The Dogs Will Love Being in Green Valley Lake!

Canon 7D, Raw, EF-S17-55mm, 35mm, f/4.5, 1/200, 3200 ISO

These two little doggies love being able to see out the front! There is no place for them to do that here in Huntington Beach. They sneek a peak when we open the front door. We will be making our move to Green Valley Lake in a few months. There is a lot to be done to the cabin and a lot to do here. We have lived in this house for over 30 years! Anyway, this shot was difficult because of the lighting. I used a high ISO. I had to use a fast shutter because of the dogs moving and jumping around. There was a lot working against me, but I liked this one and they look cute. Kyla with her bunny tail and of course Donnan is barking. I made a few adjustments in Photoshop with levels and curves.

 

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My Little Guy Donnan

Canon 7D, Raw, f/11.0, 1/200, 43 mm, ISO 100

This is my three year old baby Donnan. I spent some time brushing him today. When he looks like this, we call him “foo foo,” because he is so fluffy. Next, I will work on his four year old sister, Kyla. This is the same little guy jumping in this post. I did a few adjustments in Camera Raw, then I took it into Photoshop, and I really didn’t do anything. He is my little sweety and I love him. He is not crazy about being brushed, but he accepts it and is much better than Kyla who cries and moans with every wisk of the brush!

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Late Afternoon at the Dog Park

Canon 20D, Raw, f/5.6, 1/250, 145mm, Silver Efex Pro

I was trying something new with this image. It did not quite come out like I wanted it to, so I consider this an idea in progress. I used my telephoto lens with the sun behind the subjects. The dogs were running around a lot and I wanted them to kick up more dirt. This was the image that was the closest to what I wanted but not quite there. I converted it to black and white and added a vignette. I will be trying this again but I need to go a little earlier in the day.

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This is the final day of my goal to post one photo a day for a year. I did it and I am very proud of myself. I feel a little lost right now, what do I do? Larry said go to two photos per day, but that is not going to happen! As I am writing this, I have no idea what photo I will post today. So if there is a photo here, we will all be surprised! I was thinking of doing a self portrait, but no, that will not happen either. This is my Kyla and Donnan on the day they met. It was love at first site.

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A Huntington Beach Sunset

We went down to the beach at the end of Warner Ave. There are not a lot of people there so it was very nice and cool. I took my camera, of course, and got this great sunset shot. I hope you like it. There were some waves and it had something to do with a “high” coming and  settleing on the coast. I don’t really understand all of that stuff. I just like the results! Good use of rule of thirds horizontally, but not so much vertically!

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Donnan and Kyla, Shampooed and Beautiful

It was so very hard getting this photo of Kyla and Donnan today. We took them out to the front yard and there are just too many distractions out there! I waited until late in the day because I believe it must have been the hottest day of the year here. They were washed and fluff dried two days ago so I guess I should have taken the photo then (or at least brushed them first)! Oh well – I tried. It is hard to get them looking in the same direction let alone directly at me at the same time!

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A Happy, Carefree Dog!

As I was coming home from a very nice lunch date with my friend Carol at Irvine Spectrum today, this is what I saw on the 405 Fwy. Luckily my camera was in my purse right next to me. I got my camera out, pulled behind this truck and snapped a few quick photos. I know it is just a snapshot, but I couldn’t resist!

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Giving Kyla Equal Billing

The day sort of got away from me today! I was busy doing a bunch of errands and appointments, but I was able to get this photo of my beautiful baby girl! I love my Kyla and she is not as theatrical as Donnan is, like in yesterday’s photo. She is a young lady, but she does like to play rough with Donnan! I liked this photo because it is difficult to get a dog to look right at the camera. See how much her hair has grown? She is looking good!

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See My Little Guy Jump!

 

I have been trying to get this photo of Donnan for over a year! That is a six foot high wall he is peeking over. As you can tell, he is very nosy! I think our neighbors got a new dog or one was visiting this morning. Donnan took a running start and jumped. He can usually get 2-3 jumps per run. We do not encourage him to do this. Normally he won’t do it if I am outside but I guess he couldn’t help himself today. I kind of cheated and put my camera on sports mode instead of dealing with manual. Forgive me!

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My Baby Seal

I said yesterday that I would work harder on providing a variety of photos here for you to view. Well, I tried some different techniques with today’s photograph. I do not think I have ever done a photo with the composition like this, at least not on purpose. I took over thirty photos to get this one. I tried the seal facing different directions, different apertures and shooting the image vertically. This one was my favorite. I hope you like it!

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Another Great Cactus

I took this photo a few weeks ago with my Lensbaby. I keep going back to it because I like it. I finally decided to share it with you today. It is a photo of a cactus we have had  for many years and it is now over 4 feet tall.  Every time we have moved it also moves.  It  looks like it has white hair growing on it. I wish I knew what this cactus is called, but I don’t know that much about plants. Those thorns are very sharp, whatever kind they are!  Awed that it was a 2 inch plant when we started…

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A Still Life Photograph

As I was loading my dishwasher earlier today, this vase with sitting on the counter with the beautiful rose buds I cut yesterday for my photograph. I love the vase they are in. It was given to me by a very dear friend many, many years ago. I thought the roses looked so I pretty, how could I not photograph them!? I took the vase outside on the patio, changed my lens and took a few photos. I wanted to make sure I got the flowers and the vase, but nothing too distracting in the background.  I didn’t do any retouching on the roses – just a little vignetting. Do you like it?

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Cosmos, Not the Drink But the Flower

Isn’t this a very pretty flower? I took this photo at Larry and Shelley’s. Shelley grew it from seeds and it is so pretty. I really like the thin, delicate stem. Shelley said you can buy them at a nursery already started but that the stems tend to be thicker and not as pretty. I agree, I don’t think it would be as pretty. It is a very pretty purple/pink color and this particular one is more purple. The leaves are a very beautiful deep green. Quite often it is difficult to take photos of flowers in nature because of the ocean breeze – especially one with a thin stem!

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Lensbaby Macro Shot

I am so proud of this photograph! I thought I would try my +10 macro filter on my Lensbaby 2.0. I had only used the +4 macro filter before. Now the +10 is  my favorite. I was finally able to get a good focal point and so lucky I was able to get this bee. Isn’t it great? When I went outside, there were a few bees buzzing around my basil plant that is very large and has a lot of flowers on it. I will work on getting closer to the bee next time, but they really like to buzz around a lot!

This is a great Lensbaby macro photo…

We had some of the fresh basil from that plant on the spaghetti I made earlier in the week. It was great! The day started out very overcast and even a little chilly. I have been waking up early, so when I went out to get the newspaper at 5:30, it was pretty cool outside, and oh so nice and quiet! Willie took the dogs for a good walk today at Central Park. He said Donnan was really good until they went into the dog park. Why can’t he learn from Kyla? Willie said Kyla kept an eye on Donnan and didn’t go very far away from him. The Dodger’s are playing the Cardinals – has not been a good series for them! We’ll see how it goes!

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Faster Than the Speed of Light!

See my little baby boy running with a tennis ball in his mouth? He had just taken the ball from Kyla and he appears to be running away from her. They go back and forth chasing each other. It was very unusual for Kyla to have a tennis ball. I went outside to take some photos because Willie yelled to me that Kyla was keeping the ball from Donnan – so very unusual. Donnan has not much interest in balls and Kyla has even less. I know this is not as sharp as it should have been, but I think he looks great!  Quite a contrast between today’s photo and yesterday’s!

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This is Budley

Isn’t he a cute golden retriever? He is a member of my friend Robin’s family up at Blue Skeye Ranch. I was going through some images today I took up there and I wanted to share this photo with you. He is so very sweet and a very good boy. He gets along with everyone and is a joy to be around. Robin has three other dogs and they are all very good. I took this photo along with many others the last time I was up there. I will be up there again in less than two weeks to shoot photos Robin wants to do as a fund raiser for breast cancer awareness, an important cause. Isn’t he a sweety? As you can probably tell, I literally layed flat on the floor to get this photo!

Budley up at Blue Skeye Ranch…

Well, I met with Carol today to discuss the calendar Robin wants to do. Carol was real good at playing devils advocate and came up with a lot of good questions. I hope Robin calls me soon so we can go over all of the details. We do not have a lot a time and will be rushed to get it done in her time frame. But it can be done and we will do it! Carol and I had lunch at Super Mex today. I haven’t been there in a while and the chicken burrito was great! It seems Willie and I used to go there about once a week, but times have changed and I think it has probably been close to a year! Have a good evening!

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