Colleen Easley lives in Olympia, WA with her husband Dale and 2 cats. Photography has been her hobby for 40 years. Currently she is working on a 365 project which requires that she take at least one photo every day and publish it to her blog. You may follow her on Twitter and/or Facebook by clicking the links below. To see all the photos of her 2010 project, click the link below under LINKS.
I got out of the hotel twice today. In the mid-afternoon Cheryl Zachery and I went to Providence Hospital to visit Peg Stout and deliver the prayer ribbons we had assembled for her. (See yesterday’s article.) By early evening it was looking like we’d have a beautiful sunset so I decided to head out with my camera.
Friends had left me the keys to their car since they are out on the trail working a couple checkpoints for the Iditarod. The car had been snowed in for the past week, but by today there had been enough melt that I decided to give it a try. It was a bit hard to get it over the snow berm that had developed behind it, but after 3 attempts I finally got it out of the parking spot. I knew it needed gas so I immediately headed to the closest gas station. After filling up I had only traveled a couple miles towards town before the Low Tire Pressure light came on. pulled it into the closest service station to get air. The front right tire was very low. I couldn’t get it to fill so I was suspecting the air was leaking out between the tire and rim. After about five attempts, I broke down and called my son, Kevin, who works at American Tire here in Anchorage. He had me roll forward about a half turn, removed the valve stem so it would fill quicker and we had it filled in no time. It’s nice to have a tire man in the family – especially when I’m out of town!
About that sunset – it was absolutely amazing. The mountains turned a beautiful pink and the western sky went vivid orange. But did I get a picture – no, I was trying to pump up a tire! After getting the car running again I still had an errand for Iditarod to do at Office Depot plus I figured I should take Kevin and my grand daughter out for dinner. We ended up at the Dairy Queen near to the Office Depot. I still had no photo for the day, so I opted for a picture of Kevin and Savanah in the restaurant.
By the time I got back to the hotel it was 9:30 p.m. What an adventure! Rob, if you’re reading this, I think the tire is O.K. I’ll take a look at it tomorrow to see if looks like its still holding air.
We didn’t get outside today at all, but our grand children came for a visit. It was like Christmas all over again because they were here to open presents from their great grand parents. They had missed out seeing my parents over the holidays because they (the kids) were sick. I quickly grabbed the camera while they were opening presents. Although I would have preferred to use a couple off camera bounce flashes for a softer look, I only had time to use the built in flash of the D90. Bethany got a cute china tea set with a farm design. Here she is showing off the cow tea pot.
So now Christmas is finally over at our house and now I can take down our Christmas tree. That will be a good job for tomorrow since it’s supposed to be another rainy, rainy day here in Olympia, Washington!
Nikon D90, AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm 1:3.5-5.6G II VR at 52mm, 1/60, f4/8, ISO 200, built in camera flash
Yesterday when our daughter asked me if I was coming to their church Harvest Party, I wasn’t initially too excited to go, but then I got to thinking – this would be a good chance to take some in-doors photos of the kids and their friends, so I decided to go after all.
The kids were all dressed in colorful costumes and running around like crazy. I thought I’d try setting the White Balance on the camera instead of just using the Automatic Mode. The only problem I found is that you have to set it when you’re using the flash and then again when you’re not. Eventually I decided that for a group activity like this where every thing was happening so fast and I was going from movies (no flash) to still photos where flash worked well, it was just easier to put it on Automatic and forget about it. But I did get pretty good at setting it back and forth when needed a few times before compromising on the Auto setting. Each time you reset it you have to find something pure white to calibrate to, and that isn’t always easy in this kind of environment unless you’re carrying around your own white card; which I had left in the car.
Here are about 50 shots from last night – mostly of our grand kids and their friends, but some of kids I don’t even know.
[svgallery name="harvest"]
Update: I took some of the photos from this session and turned them into a JibJab movie. Very funny!
A couple days ago I took a drive down to our daughter’s house to help her with a computer problem. I told her I’d be bringing the camera and to tell the kids I’d be taking some pictures of them and their animals. The kids are members of the Spokes 4H Club in Tenino, WA and show goats and chickens at fair. Addy also shows her horse, Lightning.
I spent an hour or so in the barn yard and took about 150 pictures. Taking pictures of animals is definitely a challenge – they just don’t have a clue what’s going on. The goats kept trying to “eat” my lens. The dog would sit on command, but every time I’d try to get him to look my way, he’d come running to me. Chickens and ducks ignore you completely, so they’re a little easier. The results were pretty comical in some cases. But by the time I finished, I got about 50 shots that turned out decent.
[svgallery name="farm"]
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Colleen Easley lives in Olympia, WA with her husband Dale and 2 cats. Photography has been her hobby for 40 years. Currently she is working on a 365 project which requires that she take at least one photo every day and publish it to her blog. You may follow her on Twitter and/or Facebook by clicking the links below. To see all the photos of her 2010 project, click the link below under LINKS.
03.15.10
