Tag: photos

Big-Girl Camera: The Sky and the Lens

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Today the sky was beautiful. The high, wispy clouds and bright sun and blue, blue sky, made everything seem to drip in light. I’m a hobby photographer, with a very good friend who loaned me her lovely [and expensive] lenses.

Occasionally I can make my images represent what my eyeball actually sees. And sometimes, I can frame an image that I couldn’t have seen without the camera.

Today I experimented with wide angel and telephoto lenses.

I’m standing in basically the same spot; I did adjust and position my body to frame the photo. I started by trying to capture agriculture in action with the beef cattle in the foreground and the tractor planting wheat in the background.

But I ended up going to school in the difference between the two lenses, which is remarkable. Can you see it, too?

These next four photographs are not cropped or edited other than adding text labels for a visual point of reference. (they are also saved down into smaller files for web publishing).

Telephoto: I can’t get all the cattle in the shot. And look at how “flat” the sky appears.

Wide angle: amazingly all the cattle fit in the shot– all I did was change the lens. And you can see both tractors. Notice how “curved” the image looks. Much closer to the way our eyeballs see the world.

Telephoto: I repositioned to catch the tractor as he made another pass, and to frame out the parked tractor and hay bale.

 

Wide angle: The tractor is farther away (he was moving the whole time I was shooting). Notice the difference in the color saturation the wide angel captures v. the telephoto– how blue, blue the sky is.

And the sun flare – I would have been marked down at least 10 points in Ashton’s photo journalism class at Texas Tech. I personally love the sun flare in photos like this one.

 

My favorite sky images from the day: the wide angle wins for today and does the best job at capturing the glorious sky.

 

 

 

One Day at a Time Another Month Flies by

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I’ve been on my blogging odyssey for almost three months now. I started blogging every day on November 1, 2011. Today is January 18, 2012. That is 79 posts including tonight’s entry.

It has been an remarkable 79 days. Tonight I’m looking back over the last few weeks to do a “round-up” of favorite blog posts.

One month ago I posted about Jdub’s favorite tune: The Spanish Song That night seems so long ago, but it was just a month. Goes to show how time can stand still or fly depending on where your perspective is.

Thanksgiving and Christmas happened. And the wonderful Christmas Eve program at our church” Light of the World

My pets always provide good fodder for writing: If the Dog/Cat Could Sass

And there were several photo blog posts that were just a result of being in the moment with a camera (or iPhone) handy:

Winter Sunset Beauty

Beautiful Sky = Pretty Pictures

Stock Tank on a Still Day (My Favorite of the photo posts)

And the coolest, random photo that captured an optical illusion:

Do You See What I See? (It was a little more than a month ago)

Much has changed in my life in 79 days.

  • I’m about to make a major job transition.
  • I’m getting close to losing the 10 lbs I promised myself to lose by my next birthday (not so much because I’m eating better but more because I don’t have time to eat).
  • I’m about to conclude the last event I hope to ever do in a professional capacity.
  • I’ve been “ordained” at my church.
  • I read three 500-page books of fiction; six books of nonfiction.
  • I still have a library book out that is past due.
  • I’ve worn my pretty boots a lot.
  • I repainted/redecorated my home office.
  • I rearranged Jdub’s room to make it more spacious for him to play.
  • I almost had a panic attack in Ikea because it’s so overwhelming to me, (not really, but it did become time to “just go.”)
  • I got a fever blister (from stress, that’s what my body does).
  • And my little kid was sick for 5 days straight.

With a blog a day, I’m amazed at how much life actually happens in a relatively short span of time. It also shows that whatever you do, you have to do it a little at a time. When you pause to look back, the chronicle provides the proof that you’ve gone very far, just one day at a time.

Beautiful Sky = Pretty Pictures

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The sky was beautiful this afternoon. The clouds started to break up as the sun was setting. I took these photos around 5 p.m. today. The night sky was even more beautiful because it’s a new moon with cold high pressure air. That makes for a clear sky, perfect for seeing the Milky Way. Unfortunately my photography skills do not extend to nighttime panorama. But here are a few of my favorites from today.