Love. That’s what Stephen was sending to his fellow classmates today at his graduation. It was a great day seeing this boy (soon to be a man) finish his high school days.
It was also an interesting day for me and my Rebel T2i. First of all the ceremony was at the Fairgrounds in Ukiah, CA and in this large building were some really cool (NOT) lights. What I mean was some Sodium Vapor or some sort and a few other kinds as well. I did have my bag with my xRite color chart with me so I used the back of a program to set a custom White Balance. It wasn’t great but it was way better than some of the other choices were looking. Also, because of the light’s brightness (or lack of) I got a chance to try the HI ISO setting on my Rebel. Boy talk about some noise. Glad I don’t have to use that too often. Of course the noise was way better than blurry photos would have been.

Love. That’s what Stephen was sending to his fellow classmates today at his graduation. It was a great day seeing this boy (soon to be a man) finish his high school days.
It was also an interesting day for me and my Rebel T2i. First of all the ceremony was at the Fairgrounds in Ukiah, CA and in this large building were some really cool (NOT) lights. What I mean was some Sodium Vapor or some sort and a few other kinds as well. I did have my bag with my xRite color chart with me so I used the back of a program to set a custom White Balance. It wasn’t great but it was way better than some of the other choices were looking. Also, because of the light’s brightness (or lack of) I got a chance to try the HI ISO setting on my Rebel. Boy talk about some noise. Glad I don’t have to use that too often. Of course the noise was way better than blurry photos would have been.

An evening reflective view at Whiskeytown Lake.

The Tower House out past the Power House on the other side of Whiskeytown Lake. Not really sure if this building is the Towerhouse but it is at the park area. Some great stuff from the 1800′s and it seemed a likely candidate for Silver Efex.

It’s been awhile since I did a Self-Portrait but I wanted to show Andrew how I would look with at 10 seconds with a 15 second exposure. Told him it was the ghost of grandpa. I just surprised I could stand still enough to recognize who it was.

It was a fun discovery last night going out to do light painting and finding a whole bunch of Canadian Geese families. I think there may have been about 10 to 15 pairs of Geese and their goslings. The little ones were interested in one thing and one thing only. They had their little heads down the whole time looking for food (and I hope finding it). Most of the adult geese were heads down too but since we were there watching a few made sure that we were not up to mischief and kept their eyes on us (grandson & I).

I finally got out with the new 2 million candle power spot and had my first attempt at light painting (ala Dave Black style). Considering it was the first try I wasn’t totally disappointed but I did learn a bit. First of all it doesn’t get totally dark till very late at this time of year. Second, the barn I found for my first subject had these 2 trees right in front from the angle I tried and it would have worked better with a different camera position.
My grandson Andrew came along and we had a pretty good time. We’ll definitely be doing it again.

Sometimes titles just roll off the tongue and sometimes I just can’t come up with one that works. Should be obvious which this is. The Canadian Geese are always a pleasure to see since they don’t go running away too fast and they don’t try to bite your back side when you aren’t looking.

It’s been awhile since I’ve added one to my Shoot the Shooter set on Flickr. But this guy was too classic to pass up. He was pretty much of like mind walking around the park on Sunday and looking for cool stuff to shoot.

When I saw this on Blackberry leaves at the river last week-end I thought it looked pretty cool. Then when I got ready to post this image I did a little search and found out that it is anything but cool. Seems like it’s a plant disease that is hard to get rid of and leaves the plants unable to bear fruit or at least severely compromised. Hope this is not a sign of things to come on the Sacramento River. Here is a link to a University of California article: http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=4660.