10 Minutes From Home

This is the new weekly assignment from the Digital Photography School website that I told you about. I love this assignment! Walk, bike, or drive exactly 10minutes from your home and shoot! Not 9 minutes or 11 min if you know there is something better just a little farther. This is a great exercise for you and your camera as well as a great execise in being aware of the beauty that surrounds us everywhere. Are you up for the challenge? I have the baby all alone today and a raging headache so I am not sure I will get anything done today, but I will try! Take a peek at the assignment and the samples people have posted already here.

I hope you are all having a GREAT day!!!!!

JUST A REMINDER. . .

to take your camera with you EVERYWHERE!!!

This is a piece of advice I tell everyone but don't always follow myself! I am so glad I took my own advice today!

There is a long stretch of unpopulated road that I drive anytime I leave my home, and everytime I come back home. Along this stretch of road is the most beautiful view of the mountain range and of the desert. There is a nice little valley on the east side of the road that is sometimes home to wild horses. Well, I don't know that they are wild, but there is no home or ranch there and you may not see them for months and then they will appear for a few days. I have always wanted to take pictures of the mountains and the horses along this road, but never have. There is one really big obstacle that stands in my way (that is IF I have my camera with me) from taking these photos. . .there is no place to pull over and park your car along this road!

So today, I just made up my mind that I would park my car at the canal and just walk in the bike lane or in the desert to get the shots I wanted of the mountains. As I was driving home I was thinking about how late I was running and had decided to pass the canal by and not take pictures today. As soon as I passed the canal I looked into the valley and there were the horses!!!!! Mind you, I have just passed the only place to pull off of the road and now must drive 2.5 miles to get to a point that I can turn around, and then I still have to drive back to the canal to park, get out of my car and start walking. And hopefully after all of this the horses will still be there and not have run off into the desert.

SUCCESS!!!! I did all of that and the payback was wonderful. The horses were great and super curious. They came right up to me as if they wanted me to take their photos.

Along with the horses were a couple of babies and donkeys. And there was this character - do you see him behind baby and mama? After I had headed farther down to take photos of some other horses, this guy decides to play. I heard a big thud, and turned around to see this huge animal throwing himself down, legs straight up in the air and just rolling around having fun! It reminded me of how my dog Sugar acts in the evening to scratch her back. When I realized what she was doing I started running so tha I could capture this moment. I just barely made it in time. I have never seen a horse do this before.

As I walked back to the canal and my car the sun started to set. I loved how it was being reflected in the rear panal of my car.

I am so happy I took my camera out with me today! And I am very glad I decided to turn back around to take the photos! I spent a little over an hour out here gazing at the sunset and spying on these gorgeous animals, and I am so glad I took the time to do that!!!!

So don't forget your camera, and take the time out for yourself to actually use it!!!!

Have a great Hump-day!!!

Newsletter

Hi guys! I wanted to share this site with you all once again and encourage you to check it out. I would highly suggest registering to become a member (it's free) and sign up to recieve their weekly newsletter. I think you will really learn some great stuff and enjoy all of the knowledge that is available to you here. As well as reading articles and getting tutorials on this site you can ask questions, upload your photos for critique and join in on weekly assignments when you become a regisyered member. I hope you will check it out and enjoy it!
Newsletter

It's Finally Ready. . .

I don't know what happened to me - I started the "RED" album a while back and just couldn't seem to get it finished to show you all. But today it was my main priority and I am happy to say it is all finished! So here's a peek at the album we will be making at our August 16th Book Club Meeting. . . .

It is a single needle coptic stitch binding with a cool harlequin and script print on the covers. As well as chipboard accents around the word "RED" and a thin gold satin ribbon trim. The album holds 24 (4x6) photos on its black pages. The actual album will be in the store by this weekend so that you can see it in real life and get signed up.

Sorry it took me so long to get the sample posted here on my blog.

I hope you are all having a GREAT day!!!!!

So. . . How was your holiday weekend?

I hope you all had a great time and managed to stay cool! Did you get your camera out and take andy great photos? Around here it was very laid back - we did mostly nothing! Gary and I did decide to take off for a few days this week since he is off all week. We are heading to San Diego! I can't wait to get there and cool down and of course to take some photos! I have been wanting some beach photos for our master bedroom's walls. I sure hope I capture something to use in there. Anyways I will be gone until Saturday but you can bee sure when I get back I will bore you all with my trip pix! You all have a great week and don't forget your camera!

Before I leave I thought I'd share this photo I took of Zsa Zsa this past week. Zsa Zsa just turned 2 and is just a crazy mut. She never sits still so there are very few decent pictures of her. But I love the light on this one and just had to share . . .

Fire in the Sky!

WOW!!!! Have you been watching the sunsets the past few days? With the wildfires burning, and the sky full of smoke, the sunsets have been very dramatic. I really hope you are taking advantage and using your cameras to capture all of this dramatic color! Sunset has been happening about 7:45pm the past few days, so mark it on your calendar of things to do tomorrow.

Just a Little Inspiration. . .

to make you want to get your camera out and play.
Those of you that were able to come to the Photo Book Club a week ago already know our new assignment for our next meeting is RED! It's going to be a RED HOT Summer here in Phoenix so I figured this was a more than appropriate theme. A few days ago I had a free day and went out and started "collecting" my RED photos for our new book assignment and I thought I'd share a few of them with you here today.

I have started the book already, so stay tuned for a sneak peek of what we will be making at our meeting in August (the 16th - so be sure to sign up early).


I have been playing with the metering functions and lighting functions on my camera the past few days. I am really loving the results I am getting. I encourage you to play around with these functions on your camera as well. Remember that photography is just capturing and recording light. So, it is very important that we all learn to take full advantage of the light available to us when shooting, as well as the functions available to us on our cameras.
I went out to my favorite sunset spot again tonight to practice some with my metering functions and I thought I'd share what captured tonight. Did any of you go out and watch the sunset tonight? It was really RED! It was beautiful. Unfortunately, most of that color came from all of the smoke in the sky from the fire on the Bradshaw Mountains.


Since I have been paying with light I decided to do some window shots. Some were successful, while others were flops! But that's how you learn right? Here is my sweet Monkey (she is almost always a willing subject) standing at an East facing window late morning. I love the light on her face. It is not a perfect picture, but I really love the warmth of the light on her face. You might want to try washing your windows before you try this if you want to keep the photos. As you can see I didn't take my own advice!


Sunday I did a maternity shoot for a couple and we did the window thing again. I uped the contrast on the final image quite a bit to make it a bit more dreamy looking. And I really like how they are washed in light here. All of the white in the photo really brightens the light too.

This next one I used my studio lights for and I love the subtle highlights flowing down from the center of her face and down her breasts and belly.

Well, I hope I have inspired you to get your cameras in your hands and get out there and capture some images and some memories!!!!