Day 6

It was really nice to get out early this morning and explore the peace and sounds of nature around Hillsdale Lake. I was very disappointed in the amount of people that obviously don't care about anyone else and leave their trash everywhere! As soon as I find a dumpster that will take about a pickup load of all sorts of trash, I will be revisiting these areas and cleaning up as much as I can. I used Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 f/4L IS.

Nice calm cove as the sun peeks in.

I guess people don't care that it will take this can longer
than their lifetime to breakdown.

Wish this person would hit the road to a cleaner world!

Anyone know what tracks these are?
They were pretty big (oak leaf on right)

I guess some people thought it would be fun to
use the lake as a softball batting cage.
Now all those balls are floating out in the lake!

Wanted to make this a kind of dark mysterious look

Delicate Sharpness

This was a bad decision. It was a spur of the moment,
stopping the truck on bridge, not enough time to
adjust my exposure in time, capture of these
Pelicans. Not my intentions of 10 Clicks!

Classic C curve landscape shot drawing viewer through scene.

Framing the migration resting Pelicans from the bridge.

Day 5

Daylight got away from me again today before I could capture my 10 clicks! So I took advantage and tried some things I often struggle with: white balance variations, and creating different light with on-camera flash. I used Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105 f/4L IS and 580EX II Speedlight for several.

Paws: I was trying to capture Stretch's "Soft Paws" caps
we have on his front claws. He had a big stretched out
paw until that fraction of a second I was pressing my shutter!

"The Hat"

Something to crow about

The Light: I should have been about 1 1/3 stops
less exposure on this one.

Fiber: I was crouched on the floor and didn't see my
background was not clean. I like how the flash light
bounced in at an angle though.

Loon Globe: I did several things wrong here. Not long
enough exposure to capture the glitter moving. White
balance too warm.

Nissan: I really like how this turned out. Capturing the
red, white & blue.

Bulb: This was not what I had in mind! HA! I was trying
to compensate my flash white balance by setting my
camera white balance to a very warm Kelvin temp.
Obviously it wasn't enough, and my light angle needed
to be more straight under to not have shadows. (I was
trying to emulate a warm soft light like the bulb was on)

Time: (for bed!)

Rock: Prime example of the lack of dynamic range we
still have in cameras these days.

Day 4

Today got away from me, so my 10 clicks didn't start until the end of shooting the MLS match between Sporting KC and the Chicago Fire. The rest of the photos didn't happen until getting into town, and back home...in dark conditions. A great challenge for low light, high ISO, self timers and a tripod! All (but the first) photos taken with Canon 5D Mark III and 16-35mm f/2.8L.

Defeat
(Canon 5D Mark III with 300mm f/2.8L
and 1.4x teleconverter and monopod)

Fuel
Forgot to turn on my self-timer, and didn't have long
enough shutter to create more blur of the car.

Inviting

Our kitten Stretch motion blurred across the floor.

Blinded

A snack is calling me!

Cat, Blue, set in a strange white balance.

Octopus light and shadows

Dimensional Warmth

Window Shadow- Not quite long
enough exposure, FAIL

Day 3

Today I waited until sunset, to give more challenge to shooting in lower light. Had intentions of using my tripod but realized after getting outside that my camera plate had been removed, so these are all handheld again. Captured using Canon 7D with 70-200mm f/2.8L IS.

Woods (needs more saturation)

First change of color

Grass is still green (and needing to be mowed!)

Badly overexposed.
Prime example of being too busy trying to
get in position I was far enough
away to focus, trying to hold
steady with a 1/30th second exposure in
a very awkward position, to even check
my exposure level!

Reflection of honeysuckle on deck puddle

Darkness looms (exaggerated with lower exposure)

Playing with reflections and lines. Really was
torn on which to focus on here. Would have
been much easier with tripod!

This was kind of fun. I wanted the blown
out focus, but I also wanted to zoom out
while shutter was open to get a streak.
Problem was I was hand holding at 1/15sec
and knew if I stretched it out any longer it would really
get to be a mess! HA!

My girl Blue has her focus on something

Sometimes ya gotta focus on the shadows, but include a
piece of the source.

Day 2

All Day 2 photos captured using Canon 5D Mark III with 24-105mm f/4L IS. Handheld. I stuck with a theme of "color" for today.

Green / BlacK

Color Palette (AKA: Restrictions)

Yellow
I should have done more of a color profile or white
balance tweak in camera....this yellow is too drab.

R for Red.
Again, could have done better on camera to make this pop.

Greens on Brown

Everything goes back into the Earth. Take care of it!

Strong amongst the drab.

Thought this train would be a nice contrast with the green and blue.

Tri-Colors:
More contrast should have been added in camera.

White River