Sorry about the long break

I'm sorry about the long break....things have been busy and the blog has kinda been put on a back burner...

But I am back!

And I have lots of pictures and stories to tell, and, since I'm having a rather nasty case of insomnia, I will share some :D

Last I wrote, I was having a really hard time figuring out CS4....well...now I only have 7 days left on the free trial and I am realizing life is going to SUCK without it. Sad, huh? And really, I do need the program to continue with my photography....developing the NEF files is completely fantastic...being able to adjust the the levels and vibrance and colour saturation to make the photo look exactly as you intended it to...I'm really sad that I will lose the program and am contemplating making a different email and adobe account to get a new free trial ><

Sad, huh?

Anyway, I've been camping with the dogs and taking some "me" time. The rhododendrons are starting to blossom and I am really excited for that. Rhodies are my favorite wild flower (and the official Washington State Flower, Yay!). Not only do rhododendrons mean awesome flower macros....it means HUMMINGBIRDS! Hummingbirds love red things...and the wild rhodies here vary from a deep purple to fuchsia to bright red...and there is a nice cluster or red rhodies blossoming right up the road.

It's also starting to warm up here....the weather forecast looks rather nice for the rest of the week, so I will be getting more pictures of my Hellish Hounds LOL. They are loving all of the outside time...I think all of the inside time from this past winter drove them a little crazy. Poor Hero is plumb tuckered out from Sammy (my sister) rolling his ball up the hill for him to chase.

On the down side, I seem to have contracted some stomach virus and have not been able to keep much held down for the last three days...Right now I am drinking some tea and trying to get my stomach to settle after this last round of nausea. I WAS in bed...but that was shortlived.

Anyway...Since I am on a wireless Internet card, my internt connection has been a little slow and not very consistent...so getting on Facebook and myspace and whatever other social networking places I have accounts on (I can't even remember them all....sad...) is next to impossible. I have managed to Upload photos onto flickr.com and Deviant Art (Oh My GOD it was an insanely slow process)...

Oh. I accidentally drop-kicked my 18-55mm lens. That was fun.

OH OH OH! I AM GETTING A NEW LENS! ;) its a 70-300mm zoom and I'm also getting a 2x Teleconverter.....so you know what this means? Yup! My THREE lenses just magically turned into SIX! Neat trick eh? I'm also getting some filters! Polarizing filter, UV, and an FL-D. I need to get gradient filters....Sunsets ;).

It's spring time now so I will be spending TONS of time on the canal and will be taking alot of sunrise/sunset photos...and will try my hand at some moon scenes, as the moonrises over the canal are just to die for.

Anyway..I promised pictures...here are a few:

Off for a while...

I'm going to be on a week long hiatus. No new posts til...about next saturday...

Apparently...Things Aren't Always Black&White...

LOL Seriously. I decided to play...yes..PLAY...with my camera settings. Call me stupid...but before today, I didn't know my camera had Black & White, Sepia, Negative and some other odd looking settings...so I thought to myself...NEAT!!! PLAYTIME!!!

So..While we were working on the car (replacing the brake pads or whatever) I was taking pictures here and there in Black & White....Mostly of Tribute lol. 'We' is Ray and I. Ray is my mother's boyfriend/man-slave/thing.

Lol...Ray told me to disconnect something..I can't remember what it was, but I couldn't reach it..so I did what I normally do when my short ass can't reach something....I hopped up and balanced on my pelvis/hips/whatever and leaned over to reach it...totally freaking forgetting that the car was on a jack...Long story short...My forehead is gonna be bruised and my neck hurts a little. (I'm laughing really hard LOL)

Anyway...after that little adventure, I was excused from my duties as "assistant mechanic" and decided to wash up and come play with my new pictures.

I'm only going to share the one I like the most because the others are either totally freaky, or really yucky looking.

Now...I wasn't liking any of these much. I really didn't intend on sharing them....but I figure I might as well write this down and have it somewhere I will remember it.

I took this into photosp and toyed with the contrast and saturation and shadows and whatnot..and it looked okish like that....but flat and dull...So I added a warming filter and it looks ALOT better. Proud of myself for taking (in my opinion) a pretty decent black&white photo, I showed it to Jose.

He pointed out that one of the most important things to capture on a photo like this, is the subjects eyes (Assuming that the subject does indeed have eyes)...

Well, even though I was just playing around, I should have been paying attention. I was losing light and the sun was behind Tribute (and the trees) and I despise using my flash (I really do hate my flash)....So her eyes are just kinda "there". Not really noticible. Nothing really redeeming about this particular photo. BUT...I have learned from it...and that's what makes it worth posting :D

I guess this means more homework ...this time: Playing with Lighting. YAY!!

Thanks for Reading

Photo Murderer

Ok..once again I have failed to write...I apologized, but I must tell you that blogging is one of the last things on my list of things to do lately....

With my tooth being broken and being unable to eat or drink anything because of the pain, the slightest thing is enough to make me feel faint and dizzy. I gave up on the rum because it was only a temporary solution.

Yesterday...And I do feel bad for José and Herman...I was being taught how to use Adobe Photoshop CS4...

Bear in mind that I haven't really edited a picture before...And Neither one of them have CS4...

First..I couldn't find the program. Then I couldn't find my folder....It seriously took me almost a half an hour to find the folder with my photos in it....then I didn't know what to do...or how to get the picture into the program.

I was, and still am, anxious to learn how to use the program ...and I feel frustrated that I haven't figured it out yet. I was getting literally getting mad to the point of getting dizzy because I didn't understand how to do things. Despite Herman telling me to relax...I continued to fume...And then my nose started bleeding...

After gettng that taken care of...Back to learning the program...

We (me and José) are developing RAW files...so José had to show me how to "develop" the photos.

Let me shed some light on the situation.....José and I live in different countries, so he was teaching me how to do all this in messenger by sending screen shots back and forth...and patiently explaining things ....It was going well..and after an hour of "developing" the photo was playing (killing) with, then it was time to "open the Image". Sweet....

And then my computer shut down.

Yep...Just like that...Crashed...BOOM..dead.

I was so pissed off that it took all of the self control that I have in me to resist the urge to throw my computer.

I wanted to continue learning the program, but I after getting pissed, I started getting lightheaded and decided to call it quits.

So...Today is a new day...and...I can't really feel much pain in my tooth anymore...just throbbing...and I'm going to try and eat something...walk the dogs...and try this again....

WISH ME LUCK

Post Procesing..

Ok...To distract mysef from my dental pain (my tooth is still broken), I have decided to experiment with post processing.

In order to do that, I needed a photo editing program...so I downloaded a fee trial of Adobe Photoshop CS4. Holy Hell Hole....this program is hard to figure out. I have watched quite a few tutorials on Youtube, Downloaded some tutorials from DeviantArt, and am trying to apply some of the tip/techniques that I have picked up to my own photos. So far... epic failure... but as you have probably noticed, I am a "learn by doing" kind of person, so it probably won't be too long before I start picking up on it and getting the hang of things.

One part of photo editing that am extremely interested and very anxious to try is HDR. I think it looks more confusing than it actually is...

Tonight I will go down to Mud Bay and shoot the sunset. I will bear in mind the kind of images I will need for the HDR process and hopefully will come back with something useful.

This weekend I will also be going back out to the canal to re-shoot the HamaHama in different locations. I will be experimenting with my settings, trying to achieve what I call "the soft water effect". I don't know what it's actually called...maybe I should look that up....

I will also be going to the Deschutes River to try my hand at some real waterfalls...

I am not sure what sparked my sudden interest in waterscapes, but it should be fun to play with :D

Thanks for reading :D

I hope to have some great pictures to show for tonight!

And Black Cats are Supposed to be Bad Luck....

Mmkay, earlier I mentioned my canine companions, but I forgot to mention my more independent, camera shy, perpetually shedding, two year old feline.

Tucker is a rescue cat. He was taken off of the Skokomish Indian Reservation after his owner had been arrested and charged with animal cruelty. Tucker was the only kitten in his litter that survived...Just to warn you, this will be a little graphic.

The person that had Tucker, also had 26 other cats a few litters of kittens. They were always breeding, always fighting, and always getting sick. He never took the cats to the vet because he believes in survival of the fittest, so alot of the cats removed off of his property tested positive for FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus) and FeLV (feline leukemia virus) and had to be put down. The remainder of the cats had been tortured, some to the point of death. Tucker was out of a litter of 5 week old kittens that had been found in a fishtank, still smokey from having meth blown in from a tube. Some of the kittens had their hair burned off, some had been found skinned alive, and some were found with limbs missing. The kittens were very sick from the meth, from infection, and from parasites living on their bodies. Some of the cats had fly larvae (maggots) living on/in their skin from flies invading the infections. Of the 26 cats and countless kittens removed off the premesis, Tucker and 5 others were the only ones that survived.

The reason I brought this up is that I wanted to share my photo of the day. You can't really appreciate the picture unless you've known that this cat was once an emaciated kitten on his deathbed.


Tucker is now a 13 pound, healthy, frisky, and congenial cat. He is so damn hard to photograph because he either runs away as soon as he sees the camera, or he gets right up on top of me and begs for attention xD

Naturally, Tucker hangs out with the dogs and can be found napping with Monty or Tribute. He is definitely a character...the only cat that has taken, and PASSED, the AKC regulated Canine Good Citizen test. He sits, stays, walks on a leash, and lays on command, better than Hero does xD.

Don't let Tucker's expressions fool you. He always has either a fierce or sorrowful look on his face, but once you say his name or snap your fingers at him, he's right in your face rubbing up against you, demanding your attention.

Anyway...Thanks for Reading :D

Who Needs Teeth Anyways?...

Sorry for not writing yesterday..things have been just a little less than chaotic here.

I got home yesterday...oooh man it felt good to take a shower after being in the woods for 3 days LOL. I have all of the dogs back now...you don't know how bad I missed my weenies.

For those of you that don't know, I have 3 Dachshunds (Angel, Hero, and Monty) and a Bull Terrier (Tribute).

Angel is a therapy dog... we used to frequent a local convalescent home and spend time with the residents. She is such a sweet little girl and I have yet to meet a person that didn't fall immediately for her loving personality.

Monty is my clown. As much as he helps me, he also makes me laugh. He is very perceptive to people's moods and loves to cuddle. Monty especially loves children. Everytime I take him into a store, he always finds at least one toddler to sit at their feet and beg for attention from.

Hero is my fierce boy. He definitely has a presence that demands to be recognized and acknowledged. I believe his presence is what makes him a great show dog. He competes in AKC conformation shows and is and IABCA International Champion.

Tribute is new to our family. She came to us from Bianca and Ash of Nocturnal Bull Terriers in New Brunswick, Canada. She is definitely a swet and goofy girl. She loves to play with the Weenies as I call my dachshunds) and loves to go outside. She is the one that will be accompaning me on most of my hikes. She is also a show dog, and will resume her showing career in a few months.

As I was saying, I am relieved to have my dogs back from the boarder (They were boarded while I was gone). They have been very excited to be back home and pretty much made a huge mess that I now have to clean. Knocked over end table....

I also have like 50 messages to answer on my voicemail....way too many e-mails to respond to...and yeah.

So I was walking up the stairs and fell forward. I hit my chin on on of the steps and in the process of doing so, bit down on my tongue ring and broke a tooth. I'm in a considerable amount of pain considering that even breathing in through my mouth is enough to make me cry...and I have a really high pain tolerance. I can't get in to the dentist until next week, even on emergency status.

On top of that, I have to help my mother, who doesn't care whether or not my head is about so split in half because of the pain from my tooth. She is disabled and can not do very much on her own. I have to help her with almost everything...from standing up to putting her shoes on her feet...to cooking and cleaning because she can't do it herself. My mother is a touchy subject and will probably not be brought up again....but really...no loss there.

I made a slide show and posted it on Youtube. It contains photos that I've taken over the last 5 months, but most of them coing from this weekend.

I've noticed that just by following a few tips from Jose, more of my shots are coming out the way I want them to, and more of my photos are "usable". Thank you so much Jose :)

I have the opprotunity to have some of my photos on a local news show. I'm excited about my photos being seen locally, as very few people have actually seen them. Funny, isn't it? I post my pictures all over the internet..and no one close to me has seen them unless I've shown them in person. It's weird...I want people to see my pictures, but I don't like going out of my way to try and make them seen. The Youtube Slide Show is probably the most "public" thing I have done. I'm not going to lie, the idea of being recognized for doing something I love sounds quite appealing.

I have a support system of friends and "fans" that I am very appreciative of. Some of them have been there and believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself. Just when I think I might as well give up, someone says or does something that makes me smile and feel ridiculous for even being down-hearted.

LOL. I had so smile when I dedicated two of my photos to two little girls (ages 3 and 7). They are the daughters of a friend and one of them was pretty sick...In an effort to do something nice and raise her spirits, I dedicated a picture to her. I wasn't expecting her to be as excited as she was. I also wasn't expecting her sister to ask "where's my picture?"

It was touching. To have even little children like my photos makes me even more determined to become better and work harder to reach my goal of being a professional nature photographer.

Here is the Video:

Well...I am off for now. Thanks for reading :D