Day 171: Sneaky Gnome

This was taken in a bathroom, upstairs. You never know where these guys will pop up. It's been hard getting a good picture today, I like this one, but it's not my best. We've been busy like mad cleaning for my Grandparent's arrival. I took this picture as part of a little contest between Steph and I to see who could come up with more intriguing way to incorporate light into a picture. You can see her entry in this post on her photoblog.

So you can get an idea of what i did to get the result, here is the step-by-step. I took a gnome I found at the dump Saturday, brought him to the bathroom upstairs and propped him forward on my lens cap. He is now leaning forward mostly toward the camera, then I took my modded disposable camera and fired of a flash as my camera shot the picture. This produced one picture with the gnome lit up and the mouth wash bottle a little less lit up. Then took another picture with the bathroom light on above, for 1 second. I combined the two in photoshop to get the background detail as well as a nicely lit evil-looking face. Then the usual: adjusted layers, levels, colors, and resized it. vuahla!!! there it is!

Day 170: Simply Lit

Today was a speed challenge on DPChallenge.com. The topic was "light bulb" and all day i have been trying to come up with ideas. Unfortunately I was too busy to get this done before 10:00 which was the deadline for the challenge, but it still turned out well. I used my modified disposable camera to light up the bulb from behind, giving it the soft, even glow.

Day 169: Symmetry

Kelsey invited me to go see a horse show downtown. It was my very first time seeing horses jump anything, and it was a very odd experience. I had a lot of fun, and got about 400 pictures. It's hard to get good pictures at ISO 1600 and 3200 with almost no light, so only 6-7 really stood out. This one caught my eye because of the perfect symmetry of the horse. I wasn't really sitting very close, in fact the horse was probably about 100 feet away as I took this. The picture was desaturated and I cranked up the contrast a bit and of course cropped and resized. Be sure to check out some other pictures, one of which is rather comical, on my latest post on EiP.

Day 168: Subtlety

So today I was driving home and had a wonderfully grand idea. It was quite a bit of editing to get this to work out, but I think it turned out well. Taken from 2 different signs in 2 different locations. Not to mention I was listening to "One Way" as the idea popped into my head... So, do you guys like it? or do you think it looks a bit edited and unnatural? Either way, I think two crosses in a row is pretty cool. I'm liking the chance to brush up on my photoshopping skills too...

Day 167: Cross

Today has been a great day so far, admittedly its only 2:48PM, but its been amazing. Mostly just because I'm really enjoying all the free-time. I rode out to monument today, took some pictures of this cross for my friend's mom's project/brochure. I really like the glowy effect i added. The power of photoshop is amazing. This is a cross of a local church that one of my old friends used to go to. After I took this I went to McD's to get a Large Sweet Iced Tea and a QPC (Quarter Pounder with Cheese) which isn't really a hard order. They got it wrong 3 times, and once i ended up paying $9.80 for like 4 sandwiches and a happy meal... it was a mess, but that's what happens when there are 20 people in one drive-through. They finally got it right-ish and i ended up with cold, but unsweetened tea, and a quarter pounder with WAAY to many onions, in a double quarter pounder box. So, that's pretty much all the interesting things that i have done today. How about you?

Day 166: Exterior

This was taken just after the Annual Pancake breakfast downtown 7-9AM this morning. It was great to get up so early, it made the day feel nice and long. Anyway, I had a hard time deciding between this and the other two from today, which I have posted on EiP. So thanks to Laura for helping me decide...

I like this picture because of the cool colors, the patterns in the line of the building. This is actually one side of the Courthouse downtown, which I have been photographing a lot recently for a project for a friend's mom. I'm really starting to like architectural photography, and the amazing lines that man-made buildings can make. I would also recommend the full view to get the full impact.

Day 165: Dodge and Burn

Haha, wow that was a cool title don't you think? It's a Dodge, and the whole idea of burning rubber... well anyway, I mentioned in yesterdays post that I was trying to get a decent picture of my car, and tonight I think that all worked out! I was inspired by this post on Strobist.com, my favorite off-camera lighting blog. The bigger sized picture is here, and you can read how he did it there, but I only had 1 strobe instead of his 3.
Before you go and read those though, it's:
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION TIME!!!!
Directions: in the comments tell me how you think I did this, even though I think its pretty obvious. Oh, and there was no photoshopping other than levels adjustment.

Day 164: Drip Drop

This is what happens when you leave the faucet a little open. It drips... In fact, it took me about 200 drips to finally get this one perfect. They happen fast. REALLY fast, so I was glad i had my handy new Vivitar 285HV off-camera flash! Yes, I have been spending a lot of time messing around with the various things you can do with the flash, especially pictures of my car. I tried to get an "intriguing" picture of my other birthday present, the Dodge Intrepid... but the pictures didn't turn out that well... another try tomorrow night and hopefully things will turn out better. In the mean time, I took this picture on the 20th of June, the day after my flash arrived, hope you like it!

Day 163: The Other Way

Dude! Turn Around! Hehe.

Ok so i Didn't do much in the way of photography today, but I did get my car interior fixed, so now it is the spiffiest thing on earth. Anyway, i decided to do a few self portraits with my new flash and a huge thing of packing foam... which makes a great defuser for bright lights. So the packing foam is my background and behind it is my flash on full power (which when tested yesterday with trevor, turns out to be brighter than sunlight, for 1/1000th of a second) and my camera on my tripod in back of me... i pressed the infrared remote to trigger the camera, turned around and BAM a cool, kind of random, POTD! That's my new acronym for Picture Of The Day, kudos for trevor for coming up with it... well three letters of it.... he originally said "POD." Hopefully something more intriguing tomorrow, but I'm not promising anything.

Day 162: Squirrel Redux

I spent most of the morning today out driving around in a trevor-and-me caravan. It was pretty fun, and we stopped in Palmer Lake to get ice cream at the Rock House, and sat by the lake and caught up on things. While at the lake I saw the squirrel... I like this picture because he is standing up, and that's it for squirrel pictures for awhile. Lets keep the comments family-friendly for this squirrel picture eh?

Day 161: Eleven

As I mentioned yesterday, my strobe kit birthday present came in yesterday. Today I spent every waking moment using it in all imaginable situations, and I got a lot of beautiful pictures. This was taken on our pool table after dad finished practicing. He recently made me clean it off, so now all the stuff that used to be on it (light box, 1500 watt lighting, 1st place picture from Evening of the Arts) is now under it, So we can use it again. Of course the first thing I did when he finished was bring all my new lighting equipment in the room, umbrella and all, and start snapping away. I only took about 20 pictures before my fancy new lithium rechargeable AA batteries gave up the ghost, so this is the best of 'em. I used the umbrella to soften the light from coming from my one strobe, and on top of bouncing it off the umbrella, I put a poster just to the right (just out of the picture) to reflect all that light back onto the shadowed side. The result is this, a very cleanly, evenly, and softly lit pool ball with light coming from only 1 source.

Day 160: Dance Of Fire

Well, today my birthday present came in! It was an off camera flash which you can learn more about at the link. I have been using it all day and I actually read the manual. Can't wait to get some use out of it, but tonight was Colorado Springs' first large thunderstorm, and i was here for it! AMAZING! is all I can say. I got exactly 54 (!) pictures of actual lightning and it was pretty hard to pick the top 5. This is the best of the best, and you can see the rest over on my latest post on EiP.

Day 159: Night in the City

This was taken from the top of the 3 story tall rock in my back yard. I have quite the view from up there, and I was utilizing that view last night hoping to get pictures of the moon. I did end up getting a few good pictures of the biggest orange-est moon of the year, but I think this beats those. make sure to check out the latest post on EiP and of course click for the full view!

Day 158: Purple

Ah, what a day! I spent the majority of my day today driving! I love having my license. Kelso (a friend who also got her license yesterday, about an hour before me) and I went down to manitou and had Peach Mates at Mate' (pronounced MAH-tay, go figure) which is a quaint, odd little place in downtown manitou. We walked around for a bit and then headed off in our own separate cars to go to Garden of the Gods. I actually didn't take that many pictures, which is surprising, but we had a great time talking. After that I had to fill up the car with a twenty I just happened to have in my wallet, thank God, and then i followed her to the place her horses reside. Unfortunately I only got to stay with the horses for a little while, and then it was time to head home, and I regret not pulling out my camera there and taking pictures. I stopped at the New Life Church parking lot to get some pictures of my car, and I got home around 2:40 and offered to drive my mom to her appointment to help a student with make-up work, then we got subway and came back home and here I am! Whew! long day, but I really didn't get any good pictures :( ...oh, right. Except for the one your looking at. It was taken this morning. I took the trash out and noticed some flowers I hadn't seen before and promised to get a picture on my way back down the driveway in the car. Here they are! Isn't nature amazing! The fact that every single flower has it's own uniqueness, pattern, and beauty amazes me.

Wow, that rhymed. Sweet.

Day 157: Solo on Sunset

Today I got my drivers license! The test was surprisingly easy... but the wait in the DMV took an eternity. This picture is of my car, given to my for my birthday by my parents. New paint job and all, isn't it beautiful!? It started raining right during my test, and it has continued to pour off and on since. I love this picture because of the contrast of the sunset in the mirror and blue-green of the car. The title is a little random, but refers to the fact that I can drive solo now, and the picture was taken at sunset. And check out the latest post on EiP with more pictures of my car, and a ladybug.

Day 156: Happiness

Today was fathers day, and I really didn't take any pictures because I spent all day playing Rayman: Raving Rabbids 2 with dad, so I decided to use one I took on my birthday. Some people are afraid of clowns, I understand this. So it's nice to see such a wonderful clown doing his job every once in awhile. This was taken in manitou springs and i was pretty much shooting from the hip. I'm glad i caught such i wonderfully candid shot. I think this one has the same feeling as Day 14. I also really like the water fountain in the background, stopped dead in it's tracks. Full view!

Day 155: Day of Birth

16 years ago, little Steve came into the world. Choking on his own umbilical chord. Dang straight. Choking is the best way to enter any new venue. So today was the anniversary of that occasion, and I got a cake for it. whoo!

Day 154: Signs of Wear

Wow, that was a genuinely creative name! Thought up by yours truly. I really like this old sign, it's near an entrance to I-25 from the west, and the sun damage has made the red part a nice shade of light blue. I wonder just how old it is... definitely worth the full view.

Day 153: Green

It's amazing what kind of growth happens when you leave for the first two weeks of summer! I have never seen so much green on our property. The trees are really liking the sun i guess. It's nice to have all the beautiful rich color right outside our front door.

Day 152: Home

After quite the drive, we are finally home. Today was my first full day, just chillin' out and enjoying being home! It's so nice to have my mountains back after driving across the central plains of america, lands of flat boringness. There's nothing like seeing the rockies for the first time in two weeks. True evidence of God's Glory. I put the stop sign in there because that's what we did, we got home and for the first time in two weeks we actually stopped. It's wonderful.

Day 151: Wind Farm

Today we drove all the way across kansas... it was quite flat to say the least, but there were 1 or two hills and on top of this particular hill there was a windmill! How cool is that? Now there are some of you who have probably seen a lot of these before and you're thinking "yeah, its a windmill, who cares?" but I'm from colorado, I've lived here my whole life, and we don't have a whole bunch of windmills around here, so seeing these giants was pretty amazing for me. Take note of the full view, you can see a "tiny little" Ford F350, which really brings the whole picture into perspective. Also, don't miss my latest post on EiP, my other photo blog for more from the trip, including Oreo Cows.

Day 150: Cow

In Memory of Shawnee.

This is Shawnee. She was my grandmother's dog for 9 long wonderful years, and was a big part of my summers at the Lake House. She passed away 3 days ago now. Day 148, June 7th to be exact. Both of my grandparents were very close to her, and they've had a hard time saying goodbye, especially since it was on vacation while we were in minnesota. This picture was taken the day before they found out she was sick with a case of fast-acting cancer, the day before she died. I only took 1 picture that day and I'm very thankful it turned out this well. The title is due to the fact that my Aunt Kim used to call her Cow because she was just a tad overweight. Grandma hated it but to me it stuck. The picture hasn't been resized, just cropped a little, so please take the time to check out the full view.

Day 149: Cotton

We finally made it to my Grandma's house here in Kansas City, MO. Once we got here the weather started getting pretty bad. Thankfully we were all inside. Except for me, who was of course outside taking pictures. I have never seen clouds like these before, but dang were they cool! look how fluffy they are! full view?

Day 148: Downpour

This was taken after my cousin Kate's graduation party today. Luckily enough it didn't rain all through the outdoor party, but it did before and after. And boy, when it rains in minnesota, it pours. When this was taken it was getting darker and the camera only managed a 1/80th of a second exposure, so the raindrops blurred and it produced a very cool effect.

Day 147: Graduation

Today I saw my cousin Kate graduate high school. It was really fun to see them all in outfit throwing their hats up, but what I enjoyed most were the speeches. All 4 kids that got up to speak and commemorate that occasion for their whole class did excellent. One of the speeches was composed completely of quotes from Beetles songs, which I thought was awesome, although they failed to include a quote from the song "I Am The Walrus." Apparently someone in the class thought it would be fun to use silly string to set this class apart from the rest since after all, they are known as the silly string class... Anyway, in the picture you can see some of the hats starting to go up in the air, and of course a multitude - a plethora - of silly string. The field was covered with it 30 seconds later, as were the students.

Day 146: American Eagle

This is a necklace my 3 cousins and I got at my grandmothers house when I was 6 years old. That year, 1998 was the first time I met my cousins at Grandma's house at the Lake of the Ozarks. 5 years later she moved away, but while she lived at the lake our family visited there every summer. Since that first summer my cousins and I have all had our necklaces as a reminder of the fun we had at the lake house. Admittedly, we lost them a few times, so the one in the picture is the second one I've had. I brought it with me on this trip because the youngest of my cousins is graduating high school. I am going into junior year, so this will be the last time I get to see them before we all go off to college.

Make sure to check out the full view.

Day 145: Pedestrian Traffic

This was taken on our trip up to Copper Harbor yesterday. This gull had landed near our car on Presque Isle and the lighting on it was beautiful. I love crisp colorful pictures. The gull looks very regal. I'll bet he thinks he's better than you :)

Day 144: Rocky Shore

This was taken on the shore of Lake Superior, just outside the small tourist town of Copper Harbor. These lakes have definitely been my favorite part of our trips thus far. Having water out as far as the eye can see is just as good as the ocean, and the fact that it's all freshwater makes it even better.

Day 143: Gull Wing

For as long as I have known what a seagull was I have wanted to get pictures of them. Today, I finally got that opportunity. Mom' & Dad let me walk around the Escanaba marina and harbor, and I found a spot where a guy in a car was feeding the seagulls, so there were about 20-30 of them gathered around. I got there right as he finished, and he just sat there in his car watching them. They had started to fly off one by one, so I walked over behind his car to take some pictures. The guy in the car eventually rolled down his window to ask if he was in my way, and I assured him he wasn't. By the time about half an hour had past I had well over 200 pictures of pure seagull goodness, so I hopped back in the car and rode home. This one is my favorite because of the clarity, the position of the birds wings, and the fact that it's feathers are just the least bit translucent.

Make sure to check out EiP for more, and of course, click for full view.

Day 142: Peek-a-boo

If you're ever going to click a picture to see the full view, please let it be this one. All the pictures I'm posting from Michigan and Minnesota are full size, I don't have the tools with me to easily resize them. Actually I'm using Picasa to import, edit, and write my pictures to DVD, and I'm really just to lazy to resize them on the go :) so that benefits you all.

This was taken in the back yard of my Great Aunt Sandy and Uncle Eric. They raise baby squirrels that don't have parents. They also have a 9 year old ferret, two parakeets, and a dog named Jacques. Anyway, after the squirrels they raise come of age, they let them go. They said this little guy was probably one they raised about 3 years ago. He's a red squirrel, and he was very curious. I got surprisingly close to him, and he actually crawled down the tree to the feeder he is sitting on in this picture. The tip of my lens was probably only about 2 feet away from him. Despite seeming okay with my presence there, he was still a little skittish. If you've ever seen Lilo & Stitch the movie, this guy moved up and down the tree a lot like stitch. Only a ton faster. So fast in fact, that even with my camera taking 1/800th of a second exposures, by the time the shutter black out went away after taking a picture, he was often out of frame. It was a very odd experience. I ended up getting about 40 pictures perfectly in focus, and they were all taken at ISO 800. In the end, I like this one best because he seems genuinely interested in the viewer. He has the cutest expression.