"A rose by any other name..."

I just love roses. My mom's yard always has the most beautiful roses and I am more than happy to capture their beauty. This rose was originally a lovely pink, but I converted it to black and white in order to showcase the light in this photo. I used a very shallow DOF (depth of field) to focus only on a portion of the petals on this flower and have the rest fall into a soft blur. I also added a pumice filter to give it a bit of an aged tone. I like this photo very much.

Here's a similar shot of the same rose that is still the original pink color. I'll let you decide which one you prefer. Feel free to comment with your thoughts.

"Fall Foliage Hunt"

Sunday evening, we went down to the Boise River to find some fall foliage. We didn't arrive too much before sundown, so I had to find my subjects and shoot hurriedly, as the light was quickly fading.

As we walked down the path, the scene below caught my eye. It was the glistening sun shining through the large, stately tree that I wanted to capture, so I quickly set up my tripod and composed the scene. A star filter would have helped with the sunburst, but then I would have likely had to combat flair. Here is the resulting image...
As we continued walking, only a few steps from where I took the first shot, I looked up and saw brightly colored leaves with a blue sky background and the trees falling into shadow. I again composed and shot this photo...

As we continued on, our ears were blessed with the songs of all the many birds that reside in the area. I will have to go back just to photograph the birds. Anyway, when we reached the river, it was a lovely scene. The sun was still hitting the foliage of the trees on the opposite side of the river, allowing the same leaves to reflect in dark, rich color on the water below. I liked the stones at the water's edge and included them in my shot, although I had to get rather low to do so and still include the tops of the trees. I laid down on my stomach for a few shots. One of these days I will get an angle finder for my landscape photography, which will make my job a lot easier and save my neck a lot of pain.

There was a couple fishing down where I was shooting and I asked them to step closer to the edge so I could include them in some of my final shots. They obliged, and I thanked them.

I love the way this set of photos shows how important light is in photography and how it can change the mood of a scene in just seconds. It can truly make or break the image.

"Full Hunter's Moon"

I shot this moon portrait last night. This is the Hunter's Moon. Each full moon actually has a name. Who knew? I had always heard of the Harvest Moon and I photographed it last September, but hadn't heard of all the rest. I love the fact that as I practice my art I am also always still learning as I research the subjects of my images.

"Full Hunter's Moon - October With the leaves falling and the deer fattened, it is time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can easily see fox and the animals
which have come out to glean." (Farmer's Almanac)

"Our Burrowing Owl Encounter"

We were driving out by a butte when my husband spotted this burrowing owl on a post. We turned around and went back. I took a couple of shots as we approached, knowing he'd probably fly away quickly. To my surprise, he didn't! At least not until I got a few shots off.

Once he did fly away, he didn't go far. Just down by his burrow. It was so cool to see him fly by silently, as we were still sitting in the car with the windows down. What a treat God was blessing us with!

Before too long, he flew back up on another post. We edged the car forward to get closer to where he had landed. What a treat this was for us to see this little owl in the wild and for him to sit there posing for me instead of flying off.

The light was changing the whole time we were there. My husband kept letting the car silently ease closer to the post the owl was on.

I had my long lens on my camera, the light was getting low and I was shooting hand-held, so many of the images came out very blurry. Especially the ones where the owl was moving.

My husband asked me how long I was going to take pictures of it and I told him, "As long as he'll let me!" Well, he finally did fly away...much to my dismay.

Some of my shutter speeds were pretty slow by then, only 1/30s. I kept boosting my ISO to compensate. I did manage to get some halfway decent, albeit grainy shots that I'm quite happy to have captured. It's so fun to catch animals out in the wild. I love it!

"Hitching Post" circa 1869

Last weekend my husband took me shooting. It was a rainy day, so colors were beautifully saturated. We went along the old part of town on a street called "Warm Spring Avenue" and found this old hitching post in front of one of the houses. The house is circa 1869. I took photos of the house and porch, too, but I loved this image of the isolated hitching post. I added a filter that makes it look kind of dreamy. I also did one to make it look aged...here's that one.

Feel free to comment and tell me which one you like best!

To order a print, CLICK HERE.

"Cover Shot!"

Above is my image entitled, "Indian Creek Reflections", as it currently appears on the cover of the 2008 fall issue of CHOIS CONNECTION magazine. This magazine is the first statewide magazine for home educators and is published quarterly by Christian Home Educators of Idaho State.

It is truly an honor to have my image grace the cover of a publication that is so close to my heart. I'm so glad that my first cover was for a magazine that supports my ideals of raising a family and teaching & training my children up in the Lord.

I praise the Lord for this wonderful opportunity and pray that I will have more occasions to use my images in ways that bring Him honor and glory, whether it's in this magazine or in any number of other ways. After all, my ultimate goal is to honor and glorify Him through my photography. Oh, and maybe bring in a little money while I'm at it. LOL

To God Be the Glory!

For more about CHOIS, CLICK HERE

"Welcome, Fall!"

Welcome, fall!

I took this image near the end of the fall 2006 season in Ridgecrest, North Carolina. It was my first visit of which I hope are many to this beautiful state!

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year...the long, hot days of summer are over and the air is now crisp and clean. Breezes blow and leaves turn. Ah welcome, fall, my friend.

"Long Time No Post"

Summer is a busy time for me personally, making blogging a challenge.

In June we are very busy as a family with church events in our community. I took over 1,000 photos of our VBS and our big community event and then had to post process those. I only finished those this past week and still have CD's to burn.

In July, I scored my first magazine cover! I had to ready the file for the cover and make sure it was to the magazine's publisher/printer's specs. I also made an ad for my business, to be included in the same magazine. The magazine should be arriving in my mailbox any day now and I'm very excited. We were also gone for three weeks of July as we drove to and from San Diego to visit family. I took so many photos! (I didn't count, but several thousand, no doubt) I haven't even gotten to post processing of those, yet.

August and September are extremely busy months for me as a homeschooling mother. This year I have a freshman and a senior. August is my school planning month. I create our girls' elective courses from scratch and tailor them to their own interests. This takes quite a bit of time and planning on my part, but it is well worth it. Of course, there are also the transcripts to do and graduation to prepare for. Oh, and don't forget the all important school pictures. As usual, we had to start school before I was actually finished preparing, so now I have the daily teaching things to do, as well as finishing up the planning.

August also means the county fair and photo contest entries to choose, (only 3) print, mount and enter. I will post one of my photos. It took 3rd. place out of approximately 68 entries in the category. I don't remember the exact number at the moment.

I have also continued to do some shooting in the field and have those photos to work on. I'm way behind on my photography, but that's the way it goes. I was able to do a quick process of the photos from the Wildlife Refuge I visited. See those HERE. I have been able to do at least a few from the different events and shoots. Mostly for family, though.

As you can see, the activities of summer have pretty much brought my blogging to a screeching hault! I can imagine I may be just as busy or more so when I go into full time photography, but until my kids are grown and gone, blogging, post-processing and photography will often be put on the back burner. Such is the life of a homeschooling mom...I love it and wouldn't have it any other way!

"On the Road to SoCal"

I took this photo on our drive to Southern California last Thursday. This is a portion of the Eastern Sierras. So much of it was hazy from the smoke of the fires right now, but this was a fairly clear area. Because we're on a time schedule to get to San Diego County, we couldn't stop the car for many photos, so most of my shooting was "drive by." At least this one doesn't have the crack in the windshield in it or the bug guts. LOL

"Independence Day 2008"

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Thanks to all who've served and are serving this great nation! I appreciate your great sacrifice for our freedom!