Wednesday Photo(s)...word play edition

Birds of a feather, stick together.

Just hanging out.

Unhinged...

Lycra Man always wear's a helmet.

Helmets , or Brain buckets, as Lycra man likes to call them are a must for cyclist. Lycra Man has taken a few nasty spills on his bike resulting in a broken collar bone one time, broken helmets two times.

Although he has had to dodge crazy squirrels he has never had to deal with the likes of this.... If he does, he will be wearing his helmet!

My favorite season of the year.

I think I have mentioned this is my favorite season of the year, Fall. I love the feel of the air, the angle of the sun, the light that is cast, the feeling that things are changing right before my eyes!

This morning the light in the park was perfect. Leaves every where, on the trees, on the ground, in the water...

Good thing I charged the camera battery yesterday, not much walking got done this morning but a lit of shutter clicking took place.

Frosty morning in the park!

We had rain here in southern California yesterday. Lows down into the 40's last night, frosty morning in the park this morning!

Sun out, clear sky...supposed to be in the 80's this afternoon?!?!

My poor bunnies don't know if they should shed their coats of grow a heaver one!

they also don't know what that thing in my hand is..Magellan is not quite sure he likes it, doesn't look edible!

Wednseday Photo, trolling the goodwill store edition!

Ah! the mechanical rooster form the movie "Babe"!

One sweet lady

This is my friend Lori. We live a bout a half a mile apart, but rarely see each other any more. Life gets busy you know. So I was really glad when Lori suggested we have lunch.

Lori and I met when her youngest and my oldest were in 6th grade. We were Girl Scout leaders together.

Well, Lori led, the girls and I followed. She is one of those people that does nothing half way. She is amazing.

We took the girls camping.

Lori taught them how to cook in a dutch oven over coals, how to tie 10 different knots, how to start a fire and boil water in a paper cup in three minuets.


We took the girls on archaeological digs.

We took the girls in to L.A. to work on a rose parade float.

As with all things , the troop ended, the girls were involved in many other activities. I would see Lori at the high school sometimes when we were picking up the girls, then the girls got their licenses so...

Now my friend has become an extremely accomplished baker and maker of beautiful cakes. (click on the thumb nail photos to the left to see her cakes.)

 She is quite an amazing person and I am so glad she is my friend. Check out her blog http://www.pastriesbyvreeke.blogspot.com/

Thanks for Lunch Lori, and continued good luck to a sweet lady!

My photography secrets revealed!

Secret # 1, I am an amateur.

I am writing this for my friends who say they wish they could take pictures like mine. First of all , thank you for the huge complement and second of all you can take good pictures too. Here is how.

Oh, the legal department here at "The kids left home and I got all the rabbits", say I need to state I am not advertising or being paid to mention the following brands and products, they are just what I have and use.

My Camera.

That's it folks, a little Canon Power shot. It fits in my pocket and in my purse and goes with me pretty much everywhere. All the photos and videos I post on here and Facebook, that I made that is , come from this little guy.

I wanted, and still do at times,  a bigger camera. This one is pretty good but is slow to catch action pictures. The time between pressing the button and the camera actually taking the picture can be frustrating. I get lots of pictures like this.

disappearing squirrel...see his tail?

I know I will not pack around a big camera. So I decided stick with what I got and actually use it!

So how do I get my good photos. 

90% is composition, how the shot looks in the view finder /screen just before I click the button. You all know when you see a good picture in a magazine ore on the wall. Look for that good picture in the view finder/display screen and more than half the battle is won.

 

The other 10%  is photo editing. I use Photo shop, but I could do the same with the soft ware that came with the canon. I just figure the Lycra Man bought me Photo shop so I better use it!

Remember I said composition? Part of that is being aware of what is in the back ground of your shot. Sometimes you can't help it, what is there has to stay there, and some times you just don't notice. So...crop it out!!!

 I still didn't quite get the volleyball net out of this photo see the black arrow?

 I didn't like the picnic table in the back ground and I couldn't fix the sun flare lightening the top corner, so I cropped it out, gave me a weird shaped picture but one I like better.

Which brings me to the last thing I do to my photos. I adjust the lighting levels. It makes the colors a little brighter and the picture sharper. 

 I adjust the little triangles,the levels input sliders, the black one on the left of the histogram, the mid tone, in the center, and the white on the right. This is the histogram of the photo right out of the camera followed by the adjusted histogram, you can see I don't move the sliders too much.

Here is the picture 

See how the colors are a bit brighter and the picture is clearer. 

more examples.

Just a little difference and that is all I really want.

so my friends, these are my secrets...have a camera I will use, aim it well, and tweak the pictures just a little. You can do it too. I promise!