Day 52

At 8:30 tonight, I still didn't have a photo to post for today. Kip and Don split. They wanted no part of being models. Phoebe has some kind of weird romantic attachment to the flash and keeps rubbing her face on it and purring. I have to keep pushing her out of the way, but she won't move far enough for me to focus on her. Sammy, on the other hand, was born for the camera. When he was just a kitten, this photo ran in the Statesman Journal. He was always ready to pose.

A few weeks later, the Christmas season began, and he couldn't get enough of gift boxes or having his picture taken.

Tonight, as always, as soon as I got the camera out, he got into position and let me focus and flash until I couldn't crawl around on the floor anymore. He's sitting here now, making sure I don't pick a photo that shows him in a bad light.

Day 51

Today I went to Rooster Rock State Park on the Columbia River for a photo shoot and to learn more about the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation's hearing protection program. It was really cold, but at least the wind wasn't howling through the gorge for a change. Rooster Rock is famous for having Oregon's only "clothing optional" beach, but, unless someone wanted to freeze to death, today was definitely a "clothing required" kind of day.


No one was enjoying the park today, except one man in a car way at the end of the furthest parking lot. No, I didn't take his picture.

So, I discovered today just what separates professional photographers from amateurs. To get a shot, a professional is willing to lay down on the ground in 35-degree weather while a park ranger blows wet leaves in his face. The amateur huddles in the gazebo, shooting quickly so she can get her hands back in her pockets.

Day 50

I got two new toys in the mail this weekend, so I took time today for practice. First I tried my new infrared filter. It took patience to work out exposure and focus, but I finally got a few passable photos. I'm really excited about doing more with this, since I have always liked the ghostly, surreal look of some infrared photography.

My second toy was a Cowboy Studio FM radio trigger for my flash. Good lighting is going to take a lot of study and work on my part--as well as patience on the part of my pet-models. Kip will work for treats, but I'm not sure what I can do to keep the cat happy.

Day 49

It was moving day for Dan and Faith, so I snapped a couple of photos that, to me, caught the essence of the day: the food and the warmth of their new home. Besides, I had to practice a little night photographer after the class I took last night.

Day 48

Almost midnight. Just got home from class on night photography. Please notice the geese in the top photo. They were such good sports--they didn't move through six 20-second exposures.

Day 47 - Thanksgiving Day

I took photos of the family until they started scowling at me and sticking out their tongues. I decided they were tired of being models, so I started photographing the fish.

Day 46

In 2001 I feel in love with this face on the All Terrier Rescue website and drove to Hillsboro to adopt her on the spot. Her old name was Kizzy, but we quickly renamed her Alice. She just looked like an Alice. She was around three or four years old at that time, and she had been given up for adoption twice before. I'll never understand that, because she was the sweetest dog I'd ever known. Her only fault was digging in the garbage whenever we had chicken, looking for any leftovers or bones that might be there. We tried to keep her out by using childproof latches, but she figured those out right away. She was half saluki and half border collie, and she had the best attributes of each breed. She was active, but willing to nap for hours when you didn't feel like playing fetch anymore. For years she was my walking companion, running out ahead of me, then coming back for a treat, then doing it again. On her last few walks, she could barely keep up and then she couldn't go at all. She helped me cook dinner and went with me on weekend errands until she couldn't get in and out of the car anymore. She never laughed at crazy ideas I might have or rolled her eyes like my human family sometimes does, and this she was able to do until the very end. I said goodbye to her this morning and tonight my heart is breaking.

Day 45

I started the day just shooting through the open window of my office at home, because there was some nice light stuff going on in the yard. I really should have gone out there in the snow and communed with the weeds and the light, found a better point of view, set up the tripod, and suffered for my art.

Then this little guy went with me to warm up my lunch, and he seemed to want his photo taken in the snow. It only takes one or two co-workers walking by, laughing at you sitting in the snow and taking pictures of a stuffed bird, to push a photo shoot to a hasty conclusion.

But then I came home to find mushrooms growing in my kitchen. Yes, in my kitchen. Don't ask. I liked them a lot, but I couldn't bear to part with that adorable penguin. I probably should have gotten rid of the through-the-window-weeds-and-light shot, but I wanted to remember that I need to get outside in the morning and stop shooting through the window. I spent the evening shooting the mushrooms, but after the burned pork chops last night, I waited until I was finished to start dinner. The mushrooms went in the compost, not in the dinner. Ew.

Day 44

I didn't have much time today, so I started with this field, shot from inside my car in the middle of the road. It's wet and cold outside! This did capture the mood of the day. However, after I started cooking dinner, I decided to play around with the atrium sundial a little more. It was fun, but the pork chops burned.

Day 43

I had a creative photography class today, which was mostly about playing with shutter speed and focus for special effects. We practiced panning and using long shutter speeds while moving the camera on purpose, which is my new excuse for out-of-focus shots: "I did it on purpose for special effect."

We practiced on signs (moving the camera back and forth during a long explosure):




And plants (moving the camera up and down during a long exposure):

And cars (panning, which is harder than it sounds):

And we took our lenses off the cameras, turned them around, and held the lens end to the body of our cameras for an instant macro. If you have enough dexterity to do this AND change the focus while the shutter is open, you may end up with something like this:

On the way home from Portland, I stopped at the Woodburn Company Stores to try this new jiggly photography on a Christmas tree, but didn't want to (a) get out of the car, (b) take more than a minute, or (c) changes lenses, so I didn't quite get what I wanted. The tree isn't going anywhere for a while, so I will have to go back.

Day 42

Just a few days until Thanksgiving, and this guy is looking for a way out.

Day 41

A little whimsy on a Friday afternoon. Thanks, Mary Ann, for the idea of shooting the tractor and for working as a model.

Day 40

I've been wanting to post a black and white photo for a while, but never found just the right subject. This is a lazy, early morning photo that I shot through a window into our atrium. It was too cold to go outside. I may try it again without the dirty window and with a tripod. There seems to be some potential here.

Day 39

The trees are losing their leaves, exposing the tangled shapes of their limbs and branches. I like that better--almost--than the bright colors. Is it because my mood gets darker as the days get shorter?

Day 38

I confess, I didn't take this photo today. I shot it in raw while I was in Virginia, then discovered I couldn't open it in PhotoShop 4, which is what I have loaded on my netbook. I really liked this old house, which I saw on the road to Ann Woodlief's house near Williamsburg.



Because I felt compelled to shoot something today, I opened my office window at home, sat up the tripod, and took a picture of some ivy growing on a fence. I'm already worried about how my photography will survive fall and winter, when it is dark when I leave and dark when I get home. Lots of photos of the dogs, cats, and Don, I suppose.

Day 37

Pictures are worth a thousand (four-letter) words. On the third photo, my flight is NOT the 2:50 flight that is on time; it's the 3:50 flight that is already 20 minutes late.

Day 36

The fourth church built at Manakintowne by the Huguenots.

Day 35

This is what happens when you think you have taken your photo for the day early in the morning. I posted the scallop shells at the bottom of this page, but then I spent the day on the James River. So here are my real photos of the day: catching and eating.

The coordinator of the program I attended in Williamsburg invited her husband, a geologist, to come talk to us a little about fossils of Virginia. He also gave us each our own Chesapecten jeffersonius (a type of scallop), the state fossil of Virginia. It was also the first fossil discovered in North American in 1687. They are approximately three to four million years old.