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Went to Scottsdale for a long weekend with a group of girlfriends. Had a wonderful time. The first nite, we took an evening tour of Taliesen West designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The image on the left was taken in the sculpture garden at nite. This was a handheld shot taken at ISO 3200. I did run Noise Ninja to remove some of the noise but the image quality was surprisingly good.
For one day, we took a day trip to Sedona...
About a month ago, I found a photographer that I really admire on photo.net. His name is Michael Seewald. After reviewing his work on the website, I signed up for his announcements. As chance would have it, he called about his workshop that weekend. The workshop was on composition and moving the viewer's eye throughout the image. After hearing Vincent Versace discuss tips for moving the viewer's eye using Photoshop, I have been wondering about next step in my own work. Sometimes fate does give you a little nudge in the right direction.
Fortunately, I could make it to San Diego for the workshop. The workshop was small and that our allowed us to do extensive portfolio reviews of each other's work. I learned so much that I will have to do multiple entries to discuss all of it. It was a great experience and I would heartily recommend it to anyone looking to improve their work.
Went with Aphra to Mount Diablo on a quest for California poppies. I had been to Mount Diablo one time before but realized that I hardly scratched its surface. Most of my shots came from a small meadow close to the summit. The consensus is that we are still a few weeks too early to see the big displays of poppies. There were small patches of poppies, lots of lupines, owl's clover, and other wildflowers that I do not know.
Went out for a short hike to Sunol. I was just pecking around looking for something to catch my eye before my appointment later that afternoon. Some days, I am not in the mood for shots. Since there were beautiful blue skies with fluffy white clouds, I decided to try a sky shot. I had read that infrared of blue skies went black and to add clouds for drama. I would say success.
For one more shot, please continue reading...
For the last day of Mother's visit, we went back out to Sunol for a hike. We decided to visit little Yosemite. Little Yosemite is about a mile from the parking lot whcih I have not visited for quite a while. Seems that everyone had the same idea, the parking lot and trails were full of folks and their dogs.
I like the next picture a little better than the cover picture...
