Annual Sandhill Crane Festival

This is my first year attending the Annual Sandhill Crane Festival which is held at Creamer's Field.  Every August, thousands of Sandhill Cranes begin their migration southward from Alaska and Siberia.  Creamer's Field is a migratory waterfowl refuge and one of the largest refuges for viewing such birds.  The three day festival offers a diverse selection of activities from children to adults.

This year, i was hoping to make a few of the workshops and tours such as the Nature Photography Workshop with Ronn Murray, a local photographer, bird banding, a few of the nature walks, kid specific activities, and the tex-mex dinner with latin music (a fund raiser for Camp Habitat).  Unfortunately, i was only able to make the fundraiser and went on my own nature walk with the girls.  

 Morgan loved being back at Creamer's as she had spent five days in Camp Habitat there.  She loved walking along the pathways and thru the fields as my personal guide.  We did not go to far along the trails as i was preoccupied with taking pictures of my youngest lovely lady, Riley.  After sorting pictures, i have realized that i don't have nearly as many photos of her as i do of Morgan.  Of course, Riley does not make it easy to take pictures with her quick movements, not wanting to look at the camera or me when i call her, and of course her ever present scowl.  I like to refer to the scowl as her "short straw look". Its the one that says i am forced to be apart of this family, i had no choice as i drew the short straw. 



Crane heads were bobbing in and out of this field.



We were also preoccupied with the many geese and cranes that surrounded us in the fields and flying above us.  It was truly wonderful to see. In the photo on the right, it was like the cranes were playing peek-a-boo once i decided i would try for a negative space photo.  With some patience, i was able to finally get a photo of just one crane head above the field while Riley was kicking my back (she was riding in a carrier) and making sure Morgan did not wander too far ahead on the trails nor scaring the poor birds.

 It seems there are some similarities between the photo of Riley and the peek-a-boo crane :).

Morgan's yelling finally broke thru my negative space concentration.  She was further down the trail and had found an entire open area of both geese and cranes.  They were tucked in between two tall fields of grass so i was unable to see them until i reached the opening.  It was wonderful to see the excitement n her face and the squeals behind me as we watched the large group of birds.  A vehicle started in the distance which startled many of the birds causing them to take flight.  A marvelous site that i, unfortunately, did not photograph as i had turned off my camera and capped to start heading back to the van. 

In these photos, i played with my depth of field a little to focus first on the cranes and then the geese.  I could not get any closer to my subjects so i zoomed in as much as i could with my 18-270mm lens. I wish i would have thought to change my settings so i had a deeper depth of field so all the birds would have been in focus.  If i get another shot next week, i will try these shots again.  

A telephoto lens would have been nice, too.  I saw many a photographer cradling a camera with a humongous lens.  My neck ached just looking at them.  I still want one. 

I am ending this post with a picture of Morgan.  She enjoyed just hanging on to the split rail fence to watch the cranes and geese.  I kept pestering her to look at me so i could get a photo of her.  I ended up with a scrunched up face and growl.  Oh, how i love this little girl.

Read more on the festival:

Something for everyone at annual Sandhill Crane Festival: FAIRBANKS - Not much has changed when it comes to the annual Sandhill Crane Festival. But that doesn’t mean that the festival isn’t any less interesting, or inspiring, when it comes to celebrating ...

Ice Skating into Winter



Morgan's 2nd day of ice skating at the Big Dipper.

Morgan has had a busy summer.  She had daily swimming, t-ball twice a week, soccer twice a week, and, if we still had energy after a busy week, Tae Kwan Do on Saturdays.  Morgan absolutely loved swimming.  She made a few friends, Jack and Katie, and got a chance to reconnect with some old school chums, Ainsley and Madison.  While she enjoyed going to soccer and t-ball, it seemed she was easily distracted and would not participate in the games and sometimes practices.  Eh, she is still very young and it is not as if she was the only kid on the team that did this. 

Enter ice skating.  It has been a dreary summer, indeed, with all this rain so a friend and i took our kids ice skating.  We arrived at the rink early so we could get our kids the ice walkers.  We dressed the kids in their bike helmets, snow pants, sweater, gloves, and knee and elbow pads.  Morgan was a little scared even with the walker and safety gear but i have to say she was a natural on the ice.



We have gone ice skating four times.  The first time, i had to hold her and the walker during the entire open skate.  The second time, i was able to skate next to her while she used the walker, occasionally helping her to steer.  The third time, she would take the walker and skate around by herself. The fourth time, she would try to skate around without the walker.  I have to admit, i make her do the latter.

I think we will be signing her up for hockey this winter.  She will be skating with the Ice Dragons twice a week.  Lets hope she still enjoys skating afterwards.

Rain, rain...FINALly

If you were paying attention to my previous posts....my final was supposed to be a series with a rain element to each photograph.  Unfortunately, it rained one day before my final was due, the day i printed (the magnifying series), and two days after.  Lucky for me, i still had my borrowed flash for at least one of the rain days.

It was late in the evening and i had a tired and grumpy model but i was able to get a few great shots.  The model is my beautiful daughter, Morgan.  We had just spent a few hours earlier in the day at a Superhero fest at the local library (look for future post), followed by another visit to the local fair.  Morgan chose to have her face painted as a friendly pirate which by the way will be the theme for her 5th birthday.  She is loving everything to do with pirates and talks about it nonstop.  Look for future posts on the planning for this momentous event.
 

  Working with a manual flash is difficult.  Even if you have all the settings right, the background will still be underexposed.  The trick is to lower your shutter speed to allow the ambient light to help fill background detail.  Alas, i must have either gone the wrong way or tried to compensate for my aperture.  Either way, when the shutter speed is too fast, you will get the black stripe along the bottom of your photo.

Rather than trashing the photo, i edited the photo so that the surrounding was black. I accomplished this by using Photoshop to burn the background.  I think it turned out wonderful.  I am not sure if this photo could double as negative space as Morgan is placed a little too close to the center but for future reference....

Below are a few more photos i took that night. 



Photography - Week 1

These are the first photographs i took manually on my camera and edited using Adobe Photoshop.  The first photo is of my daughter's friend, Luukas.  The picture was taken after a quick hike on the trails near Ballaine Lake.   We hiked with Luuka's cousins, all six of them excluding their mom, Cedar, Arthur, and Arthur's newborn brother, Balin.  The mosquitoes were horrid.  I think this was one of last hikes for most of the summer.

I really need to work on my editing skills and composition.  While Luukas is a great looking kid with a great smile, he has a building growing out of his hat.  The picture would have been better if i had taken it in front of the lake.  I did do well with getting up and close with my subjects.  There was no need to crop for any of the shots except the burn barrel.

This picture is of a rose hip in my yard.  In the following picture, it is the same rose hip except in black and white.  I tried to paint the color of the flowers back in afterwards but ran out of time to finish the assignment.  It is a pretty cool idea and now i know how to do it for future photos...assuming i have the time.

Stack of wood in my yard.  I know, exciting subjects for a photo.

A burn barrel.  I wanted to see how the rust and paint would look after editing.

One of many bird houses we have hanging in our yard.  My husband likes the bird houses/feeders to attract birds.  Morgan picked this one out for him for Christmas, i believe.

A vent for our underground fuel tank.  Again, i wanted to see how the rust would look once i edited the photo.

Luukas and his cousin, Brennan, next Ballaine Lake.  It looks like there was research diving training for the university going on in the background.

More wood from ....drum roll...my yard. 

Trust me, the pictures only get better from here.  I was just familiarizing myself with my camera and i wanted everyone to see my growth as i progressed through the class.  I am writing this after the completion of my class and i have to say looking back i have learned quite a bit in the class and wish i would have taken it sooner.  Just think of all the great pictures i could have taken of my family and friends.  Just do it. 

Photography - Portraits

For my midterm, i had to come up with six portraits.  Three of myself and three of a model or different models.  Yikes.

Sarah was my first model.  We decided to go to the Georgeson Botanical Garden and the trails behind the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  Sarah was a great model, she was very patient with me as i took my time ensuring my lighting was correct, i was in focus, and all the extra bracketing.

I had three self portraits but i decided to not upload one of them as it was slightly out of focus and just an all round bad photo. The first self photo is a play on the sexy, fishnet stocking photographs except mine is kinda quirky.  Here i am putting on a pair of my favorite striped, orange tights. The next picture is my reflection with my camera in my husband, Jeff's, sunglasses.  No, Jeff does not normally wears these.  They were a $5 prop from Wally World.

My last portrait is of my daughter, Morgan, in her favorite pair of play shoes, sitting on her garden bench watching the grass grow.  I LOVE this photo of her.

Mosaics Anyone



Pinwheel Flower



Quite a few years ago, i was at the dump rummaging around.  No, i am not one to dig around in the dumpster.  I am more of a drive by and see if you can find something sitting around next to the dumpster kinda gal.  Anyhoo....I found an old iron dinette sett (a table base with four chairs).  I pictured doing a mosaic design on a 4 foot diameter table and set it on the iron base along with mosaic insets for the four chairs with upholstered cushions. 

Front of flower pot.

I was pretty excited about the project that i immediately bought a wire brush to remove the rust and spray paint it black.  Ten years later, the dinette set still sits by the green house (it used to be inside but...) rusting again.  This is pretty much how many of my great plans go.  I start but never finish them.  With this project, it was the mosaic part that kept me from finishing my table set.  I found the whole process very intimidating until now.

I am fortunate to a great friend who decided to take me by the hand and show myself and a couple other gal pals just how easy mosaics can be.  These were two day projects.  The first day she she instructed us on how to set our tiles and the tools we would be using.  She even made us a wonderful vegan panang curry.  Yum.  The second day was strictly grouting. 

Back of flower pot.

My first piece was a scrap piece of cement board.  I fragmented larger pieces of tile using a plastic bag and hammer.  A great way to release pent of aggression :).  I used a nipper to cut the smaller pieces.  I gathered my tiles and partially laid them out to come up with a design.  I settled on a pin wheel flower in a pot.  Magnificent.  Too easy right.

I followed up the plaque with a mosaic design a flower pot. I used up the rest of my small pieces to form three panels of small tile pieces separated by green river glass/rocks.  Once i ran out of small pieces, i started used larger pieces for the back of the pot.  I found this project a little more difficult because of the curvature of the pot and its weight. 

I don't think i am ready to take on my ten year in waiting project quite yet.  I think my next project will be a small side table or box.  Stay tuned.

Lamp in a Box

I found another great web site. It amazes me what i can do with my photographs, the many options available in displaying them. My new favorite web site is http://www.lampinabox.com/. Take you cherished photographs and create a one of a kind lamp shade.

I purchased vouchers on another cool web site called Zulily and used them to purchase two completer lamps (shade and base). I picked my favorite photos of my girls and created two shades, one in black and white and the other in color. Below are the proofs for each of the lamps

Photography - Final

The end of the semester is quickly approaching.  Thankfully, i no longer have my other distractions, Morgan's swimming, soccer, and softball.  I also have my mom here to watch the girls so i can focus on my last assignment for photography class.  I have due this Thursday a series of 5 (ideal) and no more than 10 photographs.

My original thoughts were to do a series of photographs of the local fire departments.  I wanted to do more portrait like photos of the guys, gear, and training.  Another gal had a similar idea.  I caught a glimpse of her photos which were more action unlike my thoughts on the subject.  But alas, i was feeling the end of semester bug and did not really want to put forth a lot of effort.  Have i mentioned i am auditing the class.  Sad i know but i was tired from my busy summer schedule and i did not really want the added hardship of having to conform to my models' (fire department) schedule.

With a only a week until i had to present at least two edited photos from my series, i was feeling desperate.  I talked to my instructor, Jason, to bounce an idea of doing longer exposures in the rain.  I was a little worried about the idea because what if it did not rain.  He was quick to ease my fears.  It was fair time, it always rains during the fair.  Well, that is if you did not need it to rain.  It rained twice, two days ago and again today.  I forgot to mention, i had to print and mount my photos today.

Lucky for me, i was super skeptical and came up with a back up plan.  Back when i was photographing wacky point of view i saw Luukas, a friend's son playing with a magnifying glass.  I thought it would be kinda neat to see what i could do with that and my camera together but i kept forgetting to buy one.  Jason gave me some additional advice during our meeting.  He told me that i should just have fun and experiment as i was auditing the class and would not be marked down if i did not produce a final.  I took his advice to heart and borrowed Luukas' magnifying glass.  I am sure glad i did.

Below are my photographs in the order they will be shown.

I spent yesterday at the Georgeson Botanical Gardens at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  It was difficult to hold a magnifying glass in front of my camera and focus.  After taking over 200 photographs with a lot of bracketing, i found that i could use the magnifying glass to focus while keeping my lens at 50mm and slightly off focus. 

I spent a few hours editing, printing, and mounting the photographs for our class show this Thursday.  I am excited for everyone to see my wacky series of flowers and to see what the rest of the students' work.  I also have to add that while i audited the class (there were quite a few others), i was the only auditing student that did not let the weight of daily life and school work get the best of me.  I did not call it quits just because i could.

It was a lot of fun and hard work.  I am glad it is done.  Well not entirely.  I am just glad to not be so busy but at the same time, i wish i could continue using the lab, scanners, and studio at my leisure.  Not to mention, i will miss my fellow classmates and that push for creativity.

It looks like i will have to start up that photography club after all.  What a great way to keep up on my photography, learn new techniques, and visit with new found friends.