Scavenger Hunt Sunday: On A Winter's Walk

And the hunt is on!

My submissions:

Smile (Saun's suggestion)

Stand Alone: (Saun's suggestion)

Rusty or Something Old: (Saun's suggestion)

Going for a shot of the stairs going into the OLD building I realized I could capture both RUSTY and OLD for the hand rail was rather rusty.

Artificial (Terrie's suggestion)

Walking around down town I saw many things that were artificial, mainly flowers and such in the store windows but nothing really jumped out and said Photograph Me. So I decided to take a photo of an artificial object that make a major difference in so many peoples lives. This one happens to belong to my husband.

Repeating Pattern: (Terrie's suggestion)

 There were of course lots of repeating patterns in the old buildings along my walk. Although I did take photos of a number of them this brick pattern spoke louder than any of the rest. ;)

I hope you have enjoyed my finds, now please click on the button above and head over to check out what others have found for Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

Weekend Reflections: Kick It!

Don't forget to run over and visit all the great photography at Jame's Weekend Reflections!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday: It's A Wild Life

Time for the fun Scavenger Hunt Sunday. This weeks prompts were so much fun.
Enjoy!

Sunset
I did attempt to get out at sunset this week but with the freezing cold and the wind I chickened out so my sunset submission is from my archives.

Black and White
Generally I shoot full color and then switch only a few shots to b/w during processing. However, I did set my camera to monochrome for a series of photographs this week. This was my favorite.

A Day in My Life
After a great deal of thought I chose to capture an abstract photo that depicts my rather wild, crazy and colorful daily life. Focusing on my rather wild bedroom curtains I used a slow shutter speed and manual movement of the camera to capture a number of really cool abstracts. This is the one that I feel most depicts my daily life.

Four 
When I read the suggestion for this prompt I was pretty excited because this is a prompt where I can share my passion for photographic art.  My submission is a composite multiplicity photo created this week using four different photographs taken specifically for this purpose early last fall.

Colorful

I just loved the look of so many of the shots I took trying to capture my wild life I decided to share another one as my shot for colorful. I call this one Wild Child.

Next weeks prompts:

Smile (Saun's suggestion)
Stand Alone (Saun's suggestion)
Rusty or Something Old (Saun's suggestion)
Artificial (Terrie's suggestion)
Repeating Pattern (Terrie's suggestion)

 

I hope you have enjoyed my photographs and will join us at Ashley Sisk's just click on the button below.

Creating An Inexpensive But Elegant Backdrop

Recently I decided I wanted to get more of a studio look with some of my portrait shots. Of course that means I needed to get some type of backdrop. After looking around I decided that at this time it was more than I could spend to purchase professional backdrops. But this did not stop me from improvising.

First I purchased a rolling garment rack and then went in search of material. I was fortunate to find approximately ten yards of this wonderful 110 inch wide draping material at a Goodwill for only $3.00. I wasn't exactly sure how well it would work as the fabric is a bit sheer so I had to first hang a plain white sheeting behind this fabric but I am happy with the results. However, as you can see by this photo it is not wide or tall enough to do full standing shots, so I will be heading to Home Depot to get longer tubing to increase the width and height of the garment rack.

After putting it all together I set up my lights (made from regular old automotive shop lights) and my camera and had a little test run. Just as I expected the width of the backdrop frame is too narrow for any distance shots.

It was however just fine for closer shots. I do need to figure out a better way to get the focus right when doing self portraits though.

The total cost so far for the backdrop is $15.00, ten for the rack, $2 for a king size white sheet and $3.00 for the fantastic print sheeting.  Both the material and king size sheet were purchased at thrift stores. Looking around I should be able to get the tubing to increase the width for under $21 dollars. Do you have any favorite materials that you use for backdrops? I will be keeping my eyes open for more fabrics to create different backdrops.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday: Winter's Chill

A few of the prompts for today's  Scavenger Hunt Sunday are going to have a two shots instead of just one. I didn't plan to do all of the prompts in one theme but when I was going through the photos taken for winter wonderland and frozen I realized I could once again do the entire scavenger hunt from one group of photos.  

Stacked Up (Honey Mommy's suggestion)
Trying to think of something different for this prompt I decided to stack the kids on top of each other. My grandson was disappointed because he wanted to do the stack more dog pile style, but the girls wouldn't go along with that. .

Now for the Winter's Chill theme shot for this prompt. Going through the photos taken for the winter wonderland I came across this one and was suddenly inspired to use it for Stacked Up also. I find it so beautiful the way nature stacks up dirt and sand and turns it into amazingly beautiful rocks, like this quartzite rock at The Falls.

Winter Wonderland (Honey Mommy's suggestion)
Around here one of my favorite wonders of winter is the water running through the frozen falls.

Sweet (Honey Mommy and Sacha's suggestion)
My first thought for this prompt was to take a photo of one of my sweet granddaughters, gotta love those freckles!

Yet, going with the winter's chill theme I captured a couple of sweet moments of kids and families taking advantage of a nice winter afternoon at Falls Park.

Hole (Sacha's suggestion)
You can't see the water surging behind the hole in the ice but let me tell you it was a really amazing sight. I wish I had a really nice zoom lens so I could get in close enough for you to see. 

Frozen (Sacha's suggestion)

This year is such a mild winter I was worried that there wouldn't be any ice on the actual falls. Although there is not as much as usual the falls are still partially frozen, and it is still pretty awesome looking.

I hope you have enjoyed my interpretations of this weeks prompts. To join in or just enjoy what others have just click on the Scavenger Hunt button:

Weekend Reflections: Along the Big Sioux

Joining in with Jame's Weekend Reflections

 

Reflection of the quartzite along the partially frozen Big Sioux River.

Farm Yard Portraits

Here are a couple of candid portrait shots I managed to capture the day I went exploring this old farm.

Wordless Wednesday: Cat Alarm

Macro Monday: It's All in the Eyes

It has been a while since I did any real close up shots but I just couldn't resist these two.

 Can you see the laughter in her eyes? I forgot to tell her I was going to get in close for a shot of her beautiful eyes and she jumped as the camera got close. But once she knew why I was coming in so close she was all excited to see how the photo would turn out. I also love that I was able to capture a reflection of the two other models and their shadows as well as a reflection of my shadow.

With this one I zoomed in instead of getting extra close. I learned something important with this shot as well and that is to make sure the model remembers to clean their glasses. I did have to do a bit of clean up on this shot to remove dust particles from her glasses.

If you like macro shots you will love Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos

Scavenger Hunt Sunday: Laundry Day

I had every intention of getting back on track after the holiday's, and yet the week flew by and I had not captured a single shot for this weeks scavenger hunt. But then laundry day came and I decided I didn't want to spend the entire day doing laundry so I packed it all up and headed to a laundromat. With my camera in hand of course.

One Color

Laundry

Of the many shots I took of laundry tumbling round and round in the washers and dryers this was my favorite. I thought the reflection of the washers was quiet cool, although I really wish my  mind had been functioning a bit better and I had used a faster shutter speed.

Empty

Believe me these weren't empty for long.

One Dozen

Okay, so there are only five, but trust me I pumped more than a few dozen quarters into these machines.

Soft

Why so much laundry you ask. Well this little guy needs a SOFT clean place to rest.

If you would like to join the fun or see more finds just hop on over to Ashley's blog and check it out.

Sneak Peek: Maternity photo session

I recently had the privilege of capturing a very special time in the VanOrman family's life. Here are just a few of the many great shots we captured for this wonderful family.

 The main purpose of the photo shoot was to capture mom in her last trimester of pregnancy. Once that was accomplished we decided to get a few shots with the other family members as well.