[aspidites]

When we were in Shenandoah this past June we saw a butt ton of deer (which isn’t so exciting since they live in our front and back yards) and I casually remarked about wishing to see a bear. About five minutes later we came around a curve and there was a black bear just chilling next to the highway. orionid slammed on the brakes and started to back up, but he was skittish and lumbered into the woods right away. I only got two shots off…but my camera was still set on f/22, low 1.0 ISO from being outside midday in the summer and I was shooting through the back of the truck which is a tinted window. So, this is all I got for the effort:

Yeah, I have a few of those OMG (insert animal name here) pictures. Now I always set my camera up for animals whenever I move from one location to another. If I find a nice scenic while I’m driving….well that isn’t going to run away 😆 and I have time to change my camera settings.

[aspidites]

Here are a couple of the bear on the elk in Yellowstone. The first one had a focal length of 360 the second was at 1300. The pictures I got weren’t great but we watched the bear for 3 days.

[aspidites]

That’s it, I move we have no more animal themes, can I get a second on that motion? 🙂

That raccoon shot is just something else, aspidites.

Seconded, but with a catography caveat. And a ‘difficulty factor’ of ‘must be domesticated’, even for that.

About that raccoon shot–how does one set that up? Is it just a spontaneously awesome photo, or do you have to set up camp near their hutch and just wait for the little buggers to do something cute after a few days time?

Wow.

The raccoons live in that dead tree on a friends farm in WV. I check on them every morning during the spring when I’m there.

I get a bunch of my deer pictures there also, that is where the fawn was. The black bears I get around Cades Cove in TN which is also a great place for deer.

I go to Yellowstone for wolves, grizzlies, elk. and coyotes The last trip to Yellowstone we got on a grizzly eating an elk that he had run off the wolves that had brought it down. Those pics aren’t as good because I wasn’t about to get any closer than I did. Grizzlies can be pretty tempramental when they are eating 😆

[aspidites]

That’s it, I move we have no more animal themes, can I get a second on that motion? 🙂

Please don’t make me shoot people. 😥

[aspidites]

Congrats on your win gambitsgirl!

[aspidites]

Oooooo this should be fun…Got taken down to the station for taking pics of the federal building downtown. Guess I can go for a repeat offender with the statehouse 😈

[aspidites]

So I went out and did a search for some triptych examples.

These are two of what came up.

Is this what you are talking about?

[aspidites]

(i am going to hell – I know. but to let you know I JUST NOW ran and grabbed that and it’s rainy and cold has hell and I was barefoot so there’s that and I was scared to death I was actually going to ruin the cardboard box for a little funny)

It’s ok I have been told there is beer in hell. I’m still laughing (I’m sorry) but when you said earlier that you still had his remains in a cardboard box. the fisrt thing that came to me was “I hope she doesn’t take him out in the rain”.

[aspidites]

At our Renfest, they have old-school (or seemingly so at least) carnival rides–a giant Trojan Swing Horse, these rubberband contraption things with trampolines that people bounce on, and a couple kiddie rides. Wish I had some pictures, but haven’t been in a while.

Since I gambled that everyone’s going to bring their game, I used one good pic for ‘That’s no moon’ (which was worth it–it wouldn’t have done as well against others of the same ilk), I only have one picture that I hope will do well. Then I have a whole buncha b’s from which to find some A’s, or B+’s at least.

I’m in the same situation with this theme that I was with the graves theme. Maybe 3 pictures to chose from, at least with the state fair my twisted sense of humor won’t be involved and my GF won’t be calling me an asshole. I’m not figuring to do any better with this one either. 🙂

[aspidites]

Thanks for the opinions. I really am more comfortable with the wildlife, but I have been getting more requests for family and portrait work. Once my eye settles down I’ll hope to get back out and start shooting again.

[aspidites]

The first one was actually just a snapshot. We had moved to a new area and the light was changing and I wanted to check the histogram. It waas late in the season and the roses didn’t look very well so threw them out of focus so I could just get the splashes of color. Turned out her dad liked it so I finished for him. The second picture I had set two 580 flashes in the leaves behind her to light them up and add texture to them I had a quantum flash to my right with a shoot though umbrella. One of us moved a little to much and the light on her wrist was one of the background flashes.

[aspidites]

That is another good reason to avoid Adobe. Plus I don’t like the fact that they seem to have a monopoly on vector imaging. Any printing places I’ve dealt with really want .ai files. I’ve only been able to get by using PDFs exported from Inkscape. I’ll have to look into filesharing for a copy of Lightroom or PS if I decide to buy a legal one too.

I’d like to be able to automate some things since I have 1000s of photos to go through on my computer. Also I feel like Gimp’s “Scale” is not very good, even with Sinc interpolation. It is great software for free though.

I have used CaptureOne before and it does very well with batch proccessing.

That being said I use Lightroom 3x and Photoshop CS5 to do just about everything now, and like SilverStag somehow my coffee gets made.

[aspidites]

Gambitsgirl, I really like the shots and the story. My mom passed away about 18 months ago, this contest was the first time I’ve been to a cemetery since the funeral. It was difficult for me too.

I’ve been to about 10 funerals (ALS community is small and close knit) but this was different. I hope you found some peace out there also.

gg

My high school band teacher had ALS. She was pretty young when diagnosed my senior year, and her ALS was unfortunately very quickly deteriorating. She struggled a lot, but kept a positive outlook. I came back for graduation after finishing up my freshman year in college, and it was hard to see how far the ALS has progressed. I would not wish that kind of suffering and death on my worst enemy. I’m so sorry ALS got your husband.

For my part, death has been part of my life since I was very young. It might explain my morbid fascination with cemeteries. I like to wander through reading names, dates, ages, honoring the memory of people long ago forgotten. The rows upon rows of baby and child headstones get me every time, though. Nothing puts the past’s child and infant mortality rate into perspective like a trip through a cemetery. One family in a local cemetery lost 10 or 11 children at all ages from infant through teenagers. I can’t imagine…I don’t want to.

We had 4.5 years with him. The kids were 3 & 5 when he was diagnosed. It was dark but we made the best of it. It is true – no one deserves it.

I noticed the same thing. Most of my shots were of child graves. Put my loss in perspective. If it had been one of my kids I don’t think I would make it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gambitsgirl/6284626466/in/set-72157627861382357

/ok off to bed. politically correct fall party as room mom tomorrow :-/ thank y’all so much for the welcome.

Sorry about your husband. Nobody should have to go through that. I helped take care of an army friend that had terminal cancer. The hardest part was trying to explain what was happening to him to his son and daughter.

[aspidites]

I don’t want to be a nag, but just letting you know the link has not been greenlit yet.

Sorry if this is old news.

It literally *just* went green.

Supergreen?

[aspidites]

+1

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