52 of Friday-Week Twenty six


 A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"bokeh"

Ken Rockwell describes bokeh this way-
"Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light.
Bokeh is different from sharpness. Sharpness is what happens at the point of best focus. Bokeh is what happens away from the point of best focus.
Bokeh describes the appearance, or "feel," of out-of-focus areas. Bokeh is not how far something is out-of-focus, bokeh is the character of whatever blur is there."

I thought I'd share a few more of pictures from my trip to Alaska for this week's theme.  I looked high and low for flowers in Alaska.  It was still quite cold which meant that the flowers were few and far between.  I did manage to find a few buds, but I promise I won't bore you with the dead flowers that I actually did take pictures of.  I was desperate, Okay? 





To continue around the circle and see a lot more bokeh, start here with Robin Moore.
 

Alaska-Part Two-The road to Denali

One of the highlights of our trip was traveling to, through and from Denali National Park.  Denali encompasses over 6 million acres of land.  I can't even fathom that amount of untouched space.  If I had a chance to go back to Alaska again, Denali is where I would choose to spend my time.  On foot.  In a bus.  On foot. In a car.  On foot.  You get the picture.  It's beautiful, even when it's overcast or raining. 

This is the Denali Princess Lodge's main building.  It's a huge resort.




This pizza joint was across the street for the lodge.  The pizza was good, as were a variety or two of the advertised beverages! 


I didn't have my wide angle lens.  I'm not even sure I'd have fit them all in the frame anyway!






 I looked for flowers everywhere.  This is one of the few that I actually found blooming.


 The day we were leaving on the Glass-topped train, we took a walk through the trails surrounding the visitor's center at Denali.


 I was desperate for anything that was growing..even fungus!


This was the highlight of my time in the park.  As we walked along the path some other hikers told us to keep our eyes out for two moose that were eating back in the woods.  As we walked along the trail I spotted one of the two right on the trail several yards in front of us. The cow (female moose) moved back into the woods as soon as she heard us approach.  We stopped when we heard them moving around.   I felt like I was playing "Where's Waldo?" with the cows.  They were brown and so was the woods. 


They knew we were there, without a doubt!


After several shots, one of the cows had had enough of us and stomped a bit and made some snorting sounds.  Her warning for us to move on.  Paul grabbed and said "It's time to go!"  My plea for one more shot didn't go over well, but I did get this shot as she was warning us!

As we continued up the path we could hear the two cows moving around.  Thinking they may come back onto the path we stopped and waited.  Sure enough Paul caught site of one of them coming out from the brush.  I waited until she was fully onto the path to start taking pictures.  I managed about 8-10 before she moved across the path.  I learned later that more people are hurt and killed from moose attacks than bear attacks.  Kinda scary!


This is a stained glass window in one of the park buildings. 


More flowers.  Even dead ones didn't escape my lens!


We looked all over for the bears, but they escaped us, at least while we were on foot.

Sorry, more flowers.



One of our excursions took us on a bus deep into the park.  Only the tour buses are permitted on these roads. Here were were able to see lots of wildlife and beautiful scenery.




And bears!
 










52 on Friday-Week Twenty five!


 A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"f/1.8"

After I purchased my first SLR camera, way back when, I took a photography class  at DCCC, so that I could take my camera out of auto mode and use the manual features.  The exposure triangle was something the teacher explained to all of us.  It's made up of the camera's shutter speed, ISO, and f-stop.  The shutter speed thing seemed really simple.  The ISO, not big deal-I was using film at the time and knew that the higher the number on the box would allow me to shoot in lower light situations.  Now the f-stop.  I totally didn't get it.  Here's the explanation I got from Wikepedia:

"The f-number is given by  "f/D" where "f" is the focal length, and "D" is the diameter of the entrance pupil (effective aperture)"

Yeah, not working for me, either.  

I finally understood the whole exposure triangle after I took an online class three years ago with my DSLR.  Let's just say that the f-stop allows you to have really shallow depth of field, if you like that stuff.  It lets you blur the background to get rid of distracting elements you can't move or change.  It does some other stuff too, like allowing you to shoot at a higher shutter speed or a lower ISO.  Being able to shoot, what's known as, wide open or this like week's theme at f/1.8 made the exposure triangle make sense to my brain.  

One of my favorite things to shoot wide open is flowers.  Okay, my favorite things to shoot are flowers, but I always shoot them wide open!  Here's a flower I haven't shot yet this year....it's a tiger lilly that I dug up from the road side up in the mountains and planted in my backyard! Can you see that the further you get from the area in focus that things get more out of focus?  That's because my f-stop was set to 1.8!


 To see what photographer Christine Blaylock shot at f/1.8 click here

Alaska-Part One, Fairbanks

Paul and I recently took a trip to Alaska to celebrate our 30th anniversary.  He's talked about Alaska since I met him when I was 18 years old.  Back then he was hoping to go with some of the guys he went to school with.  That trip never happened, but the dream never died.
 Last fall we started planning our trip and in the beginning of 2012 decided on a 7-day land tour, followed by a 7-day cruise.  We flew in a day early and stayed 2 extra days in Vancouver.  Our trip started in Fairbanks after taking 4 different planes and traveling for more than 18 hours.  That's what you get with free tickets based on credit card points!
The flights were not without entertainment though.  On the flight from Newark, NJ to Seattle, someone tried to bring a 17 day old monkey on board the plane.  Of course, if the lady had filled out the proper paper work and had the proper cage in which to put the monkey under the seat in front of her, all would have been fine.  It seems that as long as the monkey didn't have a weapon of any kind in it's possession that security wouldn't be at all concerned! 

Here are some of my pictures from Fairbanks.  Please keep in mind that I was on vacation and perfect portraits and landscapes were not my top concern.  In fact there were plenty of times I put my camera down and just enjoyed my surroundings.


From the plane..



























View from the lodge in Fairbanks..








Downtown Fairbanks...


























The Antler Arch...




























The first church in Fairbanks makes for an interesting story.  This church used to be on the other side of the river, pictured above.  The nuns who worked at the hospital on the other side of the river used have to have to walk through the downtown area of town full of drunken gold prospectors to get to the walking bridge to cross the river.  The priests didn't like that idea, so one winter after the river froze over they slid the church across the river so that it was on the same side as the hospital.  The nuns no longer had to walk through the down-trodden part of town!  Problem solved.


One of the few original homes still resting on it's original foundation.  Homes were built small, so they didn't use a huge amount of wood for heat.




























Our entertainment on the train that took us to pan for gold!






Yeah, there was really gold in this pan!


See!  $6.00 worth!  Don't ask how much the trip cost, though!



























He was much more patient than I was!




This is part of the Alaskan Pipeline.  Every year each permanent Alaskan resident (man, woman, and child)  gets paid a dividend for the oil that is piped out of Alaska.   Records show payments anywhere from $1,000-3,000 depending on the amount of oil that gets piped out.  The oil then has to go south to get refined and then it's shipped back to Alaska.  Their gas prices are higher than here in the Northeast. 
 

Views from the  Discovery Sternwheeller..




























This is part of Trail Breaker Kennels, the place where Susan Butcher, a famous dog musher, raised and trained the dogs that helped her win the Iditarod 4 times in 5 years.  Her husband, David Monson, shown here bottom right, still runs the kennels today.  Susan's story is pretty amazing.  The Iditarod is an 1,100+ mile race through blinding snow in temperatures that go as low as 70 degrees below zero across the Alaskan tundra.  Susan won the race with a dog no one, but her, believed in.  She and her husband, David, wrote Granite's story together before Susan passed away at age 51 from leukemia. 


The dogs are so excited to run.  The noise from the barking was deafening!   



  
























The sternwheeller..




Besides all the great food at the Salmon bake, we found lots of reminders of the gold dredging days.  This reminded me of Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel..



All of these original buildings were moved from different places in downtown Fairbanks to this central location.  Local businesses operate out of these houses.  Unfortunately for us, they're  seasonal, and we were there before the season began.



Stayed tuned for more pictures from our trip.  This is just the beginning...

52 on Friday-Week Twenty four

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"abstract"

There will be no long winded introduction this week.  Just two shots.  One more abstract than the other.

 


Now to see Kimberlee Edwards, Cary, NC photographer's interpretation of abstract  click here

52 on Friday-Weeks 23, 22, 21, and 20!

 A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

I've been MIA for a few weeks and without my computer.  My husband and I took a land-cruise to Alaska to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.  We were gone for 18 days and I was unplugged, at least as far as my laptop was concerned...it stayed home.  I wasn't able to post my shots from my cell phone so I decided to skip those weeks, originally.  Now that I'm back, I've decided to catch up on the weeks I've missed.  I will start with Week 23. 

Movement-week 23

For this week's shot, I decided on one I took while we were on board the cruise ship.  This is a picture of the Hubbard Glacier in the Yukutat Bay of Alaska.  The glacier is calving.  The sounds that calving makes is very similar to thunder.  The ice behind the edge of the glacier, that we can see, pushes forward causing pieces of ice, some huge, to fall into the bay, where they float around like icebergs. As the huge pieces of glacier break away they make an incredible spash! Here is looks like a while cloud. The glacier was really this blue.  Here's an explanation I took from Alaska.com as to why. 

"Glaciers are created when decades upon decades of snow compact themselves into ice. As the ice crystals grow, they push out the air.
The ice absorbs most light and reflects the short-wave-length blue light.
But as ice moves along and is exposed to warmer air or warmer water, the crystal structure breaks down and reflects all the light. That change, writes guide Karen Jettmar in "Alaska's Glacier Bay: A Traveler's Guide," makes the ice appear white.
And that's why the deepest blue coloration is often seen in fractured places: crevasses, towers and where chunks of ice have calved. The color may appear richest on cloudy days."


To see more interpretations of "movement" and continue around the blog circle, start here with  


Now, I'd like to make up the week's I missed while I was away.

Week 22-Growth 
 I love watching the growth of my flowers during the spring/summer months.  These daisys hadn't started to bud before we left for our trip.  Now the buds are just beginning to burst open.

 
 Week 21-Winged Creatures

This is another shot from our trip.  One of our excursions was a boat ride to see the wildlife of Alaska. Bald Eagles seem to be plentiful on the edges of the shore banks.  I think there are at least 12 in this shot.  This is technically a great shot, but I love that I was able to catch them at all.  Three of them had actually started to take flight!

Week 20-Slow Shutter


52 on Friday-Week Nineteen

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"vintage" 

As soon as I saw the theme for this week, I knew what I wanted to shot, but I didn't know how I wanted to shoot it.  I wanted to be able to re-create the memories that this camera brings to mind, but it was mother in those memories, holding this camera. I have many of the pictures that were developed from this camera, but few with her in them.  She's been gone for many years now, but I still a few things of hers that remind me of what she's given to me.

Since Mother's Day is coming up this weekend in the States, I thought it fitting to use this week's post to remember my Mom.  
I'd also like to wish all of photog friends, who are moms, a very happy Mother's Day.  Now go take some pictures of you and your kids, so they have something to remember you by.  



And now to see what sort of vintage inspiration Jenn Duguay, Valleyview, Alberta Photographer   has for us, click here. 

52 on Friday-Week 18

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"self portrait"

Let Thursday I was all ready to post my image for the week.  I didn't even wait until the last minute to prepare.  As I was completing my post and started to link the next photographer, I realized that I had mistakenly shot my picture for this week.  At first I felt relief that I didn't have post my self portrait, but then came the nagging thought that I had live with the dread for another week.  
This theme can be a scary one for those of us with a camera in our hands.  As a group, I think we're generally more comfortable behind the lens instead of in front it.
Especially if you're a woman.
I'm a part of that group, but I've also come to a time in my life when things that used to bother me, just don't anymore.  Last week I saw someone on TV saying the people in their 50 and 60's are the happiest they have ever been. Then someone posted this thought on Facebook.   
As I read through the article,  I totally understood what the author was saying. There's a lot to be said for giving up your fears, your excuses, your need to live life according to other people's expectations.   I've gotten to the point in my life where I can honestly say that I'm the happiest I've ever been, and yes, I'm part of that group of people in their 50's and 60's. No, my life is not a bed of roses.  I have my issues, like everyone else.  It's just that I've come to terms with many of the ideas in this article, but........not all of them.  Posting this picture is one of those things that still gets to me. 
So here's to giving up my fears and my need to impress.

Here I am.



 Now to see how the rest of this group of talented photographers see themselves, start here with  Faye Kingston, Miramichi, NB Photographer,
and continue around the circle until you get back here, to my blog!  Enjoy!

52 on Friday-Week 17

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"circles"

This is one of those weeks when I feel like I'm running around in circles, not getting anything accomplished.  I've worked diligently on my post for this week.  Planning, prepping, shooting, editing, and writing out my thoughts only to realize I had the wrong theme, just as I was ready to hit the post button!  The good news is that next week's post is ready and waiting! 
So, now,  it's Thursday night and I have an early morning curtain call for work and no shot to post, so I'm going to post the shots I took  for another challenge but that still fit the theme, loosely!
 These circles....
 started out looking like this...

and ended up looking like this!


To see how the rest of this talented group of photographers interpreted the theme this week, 
and continue around the circle!

52 on Friday-Week Sixteen

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"perspective"

For over a week now, I've been trying to come with a unique idea to post here. Every day I would look at the possibilities.  A few times I walked around the yard.  Twice I drive to local parks to try to execute my ideas.  Twice I can home without anything that wowed me.  I was going to post one that I took for last's week's theme and kind of liked. Then, while looking through my hard drive to grab the digital file, and I saw this shot.  It's one I've been working on converting all week.  After several tries and lots of constructive criticism, from some good photography friends, I came up with this simple, clean conversion.  I have a new perspective on black and white photography.  Not only that but from this perspective, my niece has some amazing eye lashes!

To see what perspective photographer

Christa Paustenbaugh of Manassas, VA shot from this week,  

click here

52 on Friday-Week Fifteen

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"blue"

I really wanted to try out one of my newer lenses for this week's theme. Unfortunately, I procrastinated.  The beautiful blue skies that were almost overwhelming this morning were covered by thick, gray, patchy clouds this afternoon.    I waited until the clouds managed to part just enough for me to take these two shots.  Truth be told, they are not exactly what I was hoping for, but that's the beauty of this hobby.  I'll get another chance, another day. 

 


To see what Christa Paustenbaugh of  Manassas, VA found that's blue, click here.

52 on Friday-Week Fourteen

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"Metal"

As I was taking a walk earlier this week I started to think about how I was going to enjoy my time off during my spring break and the things I was hoping to accomplish on the mental to-do list in my head.  Then I got to thinking about the reason I was even able to enjoy or do those things.

The cross.  The cross He willing carried for us. The cross He died on, for us. 

That got me thinking about how I could portray that for this week's theme.  Metal.  A metal cross.

My silver cross. 

One of two I proudly and lovingly wear around my neck to symbolize my Christianity.


  To see what Erin Dahl of Memphis, Tennessee found for our theme this week click here

52 on Friday-Week Thirteen

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"Music" 

I like music.  I've always liked music, but I've never been "into" music.  Even as a kid I was never big on going to concerts or collecting every album my favorite singer put out. I'm not sure I ever even had a favorite singer, well maybe David Cassidy from the Partridge Family, but I'm not sure that was totally about his voice!  I had a few albums, and then 8-track tapes, followed by cassettes and then CD's.  I probably still have it all in this house, somewhere.  Now though, we don't need to have any of those things to listen to music, we can download it all from the internet.  I resisted this trend for a long time.  My boys were on their second or third iPods before I finally caved and asked for this, just this past Christmas.  I've downloaded a total of 39 songs and even managed to create a couple of playlists.  My exercise list is a favorite.  It keeps me moving on my walks with the dog. I just really hope no one is listening to me on those walks because I have a habit of doing the same thing I do in the car when there's a song playing that I like, yes, I sing out loud!

  
To see what type of music photographer Tammy Bilodeau of Whitecourt, AB has for us click here

52 on Friday-Week Twelve

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"Books"

This week I've tried not to spend too much time inside, but more time outside because the weather has been so unseasonably warm.  If I go outside I'm rarely sitting down to enjoy the moment. This week though was different.  I took the outdoor chair cushions out of the attic more than a month before I normally would and, on more than one night this week, I sat outside,my feet propped up, with nothing but my thoughts.  Tonight however I tried to incorporate one the books that first influenced my love of photography.  Now that I'm finally understanding the mechanics and rules of photography it's time to start creating my images instead of just photographing them.

   Now to see what type of books photographer Christa Paustenbaugh of Manassas, VA  captured, click here

52 on Friday-Week Eleven

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

 "Green"

At one point in my life green was my favorite color.  Maybe because it's the color of my eyes or the fact that I'm Irish or maybe it's because that green is color of spring.  Spring has been my favorite season for as long as I can remember.  The promise of an awakening of things long asleep.  The promise of longer days of sunlight.  The sounds of children playing outside after a  long winter hiatus.  A renewal.  A rebirth. A time of hope. Green is the first sign of these promises...





I had no idea how much green was in my yard until I took my camera for a walk to find something green. This was just the thing I needed today!


To see what green Photographer  Faye Kingston of Miramichi NB  found in her viewfinder click here

52 on Friday-Week Ten

A blog circle of photographers from all over the world, both amateur and professional alike, sharing their interpretations of a common theme.  At the bottom of each post, click the link for the next photographer until you come full circle, back here to my blog.

"your season"
 I was so excited when with this week's theme.  I love shooting outdoors.  I love the warmer weather we've been experiencing.  I do miss that we really didn't have winter here in the northeast.  Practically no measurable snow and above average temperatures gave the flower bulbs the impression that spring had arrived, even though the calendar still says it's winter.  I waited all week for the buds of my daffodils to open.  With temperatures nearing 70 today, I knew that I'd have open buds, but the wind was whipping and the flowers never stopped swaying in that wind. Thankfully this is also the season for the International Flower Show in Philadelphia.  I managed a shot of some of the daffodils there

 

To check out what the season is like in Carey, North Carolina, check out photographer Robin Moore's site here
 
 

Hawaii-The Islands of Aloha at the Philadelphia Flower Show

Every year I go into the city to see the Flower Show.  I usually go at least twice.  I am fortunate that my son has been involved in the show in some capacity for the last 4 or 5 years.  I use at least one of my trips to practice with my camera.  Flowers are such cooperative subjects and their colors are amazing. Here are just a few of my favorites.