly to women over 50, (or any women who aspire to someday be 50, so hopefully that includes all women.) Some, but not all, men, might appreciate this as well, but male socialization is just different for men than women. Jean Shinoda Bolen explores 13 attributes that are well worth cultivating to lead a life that is satisfying, regardless of the hurdles that aging can throw at a woman. I like her advice to show up, pay attention, say what you think, and not get too attached to the outcome. She modifies this last part for those situations where, yes, we're going to be VERY attached the outcome, because it involves our loved ones. For these situations, she says, "pray for the best," rather than "don't be attached to the outcome." You can see a link to this book in my little Amazon widget.

Someone asked me whether the book, "Getting Lost," will help you understand "Lost." . . . Well, . . . no. It's like a lot of things in life where just because you know more, doesn't mean you necessarily reach that point where you have total understanding. And when it comes to "Lost," I don't think understanding it is in the cards at all just yet! "Getting Lost" mostly covers the first few seasons, so it doesn't even address some of the weirdness of last season! "Getting Lost" is a series of essays that analyze "Lost" from a variety of different perspectives. It's like reaching into a bag of 15 different pairs of glasses, some tinted, some not, and finding a variety of ways to look at "Lost". I particularly like one essay that analyzes what makes a series compelling in the first place, and how "Lost" has elements of such series. Another essay I really liked was looking at the "leadership style" of various characters, and in this essay, the author pointed out that Hurley was the character who usually came up with a solution, but this often was missed in the Drama and more attention-getting nature of the other characters.

It's a Sunday afternoon; thought I'd throw in a few book reviews!

San Francisco City Scapes

Melgen Designs alphas; Imagine Fran Designs Love in the City papers and flowers and hearts; KPertiet Sanded Overlay

This is a two page layout of San Francisco images from my trip last month. The layout is based on a lesson in the Now We're Rockin' class at JessicaSprague.com. If you have any interest in digiscrapping at all, I don't know of any better way to learn than to take an on-line digiscrapping class through Jessica Sprague.

Day 62 POTD Grain Elevator Train

Typical sights in the teeming metropolis of Grand Forks, a snowy shot of grain elevators and trains.

Both photos are RAW, with some adjustments and then EZ Actions Rustic Charm run on them. Both are with my 18-135 mm lens, ISO 200, wb shady. The first was at 112 mm, f/13, ss: 1/80.

This second shot was at 48 mm, ss: 1/50 and also f/13.

I had first headed to the river today to get a shot of 8 dogsled teams going through Grand Forks. But the dogs were delayed by about 1 1/2 hours, and I just too much of a wimp for the weather :(.