Good Friends Jumping For Joy!

These friends of Ryan’s (the groom in the center) were all so wonderful! They are all so theatrical and willing to do anything. Ryan was very active in the drama department in high school and was always in the school plays. He is very talented and we always enjoyed going to the programs. Now he is ready to graduate from college and will be doing something with audio in the movie industry. I hope I have that right! He will be a father in November, so this has been the year of changes for him! He is a great young man and he has chosen really good friends.

Ryan’s closest friends having a lot of fun together…

I had fun playing around with textures, watercolor and a couple of extra backgrounds in Photoshop. This is not something I normally do, but what the heck, it was fun! I have a good photo of the bride and her attendings being Rockettes – maybe at a later time I can play with that one too. Everyone was a good sport and we had a lot of fun doing these fun photos after all of the “formal” ones. Everyone was ready to go in to the reception and have a rockin’ good time!

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Southern California Triumph Car Club

We went up to Pasadena today to the shop where they sponsored the Southern California Triumph Club car show and tech meeting, where they discussed restoration of the old English automobiles. There were some beautiful and all very well cared for cars there. Willie walked the dogs around while I took some photos. I liked this TR3 model from sometime in the 1960’s. I will try to find out the exact year and will pass it on to you. It was a good morning and all the people were very nice. Update:  Greg says this is a ‘58 or ‘59!

Great looking Triumph TR3….

One thing you should know about me by now is that I am an MGB person. I got to see mine today and it is coming along slowly. But that is ok. They have been busy at the shop so that is good for them. They have been “swamped” as Greg told me. It has been cold and overcast all day today – even a little misty. We watched the Dodger’s lose when we got home today and had some lunch. Did a few errands and I downloaded the images from today so I could pick one for you to see. I believe I made a good choice. Have a good week-end!

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Five Things You Do Not Know About Me

I read this somewhere today and it is a tough thing to do. Do you really want to know 5 things about me? Do you really care? Well, I will try to address this topic. Willie and I  are going to dinner tonight in Laguna Beach with some friends at a new restaurant called The Watermark… well, we are back from dinner now and we had a great time! The food was good but the company was even better. The restaurant has what they call a “grazing menu.”  I had the halibut and it was a little dry but the artichoke risotto was delicious!

 Does this show you what a different exposure time will do…?

Well, here are the 5 things: Item#1, I am a grazer. I find that a better way to eat and easier way for me to function. I thought it rather cool that the restaurant used this term on their menu. I guess Item #2 will be that I am only 5 feet tall, if that much. I took many of those wedding photos standing on a step ladder. Item #3 is that I love to drive my MGB really fast, especially in the mountains.  Item #4:  I was an English major in college. I went to CSULB (California State University at Long Beach). Item #5:  I used to be a big American  Bandstand fan in the early 60’s and my dream was to go to Philadelphia to meet “the regulars” and dance on the show!  I was done with the show long before Dick Clark brought the show to LA . It got really bad!

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A Lesson in Depth of Field, Part 2

I am back with part two of my discussion on depth of field. I hope you found yesterday’s post helpful. Is this depth of field thing starting to make some sense? I did not mention yesterday that you cannot control this if you are shooting in the automatic mode on your camera. You have to be brave enough to move to manual or aperture priority to play with this. That is exactly what you need to do – play with this. Set up a short row of items and shoot at different aperture settings. If you are in manual, you will need to adjust your exposure. Make notes of your results. It will soon make sense!

A very shallow depth of field…

This was shot at f/4.5 at a speed of 1/500th of a second. As you can read from those figures, the aperture (pupil) was wide open and the exposure was long at half a second! I focused in the middle of the image. The orange and part of the purple thread is in focus. I heard someone say once, “Do you want 2 things in focus or 22 things?” That little statement will help you remember which setting to use. The middle ranges keep everything in focus also. Practice these different settings on portraits or still lifes. I believe you will be happy with the results. I will talk about how your exposure affects all of this at a later time, but I think you can probably figure it out!

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A Lesson in Depth of Field, Part 1

When you talk about depth of field and how to achieve the amount you want in a photograph, most people have no idea what you are talking about. I am going to try to explain it to you and show you two examples. I won’t go into the technical points, but will attempt to make it easy for you to understand. Depth of field is, in plain language, the depth of the focus in your image; that is, weather only one thing is in focus in your image or everything is in focus.

A full depth of field… 

This image was shot at f/29 at 1/13th of a second (the exposure time). The aperature  (f/29) is very small. Think of the lens as an eyeball and the pupil is the aperature. Depth of field is created by the size the aperature (your pupil) in your lens. The larger the pupil, the more light is let in (ever had your eyes dilated?). On a lens, the more light that is let in, the shallower the depth of field (you can’t see clearly). Aperature sizes have a large range. The smaller the number, the larger the opening and the shallower the depth of field. Sometimes it is hard to remember which aperature gives you which results! I will continue this tomorrow and hopefully clarify this some more.

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From a Rooftop at Bella Terra

This is a panorama I took from the rooftop of the Bella Terra parking structure facing the street behind the center. I took a total of five images and merged them together. The street is actually pretty straight, but it sure didn’t turn out that way! I guess I should have done a little more tweaking, warping and lens distoration! What I really should have done was shoot the images vertically instead of horizontally! It was kind of overcast when I took the photos but I think they came out alright.

Pretty good panorama in Huntington Beach…

I think I will shoot another one – I do enjoy doing this and they are fun to play with. I want to start doing some HDR images. I will see what I can do on my own and then maybe get some software like Photomatix.  I have heard that Photoshop’s HDR processing is not very good, but I will give it a try myself. I have my final photo class tonight and then web tomorrow. Would you like to see more panoramas of Huntington Beach and the surrounding areas?

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I Now Present the Bride and Groom

I wanted to show you this one last photo from the wedding. Aren’t they a very happy couple? They are so sweet together and so very much in love. It was such a joy being around them all day. I have a lot of photos to go through and I will start in two days as soon as school is over. I hope you have enjoyed these few wedding photos I have shared with you.

Sophia and Ryan Monise…

There was a little chill in the air today. It is hard to tell from one day to the next what the weather will be like. The dogs seemed glad we were home all day. We watched the Dodger game while I was doing some more work on my website. We didn’t do anything special today, but it is just nice to be together. We are watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button now. We are both enjoying it, at least I think Willie is. I have my last photography assignment to complete tomorrow, then to class for the last time in the evening. Hope you had a good long week-end!

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Here is the “After” Photograph

It was such a fun time at the wedding today! Make sure you see yesterday’s photo so you can see both the before and after photos. It was a wonderful day today. We ended up taking over 1,100 photos, from the bride getting ready to the last dance at the reception. I was so happy with the photos, but more importantly, the bride and groom were very happy. I will do a slide show and share it with you soon. It will take me a while to go through them all!

 

 This group cleans up real good…!

I will do a little more work on this image for the bride and groom. I was a little rushed to get it to you but I wanted to share it with you. The weather was beautiful today! Everything went very smoothly and by all the dancing and toasts that were going on at the reception, everyone had a really great time! The dogs were very happy to see us come home. It was a very long day for them. Well, I have another busy day tomorrow but I will definitely find some time to rest!

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Here is the “Before” Photograph

I was at the rehearsal today for my nephew’s wedding tomorrow (he is in the green T-shirt in the middle) and took this photograph of the wedding party. I thought it would be fun to take another one tomorrow of all of them in the same positions but in their fancy tuxes and pretty dresses. We did another one on a bench that will be good as a before and after also. Everyone liked the idea so I hope they are happy with the results.

The great looking bridal party, getting ready for the big day…

It is a pretty gazebo and we will get some nice photos tomorrow. After the rehearsal, we all went over to my brother’s house, the groom’s father, for a barbeque. It was nice. My sister-in-law’s mother came from Florida, and also her grandmother who is 94 years old. Everyone we met today was very nice. It was a fun afternoon and I am sure the wedding will be beautiful! Look for the “after” photograph tomorrow! I will post it sometime, I just don’t know when we will be home. It will be a long day, for us and for the doggies. I am sure all of these people will look a lot different tomorrow! Until then…

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A Rose in My Neighbor’s Yard

Well, I could not resist this pretty pink rose. I guess this has been pink flower week! But this was in someone elses yard, not mine. There were no macro shots today! Just a wide angle zoom lens. I need to figure out a way to include the meta data in these posts, without have to copy and paste it, which I guess would not be that bad. Anyway, I hope you like this rose as much as I did when I came across it on my journey through the neighborhood.

This rose is so pretty in pink…

Sorry for the John Hughes reference, but it applies! I was out doing some errands this morning and it was cloudy and rather humid – maybe there are some storms down in Mexico. Quite often that is when we get a lot of humidity. Donnan’s tummy is bothering him some. I feel bad that they are going to be alone a lot this week-end. We will be out in Riverside in Corona for our nephew’s wedding. It is also Larry and Shelley’s one year anniversary on Sunday. They will be up at Green Valley Lake, I am sure with a lot better weather than one year ago! Have a good Memorial Day week-end, if you are here in the USA. Otherwise, just have a great week-end whereever you are!

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What a Snapshot!

I went to dinner with my great friend Annette tonight. We decided to try out this Cuban Cuisine restaurant not far from home. I had this great chicken dish and Annette had shrimp. We got there at 5:30 and left at about 8:00. If we had stayed another half hour, we could have had free salsa lessons! I thought they had a live band tonight but that is only on Friday and Saturday nights. We had a great time – we talked so much because we have so much in common!

Great Cuban cuisine…

I have never had Cuban cuisine before but what I had was very good. This restaurant, years ago, had a cajun menu that was fabulous. I have been wanting to go but Willie did not want to try it. I brought him my leftovers and I think he liked it. I would like to go again.  Maybe I should have taken a photo of the food instead of the outdoors awning!  It was a beautiful day today, and I am very glad school will be over next Tuesday. There are many things I plan to do to improve my Flash and Dreamweaver knowledge. I hope my plans work out!

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5, No – 6 Things That Bother Me About Blog Posts

There are a few things that bother me about how many people write their posts. I am good at playing devils advocate and finding things wrong with others. Please keep in mind that these are my personal findings:

1. Not knowing where the author is located, the city, state and/or country
2. Authors who do not run a quick and easy spell check
3. It is annoying when people do not proofread their posts and they are full of many errors
4. I like to see a little info on the photos that are posted – some people put nothing
5. A sticky post or “about” page stating what the blog is about and why they are doing it is a plus – which leads me to a 6th thing
6. People whose theme comes with an “About” page and they leave it blank – either use it or delete it!

Now for today’s image.

A new pink geranium in my yard…

I saw this flower this morning and told Willie I could not remember seeing it before. He said it is something he has been working on to bring back to life. He did a really good job, didn’t he? When I zoomed in on the photo to look at the sharpness, I could see a little bug, just to the left of the center, partly under a petal. I used all three of my macro filters on this one, +4, +2 and the +1. I really would like to have a Canon 100mm macro lens!  Maybe one day I will!

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Back in My Backyard

I am somewhat embarrassed by my last two posts – well the dogs are cute, but that food, ugh! I really need to work on my food photography if I am going to attempt that again! I decided to go back to my yard and do some exploring. It has been a while since I photographed anything out there. I put my +4 macro filter on my camera, gave it a wide aperture and this is what I came up with. I totally shoot in raw with the Manual setting on my camera. I like to set my own aperture then do a little bracketing with the exposure to see what looks good. I hope you like this image.

Texture, shadows and a little color…

It is a beautiful day outside today. I can hear a lot of birds chirping as I am typing this. They must be enjoying the weather also. The dogs spent the morning outside lounging around. They are in the house now and Willie and I are getting ready to have lunch. I told him, “Let me finish this post first, I’m almost done!” I am sure you probably have people waiting at times for you to finish a post! I have some errands and shopping to do today, then back to the website! Have a good Tuesday.

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Here Are Kyla and Donnan

I took this photo of the dogs the other day when we were up in Pasadena. They like riding in the car and they seem very comfortable in their cage. This is them after a 45 minute ride up the 405, 605 and 210 Freeways to the shop. They were anxious to get out and have some water. Willie took them for a little walk, while I took some photos of the MGB and spoke with my brother and nephew. The dogs do look quite different since their haircut!

Donnan and Kyla left to right…

I have been so busy finishing up my school work that I have not been out to take any photographs. I do apologize and that will change very soon! I need to take some photos tomorrow for a panorama for class, so I will be out for sure! It was a nice day today. Willie was gone most of the day and I was working at the computer. I went outside with the dogs a few times for a little break, and it was very pleasant. They seem a little bored when Willie is not here. As I think I have said before, he is the “fun” parent and I am the “strict” one. They do respect me and listen to me more than they do Willie, so that is ok with me!

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What a Dinner!

What a dinner we had! I apologize for the photo but it was so good I wanted to take a picture of it. I am sure there are some people out there who I have offended and who are grossed out – I am sorry. This is probably one of the most unhealthy meals, but we do not eat it very often! Our usual diet is mostly chicken, fish, beans and vegetables. I have always been a big fan of steak but I just can’t eat it like I used to. I was going to add some peas or green beans to balance it out (color wise, etc.) but Willie said don’t bother. So this was it!

A delicious dinner…

As I have told Willie many times, “It is my — —- blog and I can put whatever I want on it!” Well, I spent a part of this Sunday working on my website, of course. I found a good tutorial that I think will help me with my Spry Menu Bar. I will give it a try later today. I can really see that Kyla and Donnan’s hair is starting to grow. They have a long way to go, but it will all grow back. Willie is going to be in Long Beach most of the day tomorrow, so that will give me plenty of time to work without interuption in peace and quiet.

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California Wild Flowers

Isn’t this photo pretty? I like the contrast of the bright yellow wild flowers next to the old farm wagon. It is on the edge between a snapshot and a photograph, so I am submitting it for your approval.  I hope many people come to look at it. I took the photo on the grounds of the Heritage Museum in Santa Ana. There are a lot of wild flowers there. I used my wide angle lens so I could get a lot in the image.

Wild flowers in a rustic setting…

I was looking at a new lens today that I would like to buy. It is the Canon 100mm macro lens. The images they show on Amazon look great. I enjoy macro photography but I only have some close-up filters. I would love to shoot with the real thing! Anyone out there have one? Please let me know what you think. Strange weather today – a little cool and overcast. I got some great steaks for tonight – I just have to get Willie to get the barbeque started! We’re watching the Marlins and the Dodgers right now – it is tied 2 to 2. Until tomorrow…

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