A Carving night not at the movies

Yes with the ones who could come we asked for costumes and we got costumes. And I thought Scott was already tall enough. Look what happens when he ducks inside the cape.

Sam was having a hard time wanting to keep on the mask so I had to snap fast.

Look at those eyelashes. They didn't stay on very long though.

Look closely at the hands and you would wonder if the beheading had just been done.

Our hippies and pirates were also here.

Now on to the carving images where I bumped up the ISO on the camera and holding it as still as possible took pictures with the candles inside so that you can see the carving as they are meant.

And now this one, Wait it isn't a carving just a picture using a flashlight just as I did in the pumpkins. Makes me wonder though if something like that could be carved. Either way you

just gotta love those smiling faces.

A weekend with family in Colorado

It seems as though time is even moving faster now. I can't believe that it has been since the 4th that I last blogged but it has and now i must be behind. Anyway last weekend we went to Colorado to see our son's family. While there our granddaughter's had a lot of things planned for us to do. We had soup day at preschool, a play at the Junior High, a soccer game, a church primary program, pictures to take for the family and friends as well as the preschool and a visit with the girl scouts to a pumpkin farm.And that is where the pictures are going to come from today.

So here we are at the May Farms pumpkin farm in Colorado. According to the lady who owns the farm with her husband they are one of the very few true pumpkin farms in Colorado. Not that there are not a bunch that profess to be, they really aren't because they have them all hauled in and then put them out in a field to sell. They had a really bad freeze though last week so even though it looks like there are a lot of pumpkins a good number of them are soft due to the freeze and thus no good to sell.

Our granddaughter's were very excited to visit the farm and to go through the corn maze. Here they are before we started the activities.

There were animals on the farm as all good farms would have. There were ducks and geese and goats and lambs and chickens and donkeys.

This is only a few of the images from those animals.

Then one of my favorite parts of the entire visit was all of the other things to photograph. I love flags, windmills and sunsets and there were all there. Plus , of course, tractors for giving hay rides into the sunset.

Toward the end of the evening, after a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin for each girl, we were starting to get tired. But it was a lot of fun and the sing near the door as we were leaving the barn said to ring the bell if we had a good time so we did.

Now if you are wondering about the corn maze. Well, there wasn't one, there was a patch of grass like plants that were really tall and waved in the wind and slapped us in the face and left us itching all over and, well, it didn't end up being their favorite part but maybe soon I will post a few pictures from inside the maze. I must admit it was different and very unusual. I think it was sorghum or something like that.

So, What else is happening?

In the last few years with the advancements of technology things that were once not done have become daily activities. Most people couldn't take a picture and now everybody does. That has been one of the things that digital photography has done even when Brownie instamatic cameras and others like it only started to get it done. I remember when I use to photograph weddings and be the only one with a camera and now it seems I am the only one with a backup camera and everyone else has one (two if you count the one in their phone) and is taking pictures as fast (almost) as I am. Their pictures look great too and I am often glad there are a few more around just in case mine doesn't work. Of course there is always a difference between theirs and mine only because I am usually the one setting up the shot and they are having to take it at a little different angle. However now that there are always so many different cameras around I like to sometimes step back and capture a look at "What else is happening".

Below are four pictures that I took of the family sightseeing at Cedar Breaks National Monument near Cedar City, Utah. My wife and I had decided to travel up there while we had some extra time between photographing recipients of the scouting award known as the Silver Beaver award. We had pulled off on one of the side areas and were just enjoying the view. I had photographed a couple of wild animals that we could see and of course had set my camera up on a tripod and took our own pictures. We were almost back to the car when several cars pulled up and one person hopped out and seeing my camera with the telephoto lens on figured I knew how to take pictures and asked if we could do a family group shot for them. I gladly accepted and for the next 20 minutes or so not only did pictures with their camera but also with mine and then later sent them a cd with my shots on just for the fun of it. However being a non-member of the family gave me an opportunity to just sort of stand back and watch what was happening. I didn't stop taking pictures though and the following shots show that when there are pictures being taken of the group there are also some shots that can be taken showing how the rest of the group is getting into the same shot only from behind the camera and thus that memory is soon forgotten.
So here is what the family was shooting and below is what some of the others were actually doing while it was taken. (and by the way how many cameras do you see. I see 5 people and I am pretty sure there are 5 cameras.)

And of course this one on top is what else was happening while the picture below is the memory they took home in their cameras. (Here you can see that even the younger ones of the group have a camera.)
So next time you are having family pictures and you are not taking them for the family and you can stand back and watch don't stop there but record a few of the actions that will show what else was happening. (My thanks go to the Bodily Family for a chance to help them record a few family treasures.)

Capture My Utah

I was just told about a web site the other day called www.capturemyutah.com and decided to take a look at it. It is an interesting work and they are putting together a book of photos taken in Utah by the people of Utah (or someone photographing Utah). Anyway I did a quick search of my images and choose a few that might work and then uploaded about 6 of them. If you were to choose which 2 or 3 , if any, which ones would you have used. I am interested in your feedback because over the years of doing photography I have learned one thing, "I can't out guess anyones likes or dislikes since their likes and dislikes are almost always different from mine." So I have just continued to shoot everything that gets in my way so to speak and then leave it up to the viewer to like it or not. And as another photographer always says in his blog at the end, Enjoy!

Another Panorama with Photoshops help

Here is a collection of images that I took on purpose to be able to create a panoramic view of Dead Horse Point in Southern, Utah. Had I taken the proper time I would have put the camera on a tripod but then the last image shows that anyone can take images for a panorama even without a tripod. I stitched these images together with Adobe Photoshop CS4. I then tok the final image and converted it to LAB color mode and made a couple of enhancements then converted it back to and RGB jpg file. Images are in order (I hope) from my right to left as I photographed the area. I did have to add a little to the final image to fill in a couple of empty areas created in the final stitching. In the second and third images you can see the storm that was coming quickly our way. Look carefully and you can see the overlap in between the images that allows photoshop to stitch the images together.
Did you see the two people near the edge of the canyon in the above photo? They appear as a white dot in the middle right of the image.






Can you see the truck on the road in these two images that gives a little perspective to the depth of the canyon.

Where is the focus

A simple showing of selective focus.