Special Olympics

Brandi Nunn and Justin Robinson give Bryson Flowers a boost as he does the long jump.
This was from the Kay Center's Special Olympics. Really special people working with some very special kids. The photo says it all.

The Dobro Picker

Deborah has been playing Dobro since last spring. I have been wanting to do a picture since she
began. Close in shot f all those picks on the strings. I was doing a candlelight photo of some flowers last night and asked her to play for me when I finished the flowers.

The Dobro has a large metal disc under the strings where the hole is on a normal guitar.

I used one light placed behind and to the side coming in from about 45 degrees. These are not bad, but still not what I wanted. Not sure exactly what I wanted. Think I will try again with two lights.

The top two photos were done at 1/25 second, the botton one was much slower. It was 1/2.5

second and used what little ambient light was in the room. Not much. The middle photo does have some vibration in the strings that had just been plucked.

Not bad, but we will try again later.

Take A Walk And Find Some Photos

I walked home from the office yesterday at lunch. It was such a pretty day, too nice to be in a car. When I started back, I took the long way, walking through downtown. I had a camera with me. Two actually. Got to have a telephoto and something wide. Both of these were with the telephoto.
The top picture are some little blue flowers, probably weeds. They caught my eye while I was walking. When I got down low to shoot, I noticed the brown leaf, and decided it fit nicely in the
bottom of the image. I tried a vertical but it didn't work for me.

When I got the photo in the computer, I played around alittle. This one has the water color filter added. Has a nice look.

The old door really jumped out at me. Think what got my attention ws the contrast between the wood, worn paint and the fairly new 'Push' sign.

I have a couple of more I will share later. Get out with your camera and see what you can find.

The Dogwood Blooms

We have two Dogwood trees in our yard, a white one and a pink. The white one is right outside our backdoor. When you look through the storm door, you see the tree first. Especially this time of year. Today the blooms were screaming "Shoot Me." The overcast day made them just jump.

I shot them this morning. When I went home for lunch, Deborah asked if I had noticed the pink blooms. This tree is on the other side of the house. I had not.

It had begun to rain, but I grabbed my D200 and went shooting. Again the overcast sky made perfect light for these delicate blooms. I underexposed them a little bit to make the color really saturate. Did the same with the white ones. Had to do a little Photoshop work in the shadows.

After I had them toned, I played with them a little in Photoshop, and got this look. I kinda like the finished product.

The Grass Is Always Greener

I have passed this llama several times when he has been stretched under the barbed wire trying to munch the grass on the other side of the fence. When I would stop the car and get out, he would make a hasty retreat,
Last week I came by and there he was. My camera was in the trunk of the car, so I went past, turned around and stopped. I thought I was far enough away not to panic him, but he pulled back under the wire. I had to go back up the road to turn around so I drove on toward him. With me back in the car, he resumed his position. I stopped and shot my picture through the open car window. Long as I didn't get out of the car, he ignored me.
I am sure there is a life lesson in that somewhere.
I got my camera out a

The Bug In The Iris

We have Irises blooming in our yard. They make really pretty photographs. So many ways to
look at each bloom. I got out at lunchtime and started looking for a picture. Deborah shot some really nice ones earlier.
I got lucky and found a bug inside a bloom. The light was pretty awesome. I had to burn and dodge a bit in Photoshop, but I like what I got.