Posted in: 365 Project | My Life

Flowers and Light

I think I might have mentioned that I decided to try the 365 Challenge:  Take one Meaningful Photo per day.  I think the key word here is “meaningful”.  I can click the shutter all day long at any shiny, pretty, colorful thing I see.  I call it Crow Photography.  (I have coined the phrase, so if you use it be sure and give me credit!).  Meaningful is a whole ‘nother topic.  “They” say that if I take a photo every day that has some thought put behind it, my photography will improve. “They” must know because “they” write books about it and show off their amazing photos.  As far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out and will be until I can place my photos taken at the beginning of this year next to the, hopefully, eye-popping ones that will be presented at the end of the year.  Stay tuned.

I’ve also joined a group that has a weekly challenge.  The photographers that participate in this group are the judges.  It is a little scary to put your work out to other photographers that you know and admire.  At any rate, this week’s challenge is “Creative Motion” and I submitted the above photo.  Voting starts tomorrow.  There are some very creative entries so far. My photo was taken of a still subject and I zoomed the lens as I was pushing the shutter. I was so enamored with the process, that I spent a good hour just finding subjects and zooming my lens in and out.  Most of the photos didn’t turn out, but it was hecka fun playing around.

As I was contemplating how to be creative with motion on Sunday, it began to snow…the first snow of the season.  So, I did snap a couple of snow photos to “try out” for the competition.

This photo reminded me of a tree running from the storm with her long “hair” flowing behind her.  I like this photo, but it doesn’t really fit the “Creative Motion” category.  If there were a “Tree that looks like body parts” category, I would probably win.  Not likely to happen.

This one has more “motion” with the falling snowflakes, but it’s not very creative.  I wish there were a bird on the flower pot.  It still wouldn’t really fit the category, but the photo would be way more interesting.  Hmmm…a little photoshop maybe?

I shot this one out my back door yesterday (the snow had already melted) by turning the camera as I pushed the shutter.  While this kind of thing is fun to do and sometimes makes for an interesting photo…there is not much skill involved.

Today is another day and time to think about a new “meaningful” photo.  Where’s my dog…Obie!

Mini photo shoots are lots of fun.  Contact me for an appointment.  I promise I won’t spin the camera. (Although it might be an interesting shot…) schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net

 

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  • January 24, 2012 - 11:15 am

    photowannabe - Karen, I love the way you experiment and do such creative shoots.
    Keep shooting and they will all be meaningful.
    Sue

  • January 24, 2012 - 8:44 pm

    Mary - Meaningful image? Shit! Today’s image was a total bust for me. I may have to cheat and put something up from a different day. I took moss pictures (boring) and a sunset sky over McDonald’s – oh yeah, meaningful images all1 🙂 Love the image of the tree running away in the snow. So beautiful!

Posted in: Best of | My Life

My Facebook Cover for week of January 23, 2011

I know I am a bit tardy in posting the “Best of” for 2011.  After all, it is almost the end of January.  Most photographers put up their “Best of” a week into the new year.  Not me.  Always behind the curve.  It took me a long time to decide what I wanted to say with my slideshow.  I wanted to start pulling out all the photos that I would enter into a print competition, but my mouse kept clicking on the ones that were emotional to me.  So…I went with my gut.

Some of these photos I have entered into competitions.  Some have even won a First, Second or Third.  I am humbled and honored by those awards because I have competed against some very fine photographers.  But the bulk of these photos are not the most technically correct nor have the best composition nor the most fantastic bokeh.  Nor do they take your breath away.  Some are even a bit blurry.  But I love each and every one and I remember the exact moment that the shutter was clicked and why I took the photo.

So here they are.  I hope you enjoy.

2011:  The Photographer’s Favorites

 

PPS.  I would really like to embed this slideshow on my blog, but I apparently don’t have the Ninja Skills that it takes to figure it out.  So, I’ve included a link (above). But because hope springs eternal, I’m leaving the embed code below just in case it decides to magically work later on.

<iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/35422794?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0″ width=”398″ height=”224″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

PPS.  Don’t try to figure out the meaning of my Facebook Cover (above).  I just love to design with scrapbook elements and I love Lori Davison’s (scrapbook graphics) work.

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Posted in: Fashion | men | Old Town Sacramento | portraits

I had a last minute opportunity to participate in a photo shoot in a wonderful old garage in downtown Sacramento with two great (and very handsome) guys and a beautiful woman. Two other photographers also grabbed the opportunity and we all met down at the garage, which was heavily graffiti laden.  There were four huge doors opening into this garage which allowed wonderful, natural light in to the otherwise dark interior. The gentleman above, John, was covered in tattoos, which went quite well with the graffiti.

This is Jonathan and I’ve shot him before, a couple of years ago in Napa.  The garage also provided a wonderful backdrop for him, with his blue eyes and well-built frame. Yes ladies, you can swoon and be envious over my good fortune being able to photograph these men.

John, above, is also a cage fighter.  I don’t know too much about cage fighting except that I understand it can be brutal.  However, John was one of the nicest men I have met in a very long time. He had never participated in a photo shoot before, but he was very natural and easy to work with.

We had a bit of fun with the whole fight scene.  The light was so pretty behind them and the graffiti matched very well with the scene.

As it began to get a bit darker, we decided to go down to Old Town Sacramento to get a couple of sunset shots.  It was a beautiful evening and the subject matter was equally beautiful.

This gal was a gymnast and we thought she looked great in evening clothes with the lights of the Tower Bridge behind her.  She was a delight.

If you would like to have your portrait done for beautiful photos worthy of hanging on your walls, please contact me at schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net or 530-647-8120.

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Posted in: My Life

January 1, 2012

So, I’ve joined the ranks of the “take one picture per day for a year” crowd. I take pictures frequently.  In fact, I’ve probably taken tens of thousands of pictures just last year.  I know I threw away more than 10,000 photos as I was going thru 2011 to find “The Best of 2011” (which I will be posting later on.)  So, taking pictures every day is not really a challenge.  Taking good and/or meaningful pictures every day is a challenge and I see that I ran up against the wall just this week.

For day one I had several options…an 8 point buck, a flock of turkeys, my husband’s New Year’s Day food and pics of my family.  I will usually opt for a people picture, and especially a family picture, over other things any day of the week, so I thought this one of my daughter, her boyfriend and my husband with champagne glasses would be a good start to the new project.

January 2, 2012

January 2, 2012 was all about recovery.  My husband and I were home alone after several weeks of enjoying lots of company and Christmas celebration.  I love Christmas time because there’s lots of stuff going on and we get to host lots of people.  However, I also enjoy quiet evenings at home with my husband.  We watched football and movies and my husband cooked a simple Cheeseburger with freshly ground meat, cheddar cheese and marinated red onions.  We also had green beans with toasted almonds.  Simple, but luxurious and very tasty.  We even sat in front of the tv and watched “A Perfect Murder”, which was based on the Hitchcock movie, “Dial M for Murder” that we saw the night before.

January 3, 2012

On January 3, 2012, while Obie and I were out for a walk, I saw this tree and found it very “appealing”!  The ant was a bonus.

January 4, 2012

The next day I had quite a few photos to choose from because I was looking for things to photograph for a weekly challenge I participate in. I was photographing one of my favorite places when the sun started to go down.  It didn’t look like it was going to be a good sunset, but I waited and my patience paid off.

January 5, 2012

I admit that it was a rather slow day at the Schmautz Haus on January 5 and so I resorted to taking pictures of the wildlife.  It’s not a particularly good picture, so I will try to do better.

January 6, 2012

Day 6 was relatively uneventful until I decided to remove my outdoor Christmas decorations and discovered that my socks exactly matched one of my Christmas snowflake decorationss. I was delighted with this and couldn’t help but take a picture of it.  Actually, I took several pictures, but this was the best one.  The women in my family (my daughter and myself) love to wear colorful or interesting socks. In fact, we go out of our way to buy each other fun socks when we come across them.  So, this photo is probably only exciting to me (and perhaps my daughter.)

January 7, 2012

Finally today’s entry was all about another challenge.   The Challenge group I belong to has a new photography challenge every week.  The picture must be taken during the week of the challenge.  This week I got to choose the challenge subject because I won the challenge from the previous week. (Yea me!) So, I chose Depth of Field (or bokeh).  A shallow depth of field generally involves focusing on one thing in the photo, while the rest of the photo blurs out.  The blurred out portion of the photo either helps to tell the story or becomes indistinguishable.  The viewer’s eyes are drawn to the item that is sharply in focus. I got the idea for this picture while I was taking down my Christmas decorations.  This isn’t necessarily the photo that I will be submitting, but practice makes perfect.

Hopefully I will become more creative thru the process of taking a meaningful picture every day.

If you’d like to set up a photoshoot for you or a family member, or if you are interested in purchasing any of my photos, please contact me at schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net or visit my website:  Sierra Springs Photography

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  • January 7, 2012 - 11:21 am

    Lesley Cox - Love your photos, Karen, especially the tree bark and the socks. I’ll keep checking in. I like this project.

  • January 7, 2012 - 11:31 am

    photowannabe - Absolutely love your daily walk with the camera.
    I missed seeing any turkeys this year. Happy to see there are still some around.
    I’m learning a lot from your posts.
    Luv the sox!!
    Sue

Posted in: Adventures of Edmond Elf | Christmas | My Life

 

When last we saw Edmond Elf, he was outside waiting for a mysterious visitor (after getting into the eggnog.)  As it began to grow dark, Edmond realized that his visitor was not going to show that day. He assured me that his visitor would show up, but Edmond must have gotten his days mixed up (stupid Ephone).  So, he encouraged me to dust off my Christmas piano music and play some tunes that he could sing along. So, I obliged the little elf and turned to some of my favorites. Edmond, of course, favored anything having to do with Santa, elves or toys. Although his favorite is Joy to the World.

Some of the traditional songs I played inspired him to check out one of my nativity scenes. He was absolutely enthralled with the baby Jesus and sat quietly while I played “Silent Night”, “We Three Kings” and “Away in the Manger”.  He told me my playing was magical, but I scoffed and told him he was probably just emotional about the whole meaning of Christmas.

Don’t say anything to him, but his voice isn’t very good, although he sings with great enthusiasm. I was hoping that he was done with the singing because it was beginning to make my ears bleed, but as I sit here writing this, I can hear him  “Fa la la la la-ing”  in another part of the house.  Frankly, I’m not in any hurry to see what he’s up to now, considering what he got into after the singing.

After I finished playing I thought it was safe to leave the room for a while.  But as I walked by the living room later on, I saw that he was terrorizing a small Christmas village that my youngest son sets up every Christmas on top of the piano.

The Villagers all seemed to be running from him in terror as he merrily yelled out, “Fe Fi Ho Ho Hum, I smell Christmas Cookies,” and “Bring out your Sweets” and other terrifying commands.   Sigh.  I asked him to please leave the peaceful villagers alone and help me clean the house for Christmas Cleaning Day.  That seemed like a good idea to him and he hopped off the piano to help me out.

He quickly lost interest in cleaning when he saw that it involved wet rags, brooms and smelly sprays that did not in the slightest smell like Christmas or cookies baking.

He found his chance to be a treetop Elf Angel and without any Lightning Bolt throwing angels around, he climbed the “tree” and declared himself Master of the Universe or some such nonsense. When I didn’t make any sort of comment, he hopped off the tree and ran down the hall shouting, “Run, run as fast as you can.  You can’t catch me I’m the Ginger-Elf Man”. (Note to self:  Stop reading Children’s Stories to Edmond.)

I didn’t pay much attention to him until I heard paper ripping.  Then I did run down the hall and here’s what greeted my wondering eyes:

My sudden entry into the other room startled him and caused him to fall into the package that he had opened up.

Serves the little imp right.  He told me he thought it was an early Christmas present for him because it had his hat on the outside. And even if it wasn’t an early Christmas present for him, he saw that it wasn’t wrapped very well, so he was trying to rewrap it for me.

“You know, Edmond”, I said with a large sigh. “I do not have time today to be chasing after you and cleaning up your messes. Company is arriving at the house tomorrow and I needed to get the house in shape. ”  He said he thought the house looked pretty good, but probably needed more lights and maybe another Christmas tree or two.  He offered to help.  I don’t know what got into me, but I decided that I needed to contain him for a while just so I could get some things done around the house, finish wrapping (and re-wrapping) Christmas gifts and do a little cooking.

So…I contained him.

At least I put him in a Christmas cup.

(no elves were hurt during the filming of this post.)

Contact me for a quick portrait session after Christmas to update your Social Media.  Quick, painless and great pics.  schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net

 

 

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