Project 64: Sky Blue on the Cranberry Coast 2.5.12

A day on the coast driving Highway 101, exploring new beaches and towns, soaking up the natural beauty and capturing it all with my camera..there is no better way to spend the day!

Tokeland Marina

Settings: ISO 200, 50mm, ss1/640, f/7.1 

(full manual, sunlight wb, clean edit in Lightroom)

Highway 101 on Willapa Bay

Settings: ISO 200, 50mm, ss1/1000, f/7.1 

(full manual, sunlight wb, clean edit in Lightroom)

"I never get tired of the blue sky." - Vincent van Gogh

      

Tones on Tuesday #21 2.7.12

Welcome to Tones on Tuesday! The photos from last week were amazing and made it extremely difficult to pick just 3. Which is a great problem to have :o). After much deliberation, here are the photos chosen...

Desirae at Pink Sky Designs

The light in this photo blows me away and the softness added by the texture contrasts with the drama of the silhouette to make an amazing photo. Thank you for sharing Desirae!

Daogreer Earthworks

The perspective, the depth of field and the soft color all create a beautiful and nostalgic photo. Lovely, just lovely! Thank you for sharing with us. 

Bunch of Barrons

Aren't they cute? I love the simplicity of this moment and the softness of the tones. The perfect capture of an everyday moment. Thank you for sharing with us!

Desirae, Daogreer Earthworks and Bunch of Barrons please go HERE to grab your showcase button. 

Now it's your turn to share your photo with altered tones. Here is the guidelines for Tones on Tuesday:

• The basic idea is to share one photo where you have altered the tones. Such as a black and white, sepia toned, selective coloring or colored photo. Feel free to share the original and edit, or just the edit.
• Please share a photo that you have taken and edited yourself.
• One photo per photographer please. If you have more than one photo in your post please indicate which one if for Tones on Tuesday.
• Please link up with your permalink and not your blog address.
• Attach the Tones on Tuesday button to your post
• Leave comments for the other participants, share the love :o)!
• Have fun!

<center> <a href="http://scatteredhorizons.blogspot.com" target="_self"><img border="0" alt="Scattered Horizons" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_U2oqLh1UmXZMxfX_WPVaPVWJYh_HuiqvmOJi2frJOmTvsFe8rQPCPuzZfqD9Rm5Lz1E9ijR7i5_09GjPNDZeIcGNOwpU1VlkboGqGPGHxc0q-s28fzb99utdKzU6TvONWyodJtseQ/s1600/tonesontuesday2.jpg"></a> </center>

Disclaimer - By participating you give Scattered Horizons permission to share your photo on this blog. Photographers will be given credit for their work.

This weekend I went to the Cranberry Coast and the Long Beach Peninsula. One of the places we stopped was at Grayland State Park. It is a campground with these huts you can stay in and a vast beach. I snapped some pictures, explored a bit and on the way back was rewarded with a "conversation" with some deer I plan on sharing later this week. My goal with the photo below was to capture the vastness of the beach and ocean and the lack of people on the beach the result of the coast in winter. I did a clean edit in Lightroom for the first photo and then a black and white conversion. I think the first photo works well to communicate the vastness and the black and white the emptiness. What do you think?

Settings: ISO 200, 50mm, ss1/320, f/9.0 (full manual, sunlight wb)

"In solitude the mind gains strength and learns to lean upon itself." - Laurence Sterne

Joining the link ups below. Be sure to check out the beautiful shots and join the Tones on Tuesday link up found further down!

    

Poetic Winter: Solitude 2.5.12

I love going to the beach any time of year. It is the place I go to recharge my battery and find an inner peace and contentment. While going to the beach in winter can be a bit chilly, one of the perks is that there are not many people there. It allows me to find those moments of solitude to reflect on my thoughts, find inspiration and feed my passion for photography. This weekend I sat on a dune on the Long Beach Peninsula of Washington overlooking the beach and just looked and listened. I soaked up the vastness, the sound of the waves and the feeling of being in tune with the nature around me. I enjoyed every minute!

Settings: ISO 200, 18mm, ss1/500, f/22 

(full manual, sunlight wb, SOOC with cropping and distraction removal)

Settings: ISO 200, 50mm, ss1/4000, f/3.2 

(full manual, sunlight wb, clean edit in Lightroom)

"Shadows" for P52

Settings: ISO 200, 50mm, ss1/1000, f/2.0

(full manual, sunlight wb, clean edit in Lightroom)

"Shadows" for P52

Settings: ISO 200, 24mm, ss1/320, f/25 

(full manual, sunlight wb, clean edit in Lightroom)

Settings: ISO 200, 163mm, ss1/250, f/10 

(full manual, sunlight wb, SOOC with cropping)

"Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your own presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement." - Alice Koller

     

Favorite Photo of the Week: Cece in the Snow 1.16.12

I am going to end my snow and ice shots with this one of my dog niece Cece. As I mentioned in my last post, photographing Cece is a challenge for me but something I have been sticking with to hopefully move toward my goal of photographing more human beings, myself included :o). I do have to say that she is a great subject. She is patient and tolerant and doesn't require much in the way of model fees (just a pet and a treat and she is happy). For this shot, we were exploring the backyard during phase one of the snow storm and I loved how she filled up the space on the deck. The textures of the snow and her coat were also intriguing to me. Just an attempt to capture a simple moment with an amazing animal. I would love to know your thoughts...

Settings: ISO 400, 50mm, ss1/400, f/3.2 

(full manual, cloudy wb, SOOC with cropping)

"No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does." - Christopher Morley

          

I Clicked it Up a Notch - January

Oh how I have missed I Clicked it Up a Notch hosted by Courtney. It has been a couple of months and I have found there to be a void in the reflecting on my progress throughout the month that I Clicked it Up a Notch provided me. I also miss having the opportunity to see what others have learned and learn from them. This month I have been working on two of my photography goals that I wrote on the first of the year...

Goal 2. Learn more about my new lens - I have been using my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Lens quite a bit. I still do not feel like I am totally comfortable with it, but I have come a long way. I love that I have the ability to use low number (wide open) apertures to vary my depth of field to a degree that I had not been able to before. I also see a difference in the photos taken with this lens versus my kit lens, but I am not sure I could accurately describe what that difference is or why it is occurring. This goal will definitely be one I continue to work on.


The photo below is SOOC (the second one does have some cropping and straightening done on it though) and I think that speaks to what I have been finding out this lens can do. 


Goal 6. Self portraits - You may be thinking "What is she talking about? This photo is not a self portrait." And you would be right of course :o). But it is an attempt to broaden the subject matter of my photos and the ability to discover a potential photo with subjects I am not comfortable with. And that was the purpose of this goal for me, to expand my abilities and see things differently. I still love my sunset, silhouette and nature shots, but I know that to grow I need to take risk.The pictures below are of my dog niece Cece. She is an amazing dog and the perfect breathing, moving subject to photograph as she doesn't move too fast and allows me to take many shots if I mess up the settings the first time (or the tenth time :o). 


I can't wait to work on these goals and my other goals next month and throughout the year! I would love to know what you think of my risk-taking...well risky for me anyway...photos!

Settings: ISO 800, 50mm, ss1/30, f/2.0 (full manual, tungsten wb, SOOC)

"You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - Wayne Gretzky

Project 64: Iced Yellow 1.19.12

The color at Project 64 was yellow. Amidst the ice and snow of recent memory the yellow leaves of this plant stood out beckoning me to take a photo. 

Settings: ISO 200, 50mm, ss1/125, f/2.8 (full manual, cloudy wb)

"Plant the seed of desire in your mind and it forms a nucleus with power to attract to itself everything needed for its fulfillment." - Robert Collier

     

Tones on Tuesday #20 1.31.12

I can't wait to see what you have to share this week, but before that let's take a look at some showcases from last week...

Jenn at Shutter Happy Moments

The mystery of the depth of field, the softness of the texture and the lines of the grass are simply beautiful! Thank you for sharing with us Jenn!

Bec at Through the Lens: RAD Photography

I love the starkness of this photo and at the same time how it is soft and "creamy." Thank you for linking up Bec!

Liz at The Greatest of These Is Love

This truly looks like it could have been taken centuries ago, love it! Thank you for sharing with us Liz. 

Jenn, Bec and Liz please go HERE to grab your showcase button. 

Now it's your turn to share your photo with altered tones. Here is the guidelines for Tones on Tuesday:

• The basic idea is to share one photo where you have altered the tones. Such as a black and white, sepia toned, selective coloring or colored photo. Feel free to share the original and edit, or just the edit.
• Please share a photo that you have taken and edited yourself.
• If you have more than one photo in your post please indicate which one if for Tones on Tuesday.
• Please link up with your permalink and not your blog address.
• Attach the Tones on Tuesday button to your post
• Leave comments for the other participants, share the love :o)!
• Have fun!

<center> <a href="http://scatteredhorizons.blogspot.com" target="_self"><img border="0" alt="Scattered Horizons" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_U2oqLh1UmXZMxfX_WPVaPVWJYh_HuiqvmOJi2frJOmTvsFe8rQPCPuzZfqD9Rm5Lz1E9ijR7i5_09GjPNDZeIcGNOwpU1VlkboGqGPGHxc0q-s28fzb99utdKzU6TvONWyodJtseQ/s1600/tonesontuesday2.jpg"></a> </center>

Disclaimer - By participating you give Scattered Horizons permission to share your photo on this blog. Photographers will be given credit for their work.

I thought I was done with ice and snow pictures, but I just keep finding more that appeal to me :o). I am also very hopeful that the caliber of ice and snow we had will not happen again for a long while. That makes these photos fleeting moments that I want to remember. This photo is of my favorite tree outside my house. It bent to the ground with the weight of the ice and snow, but it did not break. It is now standing tall again. I love the metaphor in that. Just what I need right now to make it through the assessment/report cards/conferences time at school. A photo that fits perfectly with my life outside of photography right now, I love when that happens :o).

Settings: ISO 200, 50mm, ss1/400, f/2.8 (full manual, cloudy wb)

Clean Edit and then a Black and White Conversion in Lightroom

"I bend and do not break." - Jean de La Fontaine

Joining the link ups below. Be sure to check out the beautiful shots and join the Tones on Tuesday link up found further down!