366 Project Day 8

If all else fails, take a picture of my husband’s food.  My husband (I call him “Yes! Chef”) is one of the best cooks I know.  He studied under a local chef (John Evans of Zack Jack’s) for a year or so working in his restaurant.  He also does some catering for some of the local wineries.  Cooking is his hobby and passion, not his vocation.  One of the reasons I took a couple of food photography courses over at ppsop.com is because I wanted to photograph my husband’s food.  So, as I go thru this daily challenge of taking a meaningful photo every day, more than a few of them will undoubtedly be of my husband’s food.  The above shot is of some Bangers and Mash that he made with some sausages he got from my brother as a Christmas present.

Yes! Chef's Chicken Noodle Soup

Oh!  What’s this?  Another shot of Yes! Chef’s food.  Anybody that knows our family, knows that if it’s Sunday, my husband makes Roast Chicken.  We call it Roast chicken Sunday and I look forward to it every week.  The day after Roast Chicken Sunday, we roast the leftover bones and make stock.  Then we frequently make Roast Chicken Sunday soup. It was most tasty!

She will float away if you don't hold on to her...

My daughter called me on Day10 and asked if I would do a quick photo shoot with her and her boyfriend because she was getting ready to leave for a Mission in Africa and they wanted some pictures of themselves while they were apart (5 months).  I’m always happy to take photos of my family and especially happy to take photos of people that are happy…especially with each other.  This is just one of the photos I captured that I especially liked.  If you would like to see a little slideshow I made of the event, go here:  The Adventures of Aly and Brian.

Day 11...editing

I wish I could show a more creative and exciting photo for Day 11, but I spent the whole day delightedly editing my daughter’s photo session.

Day 12

The point of this daily challenge is not to take snapshots (see Day 11), but to think about the photo that you will take each day.  In the end, my photography should improve.  Here is a set up I used earlier in the year and I wanted to try out my snoot on my flash. It didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted, but this is a learning experiment.

Day 13...what the heck?

After my celebration experiment on Day 12, I gathered up the confetti (really some of our shredded paperwork) and placed it on some black shiny plexiglass next to our window.  I liked the colorful reflection and I thought the confetti would add some interest.  Maybe not.  As I said, this is a photographic journey…so back off.

Day 14: Sunset in Old Town Sac Town

I had the opportunity to do a little photo shoot in Sacramento on day 14. Around sunset we headed down to the river and I caught this shot.  I love to use this building as a backdrop for some of my portraits.  It is a pretty building all by itself.

Well (dusts off her hands)…another week done.

Want a fun photo shoot for a Valentine’s Day present?  You and your honey can have a quick photoshoot like I did for my daughter and her boyfriend along with a quick slide show.  The photoshoot took less than an hour. Contact me at schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net for the details.

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

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.

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

Edmond Attacks the Santas

I was just beginning to think that Edmond had been fairly good since his last adventure.  I figured “Cookie”, his girlfriend, was a good influence on him.  He had made a beautiful Christmas card and he was keeping a low profile.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.   This morning, as I rounded the corner the above scene greeted me!  What?

Shock and Awe

I have developed a little Santa Collection over the years and I put them by the front door to greet any visitors that may come by at Christmas time.  Apparently, Edmond decided he would have a little fun with these Santas.  He dragged a bag of mini-marshmallows into the entry and began pelting the unsuspecting Santas.  Several of them fell over out of shock.  The rest were in awe of what the little elf was capable of. I guess he figured he was already in the “Naughty” category, so he might as well go all the way.  No sooner had I shooed him away so that I could clean up the carnage (no Santas were hurt during the filming of this post), when I heard the candy jar top being unscrewed.

I hurried into the other room, and discovered this:

Edmond Pop

I need to apologize to the men in my life because I had accused them of eating all the candy when all along it was this little imp.  The bad thing is that he wasn’t the least bit remorseful.  In fact, he was rather proud of his accomplishment and offered me first lick.

Edmond put in his thumb and pulled out a pop

I didn’t think that was a good idea, so I told him that I was on a diet.  He looked a little hurt, so I assured him that it was the thought that counted.  Probably the whole candy thing was a ruse because just as I was beginning to relax a bit, he was off on his real mission:  to challenge the Angel Christmas Tree Topper.

Edmond Challenges the Angel

Luckily, she’s not quite as sweet and gentle as she looks.  She put the potential coup down in one quick lightning bolt aimed just past the little elf to teach him not to fool with her.  I was a little surprised because I had never seen that side of her before. (Note to self:  Don’t tick off the Angels.)

I think that whole episode scared a little bit of sense into Edmond because he hurried away and hid.  Unfortunately, he’s not very good at hiding.  I found him  in the basket of Santa hats with his hands covering his eyes.  I guess he figures that if he can’t see me, I can’t see him. I pretended like I didn’t see him so he would stay there for a while waiting for me to find him.  Every time I walk by the basket I hear giggling.  I’m sure he will figure it out soon enough and then I will have my hands full.  But, for the time being I’ll let him think I’m still looking for him.

Edmond "hides" in the Santa Hats

PS. you may be wondering why I have a basket of Santa hats.  When you visit my house at Christmas time, we always invite you to get into the spirit and wear a Santa Hat.  You would be surprised at how wearing a Santa Hat can brighten your day and make others feel good too.  Joy! to the World Christ the Savior is born.

If you would like a mini portrait shoot, contact me at schmautzhaus@sbcglobal.net.  I’ll make sure I leave Edmond at home.

This morning when I went over to my computer to do some editing of a photo shoot I did on Saturday, I discovered an elf in my coffee cup with a memory card.

The back story about this elf is that about two months ago a friend took me to a “Seconds” store in Carson City Nevada to “look around”.  I discovered some darling elves made by “Annalee”.  I purchased six elves dressed in red and green to add to my collection of bendable elves.  Everything was fine until we brought down the Christmas decorations from the attic.  That’s when the mischief began.

I’ll take a look at the memory disc and see what he’s been up to, but I have a weird feeling about all this.  I don’t know too much about shelf elves, but I’m thinkin’ they are supposed to stay on the shelf.  At any rate, here’s a couple of my favorite photos from the photo shoot.

Red Dress and a Mink

Red and Green look good on her

Blue Truck Red Truck

I’m sensing a theme here…

Red Lake - Canon 7D

The above photo was taken with my Canon 7D, which is a fairly expensive DSLR camera used by many professional photographers. I used a tripod and 5 different exposures (combined).  It is a wonderful fall scene.

The below photo was taken with my Canon G12, a point and shoot camera. It is relatively sophisticated, but a point and shoot nonetheless. I did not use a tripod and I popped the on-camera flash to brighten up the foreground.

Red Lake - Canon G12

The quality of the G12 photo is not as good as my 7d (phew), but you can see that you do not have to have a “nice” expensive camera in order to take a wonderful photo.  You just need to know a little bit about good composition and light. Try it.

Fishing in Paradise

Tahoe: Last Days of Fall

There’s a real nip in the air in Tahoe this morning and the autumn colors are beginning to fade. Winter definitely feels like it is on it’s way. But, there is beauty in every season.

An October Walk in the Forest with Obie T. Dogg

Obie T. Dogg and I take two walks a day when we are in Lake Tahoe.  I’m not sure why he demands to take two walks when we are here, but only one walk at home.  He’s a funny dog.  Anyway, we found a new route into the forest yesterday, not too far from our home and Obie always likes to walk in the forest because I can let him off leash (shhh…don’t tell anyone).  I always take my camera with me wherever we go because you never know what you might find.

Fall is such a beautiful time in Lake Tahoe, and I just can’t resist taking lots of photos.  Obie is the most patient dog ever.  He sits down about 10-15 feet from me with his happy face on and waits until I’m done.  Then he charges off ahead of me, constantly looking back to see if I’m coming.  If he notices that I’ve stopped to take photos again, he sits down and waits yet again.  He’s the best walking partner.