Day 181

ISO 100, 60 mm, f/18, 1/60 sec.

Day 181 - Crop Circles

And for today's daily shoot "Make a photograph of something circular and crop it within a square frame"

I drove out to one of our other campus locations and on the way back I noticed the sprinklers. I had to turn around, but was so glad that I did.

Day 180

ISO 100, 65mm, f/9.0, 1/125 sec.

Day 180 - Mac 'n' Coffee

Today's daily shoot: What's your favorite device to access the Internet? Make a photograph of it today.

What can I say? Mac 'n' coffee, they go together like apple pie and the 4th of July.

Day 179

ISO 100, 92mm, f/14, 1/60 sec.

Day 179 - White on White

Sandra, another blog I follow daily, recently turned me on to the Daily Shoot. And today, I thought I would give it a shot. The challenge... Go high key today. Make a photograph that's all bright tones or dominated by white.

In our house with all of these doggies, white is not a color of choice. Quick trip to the store for a white flower and my white seamless background you ask? Paper towels.

This wasn't as easy as I had hoped.

Day 178

ISO 100, 24 mm, f/4.0, 90.0 sec.

Day 178 - Moonlit Night

Stepped out into the back yard about 1 am this morning before going to bed and we were blanketed in moonlight.

The moon was behind me as I shot north to the top of the cedar, maple and apple trees. Having cassiopeia in between was just a bonus round.

Day 177

ISO 100, 24mm, f/13, 1/5 sec.

Day 177 - The Water Falls in Oregon

Nothing like waking up to a dead refrigerator. It totally through the day off. We headed off to one of our favorite hikes, but got there almost to late to save the photo.

The tales of challenge today don't end, but I got my photo taken. Phew.

Above is the photo out of the camera.

ISO 100, 24mm, f/10, HDR 1/10 sec., 1/40 sec., 1/2 sec.

In honor of Rick Sammon's International HDR day, I also bracketed the shot and ran it through Photomatix.

Day 176

ISO 100, 100 mm, f/6.3, 1/125 sec.

Day 176 - Blue Chiffon

Well, not really. Just playing with smoke tonight. Very minor adjustment in Lightroom to take the black back and bring the blue up.

Day 175

ISO 100, 40 mm, f/22, 8.0 sec.

Day 175 - Another Journey

The closest Apple store to our house is located in the Bridgeport Village Mall, 32.4 miles from our home in the burbs of Portland.

They began selling the iPhone 4 today and Karen was bound and determined to have her very own. I had some comp time coming from work and I had no intention of replacing my current iPhone, I thought I was just going along to keep her company.

We were up at 2 am and standing in line at 4 am. A perfect opportunity for a few morning photos.

9.5 hours later we walked into the Apple store to purchase our phones. We had a blast. A temporary camaraderie was formed with the 4 am group. We spent our day laughing with the people in front of us and the people behind us. We held each others spots in line as one by one we would step out for a break. When we were next in line at the door we shared the ceremonial high five knowing our paths would probably never cross again.

Yes, I walked out of the Apple store with the new iPhone too. It completed the journey, having the new iPhone was just part of today's story.

Day 174

ISO 100, 84mm, f/8.0, 1/250 sec.

Day 174 - Sunset Rose

Or, look ma, no raindrops.

Yes, summer finally found Oregon.

Day 173

ISO 100, 100mm, f/32, 0.8 sec.

Day 173 - The Other Honeysuckle

Our other honeysuckle is in full bloom right now. Our yard smells great, love the scent of honeysuckle.

Day 172

ISO 100, 100 mm, f/6.3, 1/10 sec.

Day 172 - Amber Tears

One of our cherry trees is dripping sap from the middle of the trunk. It is the most beautiful amber color.

I thought it would be sticky, but it wasn't.

Day 171

ISO 100, 105mm, f/8.0, 1/80 sec.

Day 171 - The Last Light

Salem used to have a small but thriving amusement park. Two years ago they shut their doors because the insurance premiums were getting too high. They had a fabulous park entrance sign and I was hoping to still see it today.

All we found was this box of light bulbs and tickets.

The image above is the raw shot and adjusted in Lightroom 2. Since I just uploaded the CS5 Suite yesterday, I wanted to run the bracketed shots through the Photomatix vs. Photoshop CS5 challenge.

ISO 100, 105mm, f/8.0, 1/80 sec.

This image is raw, straight out of the camera. I admit, I do like a more color saturated look.

ISO 100, 105mm, f/8.0, HDR 1/80 sec., 1/250 sec., 1/15 sec.

Photomatix Pro

ISO 100, 105mm, f/8.0, HDR 1/80 sec., 1/250 sec., 1/15 sec.

Photoshop CS5

The verdict is still out for me. In all fairness to Photoshop, I have not read or watched any tutorials. I just pushed sliders until I saw what I liked. I do like the smoothness in Photoshop over the more textured feel of Photomatix.

The reality, I was pretty darn happy with my results from the raw image and adjusting in Lightroom.

Day 170

ISO 100, 200mm, f/8.0, 1/320 sec.

Day 170 - Blue Moon

Today was one of those utility days. Cleaned the house, hair cuts, loaded CS5 and shopping.

Wish I could say cleaning the house only had to happen once in a blue moon.

Day 169

ISO 320, 75mm, f/4.0, 1/60 sec.

Day 169 - Moving Day

The community college I work at has three construction sites right now. One of the sites will be a new building for our emergency services programs. Currently at the site is a "burn building", a building used for training fire fighters. It had to moved to a new site for construction of the new classroom building.

I went out to document the move. To say the least, I was completely fascinated by the process. The building moved only about 1/2 mile, but from the time they started the move until had it rolled onto the new foundation it took nearly three hours.

The shot above is looking underneath the building at the steel support girders.

Below is the tractor and building in the final stages just before they started pulling the building onto the foundation.

ISO 100, 28mm, f/9.0, 1/160 sec.

Day 168

ISO 200, 200mm, f/7.1, 1/320 sec.

Day 168 - RGB

HD technology via mother nature. Cherry season is almost here.

Day 167

ISO 100, 75mm, f/9.0, 1/100 sec.

Day 167 - Onion crop

Part of what makes living in the Willamette Valley so enchanting are all of the agricultural crops.

We are famous for pinot wines, strawberries, blueberries, marionberries, cherries... in fact, it was in our valley that the maraschino cherry came to be. The fresh fruit and vegetable season is awesome.

I took a quick drive out into the country today to look for fresh strawberries and found a crop of onions.

Day 166

ISO 200, 100mm, f/10, 1/250 sec.

Day 166 - Shadow drops

Seriously, how could I even go a week without a raindrop or two?

When I went out to the unruly rose bush to shoot this, the sun had come out and our beautiful blue skies we have enjoyed were back.

Day 165

ISO 100, 200mm, f/9.0, 1/500 sec.

Day 165 - First and only click

An evil deadline at work is keeping me chained to the computer. I stepped out on the back patio this morning for a skinny minute and a robin perched on the post that the unruly roses are tied to.

I thought, "Self, will the robin still be there if you run in and get the camera?" My long lens from the honeysuckle shot last night was still on and I didn't even have a chance to change last nights settings.

Set-up, one click and the fathead robin turned his back on me before flying off.

In the meantime, I have not picked up the camera again today. Evil deadline tomorrow.

Day 164

ISO 100, 200mm, f/9.0, 1/500 sec.

Day 164 - The smells of summer

Perhaps the most delightful flower of summer is the honeysuckle. I always look forward to them blooming, just to go out and smell them.

And yes, we finally have blue skies over Oregon.

Day 163

ISO 100, 200mm, f/4.0, 1/400 sec.

Day 163 - Attention

I caught this you robin standing at attention on the peak of our roof tonight.

Day 162

ISO 100, 200mm, f/2.8, 1/400 sec.

Day 162 - 45 mph

A friend of mine stopped in town on his way to California today. Jeff is a fabulous Canon shooter and in exchange for taking pics of the dogs, he let me play with his 70-200 f/2.8 L II lens.

Oh be still my beating heart. I considered all of the options to get it away from him.

Cut him up and feed him to the dogs or bury him alive in one of the holes the dogs have already dug for me. But in the end, I chickened out. I hung my head and begrudgingly gave him the lens back.

Greyhounds are affectionately known as 45 mph couch potatoes. This is the fast part. It lasts for about 30 seconds and then she is upside down on the couch.

Day 161

ISO 250, 82mm, f/4.0, 1/40 sec.

Day 161 - Let's Go!

This little guy, Ryder, was so patient as he waited for his grandma Kimberly to finish up what she was doing at school today.

And when she was done, he was ready to go.

Day 160

ISO 200, 73mm, f/4.0, 1/200 sec.

Day 160 - Portrait of Jillian

Day 159

ISO 100, 102mm, f/4.0, 1/160 sec.

Day 159 - Sparky

I took a stroll over by the new construction today and was delighted to find a welder.

Day 158

ISO 100, 47mm, f/8.0, 1/400 sec.

Day 158 - On the Sunny Side of the Street

I'm in the heart of deadlines right now at work. I took a quick walk around campus just to step away from the computer and loved the layers of fluffy clouds that were taking over the skies.

This set appeared to following the line of the trees.

Day 157

ISO 100, 100mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec.

Day 157 - Cherry Drops

Yesterday was an illusion. The sun no longer exists in Oregon.

We have two types of cherry trees on our property, royal anne and this one, my personal favorite—bing cherries.

The trees are very tall so there are always plenty of cherries for me, the dogs and for the birds.

Day 156

ISO 100, 28mm, f/11, 1/250 sec.

Day 156 - Newport Bay Bridge

When the sun finally comes out in Oregon, it takes the job very seriously.

We took a quick trip out to the coast today and it was beautiful. The best part about living in Salem, Oregon is that we are one hour to the mountains, one hour to the coast and one hour to Portland if we want a big city adventure. Yet Salem has about 150,000 population, so we have a good sushi restaurant and I only work five minutes from home. Just about the best of all worlds.

This bridge is on highway 101 and passes over a huge bay home to both fishermen and recreational boaters. Just to north is a lighthouse built in the 1800s and just to south of the bridge is a beautiful aquarium built about 15 years ago.

True to the coast, it was a bit windy, but warm enough that the breeze felt good.

OK Oregon, I forgive you for all of the rain you have sent our direction.

Day 155

ISO 200, 100mm, f/8.0, 1/25 sec.

Day 155 - Raindrop Love

Wild roses plus surplus rain equals raindrop love.

However, there is hope on the horizon. Rumors are running rampant on the weather channels. Partly cloudy tomorrow.

Will I recognize the sun when I see it?

Should I be afraid?

Will it be annoyingly bright?

Stay tuned tomorrow for "As the raindrop falls"

Day 154

ISO 100, 200mm, f/4.0, 1/100 sec.

Day 154 - Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

Different raindrops, different day. A friend e-mailed me yesterday and said we got over an inch of rain. Today one of my vendors told me that May was third worst month on record for cold and rain.

I still have a sense of humor. Really, I do.

Have no fear, this image was shot from under the patio roof. Neither camera nor human got wet during the shooting of this image.

Day 153

ISO 100, 40mm, f/4.0, 1/60 sec.

Day 153 - This is the way...

We brush our teeth.

I had the opportunity to take a couple of photos for the Dental Assisting program today. The two little kids were probably the cutest and best behaved kids I have ever been around.

Day 152

ISO 100, 24-105mm, f/22, 10.0 sec.

Day 152 - The Zoomin' Rose

In honor of posting with my beloved 24-105 lens after a month of only the prime lens, I used my entire focal length from 24mm to 105mm for this rose.

Note the daily raindrop. I dodged wind gusts and passing storms to play tonight.

I used the tripod and shot from above rose so that I would have the grass as my background.

After some experimentation, I ended up using my smallest aperture, a slow shutter speed and the on camera flash to catch the rain drops before the rose started to move with the wind.

I did find that I was most successful starting at 24mm and ending at 105mm.