Rejected

 Photos I did not use on this year's Christmas cards.

Henry and (most of) the Es

Elliot, Eliav, Henry, and Eitan

Photography fun: 70-200mm/2.8 lens

I rented a lens for the cross country meet and soccer matches we have this week and weekend so I can (hopefully) get some closer shots of the kid and his teammates. The cross country meet was great, and I managed to get a very fun shot of Henry's hair doing its thing on the course, and last night I took it to Hen's soccer practice. It's a beast of a lens to lug around but I'm happy with the shots. The ability to zoom in to get closer to the athletes is really awesome when what you work with most days is a 50mm portrait lens.

Have a little hair with your run.

Our Goalie - Before

Our Goalie - After
I think the original shot is fine as is but I really like the edited version, too. Things done include increasing the contrast, changing the white balance, upping the highlights and clarity, and adding vignette. There could be more but that's all I can remember. Oh, wait, I think I also messed with the noise a bit.

PDX rainbow

taken on the drive home from school / spring 2016

Not impressed with the beauty of Mexico

Cousins

gavin, audrey, henry

sherwood, oregon

30 november 2013

Kiyokawa Family Orchards, alpacas, and yarn

I bought another 40 lbs of apples to enjoy as applesauce, in pies, and all on their own.

Only runs on the weekend. Bummer.

Pears

Prefers being with mama in the sling to being in the backseat.

Mt. Hood

Apples. Delicious apples.

Road to apples

Knit the cat at the yarn store

Pastoral

Here come the alpacas!

It's a baby!

I just knit that alpaca.

Photography: Fisheye (again)

You just can't beat the whole-weekend-for-the-cost-of-one-day deal Pro Photo has on rental lenses. I mean, seriously, for the cost of some of these I could rent them 60 times and still not reach the purchase price. I had fun with the fisheye (again) because it is hard not to have fun with the fisheye. 

I came back from a trip to Apple's Genius Bar to find my side of the bed overrun with dinosaurs. And here we thought they were extinct.

Photography: Lens 24-70mm

I rented the 24-70mm f/2.8 ED lens for a weekend job and since I had it with me before we left Friday morning, I was fortunate enough to be able to take it to Seattle. It's a hefty lens. It doesn't have as much wide-angle distortion at the sides and corners. It's super fast. I think this lens might now be in the lead as the next lens to buy. Although, with as little as it costs to rent, renting is probably the way to go. It's not like I need this bad boy around the house everyday. What I like most? That I can either get up close or zoom in and get someone's entire face in focus, rather than just the eyes or nose. With my 50mm I typically have to stand far back and then take a few more steps away from my subject to get what I want in focus.

As for the job, I shot an old college buddy. She wanted a professional shot she could use on LinkedIn, some shots she could use for her Kickstarter project, and a couple fun pictures. When we found an abandoned pink tricycle at Tanner Springs, it was a fortunate stroke of serendipity.

Fifty-eighth Wordless Wednesday requires a look back four years ago today

Back from the beach

One happy boy at the beach

Raine, first year pics

Raine's mama, Leah, and I worked at Spoiled Rotten together. I originally got a job there when Darren was in school as he found he was less likely to study on the weekends if I was hanging around the house. Plus, cute baby clothes and a discount - for an aunt (and future mama) what is not to like about that? D and I were sitting at Marsee Baking in our neighborhood enjoying a pastry when I noticed the job posting in the window of the baby boutique across the street. I went in to inquire about the position and came out an employee. Leah is awesome in many ways but some of my favorite times with her were when, all the work was done, of course, we would each take some time to walk around the store and gather the things we'd buy for our own imagined kids. Okay, you had you a girl, she's 12 months old. What do you buy? WHAT DO YOU BUY?!

It has been nearly five years since I had Henry and nearly a year since she had Raine. I'm so happy we're still in touch and that she doesn't mind calling to ask for more pictures. If anyone can understand wanting more photos of your kid, it's me. So, here's a look at Raine over the past year, including some of my favorites from today's shoot.

Photography: Blue Hour

It's all about twilight, folks. I joined Amber and nine other folks at the St. Johns Bridge to shoot pictures after sunset. This is my second class with Zeb - the first was Creative Camera Techniques. My feedback to him should he ever ask for it is that unless he has more to say, starting class closer to sunset would be great. Also, a flashlight would have come in handy when schlepping around after dark. Oh, and he should not make changes to someone's camera settings without showing them how to change it back. I wasted precious twilight time trying to track him down after he told me I should take advantage of the lens I  rented from Pro Photo Supply because he changed things and I could not figure out in the dark how to change them back. This was a little frustrating. But Amber is awesome and she stayed late with me, she even took me to the other side of the river so we could pull over in a sketchy looking parking spot along the road and hike back up to the bridge. We were too nervous to attempt the small(ish) hike Zeb recommended so we could capture this one particular shot. The weather cooperated - woohoo! - and we got interesting pictures, if I do say so myself. The blue of the sky is incredible.

Specifics include the following: we should use our daylight setting (it's the sunshine icon - although this really only matters if you aren't shooting in RAW); we should use an aperture somewhere in the middle; take your time when composing your shot; move (like in the Street Photography class); and the Bulb setting, which should actually be at the top of the list. When your camera reaches its limit on shutter speed you might end up at the Bulb setting (note: if you hit the x250 flash sync speed, you've gone too far). You can attach a remote trigger and adjust your shutter speed to pretty much whatever you want. This is handy for when it is really dark. Unfortunately, two nights of cloud cover mean I am still without a star trail. For future reference, you need approximately eight plus minutes to get those. But here's a sampling of what I did get...

Shutter 1/400  Aperture f/9  ISO 200- Edited in Instagram

Shutter 1/6  Aperture 1.4  ISO 250 - No editing

Shutter 1.9s  Aperture f/16  ISO 200 - No editing

Shutter 60.1s  Aperture f/16  ISO 200 - Edited in Aperture, cropped photo and applied vignetting

Shutter  69.4  Aperture  f/13  ISO 200 - Edited in Aperture, applied Toy preset, cropped, and straightened