182: #052 Classic

A rose...
a classic thank-you gift to Kayla's family for rescuing a neighbor.

The more complex story is that a neighbor a few houses away went out on her second-story deck and the door closed behind her and locked. The deck has no stairs so she was stranded. She saw Kayla outside playing and tried to get her to ask her Mommy or Daddy to come out and talk to her but Kayla just finished the pre-kindergarten "safety town" classes and one of the lessons is "don't talk to strangers". Kayla took this very seriously and wouldn't talk to the lady. Her Daddy finally came out in the yard and the woman hailed him and got him to bring a ladder and rescue her. She gave them some roses as a thank-you.

I took several pictures and liked this angle the best. It was shot as landscape, but I cropped it to portrait. Otherwise it's pretty much out of camera.

Oops! I meant to schedule this for tomorrow.

181: #056 Clouds

I see a circus elephant in the sky. What do you see?

and I think the 2 people in the picture below are looking up with open mouths at the circus parade...

Can't see the faces?
Look here

180: #043 Celestial Bodies

Well, I was turning off the lights and headed for bed when I looked outside and saw the moon in a clear sky. Naturally I grabbed my cameras and gave it one more try to capture a decent moon shot. This was taken hand-held with my Panasonic at full zoom in manual mode -- raw. I set the XSi up on the tripod and took a couple of shots, but this one actually turned out better. Still not great, but better. And I cropped it a little but not a whole lot, either.

Shutter speed: 1/30 sec
Aperture: 4.2
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Spot
ISO: 100
Focal length: 82.8mm
Focal length: 504mm (in 35mm film)

Maybe some day I'll get it right with the XSi, but for now here's my Monday blog.

179: #179 Magical or Mystical

Sometimes my mind is taken over by the aliens --
the photoshopping aliens that is...

178: #059 Colored Glass

My daughter loves bright primary colors!

I had to take out the glare from the sliding glass doors with photoshop. This would probably have been better if I used a light box, but I haven't tried that yet.

177: #110 Free

St. John's wort
Free photoshop action called "reflections" from http://www.panosfx.com/index.php

176: #130 Grin

Brother and sister grins.
Kayla is really sprouting up.
But Gregory will probably always be taller standing up than his little sister.

How they have grown!
3-4 years ago:
She has always been his helper...

and his playmate...

and she managed to grow some hair, too!

175: #323 The Wild Side

This is one of those wild orange daylilies you see along the rural roadsides.

But this particular one is planted next to my house.
The shot was taken from the shade of the house looking up toward the bright sunny sky. My first reaction was that it was too dark, but I decided I liked the contrast between the shaded daylily and the bright sky with the bright sky's sunshine sort of shining through the flower.

Click on it to see the effect of the daylight.

174: #095 Favorite Things

Daylilies are some of my favorite things.
They just grow and bloom without much fussin' by me!
I like that spot of sunshine at the base of the flower.

173: #268 School

School for sale -- or maybe to rent, I'm not sure. The sign says "available".
At any rate the school system doesn't use these buildings any more.
The children go to newer schools in the system now.

172: #001 One Hundred

A boy can never have too many matchbox cars!
This is the upstairs collection. I think he has just as many downstairs.

171: #092 Famous Authors

Dr. Seuss
More of Gregory's summer homework...

170: #260 Rest in Peace

Rest in peace
or else!

169: #171 Letters

Magnetic letters for the whiteboard easel.
I considered the post office for this theme, but decided to use this instead.

168: #125 Government

The post office in our little village.
That's a branch of government in the USA, right?

167: #231 Perfect Alignment

The small pine trees at the Christmas tree farm are in perfect alignment.
Nice neat rows of trees that get shorn to encourage a nice shape for trimming.

166: #329 Tilt!

Johnny has been pushing up daisies since the late 19th century.
I guess he's working on the grave marker now
(or maybe the tree roots have done the damage).

165: #330 Time

Flashcards to help Gregory learn how to tell time before school starts in the Fall.
His parents want him to be in 1st grade in September and he has some catching up to do this summer.

164: #039 Candlelight

A gloomy rainy day is perfect for playing inside.
I tried both cameras and a couple of lenses and different settings on the XSi.
I had the best luck with the XSi and my favorite 28-135 mm lens with ISO 1600 and Av mode.

163: #359 Wheels

I stopped at the bird feeding store yesterday and look at this bright fellow outside the window! I didn't stop to examine it closely enough to see if the wheels are pinwheels or if the whole thing might be a windsock -- or maybe it's just a bright and colorful outdoor decoration.

162: #300 Spring

The rhododendrons are lovely in the Spring.
I sharpened this up and brightened it a bit with LR "punch" then applied the filter "accented edges".

161: #089 Faded

These pink peonies fade a little every day.

160: #177 Looking Down

Looking down from the boardwalk at the beaver pond.

It was raining off and on yesterday, so I took the Panasonic point-and-shoot for a walk. Some day I should learn how to use all the available options, but when I take it instead of the XSi I just use the "intelligent auto" setting as a rule.

159: #120 Gentle

The tinkling of windchimes in a light breeze is a gentle sound.

158: #032 Boy

Well, the boy is still in hiding, but he'll make his appearance in a couple of weeks!

157: #336 Trash or Treasure

Pepsi biplane

156: #238 Portrait

Sisters
(my first 2 granddaughters)

Don't ask about the edge!
I was playing with a "feather" brush. That's all I can remember.

155: #111 From Ground Level

Buttercups from ground level.

I played with cropping for this one.
Cropped to 8 x 10 which I usually do for printing.
Cropped for a vertical view.
But I finally decided I like the camera's ratio of 8 x 12 for this shot.

154: #075 Dessert

Giant Eagle's "very berry" pie
Yummm!

{burp}
'scuse me...

153: #166 Larger than Life

I don't know why I can't just learn from these experiments.
The 60mm up close on a tripod always wins!

Shutter speed: 1/500 sec
Aperture: 8
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Evaluative
ISO: 200
Lens: 60mm
Focal length: 60mm
AF mode: AI Focus AF
Image size: 4272 x 2848
Rotation: none
Image quality: Fine
White balance: Auto
Color space: sRGB
Saturation: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Tone: Normal


This second pic was shot on a tripod with my favorite 28-135mm lens and a 20mm extender which lets me get physically closer to the subject than the lens alone, but auto focus does too much searching so I have to manually focus -- which is a problem with my bad eyesight, but I try anyway. It was washed out, not too bad but I did brighten it up in ACR and sharpen it.

Shutter speed: 1/1250 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Av
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Spot
ISO: 400
Lens: 28 to 135mm
Focal length: 135mm
AF mode: Manual Focus
Image size: 2256 x 1504
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto
Color space: AdobeRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Tone: Normal

152: #277 Seven

Seven clematis blossoms...
I'm experimenting with lenses again.
This was taken using my favorite lens on the XSi.
The color came out a bit too purple, but I adjusted it in ACR and Photoshop.

Shutter speed: 1/800 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Av
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Spot
ISO: 400
Lens: 28 to 135mm
Focal length: 80mm
AF mode: One-shot AF
Image size: 2256 x 1504
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto
Color space: AdobeRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Tone: Normal