Student Life

One of my former students comes to my room to study during lunch break. Today, as she was studying while eating her lunch, I looked over and thought, this is the "picture" of a student. So, I took the picture not for any specific photographic reason but just because I liked what it meant for me. Student-defined :)

Sunlight

The sky had layers this morning. It was dark and cloudy (right), turning to streaming sunlight breaking through the clouds (mid-right) and then a beautiful blue sky with pristine white clouds (left). I always like to catch the streaming light so I was looking for views of that. The best part of this shot was getting a little of each piece of the different sections of sky. I've been focusing lately on getting closer shots but this one was trying to get a greater area to show all the areas of sky that I found so interesting.

Green eyes

It's always hard to get a decent shot of cat eyes, like the red eye in people, cats get their eyes washed out in a flash. Also, catching Dottie is a bit of a challenge, she tends to like to sleep in paper bags and boxes and under things. She was curled up with this blanket and her green eyes were just so pretty, I had to try and get her cute little face and green eyes.

Photographer

Obviously, I didn't take this picture...but another photographer did. In fact I was taking the shot and he said, wait, stay there another minute! It's a nice angle, I was on a hill shooting up at birds in trees.
I didn't take a single photo today. After my busy weekend, full of photos, I am just playing catch up today and I thought I'd post a photo of me taking all my weekend photos. It was quite chilly outside, so I'm wrapped up in layers, with a scarf and coat. The morning cold slowed me down but didn't stop me from my run Saturday nor my picture taking Sunday!

Birds of a feather

I had several opportunities to photograph ducks this weekend. We saw a group of them at the Fishin' Hole in Weatherford yesterday then more today at the Botanical Gardens and even more along the OKC Riverwalk. I love photographing birds (as you might have noticed) and ducks have some amazing coloring. This guy had just come out of the water and was fairly close to me. These ducks are used to being fed and are pretty tame around humans. I love how you can see the patterns on his upper feathers, the water dripping off his lower feathers, the brilliant color of his head and the shine off his wet beak. It was also nice that he turned and looked at me so I could get this shot. It was quite cold and windy outside today but worth it for the beautiful birds.

Getting a shot...

Despite a rainy, cold morning, the afternoon here in Weatherford was nice enough for a nice hike. This particular variety of bird (I can't recall what it is) was all around the pond, mainly in the trees but also in the cat tails surrounding the water. I was finally able to capture one of them as he sat atop one of the plants. I had get down into the mud and work to do manual focus with all the surrounding brush but I got this shot of a lone bird amongst the cat tails. Meanwhile, Eriq was at the top of the berm taking a shot of me:

Oklahoma sky

Tonight, we made a road trip up to Weatherford, OK. We're meeting my cousin and her husband from Kansas and also catching a basketball game for a nice mini vacation. We were able to get away around 5:00 pm and so we were into Oklahoma as the sun was setting. The sky behind us was beautiful, full of colors, pinks and purples changing to oranges. We pulled over so I could take this picture along I-35 heading toward Turner Falls.

Catahoula Leopard Dog

When people ask what kind of dog I have, I answer them...Catahoula Leopard Dog, I get this blank stare or "what's that?" in response. Nobody ever knows what that is so here's a brief intro to my Catahoula. Rhoda (her shortened name) is actually half Rhodesian Ridgeback and half Catahoula but her appearance is exactly like her mother, all Catahoula. Although the picture doesn't do her beautiful colors justice, she is a merle with a slick coat (hair looks almost painted on and it's so fine and thin) and two different colored eyes, although she did not get the cracked glass eye. The ice blue eye you see here looks almost white outdoors in sunlight and her other eye is green. They are a herding dog, which our cats find quite interesting, and they are typically 50-90 pounds with Rhoda right in there at 60. There's the basics, they are a very smart, trainable dog although their ability to learn definitely goes beyond what you teach them, in other words, watch out for the tricks they will pick up when you're not looking ;)
Interesting fact: They are the state dog of Louisiana

Foggy Day

One of the nice things about living "outside" of town is the big open spaces. When the weather gives us snow, rainbows, or in this case fog, I have plenty of opportunities both at home and on my drive to work, to capture nature. I took pictures near the creek that are "ghostly" and ones as the sun peeked out later but this is my favorite. The image looks grainy but that's just how foggy it was, you can see how the road and trees fade into white in the distance. There were more foggy areas but all white isn't that interesting, I wanted to capture enough of the trees against the white to show the depth. Once again, the leafless branches of winter work best here for contrast.

Diner Style

Today was an absolutely crazy day! Lack of sleep, crazy scheduling, sick kids, sick teachers, substitutes, bad copies, and all on the first day of school. So, after work I went to my favorite little bar & grille for dinner on my way to my other office. I liked the way the drink looked with the stripes of color and the lime wedge. When I looked at angles, what I really ended up catching here was the old diner feel with the table and then the checkerboard floor and chairs fading into the background.

Laser Pointer Fun

One of the most entertaining things we do with our cats is to bring out the laser pointer. Dottie will literally scale the walls chasing it. For a different take, I got at the top of the wall she most likes to climb (it happens to be the edge of the staircase) and shot the photo down at her as she came up. I'll have to do this again, it was even more fun than them just chasing it around the room. You can see the streak of red on the wall that she is chasing. It was hard to get the lighting and focus going with all that movement and dark enough for a good laser but for a sudden idea, it worked out alright.

PIP - Player in Progress

After yesterday's PIPs performance at the basketball game, I got my own personal show today from my favorite player, Ashley! I wanted to work on some movement shots with her, so we talked about some of her skills. For this shot, she balanced the spinning ball. We did this for awhile and then she also spun the ball on her finger while doing a flip on the ground. This girl plays basketball and does PIPs performances, plays volleyball and softball and recently stopped playing soccer but might go back. She's my all around athlete :)
Here she is in a couple positions on the flip:

Hash - Basketball player

Today we got another conference win to put us at 2-0 to start conference play. Of course, I have tons of game pictures, that's what I love to photograph. But actually, some of my favorites are the ones that show one person up close, with a little movement, a little personality, a little game face, and so on. Here's one of Hash with the ball coming off the basket. Ask the team about the tattoos they had on today...

Fire!

I have been thinking about getting a shot of this for a couple of weeks and I finally got to it today. The sky was overcast but bright so I had to work on exposure but I actually like how the white sky accentuates the black of the roof. This house burned on Christmas day and was completely destroyed. Fire is an incredible yet deadly force, as you can see in these images. Our neighbor's house burned down several years ago and we had to evacuate our own house at that time. I have had a healthy respect for fire and am completely amazed by it's destructive abilities and I truly feel for people who have to go through a fire. Here's the other angle of the front of the house.

Class Fun

My students are the reason I have my job as a teacher. Some days are better than others, as in life.Today we wrapped up a semester and this fun bunch is now among my former, rather than current students. The picture is not so much about the picture as it is the character of the subjects, as you can see, they are quite a fun loving group, they were a Spanish 3 PreAP class, the other two below are Spanish 2 followed by another Spanish 3 PreAP. We took both "formal" class pictures and then "fun" pictures. The two Spanish 3 classes are shown here in fun mode...Spanish 2 is the formal photo in the middle.

Sunrise

I was up early this morning and was greeted by an absolutely gorgeous sunrise! The colors were amazing, especially through the branches of the winter trees. The pink peeking over the trees against the dark blues were striking. I also was thrilled to play with different settings and actually get some camera work done as well as just straight picture taking. You can see from the second picture that I stayed outside awhile watching the scene unfold.

Blast from the past

For those of you that grew up with Strawberry Shortcake, the first time, here's a blast from the past! These are a few of the little plastic, scented dolls from my collection. Yes, I still have them and yes, they still smell good. Amazing, isn't it? Here I have only a few of the characters, some of my favorites: Apricot and Raspberry Tart, Plum Puddin', Strawberry Shortcake, Huckleberry Pie and Buttercup. They are pictured here in a "vintage" showcase box...one made exclusively for me :)

Ice Crystals

We've had temperatures stay below freezing here for about 3 days straight. That's cold, especially for Texas! But the nice part is that we haven't had ice on the roads since the first day. However, the ice on the cars is another story. I went out this morning and these beautiful ice crystals were covering the car, windows and all. They are beautiful designs. I took some pictures with the reflections on windows and some where the ice formed crystal lines but this one is a unique view of my front yard, shot through the car window and focused on the ice. As I was coming in, the birds were out so I also got shots of a pair of cardinals as well as this bird in my Bradford.

Basketball

It's been awhile since I posted any bball pics. I didn't take as many at today's game since my shoulder is acting up but there are still a few good ones. This is one of my favorites from today. Hash has the ball coming out of hand in a dribble and you can see just a touch of the movement but there's a decent clarity to the shot. Despite the lit sign in the background that drives me crazy most of the time, I was able to get the lighting on this shot to work out. So, here's to all the basketball players out there.

Life imitates art?

If you look closely, you should notice that the cat...looks like the cat on the tin in the background. I didn't get the full effect, she actually has almost identical markings, body and all. Just found this amusing :)

I love my bathtub

My pictures have been more of a random story of events than actually focusing on the a photograph or a particular picture taking skill. I am working on things but have taken more photos to capture the moment than for skill improvement. However, I am still covering two of the suggested photo goals for this year from my digital photo school, working on a 365 and capturing moments of daily life. My bathtub has been a good friend lately, serving my physical needs as my cats soothe me emotionally so why not show you the combo. The cats love bath time and I usually have at least 2 of them in the bathroom with me at bath time. Tonight, Sophie was particularly interested...then she got comfortable and Shadow found her usual perch. Enjoy the little moments!

Decorations

I want to play with candles and low light and flames, so that may be a picture coming up soon but not today. Yet again, I had one thing after another all day and got to the end of the day with an idea but no photo so I decided to go with some candles but change it up. I purchased these hanging decorations recently (in Tulsa, OK some of you will remember ;) and I have them by some candles. I just moved around and played with my distance and angles to get the different pieces of the ornaments with the candles as a background and the flash casting fun shadows.

Yawn

Despite all the sleeping cats do, and the yawning that accompanies that. It really did take some time to get this shot. What can I say, I'm exhausted today so it seemed timely. The cats were sleeping on the couch so I tried to get them to yawn. I got each of them to do so, but catching it at the right moment was the challenging part. She looks a little scary but it's really just a yawn...

Yarn...and a cat

Today was my first day back at work after Christmas break, then we immediately went out to celebrate Eriq's birthday after. Thus, here it is the end of the day and I haven't taken my photograph. One of my goals with this is to force myself to find creative ways to photograph things I already see around me using new angles or methods, and trying to see things in new and different ways. Today I received a book I ordered about crochet. I thought some shots of piles of various of my pretty yarns might be fun. I had just gotten the yarn stacked up and the cat decided to get in the picture. It's a bit harsh with the flash but the glitter of the yarn is actually not too bad and the black and white on the cat and her shadow makes her stand out as separate from the yarn pile. And yes, she is looking to get into trouble...

Dog bones

Believe it or not, it's easier to get good pictures of the cats than the dogs, they are still more often, because they like to cuddle and sleep most of the day. The dogs on the other hand are either completely asleep or bouncing around outside or restless inside. The one time Rolf will sit still indoors is when we let him on the couch or when he has a bone and Rhoda isn't trying to steal it. He is so cute when he grabs ahold of his bone, crosses his front paws and chews on his bone. Look at that adorable face!

Bird feathers

The birds are very active around here this time of year. I've taken several opportunities to get outside and get various shots of many different birds this winter. Today, I was out at my parents house and they live on over an acre of mostly trees so there are birds in excess. It was a gorgeous though chilly day and the birds were bustling from tree to tree. There were several types of birds but this variety was the most prevalent. I caught him right as he was taking off from one of the branches.

Seashells by the seashore

I love shells. I'm not sure when or why I got started with them. I've never been a huge beach person but I have always been interested in shells and sand dollars. I have a small collection for decoration around the house. People will bring me interesting shells from various beaches they visit. Thus, the picture of the day as we start a new year is a picture of shells in sand.  feel like shells somehow signify both a beginning and end, especially the ones with the spiral shapes such as several of these here.
I did take this picture today, and no, I'm not on a beach somewhere ;) This particular set of shells and sand come from Corpus Christi, TX. I brought them back home after a conference a couple years ago. It was interesting transporting a bag of sand and shells through the airport but they made it home safely and