Dirigible Hangers in Tustin

Willie and I were over in Tustin today at Micro Center. I took my camera with me and told him that I wanted to go over by the hangers, used for helicopters and blimps at the old Marine Corps Air Station. They were built in 1942. I was on a scouting mission for my next class assignment. We are to do an image of a building, free standing, at least 5 stories high so we can learn how to fix the perspective in Photoshop. The two hangers are 192 feet tall. I do not know how many stories that is equal to. If someone can help me I would appreciate it. Maybe some young architectural student would know?

One of the two hangers at the Marine Corps Air Station…

There is a lot of work going on over there because this area that used to be the base is supposed to be some kind of  “great American park.” Who knows when that will be finished! The final project in the web design class is due in two weeks. I will be re-doing my website to make it more CSS friendly. I will be working on it this week-end. It was a very beautiful day today and I hope the week-end will be the same. I heard a rumor of some rain on Saturday – that is hard to believe! The more I look at this building, the more I do not think it is a good subject for my assignment. I will do some more scouting tomorrow.

240/365

Huntington Beach Sunset

We had some very pretty cloud formations in the sky last night. I grabbed my camera and took some photos. The sun was very low and it gave some beautiful light shining up through the clouds and reflecting through them. I converted it to black and white because I thought it showed the contrast and the light better then in color. We all know the sky is blue and clouds are white (most of the time)!

A great Huntington Beach sunset…

We had a good class last night. Jason showed every ones slide shows and it was a lot of fun. He also brought popcorn and soda to make it extra fun! There were technical problems at first, but they were soon dealt with and the show went on. All of them were really good and very different. Have you looked at it mine yet? Check yesterdays post – that is where I have it. I am so behind on  the 31 DBBB! Hopefully, I will be able to catch up or just take advantage of everything.  It really is a great program!

239/365

VARA Route 66 Races Slideshow

This post for today is a little different from my normal posts. I finally finished my slide show and uploaded it to You Tube so you can view it here. However, they took my audio out so I had to replace it. It was Route 66 by the Rolling Stones. I can use that song for my class slide show and to email to people, I just can’t use it on the web. I understand but I don’t have to like it! I did not do this for profit, just for a class project! Oh, well!

It plays and sounds much better with the Rolling Stones…

It was fun putting this together and I hope you like it. I hope class is good tonight. I look forward to seeing the other student’s videos and what they are about. I don’t know what our next assignment is. My instructor’s wife had their first baby last week so I think his mind has been somewhere else. I understand how that can happen. I have some errands to do today before class. I am sure it will be a late night and hopefully a very productive one! Please enjoy the video and leave a comment so I know what you think of it.

238/365

Boston Terrier Named Frank

Kyla and I went to the dog park today. We had a great time! It was girl’s afternoon and she really got to play a lot. She is so sweet and so good with all the other dogs. Donnan stayed home with Willie. I would love to take him too but he has problems (as I have mentioned before). We have been working on his problems, so I hope very soon we can take him with us. Anyway, I had my camera with me today and took a lot of pictures. I wanted to share this one of Frank with you; who we met for the first time today. Doesn’t he has the most beautiful eyes? Have you ever seen this on a Boston Terrier before?

 Kyla played with Frank today at the dog park…

I will change the subject now. I like to look at other blogs I find by clicking on “go to random blog”, (top right corner where the arrow is pointing outward). I have seen some interesting things, but what really annoys me, and this is just my opinion, is people who do not do anything with their “About” page. I like to learn a little about the person, where they are from, why they are doing this, etc., and 90% of the time I get, “This is an example of a WordPress page…” If you are not going to write something, then delete it or pick another theme! I would use it if I had an about page, but I do not with the theme I chose.  Work with me people! Am I the only person this annoys?

237/365

My Best Friend For Life

I have known Robin longer than anyone else in my life (except my older brother Frankie). Her mother and my mother were best friends before they married our fathers! We were born seven months apart (me being older). She is mother to Lori, the beautiful woman you have seen two other portraits of this month, and grandmother to Makenzie and Rachel, who you have also seen this month. She has six other grandchildren. I do not have one! C’est la vie! I hope she likes the photograph!

Robin with Roxy at Blue Skeye Ranch…

The Dodgers are losing badly today! Maybe tomorrow will be better. I absolutely have to finish my VARA video today! It is due Tuesday night and I am being forced to use Windows Movie Maker. It shouldn’t be too hard. I just couldn’t get my version of Photo To Movie to work the way I want it to. It has worked for other things so I won’t complain. It looks like the weather will be pretty mild and in the 60’s and low 70’s for the week. Willie is happy, the dogs are happy and all is right with my little world!

236/365

Welcome to Fantasy Island!

Do you recognize this, or are you too young to remember Fantasy Island? I was going to name the post, “De plane, de plane!”, but I decided against it. I took this photograph at the Los Angeles County Arboretum, located in Arcadia, CA. It is a fantastic place to visit. Since I grew up in Pasadena and Glendora, a school field trip was a common event to the Arboretum. We took Larry as a little boy and Willie and I love to go and walk around with our cameras. Because of the close vicinity to Los Angeles, it is used quite a bit for movies and TV shows. Many of the Tarzan movies in the 1930’s and beyond were filmed there because there is an area that replicates the jungles of Africa.

The lagoon next to the Fantasy Island house…

There is so much to see there and we really enjoy going. If you look at the link I gave you above, you will find a lot of information about the area and the history of this house plus the carriage house. It is another beautiful day in Huntington Beach. I worked on my “LinkedIn” affiliation and invited many people to join. I signed-up for a few groups myself. I was accepted into the “Women in Photography” group. I need to do some research to see how it will benefit me. I am hoping this will be a good thing. Larry and Shelley are having a great time up in Mammoth snowboarding and romancing (I assume) on their one week vacation. They will be home on Wednesday night. Are you having a good week-end? Let me know what you are up to!

235/365

The Rocky Coast of Santa Barbara

I took this photo on a trip up the coast to beautiful Santa Barbara. I think I already told you that it is one of our very favorite places in California.  There were storms building up and the next day it poured all day! Using Photoshop, I converted the photo to black and white (it was practically black and white already) then made a mask and brought some of the green moss on the rocks back in. I like the way it turned out.  Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

A craggy, rocky coastline…

Lynda.com has some new videos out (which they do every month) and I was watching quite a few on the subject of Twitter. I have a Twitter account but am not as up to date on this new type of social networking as I would like to be. As I have said, I am a perpetual student and I want to know what is going on out there! Do any of you watch All My Children? Some of these story lines are really strange! Let me know what you think! Anyway, enough of that, I don’t want to lose any readers! Have a great week-end! I am just trying to catch-up on my classes and the 31DBBB is week-end.

234/365

 

Geranium or Impatiens?

This flower is growing in my backyard. It looks like an impatiens but the leaves are definitely geranium. I have both plants but this must be a geranium. I again used my macro filter so there is a very shallow depth of field. I like the way it turned out and it is a very pretty flower no matter what it is. I absolutely love the color! Believe it or not, our backyard is 95% cement. All of the plants we have are in pots and Willie takes care of all of it. We have a pool and that is nice to have. There are many, many pots sitting all around. 

Another great photograph taken in my backyard…

The dogs are getting back to normal now – two days after their hair-cut. I think they are getting used to each other and the way they look. I brushed them today and they both really enjoyed it. I think their hair is starting to grow already! The weather has really cooled down after the hot, hot week-end. We received a wedding invitation yesterday to our nephew’s wedding next month (my younger brother’s son). I have been asked to do the photography and I will get Willie to help me. He will be great at that! I am sure it will be a very nice event. It is on the same day as Larry and Shelley’s first anniversary. At least the date will be easy to remember!

233/365

What is Going On With These Dogs?

I am very confused by the way Kyla and Donnan are behaving. As I told you yesterday, they got all of their hair cut off. It is very short, as you can tell by the photo of Kyla. They are acting so strangely. At first they did not recognize each other and growled a lot. Now they are rolling around and sniffing each other a lot or staying in the den curled up in a ball sleeping. They seem rather sad. Is it because they do not like their hair-cut? Are they self-conscious about how they look? Have they lost their self-esteem? Does anyone know about dog psychology and how this change might affect them? 

Donnan looks just like her minus the bows…

When we picked them up, all we could do was laugh and remember that hair does grow! They must feel better. They had too much hair (My Frolicking Dogs) and a lot of mats that needed to be removed. Willie and I like the long hair but it is so much work for me and he will not brush them. It does not take long for the mats to get out of hand. When they get a mat, they chew on it which makes it worse and makes it pull on their skin. I didn’t want to cause them more pain by pulling on them or trying to brush them out. I guess you can tell that I feel somewhat guilty about this. I told them that it will not happen again!

232/365

Blue Skeye Ranch

This photo is from Sunday afternoon at Blue Skeye Ranch (Robin’s house). Lori is walking Wanda from the corral to saddle him up for horseback riding. She ran each horse around the corral for several minutes to burn off some of their excess energy before going for their ride. I got tired just watching her! This photo was taken with my telephoto lens and they were walking pretty fast. I like the late afternoon sun shining through the trees and their hair.

What a beautiful late afternoon…

Today is another gorgeous day, especially after it being so hot yesterday and Sunday. The dogs got their haircuts today – they look so funny! Kyla was finished first and Donnan did not recognize her – he growled and barked at her! I will get some pictures of them to show you. Which reminds me of something:  I would like to know what kind of photos you would like to see on my weblog. Do you like the flowers, the beach, the dogs or what? I appreciate you looking at my site but if you could help me with this I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you in advance!

231/365

My Top Ten List For Photography

I have seen other photographers write about their gear on their blogs – so this is my chance to share mine! When I am going out to shoot, no matter where it be, there are a minimum of items I need to have with me. This photograph shows nine out of those ten items. It was fun coming up with the list but arranging them to photograph was a challenge! I was not able to fit the tenth item in the photo. I have many more items that are used for a more specific kind of shoot, but those are for another post in the future.

A photograph of my photography gear…

The top ten list of most important camera gear:

• Cameras:   Canon 20D and Canon SD800 to carry in my purse
• My favorite lenses:  50mm, 17-55mm IS and 75-300mm
• Tripod with ball head
• Canon Speedlite 580EX
• Expodisc to do custom white balance
• Extra batteries along with the battery charger
• Extra memory cards
• Polarizing filter
• Set of three Hoya close-up filters
• Last, but not least, is my personal sherpa, Willie

Until tomorrow!

230/365

A Christmas Cactus Blooms in April

This is my mother’s Christmas Cactus. I do not think it normally blooms this time of year. But, today is my mother’s birthday and she would be 86 years old. I think this is blooming in honor of her. She was such a beautiful person and I miss her very much. I took this with my 50mm lens. It is a great little lens and I am trying to use it more.

A blooming Christmas Cactus…

We had a great day at Robin’s house. There were a few family members missing, but it was fun and we shared a lot of laughs! My nephew Geoff and his girlfriend Randi went horseback riding with Robin and her daughter Lori.  They had a good time. It is a lot of work to prepare four horses to be ridden! It was a very hot day today but it cooled down this evening. We got home about 10:30 so that is why my post is so late! I should have a few good photos for you to see this week. 

229/365

My Babies Frolicking in the Yard

I know I said I would try to not have any more photos of my dogs, but, this one is so cute! I consider this their “before” picture since they are going to get all of their hair cut off. It is very long, as you can tell from this photo. It just keeps growing and growing. They had just enjoyed some ice cubes and were running around in the jasmine. You can see the dirt and sticks they were kicking up! They will feel good when they get their hair cut!

These are my two beautiful babies…

It is the most beautiful day of the year today. I need to figure out how to photograph the feeling of the sun, the beach and the rustle of the breeze going through the leaves. Is there anyone who has figured that out? That would be a good challenge, wouldn’t it? Anyway, if you want, give it a try but let me see what you come up with! I am really looking forward to tomorrow. It is my mother’s birthday and we are all going up to Robin’s for a pot luck dinner and a day of laughing and having a good time. Maybe I will take a group photo and share it with you!

228/365

A Koi Pond in Newport Beach

 There is a large Koi pond in the middle of Fashion Island in Newport Beach. I was there yesterday with my good friend Carol (I already told you about our visit).  I did not have my polarizing filter with me so I was lucky I was able to get a photo of this one Koi. There are very many swimming around and also some beautiful fountains (you can see one here). It was a nice day and there were a lot of people enjoying the spring weather. I had a very nice drive home on Pacific Coast Highway.

 A great spring day in Newport Beach…

I took Kyla to the dog park today. She had a lot of fun and there were a lot of dogs there! Willie took Donnan for a walk while we were playing. I cannot take him there – he is too out of control. But I will not write about that again! A groomer came by this morning to check them out for me and see what needs to be done to them. We decided to cut off all of their hair and give them a new start (of course I will take a photo). It will be good for them for the summer - they will just be unrecognizable for a while! Have a good week-end; I will have a very busy one!

227/365

Beautiful Bouquet of Red Roses

I took this photograph a while ago and I am very proud to say that the roses are from my own yard! I think they are absolutely some of the most beautiful roses I have seen. I know I said in a previous post that my neighbors have all the pretty roses, but I guess that is not completely true! I took some other photos today at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. I will look at them tomorrow and see if there is anything to share with you.

A very special bouquet of roses…

I had an absolutely great day today! I met my friend Carol for lunch and we had a fantastic time – as we always do together. She is looking so good and healthy and I am very proud of her. We talked a lot about what she is doing for her diet and health. Then we spent a few hours talking about our dogs! I told you before about the dog training she was going through and how bad it was when my Donnan met her Ali (an unforgettable day)! I learned many things from her regarding the dogs and she has a great new camera strap (Black Rapid RS-4). I would like to get one but I have been unable to find it online. If you know of a source, please let me know!

226/365

A Piece of Abstract Photography

I took this image today along with many others. I tried different colors of fabric and picked this one out as my favorite.  I used a glass bowl with water and a few drops of oil. It was difficult to focus on just the oil drops. I think I need a real good macro lens to do this kind of image correctly. Maybe one day I will be able to afford one! I do love the color and the lighting – that part of it is very pretty. I will work on improving this idea.

It is true – oil and water do not mix…

It has been a very windy day today. I have been working on ways to improve my blog and get more viewers. I am participating in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. I have been learning new things and it has been a good experience. Are any of you working on the challenge? I have class tonight and I am really enjoying learning  advanced web design. My last travel photography class is this Saturday and I need to get organized and ready to turn everything in. Classes are beginning to wind down. I think there are maybe 4 or 5 weeks left before the semester is over.

225/365