Early Morning Sun on Cadillac

... Just beautiful! It is really all about the light is it not?

Night Time Ice Cakes

So I went out into the dark night and onto the the edge of Flander's Bay hoping to get some photos of the ice cakes that had sprouted up on the edge of the shore. The difficulty that arose was twofold: first, I could not get the auto focus feature to work on the camera (no light, no focus?), although it would flash a couple of times before it quit. For an intelligent camera, you'd think it would know I was trying to shoot ice cakes in the dark. Second, it was dark and I couldn't see much at all, so bringing the flashlight was probably a good idea, although it barely illuminated enough for me to manually focus the camera and find images to shoot. At least the flash worked on manual and I got these photos.

Winter Coyote at the Door

Jen had somewhat of a terrifying moment last night as she heard a howling noise right outside the house, or at least it sounded like it was right outside. I thought I heard something, but wasn't sure what it was, until I went to the window and listened carefully. I told her it was a coyote, but she wasn't sure. A neighbor several miles away had lost a Huskie dog and I think she was hoping that it was the dog.

So this morning she tells me that she saw a couple of foxes chasing one another out in the field, and within an hour there was a coyote down in front of the house howling just like last night and another out at the side of the house standing up on the loam pile as big as could be. The darker one of the two was hurt and limping on its left front foot, but I couldn't tell whether it was a male or a female. The lighter of the two was the one I got these pictures of and it lifted its leg down by the picnic area in front of the house... a male. I'm posting a couple of the photos I got. I need to pay more attention with the telephoto as a bunch I took were under focused as the backgrounds were sharp while the coyotes were slightly off, bummer!

An Evening With "Birdie"...

...Birdie Googins that is, Maine's only "supermodel", although she is self-expressed as such. She appeared at the Milbridge Elementary School as a fundraiser for a local charity, and she was hilarious! While it took her a bit to "warm up", or maybe it took the audience a bit to warm up to her, her Maine accent, idioms, and her predilection for the natural narrative made her a pleasure to watch and carried the evening.

There were moments where she was so "flighty" as to be literally floating on the stage and other moments where her true spirit and sense of self and innate modesty brought a thoughtful reflection to the audience. She never seemed out of character and gave the sense that she was, in fact, just playing herself. By the way, keep an eye out, she says she's going to run for "The Queen of Maine".

Tie Dye Friday...

Oh, yeah! We did some tie dye on the Friday before vacation. I had 9 sign up (including an administrator) and cleaned up the room, prepped the tables with plastic, and they were in and out within 25 minutes or so. Everything put in gallon zip bags and brought home for unwrapping and spreading out on newspaper to dry. Presto! I'm posting a picture of one of the students and my self that was taken by another student, as well as a shot of a section of the long-sleeved white shirt I dyed.

Ice Cakes!

In conversations with my Digital Photo classes today during a critique warm up of their "scavenger" photos, which are supposed to wrap around the elements and principles of art, the idea of "blown out" whites came up a couple of times. We talked about exposure, manipulating the lights in an image, and how hard it is sometimes to shoot snow and ice, but a lot of the time, those "pesky" whites just appear in an image when you really didn't notice them as a potential problem in the viewfinder.

I really had to mess with this shot a bit, but with PhotoShop and then iPhoto to make some adjustments, I managed to get it to the point where it is what I remember seeing. It seems in using any software to adjust imagery that you can tell the "scalpels" from the "hatchets". Today was fun with students talking about their photos in terms of elements and principles, and they had some great shots! Dozens of photos and artistic visions.

Buried Boats

I took a trip out onto the bay yesterday, but didn't go too far. I guess if I made it back off the ice then that is a good indication that I didn't go too far. I got a good picture of the house and a reflection of it in the tide http://flandersbayfotos.blogspot.com  among several others of the ice heaved up around some rocks where the tide has risen and fallen. The boats are almost buried and the snow is so crusted that the snowshoes don't even go through the surface.

Again, Sandy the Cat...

Honestly, I think the mark of imagination is when one can find "newness" and originality in things seen all the time. I've spoken on this blog before concerning the subject of repeatedly photographing the same subject, and I think it is truly a frame of reference for having and using a "creative eye". Our cat is a subject that fascinates me whenever I see light on him. I am guessing that the color of his fur, the texture of it, and the way his small body is so flexible provide infinite variety in their combination.

I did "tweak" this photo, using iPhoto and the adjustments tool. Not much, because too much "adjusting" always seems to make a photo "unreal". Not what I was going for in this case.

Catching Up With Digital Photo Class...

...and I've set another blog to open up to photo students http://flandersbayfotos.blogspot.com/ . I also set up a blog on "Tumblr" to kind of compare the two. Tumblr seems a bit simpler to share and post on, but I am so used to "Blogger" that it is just second nature now to post something.

We have looked at photo "tweaking" in iPhoto and Preview, but the extreme "effects" that are embedded in Photo Booth are very interesting at times. I'm posting a self portrait with a "glow"!

Another Day in June.......

.... or at the least that's what is on my mind when we get drenched like this in January or February. This was a big one, and I was outside for hours moving snow. I love this weather in so many ways, and would like to go out for an overnight like we used to do in the Boy Scouts. Human against the forces of nature! Beautiful day and I got a "chin icicle" while out in the wind and snow!

NAHS...

This is a screenshot of my email account!