I'm on a boat

Or how Ryan would be singing it, "I'm on a boat, and I'm not too happy about it". heehee. I don't know when Ryan's fear of all things water came about, (and to his defense, it is pretty scary for your first boat experience in years to be on a speed boat) but I am happy he swallowed his fear and sat at the bow of the boat.




We were heading into a uturn at about 50mph at this point. hahaha. So insane.


Good job Ryan!

Cougar Lake

There was a running joke this weekend that some one during the night would come across a cougar running through the forest. Smearing red lipstick on the trees on her hunt for 20 somethings. heeheehee..

When we pulled up to the campsite my jaw hit the ground. I have never seen a more beautiful forest. The only thing I have to compare it to is the Redwood Forest and even then I'd call it a tie.

The grounds were littered with fallen trees, ferns, and moss. The sun peeked though the tall century old trees shooting rays of sunlight to the ground below. It was absolutely beautiful.


Found a Banana Slug. This picture doesn't do justice to how gross it is! I should have put a quarter down or something to show the size. It was about 5 inches long. Imagine that thing getting in your tent and crawling across your face in the middle of the night. hahahha..(sorry, had to do it). YUK!


The camping trip was organized by Amy (on the left). It was a present for her husband Andy (next to Amy). Then we have Jeremy and Elizabeth (and little Kismet the poodle), and of course you all know Ryan and Juno, and the latest addition to our family, Bella the cocker spaniel.



Here's another one of Bella. The best camping puppy ever! We let her off leash and she stayed under my feet the whole time. We brought penny too but she was busy workin' on a bone to care about the forest. Such a princess. haha.

We put together our tent. Ryan then trekked off into the woods to look for firewood with the others.


Once the tent was up, Bella claimed her home and guarded the front door. She was gonna have to protect us from all those cougars....and their 23 year old boyriends...heehee.. sorry, last time.


Juno was being pretty good at this point because we were all always on the move. We'd walk some trails that were surrounding the campsite or go play near the stream. The crazyness didn't start till after the sun went down and Juno still wanted to run around in the dark. He finally went to sleep around 9:30p and at that point mine and Ryan's nerves were shot. 'Can't wait to go camping again without a two year old' was the quote of the night.


But when you see this face bein' all sweet to you, it just makes it all worth it.

After the bug was asleep we were able to relax and hang by the fire. We were roasting marshmallows and making s'mores AND the greatest creation of all things having to do with campfires... The Hobo Eclair. Amy can explain it better than I can. She has a fantastic blog called Playing House. Check it out!
I can't wait to go camping again and with others and share the knowledge of the best camping treat since the s'more.

I love that Eric broke out some Tenacious D as the first song of the night. Way to jump in the deep end first my friend!

Also took some shots of the night sky. This is a 75 second shutter. If I had a shutter release remote, I would have been able to capture some star sweeps. Next time for sure!


It was a good weekend of camping. Ryan and I haven't been camping since the 2001 or 2002 trip to Lake Elsinore with Tom, Heather, Marcus, Ed and David. It was nice to be out in the wilderness again.

Photography Class Project #2 and #3

I have combined two of my last projects in this entry because I am eager to post about new things. Project #2 is called Lines, Shapes, Patterns, Forms, & Designs. I am sure from the title you can guess that we have to look for Lines, Shapes, Forms... and so on, in our pictures.

This first one is a wood pile at a friends cabin. I love the lighting in this one. It really shows the true brown color of the wood. I like lines and shapes of the space between the wood and the shapes the wood creates. blah blah blah....


This next one is a picture of a fern I found while on a camping trip with some friends. (Note: Never Ever Ever take your two year old on a camping trip, unless you love stressing out to the point of crying all the way home and then passing out for 4 or 5 hours due to shear exhaustion. If you are down with all that, go right ahead.)
I love this photo because of the color. The green just lit up the whole class room when we critiqued it in class. I love all the spines of each fern branch and the water you can see on the leaves.


Those are the two I am showcasing from that project.

This next one is me paying homage to the late great Edward Weston and his famous Pepper, 1930 photo. He is probably one of my favorite photographers. His Farm Security Administration work was one of the most profound and ground breaking introductions into real life that there has ever been. So here's to you Mr.Weston! Thank you for being so damn inspiring!

This one I shall call "Tomato, 2009".


My next project was the dreaded Portraits portion of this Photography class. I somehow managed to get Ryan to agree to a photo shoot. The lighting is late afternoon/early evening and the backdrop is a mural of some graffiti in the middle of town. I chose this one to show all you lovely people because I love the color of the background versus the dark black and gray's of Ryan's clothing. I just think it looks interesting. I also like the composition of the photo being shot from below. I would have liked to see him doing something other than checking his phone but I couldn't think of any direction to give him. At least he is natural in this one. I need to work on my direction. It's hard to tell people how to act or look and still expect them to look natural. I think he pulled it off in this one though. I like it. I love taking pictures of Ryan.



That's it folks. I hope I got a good grade in the class. Thinking about taking a Lighting for Photography class in the fall. This class was so much fun and I met some cool people. And some not so cool people! But that's a story for a real conversation and not a blog.

Stay tuned for pictures from the camping trip we took. The place was absolutely beautiful! Definitely going back, WITHOUT THE TWO YEAR OLD!

Photography Class Summer '09

I decided to take a photography class this summer to brush up on some basic skills and to also have a little fun with my new camera. This class is great! It has already taught me so much about my camera.
The pictures below are from my first assignment. They are manually taken, utilizing our knowledge of ISO, F Stop, and Shutter Speed functions.
This assignment is called "Single Object, Single Idea". The concept is to take an object and photograph it in a different way than we usually see it. For example, from above, below, close up, etc.

Enjoy.



Tractor scooper (no idea what this is actually called.) at the Middle School down the street from my house. 7:30am
Springs of a freight train. 11:30am
Fence Post at Johnson Farm. 7:30pm
Sculpture outside the Courthouse. 8:30pm