Stormy Days

It's amazing how much rain we've had lately. My grass and weeds are actually green this year. It makes riding the motorcycle a little hard to do because the bad weather always rolls in late in the afternoon. Normally about the time I get off work. They predicted 1/2 to 3/4 hail today but I didn't see any. Probably hit on the north end of town. They usually seem to get it worse up there. I left work a little early though to be on the safe side and try to beat the weather home. Looked nasty but I made it in one piece. Here's a sample of what we had today.

Artist's Date today

I'm still trying to work through the book The Artist's Way and do the exercises contained within it. One I mentioned earlier was the Artist's Date. This is a weekly exercise where you take yourself out somewhere by yourself and do something enjoyable that you might not normally do. Today I went to the La Creperie in Downtown Colorado Springs and ordered a salad. It's a little French Bistro right across from the swimming fountain named Uncle Wilbur.

How is this different you ask? Well, I don't normally eat $16.00 salads but this was very good. It had a large chicken breast covered in pecans. The dressing was a sweet honey mustard. As you can see the tomatoes were ripe and everything was fresh. I thought about having some wine with it but since I was on my motorcycle I decided to pass on that. All in all a very relaxing outing. I hope your day went as well.

Pocket Wizards

Well, I finally picked up a set of Pocket Wizards. I've been using either my 580 or my ST-E2 to set off remote flashes. The ST-E2 let me down at the last wedding so I decided it was time to get a set of these. Now I have another style of shooting to learn. It looks like these will be a blast to use.

I spent today making a bracket to attach one of the PWs to the light stand and also made a bracket with a quick release mount that attaches to the bottom of my camera. This setup lets me shoot an on-camera flash using E-TTL II and an off-camera flash in manual mode. I'm just starting to work on the techniques needed for this shooting style but the early results are really promising. The mix of the two styles seem to really work well together. It's still not my dream system but I don't think anyone has created that yet. Canon would be really close if there remote flash system was controlled by radio instead of flashes of light. It's just not dependable enough. If Canon eventually sucks it up and comes through with an automated flash system that can completely control remote flashes using radios people will flock to it.

Of course my usual "victim" for flash work was overjoyed about the new system. He must really get sick of it but it's a challenge to light him properly so it's good practice. Here's Chester enjoying the new Pocket Wizards.

Fotofusion

I bought this program a little while back and haven't done a lot with it. I bought it to design albums but haven't used it for that yet. I still have to set aside the time to work up a template for an album with it and go ahead and do it. If you are interested in looking at the program, their web site is Lumpix.

I was playing around with it a little bit today and they now have some free templates depending on which version you own of the software. The higher versions get more free stuff. It really is an easy to use program and once I force myself to learn the details of it I should start to get my moneys worth back out of it. Here's just a little sample. All I did is toss in a picture the rest was a template. Fun stuff to play around with. This is an 8x10 actually. Printed it out and stuck it on my fridge. The template has the whole year in it. Each month with a different look.

Holy Rock

As part of my Artists Way workshop I'm going through I went on an "artists date" today. I had planned on going to the zoo but the weather was a little rough so I ended up going to Garden of the Gods instead. What's an artists date you ask? Basically it's taking yourself somewhere to let your mind wander and relax and take in its surroundings without anyone else along to interfere. Some "me" time if you will. I brought along my camera because I wanted to look at places to shoot while I was there. Kind of cheating but the weather this week has been problematical and I hadn't been able to get out there earlier. I'm doing a family portrait in the Garden tomorrow and needed to be prepared. Even though there was no real sun I could see hints of what I'm going to get tomorrow. Hopefully Mother Nature will pull through for me and we'll have a glorious sunset. I'm really counting on that light! Here's just one of the pictures I took while wandering around. I love how the Garden has a three dimensional look to it, don't you? Enjoy.

Buddy

This is Buddy. He is currently a house guest. My friend, Sam, went on a vacation to Vegas for a few days and I am watching Buddy for her. The main reason I am watching him is because he is a handful. He was staying at another friends house while Sam was moving but started causing problems with their dogs. Since I have a knucklehead of my own I said I'd watch Buddy. So far they are getting along pretty well. My dog Chester was a little unsure about this arrangement at first but seems to have adjusted pretty well. Buster does play a little rough but so does my dog so it's working out okay so far. With two young Labs in the house it's like having two little kids running around constantly. They also take a lot of space on the bed. The first night they wanted space away from each other so I ended up waking in the morning as a Lab sandwich with one stuck to each side of me. Very constricting to say the least. Buddy stays until Saturday and then the level of mayhem in the house will settle back down to normal. He is a good dog though and very anxious to please.

"A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity"

As my skills in photography have grown over time I look at my work with a more critical eye. I see the consistent lighting I want, good composure, rule of thirds and other photography "rules" being followed. I see that my colors have become better and my black and whites have more depth. The technical side of my work gets stronger and stronger. I am kind of a geek after all. Now I want more!

For me, the next step is the creative side of my photography. I know it can be stronger and I'm taking steps to bring it to the next level and higher. To do this, I'm starting a new book called the ARTIST'S WAY by Julia Cameron. It's a 12 week course to rediscover your creative side and bring it out. To go along with this I've also joined a group online, referred to as a cluster to work through the book. We will be learning and growing together while we work through the book and its exercises chapter by chapter. Right now I don't know where this will lead or what will come of it since I haven't even read the book yet, but I am anxious to find out. I'll post on here from time to time on my progress.

Does anybody really know what time it is?

Computer is busy processing a batch of files right now so I thought I'd play around a little. Messing around with my large 60" umbrella and a 580 Canon flash bounced into it. Mixing this with the existing ambient light to get a nice pleasing picture. I then converted this to an old timey black and white using Lightroom from Adobe. Great software which is only going to get better.

Notice anything amiss about the clock? It used to belong to my Grandpa Stanley. My Mom passed it on to me. I don't know where he got it but knowing him it was from a flea market. He lived for those things! Clock still works and tells time when I remember to wind it up. Who remembers these kinds of things in todays electronic rush world though? It's nice to have things like this around to remember your past with. Too many only look forwards and forget what was behind them. Anyways, enjoy the clock, I do.

Hands and Feet

Went back to Little Blake's house tonight to get some hands and feet pictures. Last time I tried he was not in the mood so I didn't get what I wanted of him. Also wanted to try out the new colorful throw I picked up at Pier 1 the other day. The colors in it really pack a punch. These are almost straight out of the camera with just a touch of curves and sharpening and reduction for web. Colors really knocked me out. Might be a tad too much but I still like them. It's amazing how hard it is to get pictures of a babies hands and feet when he's awake! All they do is kick and squirm. Still had a blast and even got a meal out of the deal. Sweet!