May Challenge Themes

Nostalgia, Trees, Where You Live, Refrigerator

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May whizzed by in all its springtime glory, punctuated by gardening, working, and vacationing (at least for me and Barb).  The Skinners ventured to Paso Robles mid-month to attend Dave's 50th high school reunion.  So there were hundreds of pictures taken, but few which met the monthly themes criteria.  Oh, well, that seems to be the story when you're distracted by the bigger fish.  It was a wonderful time visiting with the Dahl's, Guffey's, and antiquated classmates.

Without further ado, let's see what the month has to offer.  It looks like it will be another Don and Davy Show.  So, fasten your seat belt and be prepared for awe-striking photography.  Ha!

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Old Davy will go first with his "Nostalgia" offering.

I was shooting a band concert on Memorial Day, but the exposure conditions were less than wonderful.  Firstly, the setting was a dilapidating cemetery in Woodbridge that I had visited before, but was never able to get inside the locked gate (they try to keep kids and their beer bottles out of it).  So this was an opportunity to get up close and see things from a different perspective (other than through a fence).  Unfortunately, this poor place is a dusty remnant of its former glory, and even though I've seen people working in it when I've visited Lodi Lake before (it's right on the edge of the lake), it's still a mess.  Many of the gravestones are fallen and broken as you see in this first "Nostalgia" shot.  Note the unfinished poem(?) on the bottom of the stone and misspelled word.  Letty Taylor was born in 1806 - a true California pioneer.

Nikon D90, 12-24mm zoom lens.

While shooting the Memorial Service, this tree caught my eye (thinking of the "Tree" theme), so I zoomed out, framed it and shot. Nikon D5100, 55-300mm lens.  Let me say that I take two cameras for most of my shooting now.  The D90 sports my 12-24mm wide angle lens, and the D5100 wears the 55-300mm long zoom lens.  It looks weird, wacky and nerdish with one camera on my neck and the other on my shoulder, but it works great - they don't crash into each other, are lightweight and I have a huge advantage of not having to change lenses.  This tree is nothing special, but the yellow leaves provided a stark contrast to the oak backdrop.

Here's another "Nostalgia" picture, taken Saturday night at a two-band concert in Lodi, where my friend Rich was playing trombone in both bands (he also played at the cemetery venue).  A huge dance floor was provided for frolicking to the old Swing Music songs, but very few took advantage of it.  Maybe it was due to the fact that most of the attendees were in their 70's and 80's.  Wonderful music, but horrible lighting conditions. I used my SB600 flash for this shot. In Photoshop Elements 9 I used the "Dodge" tool to lighten the band group. Nikon D5100, 18-70mm lens.

The "Where You Live" theme can have a wide range of opportunities.  I noticed a dragonfly land on a branch of my birch tree out front here at home and thought, "Dragonflies don't land in birch trees."  I quickly retrieved my camera and shot with the 55-300mm zoom before changing the lens to the 55mm MicroNikkor close up lens.  After taking a few dozen shots, there were only a few in pretty good focus with good exposure and background. This female California Darner had pretty ragged wings, with spider web remnants scattered here and there. Pretty distracting, so I used the "clone" tool and erased them. Nikon D5100, 55-300mm @ 220m, f5.3, 1/200, ISO 400.

The last "Where You Live" photo shows the proud, screaming parents and relatives attending Angel's 8th grade graduation.  Delta Sierra Middle School is in North Stockton. Every school in North Stockton (north of Hammer Lane) is in the Lodi Unified School District, not Stockton Unified.  The area around the school is middle class (like the one I live in), non-gated, and a big mixture of cultures. I wanted to capture this in the picture. Nikon D5100, 55-300mm lens @ 195mm, f18, 1/500, ISO 400, using the "Posterizing" filter in Photoshop Elements.

My final entry is another "Nostalgia" photo, taken in Don and Janet's backyard.  The wooden wheelbarrow, blues, rust, old metal and composition were calling my name and I couldn't resist the invitation. Nikon D5100, 55mm MicroNikkor lens, ISO 200, 1/125 sec, about f8 or f11.  The added grain and moire patterns were added in Photoshop Elements 9.

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Okay, Don, it's your turn to show your stuff.

Don's "Around The House" photos are a mix of eclectic decorative items, including this jelly bean dispenser.  He says, "I seem to be hung up on things made of glass. I also realize I need to restock the Jelly Belly dispenser."  So here are my questions:

• Who gets to clean all the glass?
• Why didn't I see this when we visited last month? Maybe you keep it in your bedroom.
• Did you use your macro lens or 18-200mm zoom for these pictures?
• What did you do to 'de-highlight' the main reflection on the logo?

The bright reds and yellow carry this shot. And the added multi-colored jelly beans add interest as your eye roams around the picture.  Were you 'tasting' them while looking at the different colors?

Glass and more glass create a perceived vanishing point in this next picture.  My guess is that Don shot this through the rounded cabinet glass, using a really small aperture (note that everything is in focus, near to far). Overhead kitchen light and available window light (note the green reflected in the back boards) were all that was necessary to capture this essentially warm-touchy-feely composition.  

Another Don 'shelfie' composition adds book title interest.  Land Warfare details how war methods have evolved, specifically in the 20th century.  Don bought this because he has a love affair with big metal objects like Army tanks.  They Felled the Redwoods  has a lot of great photos in it, kind of like a comic book for grown-ups. Paso Robles area history is a Twisselman forte. Don enjoys boning up on all the local trivia so he can impress people with his vast knowledge on Facebook.  I'm trying to come up with a good reason that The Redneck Joke Book is in the collection, but am afraid of offending anyone, especially Don!  The Cat Who Went to Paris  was written by a former cat-hater.  Go figure.  And Cats in the Parsonage is a light hearted look at Taffy and Tiffany, who spend their time teaching their owner about life: "Ask the animals and they will teach you" (Job 12:17).  

All of which is to say, you can learn a lot about a man from his library.  And what does this have to do with photography?  Absolutely nothing.

I really like the painterly rendition of Don's newest glass collectible. He says, "Janet picked this jar up at an antique store a few days ago. What do you serve when the revenuers come calling? White lightnin' and pretzels.  Actually, it's pretty weak.....she watered it down a lot."

This is a masterpiece of still life composition, especially with the addition of the pretzels.  Take away the pretzels and a lot of interest and intrigue is lost.  The golden browns in the bottle compliment the wood slat panel in back.  And the cork and wood handle add to the 'softness' of the picture. Great photo, Don.

Don's last entry emphasizes the 'old time' feeling provoked by this close up.  This also fits the "Nostalgia" theme category.  I'm curious about the light source in this shot.  There is a lot of blue and strong direct light from above on the handle and wire, indicating it was taken outside.  But the cork and glass look a bit muted.  Don, did you burn in the cork and some of the glass in Photoshop?  Inquiring minds want to know the secret here. 

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Well, that's it, folks.  Another month and another Challenge have come and gone.  It's time to face the hot summer with a smile and thank God for air conditioning.  June should be a wonderful time of going, doing, sprucing, visiting, buying, eating, enjoying family and friends, and all the other blessings given to us so fully and freely.

June's Challenge themes will be:

• Big Smile
• Nature
• Technology
• Architecture

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Spring is springing with color right now.  The extra rains have helped push a few more blooms skyward, cleaned up our dusty world and air, and put a smile on most people here in drought-stricken California.  This was a great month to search out the bright and bold complexion of God's creation. We were created to see in color, thankfully.  We can imagine a world without color when we see a black and white movie or picture.  In some ways, a colorless world can add drama and simplicity, but that can be lost with colors that distract, compete with one another and bend our brains (try looking at fluorescent pink for 5 minutes).

The April theme of Bold Color caters to those of us who love flowers, and especially yours truly who is blown away by macro photography's hue intensity in a close up shot of a rose.  Wow!  So I apologize to you ho-hummers out there who would rather see a turquoise shoreline or an Irish redhead.  I wasn't able to make either of those destinations this month.

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Unfortunately, I've only received photos from one of our old faithful shutterbugs, Don.  And again, unfortunately, only one of the two pictures he sent had a file type that I could open.  I've told him about it, so if he resends it, I'll add it.

Don says, "The first of these is out on Jardine Rd. Have you ever noticed that Lupines and Poppies rarely grow in large bunches together?  Maybe it's a segregation thing.  I cloned in a few more Poppies."

This is an interesting composition that includes the barbed wire fence the flowers were behind, the road and trees in the distance.  Your eyes are drawn to the flowers immediately, then backward along the road to the trees.   Don had to crawl through the fence to get this angle, so he's standing in the wildflowers while shooting, trespassing on private property and killing living flora at the same time!  What a guy! Nikon D300; ISO 200; 1/125th; f22 (for maximum depth of field).

Okay, Don resent his second Bold Color entry for posting.  I should let you guess how he took this. Not too hard to figure out, but I'll let him tell how he did it.  Very creative, Don.   He says,  " I suppose I could entitle the second pic, "Traffic Light Out of Order".  It's actually a triple exposure on the tripod.  Take the first photo during a red, run over and trigger the cross walk light, run back to the camera and catch the green and then the yellow on one frame."

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Little question what yours truly, Old Davy, will submit after visiting the Stockton Rose Garden and Electra Road this month.  His backyard provided an array of bold and vivid flower fare, as well.  

But this first entry was taken at Buckley Cove Marina in Stockton, where sailboats are berthed. Walking on the levee across from the menagerie of masts and namesakes, it's pretty easy to use a telephoto lens and capture some abstract shots.  Red is one of nature's boldest pigments, easily drawing attention. Hence, the fable that the police stop red cars more than any other color.  The cyan/turquoise stripe is really the award winner here, though.  It divides the composition perfectly (IMHO) and balances the hot red with a cool blue. Nikon D5100; 55-300 Nikkor @280mm; f13; 1/400th; ISO 400.  I try to keep the shutter speed up past 1/400 when shooting this zoom, which means I have to increase the ISO sensitivity to 400, 800, or sometimes 1600.  This camera can handle the noise at these levels, thankfully.

Again, forgive me for throwing in a few flower pictures.  I just can't stop taking them.  The rose garden downtown boasts its best blooms in April - the first blush of healthy and audacious hybrid teas, floribundas, miniatures and climbers.  The early morning sprinklers had adorned most of the blooms with dew, adding to the production. This is my favorite photo of the set. Nikon D5100; 55mm MicroNikkor; either f3.5 or f5.6; 1/250th; ISO 400.  I really like the softness and harmony of the yellow as it supports the pinks.  For those of you wanting to plant this beauty, its name is Arizona. Full set here: http://wordydave.zenfolio.com/p120596508

The Cambodian New Year is the big, local, week-long celebration of Cambodian culture and Buddhist religion.  I wanted to visit (first time) just to take photos for this Challenge.   I had seen what the Buddhist temple looked like, along with all of the 'angels' and reclining Buddha statuary located on the grounds (Huell Howser production) and figured I couldn't miss getting bold color and unique images (see the set here: http://wordydave.zenfolio.com/p708207351).  It was quite the experience.

This umbrella caught my attention.   Someone had hung it outside a tarp-covered booth for some reason, making it look out of place.  But it makes a great abstract (optical illusion) and cries Bold Color.  Nikon D5100; 55-300mm Nikkor @110mm; f16; 1/500; ISO 800.

Just so we aren't overwhelmed with red, here is a backyard close up of our iris.  One of the most important aspects of my macro photography is making sure the background is just right.  Color, texture, arrangement and bokeh are all play a vital part in a balanced composition.  I often spend more time looking for the best background than taking the picture.  A good photograph is much more than just capturing the subject.   Nikon D5100; 1/100th; ISO 400; f3.5. 

Flower photography can also have an element of fun.  This same iris bed was the source for this next shot of an iris bloom, the 'tongue' petal specifically.  The sun was backlighting the bloom (as the leaf above), so the color and texture were rich and detailed.  That made for a nice picture in itself, but I wanted to accentuate the colors for the Challenge theme.  Opening the 'Mosaic' filter in Photoshop Elements, I converted the composition to small sized 'stained glass' artwork.  Camera specs same as above.

This next Bold Color photo was taken at work.  Can you guess what it is?  Hint: the silver band at the bottom is baling wire.   Yes, it's a bale of paper trim with NCR pink paper mixed with 60# white bond.  Nothing too special, but it made for a great composition after cropping and using the Paint Daubs filter in Photoshop Elements to soften the final image.  Colors were intensified, also.  Trusty point and shoot Canon SD 980; f2.8; 1/20th; ISO 500; no flash.

Okay, one last entry from yours truly (there were more, but I've already monopolized to the max).   This was taken at San Joaquin Delta College's Demonstration Garden early one morning.   I tried to put both flower centers in the same plane, so they'd both be in focus while everything else would be softened.  Note the strength that pairing makes compared to shooting a solo flower.  The element of relationship enters the scene and steps up the interest (IMHO, again).  This works with a trio as well, but things start to get confusing and impersonal to a degree after that.  Pastels aren't the definition of Bold and fit the softer side of the color spectrum, but when they fill the frame, they come close to the real deal (I'm tired of looking at red, anyway).  Nikon D5100; 55mm MicroNikkor; f3.5; 1/125th; ISO 200.

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The May Challenge will present more variety in the themes as we will have four to chose from (or mix):  Trees, Nostalgia, Where You Live and Refrigerator.  Black and white is okay, along with software manipulation (cropping, color and contrast adjustment, HDR, filters, etc.).  Thanks ahead of time for all the pictures you're going to send for posting.  I'm sure you're getting tired of seeing mostly mine.

Have a great month enjoying the warmer weather and God's creation.  "[Don't trust] in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy." I Timothy 6:17b.

Sometimes the easiest sounding Challenge theme is one of the hardest, especially when each month we're sending in what we think are our best shots.  So March will earmark variety and give us sampling of what we like personally.  Then again, with this theme - if you only took a few pictures, most or all of them are your best.  Maybe we should do a 'Your Worst Shot' challenge and have you explain why you think it's bad - the technical and artistic reasons.  Another good theme would be 'Before and After.' Nikon camera photos are low on contrast, color and sharpening.  So you have to take time to crop, adjust everything, dodge and burn areas if you want, and apply other sundry tweaks.  You'd be surprised at the difference - or maybe not.  But the actual theme for April is given at the end of this blog.

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Our first shot is a belated entry that was taken by John from his house in Paso Robles showing a rainbow over the Parkfield hills. Nothing like stepping out your door and seeing this.  Wow!  Unreal.

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And here are Ginnie's best shots of the month, including some added comments for the last two pictures that I missed in her e-mail.  She says:

"These photos are certainly not my best, but might be a bit interesting to include for the March Challenge.  Mostly I just go thru whatever I've taken during the month and try to make something fit.  Uninspired, maybe.  Lazy, probably. First one was taken over in Harmony right before I almost stepped on the snake (dead, but I didn't know it at first).  I had spotted about 15 head of cattle lined up on a nice green grass hill and was walking along to get the best angle and don't even know why I looked down.  Yuck!  Anyway this one steer was watching me hop around so I got his picture.  The story is better than the shot."

Here is a San Miguel Mission picture - good early morning light to accentuate the shadows. Plenty of light on the left wall and roof. Great composition in a 1x1 dimension. Is there a pastel coming? Very nice.

"This one was taken at San Miguel Mission one morning.  Everything there is so over-photographed, over-painted and over-romanticized, but I still love it."

"The last one is a shot of these 2 hens sharing some gossip on the way in to lay one.  Kind of reminded me of girlfriends at the mall."
 

 ~~~ G.G.'s WORDS OF WISDOM ~~~

"I still long for the old days of SLRs, film and being in charge of the shot 100%.  I know, I know.  BUT, out of a roll of 24 I would get at least 2 or 3 keepers.  Taking time, framing the shot, getting the light just right, watching the depth of field.  Was a lot more fun.  Now we take 150 shots,  sit at the computer for hours figuring out which ones may be best and how to improve them and still only end up with 2 or 3 keepers."

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Old Davy had plenty of opportunities to capture and share his best shots for the month, including tiptoeing through the tulips (literally),  visiting a concert, and watching a Civil War reenactment.  Quite a variety of venues and shooting challenges.

The tulip farm was a real dud if you wanted to get a landscape scene - not many blooms and city street background. So it was time to get out the MicroNikkor 55mm close-up lens and move way in, filling the viewfinder with explosive color.  I decided to apply the "Brush Stroke" filter to this shot to make it a little dreamier. Ha!

I like shooting events, especially reenactments because the people don't mind if you take their pictures.  They expect it, I think.  The Union troops were lining up, getting ready to deploy onto the battlefield when I went down low in front of these three young kids using the 12-24mm wide angle.  I knew the sun was in the photo and would produce a lot of flare, but that's the nature of this Sigma lens.  I was happy with the expressions of pride and determination, and having a little sister in there was icing on the cake (looks like that's her brother on the left).  When I processed the shot, the lens elements flare was green, so I selected that area and took most of the green out in the largest spot.

The wildflowers were beautiful that day at Knight's Ferry - I could have missed the reenactment and spent the afternoon just chasing them with my camera.  I've never seen so many poppies and bush lupine painting a hillside. This picture accentuates the lupine with a blurred poppy background. Again, I've used the Brush Stroke filter for more of a painterly effect. Here, I'm using the 55-300mm zoom, ISO 800.  More of these photos here: http://wordydave.zenfolio.com/p655841936

A friend invited me and Barb to a band concert in Lodi, so I knew I'd have to use the 55-300mm to zoom in on the stage from about 100' away.  We sat way up in the second row from the back of the auditorium.  During the intermission, people moved around a bit - one lady decided to prop her feet up on the seats while playing Solitaire on her cellphone.  Her eye-popping socks caught my attention, and I had to grab the shot.  I used a special filter on this picture, too, but can't remember its name.

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Did you know that Don served his country in the 60's, bravely signing up for a crack at the enemy, ready to go into harm's way at a moment's notice, willing to travel the ends of the earth for Uncle Sam?  Now, that same adventurous spirit nerves him with his photography, as he heads out in the middle of the night to shoot in critter country or meanders the streets in the urban jungle.  These next two photos were taken in downtown Paso Robles at the train station when only the owls and crazies are wide awake.

Don says,  "The train station shots required some early morning shooting.  Note the time on the depot clock.  The moon was double exposed into the depot pic.  There's been a lot of railroad tie replacement going on.  Hence the stack of old ties.  Janet wasn't too crazy about me going out at the early hours.  I think she suspected if I didn't get mugged I'd at least get arrested." 

Very cool shots, but would have been much better if you'd been arrested.

"This [next photo] was with the macro lens on the tripod, 8 seconds @ f22 in the shade.  I was trying to capture as much depth of field as I could without the wind moving it during the exposure."

Shooting macros is a lot of fun. But the closer you get, the depth of field is pretty miniscule.  By stopping down your aperture, you allow more of your subject to be in focus.  It worked pretty well for Don in this beautiful iris picture. Wow!

Don's last shot is of a carpenter or wood bee foraging on some wisteria. These big guys are actually harmless, but may fly around you or into you during mating season:

"One behavior can be alarming, though. The males compete with other males to mate with females. This involves them chasing males away and chasing females to mate. During these chases they zoom about crashing into windows, people and anything else in their path. Humans in the way of all this may think they are under attack, they are not, they are just in the way. Males may also hang around waiting for adult females to emerge, and again they behave in what might seem to us as an aggressive way, by chasing other males away and investigating anything that gets near the exit hole. You might be buzzed around and checked out to see if you are a rival that needs chasing away or a female that needs mating. However there is no danger as males cannot sting, so like much male mating behavior it's all bluster and show." http://www.bumblebee.org/OTHERbees.htm

The colors in this shot are superb - no direct sunlight to overexpose anything. Thanks for being so brave, Don.

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Well, it's already April and spring is here.   Thanks to the Lord for the recent rains and snow.   It's all about color this month, so the April theme will be Bold Color.  Should be pretty easy pickings. And you don't have to limit yourself to nature photography.  Signage, buildings, clothes, birds, anything will qualify.  Just make sure it makes a bold statement with color.

Happy shooting!