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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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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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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Dana Point Harbor

Here is another view of Dana Point Harbor taken at a later time in the evening than the one from a week ago. You can really see a difference in the sky as the sun is at a very low angle. I realize it is somewhat blown out but I really wanted to get a photo from this angle. The Charthouse Restaurant where we ate dinner that night is up on the hill. What an evening we had!

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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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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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Don’t You Love Fresh Asparagus?

I bought this today because I love asparagus and it was on sale! We will enjoy it either tonight or tomorrow.  I like to put them on a cookie sheet, add a little olive oil and garlic salt and then roast them in the oven. This is also good with a little parmesan cheese grated on top. This is a thin (pencil) asparagus which I prefer to the thick stemmed kind. I used my fixed 50mm lens for this photo at f9 and I used my photocube. It is great and I love it! I told you no PhotoWalk photo today and I kept my promise!

Crisp fresh asparagus…

Larry came by today to pick up a table . We were talking outside and Donnan was with us. That little dog was so scared that when Larry went to pet him, he cringed and urinated and quivered. He knows Larry and Larry was very nice to him. Why is he so afraid of everything?  Larry said he seems to be getting worse. I do not know what to do. Should I take him to the doctor and put him on drugs or will a trainer be able to alleviate his fears? Why does he have these fears? He is such a sweetie, so what is going on? I hope someone can help us!

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A Lensbaby Photo of My Baby Boy

I am getting somewhat better with the lensbaby even though this one just looks like a shallow depth of field photo. Not much flair to it. It is all a work in progress but I thought this one was very cute of my Donnan. Doesn’t he have gorgeous eyes? So amber in color. He just sneeked under my table here because someone let off a firecracker outside. What will happen on the 4th? At 9:30 every night we can hear the fireworks all the way from Disneyland. You would think they would be used to it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My precious baby boy…

Here we are starting another month; the second half of the year 2009. My how time flies! I have July and August to complete my one year goal of a photo a day. I must say I am doing pretty darn good! Willie’s finger seems to be healing some. He has always been a good healer. It did start to bleed a little today but he said he banged it in the shower. I have to remind him that it is not just a cut and a split nail but it is also broken. Have any special plans for the 4th? We don’t. I wanted to go have dinner down on the Huntington Beach Pier and watch the fireworks, but Willie put the kibosh on that. Larry and Shelley will be up at the mountains so I guess we will just stay home and barbecue. Nothing wrong with that!

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5000 Views!

I think this is a big accomplishment for me. I hit 5000 at 12:28 P.M. this afternoon. It took 295 days. I know this is nothing to many of you, but I am very proud of myself. Thank you to all of you who have looked at my blog. Not much of a daily average, but I was just hoping I could get to 5000 by the end of my first year! I wonder where I will be at that time? Anyway, on to today’s photo.

My beautiful baby girl, Kyla…

I promise this is the last Lensbaby photo I will force on you until I get this perfected! I need to stop trying to get close-ups and take some more wide angle photos. Kyla was so good sitting and staying for me with Donnan running around! I just wish I could have gotten her to look right into the camera. She doesn’t seem to understand what I want! They both act like they don’t want their photos taken. They should be used to seeing me with a camera around my neck! Oh well, I like it!

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Kyla and Donnan

I am sorry for this photo of Kyla and Donnan today. I am sure if I could ask them about it they would wonder why I used this photo. I would have to say it is because they would  not cooperate! They absolutely wore me out today! We went up to Pasadena today to pick up Shelley’s truck. On the way home I took them to the Humane Society to get some shots that they were due. We had to wait about 1/2  an hour and they drove me crazy! Kyla was full of anxiety and Donnan hid under the bench I was sitting on and barked at everyone or thing that came close to us.

Not a very flattering phot0 of Kyla and Donnan…

I was very surprised at how overwhelmed and totally out of control I felt with the dogs today. I really need some help! I am sorry for the photo, but this was the best I could do with what I had!  There was some strange weather today! When we were in Pasadena this morning, it was drizzling some. It was overcast and humid here in Huntington Beach. I guess Larry will come by tomorow and pick up Shelley’s truck. Hopefully I can finish the wedding photos tomorrow. I am sure you are more tired of hearing about those wedding photos than I am!

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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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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!

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