Flooding

Our little Fletcher branch of Hickory Creek can really move some water, when the need arises. However, it is surprisingly low most of the time. We have seen several occasions where the water came so high as to actually close the road out of our neighborhood and yet normally you can walk down 10-15 feet from the road to do some fishing. I have taken pictures of flooding and finally remembered to go back and photograph the same area during "non flooding" times. The fist picture was taken on October 13th of this year, the day after the road opened back up following a flood. The next picture was taken now,  look in the center of this top picture, you will see the very tops of the concrete posts and pipeline that run across the creek. Then notice the water level in the new picture. Obviously the trees show the difference that fall heading into winter has made on the area but hopefully I captured a bit of the depth of the water in comparison. Timely as it's started to rain again here this afternoon...

Christmas Trees and Kittens

We got our Christmas tree this morning...the kittens have seen one before, we had one last year with them. However, you would have thought they never had seen one! There was sniffing, exploring and running circles around it as it came in. Admitedly, these are the same kittens that crawled through the bushes forever back on the farm so maybe they were reminiscing. They have been running around like crazy all day but I caught this, somewhat peaceful moment, although you can see the look in her eyes that says something is coming.

Nature and ...

I asked everyone to pick up something unique on our hike to make a collage. I got an interesting collection of natural and not so natural items. A couple items didn't make it in the picture but I got most of them in here to form my image. My item was a seed pod with wispy seeds bursting out, other items were various colored berries, flowers, tiny as well as full size hinged shells, an acorn and other seed pods but we also found air soft pellets in various colors as well as a tennis ball. It was quite a collection and gave me an interesting photo.

Perspective

One of the assignments from last week was photography of children. I have quite a few pictures of children and several from yesterday of my nephews...but instead of using one of those, I took a concept from that to implement in this photo, although I used it on adults ;)
Perspective can be defined as "The relationship of aspects of a subject to each other and to a whole" so in this photo, the focus is on each of the individuals compared to the others in the group. For your reference, Jason, the guy in the blue shirt is over 6 feet tall, while at the other end, Shelly, in the black, is actually about 6 inches shorter. In composing the shot, the tallest people stood at the lower end of a hill and so forth on up, with the exception of Melissa, who is standing in front of her husband Jason at the bottom (left) and thus you can see her real height as compared to him. Just something to think about...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went down to my parent's house in DeSoto for Thanksgiving this year. Not only was it us, my parents, and my brother and his family but also my grandpa, aunt and uncle, one cousin another cousin and her new husband. It's really nice to get to see everyone and to spend time together. We talked, played with tractors and building blocks, played Guitar Hero, ate lots of food, went for a three hour hike, saw the end of a police chase, watched a football game, took lots of pictures, had dessert and just all around had a great time. Here's a picture of mom testing out the food...
Happy Thanksgiving!

Kitten in a bag

No, it's not like a "Bed in a Bag". As I was putting out the Christmas decorations, the cats decided to help...this involved getting into boxes and bags. I got a blanket out of this zipper bag to put it on the couch, I set the bag down and immediately heard the "crunch crunch" of Sophie crawling into the bag. She looks a bit unhappy here with her ears squished down by the bag but she was really quite content and after snapping a couple shots of her, I had to really encourage her to get out so I could put the zipper bag away. Dottie helped by just squeezin herself into boxes...

Fall life

This morning, while I was out for a hike I got some good pictures of some of the wildlife. This egret flew from one side of the lake to the other to land on this dead tree. The fall foliage in the background is slight but it adds a touch of color against the stark white of the bird and the brown/grey of the dead trees. The composition of this shot makes it my favorite of the day but below are a few of the other shots I got along the way. The ducks were out again, although not as many as last weekend. The fall colors are vivid on a few trees and the sun on the water made for a gorgeous view across the lake.

Kitty Room :)

I have a kitten, well actually she's a cat at about 17 months old now, that has her own "room". It's actually the little nook in the headboard of my bed. There's a sliding door on either side and this open space in the middle where we plug everything in and keep phone books, etc. She claimed this space and every night, she goes to bed in her room. I decided to try to get some photos of her in her room and I caught this face! So, it's not a great view of her space, but it's so funny I had to post it.

Kinetics

This week's homework assignment is kinetics, where the only moving object is the camera, or a part, as in this case, the zoom. I take a lot of movement shots, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. but this is completely different and quite fun. I was considering doing some work with lights, an extension on as assignment I had in a class last semester that was so much fun. However, I decided to try something new, always a good choice in learning, so I went for "standard" lighting and zoom movement. The top picture is of a candle pot and my goal was to make it look like the stars are shooting. I took several other shots of different items for more of a blur effect, such as this shot of fall flowers. I will definitely try more of this type of shot in the future.

Referees!!!

This was a four game weekend and I'm only going to put up one basketball picture! This is the one I chose because I have something to say...I hate it when refs try to join the game. Their business is to stay out of the way, be invisible, keep the game safe and let the participants play! That's it, their job, their duty, but sometimes, they just feel the need to exert themselves on the game and tonight was one of those nights. For some reason the refs really wanted the red team to win and they certainly helped them along to a 13 point lead with under 8 minutes to go, by calling not just a horrible but an unevenly horrible game. If you are just that bad, be bad in the same way on both sides of the court, not only calling on one team! So what this picture shows was definitely a charge and yeah, he calls a block. One of many such calls in the game, but give it to the ladies, they came through, put their all out there on the court and pulled the game up to tie it with 23 seconds left and pull ahead to win by 2 points! Yeah, I love my sports :)

Pedro el pinguino

This pinata has hung in my classroom for several years now. Some students of mine made him, years ago and he draws all sorts of attention and I forget to take notice of him. But recently in thinking of photos, I wanted to get some fun pictures of him and this is my favorite. I got the flag for a nice background to his cute face. This next picture is the rest of him for the full effect. The kids did a great job in making him. So go out there and make some pinatas!

Happy Fall

Well, I was very busy yesterday and took only one picture and it wasn't very good so I already skipped a day of photography...what was I thinking starting this everyday thing when I knew life was so busy?
Today, I had a training session off campus. So it was a different kind of day. We got to go out to lunch, this is what people with "real" jobs do, and then we got out early! It couldn't have come at a better time, I need some down time about now. I have too much to do that I'm not spending a lot of time with my photography today however, I had wanted to get some shots of some fall decorations so here's one of my little scarecrows. I want to do a lot more with backgrounds and arrangements but it's a start and next week isn't completely booked from 7 am to 10 pm so maybe...

MHS Basketball

It's basketball season! Not only did the TWU games start up last night, but high school girls ball is also underway. I had one girl on the court, one girl coaching and one girl on the bench as athletic trainer for today's game. I am happy with the shots I can get with this new lens, also the new camera body takes 4 shots a second on action so I can really catch that exact moment. This will be a short post with multiple pics because I have too much to work on right now and too many good shots to decide ;)

Basketball season has begun...

I finally got to use my new camera (Nikon D5000) and my new lens (Sigma f/2.8 70-200) tonight. I had a few shots last week but with my hand not fully functional I was limited, so this is my first real run. I got several very good action shots. While this one isn't the absolute best in quality, lighting, etc. I love the action it caught. Hash had quite a night and this kind of sums up the game. It wasn't the prettiest game...nearly 50 turnovers between the two teams, but hey it's a W-I-N! Great way to start the season too. Had a couple of friends join us at the game and also met a few of the new parents. Things are still a bit different this year but I am enjoying what I can. Tonight was a good night.
Here's the link to my photo at the TWU site: http://www.twuathletics.com/news/2009/11/16/BB_1116094200.aspx?path=wbkb

Lazy Sunday afternoon

Today has been a lazy Sunday around here. I was productive, putting together most of a slideshow and getting in a short run before the rain started, among other "house" things. But as far as my photography today, I had to stick to what I have around the house, fortunately this week's photo homework is on animals and that I have around, in excess ;) While I took several photos and tried different angles and shadows and lighting, this is actually my favorite because of the clarity of colors and patterns in her fur and the way you can see the dampness of her nose. Tomorrow I will get back to my sports photography with some basketball shots.

Wilson it is...

This week was a bit overwhelming, but one good thing that happened was an opportunity to play volleyball again. I haven't played on a team in 10 years so I was more than rusty and even slightly injured myself BUT it was really a good time and and there's a future playing on the team. I look forward to getting back in the game so I found a local court and picked up a new volleyball to practice. The cats, as usual, were very interested in the new purchase, so they had to check it out. Here's Dottie with Wilson...and no I didn't pick up the ball with a "Wilson" on the back, but I did think about it!

First home game

Today should have been a great day. Basketball season started at home with an exhibition game, which is exciting on it's own, but also I have the new lens we got for bball season and the new camera body came yesterday. Finally, it's game time and all the pieces are here. However, more frustrations with regulations hit again today, which led to another difficult day leading into game night. Despite the purely anti-social mood I was in, I headed to the game as planned. As always, I was glad I did. I absolutely love my friends, the parents, the players, the former players, the game, the experience. Also, I got a text during the game from a former student who had come to the game with some friends and was sitting across from me, and I got to visit with her too. I didn't get as many pics as I would like due to my recent volleyball injury and the freaking huge camera lens, but Eriq was also finally able to take multiple pictures as well, his recovery seems to finally be taking. So, I'm working on getting back on track. This a shot I got of one of "our" seniors. Keshia is one of the girls we have known since they were freshmen, the ones we traveled to Denver with back during that wonderful blizzard...that's another story!

Published in newsprint!

Yesterday, I finally got copies of the newspaper with my photo credit! One of my TWU soccer photos made it from screen to print. It was in the Denton Record Chronicle from the September 6th game vs. Incarnate Word in San Antonio. I have had several photos used on the TWU Athletics website and also used in their publicity materials for the 2009 season, but this was my first "print" photo. While it's not the best photo, it's still exciting to see my name in print :)

Also, my new camera (Nikon D5000) is scheduled for delivery today! After being without my D60 for a week and a half, I can't wait!!!

New camera kit details:
Nikon D5000, 12.3 MP Digital SLR Camera Body
Remote Switch For Nikon Digital SLR Pro Cameras
318AF Digital Slave Flash For Use With Digital Or Film Cameras
Nikon Nikkor Zoom ED AF-S DX Lens 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G

For more of my soccer photos, check the TWU Soccer page
(More Soccer Headlines at the bottom):
http://www.twuathletics.com/index.aspx?path=wsoc&tab=soccer