Day 212 Daylight

Daylight

I liked the shadow of the light on the texture of shadows of the wall. I unfortunately only had my point and shoot camera so the quality is not the best.

Day 210 Pond Flowers

Pond Flowers

We have a nice small pond in our gardens on the farm. There were some nice flowers hanging over the water. I liked this bunch because it have the new buds growing out of the blooming flowers. I also like the nice dark non-distracting background.

Day 209 Growing Firework

Growing Firework

I loved the bursting patterns in this flower. I like how the flowers spread out from the main stem but then also again from the flower buds.

Day 208 Rain Fresh Apples

Rain Fresh Apples

I was out photographing after a rainstorm and everything was beautifully with nicely saturated colors. Because of the low light I used a tripod. I loved to water drops on the ripening apples with the deep green background and framing. I made this photo partly out of trying to make my own version of all the droplet covered apple photos I have seen.

Day 207 My Loves

My Loves

I love Laura and Pusywillow and also love photographing them. Then they both got together and I was in heaven. Unfortunately it was indoors at night and my camera settings were off so the flash didn't light it very well. I managed to rescue it in post processing but at some cost in quality.

Day 206 Working Windmill

Working Windmill

We have an old style windmill that pumps the water out of our well. It is the same design as the windmills that used to be used all across the west to water the ranches. It is one of the most dependable and easy to fix tools on the farm.

Day 205 Overgrown Pasture

Overgrown Pasture

I and Laura had just finished a hike when we passes John and Bjorn were heading out on  a walk of their own. We all stood in the pasture and chatted for a bit and I noticed the nice composition with Bjorn peaking out of the overgrown pasture.

Day 204 North Star

North Star

I have been wanting to photograph the stars circling around the north star. I finally did it at 1:30 in the morning after being in the car for many hours driving to Canada. I will do it again, although likely not in Canada, and try to get longer star trails but I am happy with this first attempt.

Day 203 Smudge

Smudge

We got two lambs a few weeks ago and they are very cute and photogenic. This is my favorite photo of them from a bunch I made in the last few days. I like the main focus on Smudge but also having Buttons in the background adds much interest.

Day 202 Mud Lake

Mud Lake

Somewhat aptly named mud lake is very shallow and muddy but still has some nice blue water. I was also enjoying using my polarizer filter although it was not being as effective as I would have liked. I love the contrast of the blue water with the green forest.

Day 201 Zully Nose

Zully Nose

I like photographing my pets, like many people. I do however try to do it in a different and artful way. I was trying my best to do that today and think I succeeded reasonably well.

Day 200 Bed Time

Bed Time

Waiting till very late to make my photo for the day can lead to some very crazy stuff. I often go abstract in those situations but I liked this photo better. The animation of the expression is just wonderful!

Day 199 Water Supply

Water Supply

I was wandering around my family farm trying to find new interesting angles to all the things I have already photographed. I was very happy when I looked up while walking under the water windmill. This was my favorite from the bunch Largely because of the long leading lines and the nice sky.

Day 198 Fiery Sunset

Fiery Sunset

I had done a lot of photography today but then as the sun set the sky turned beautiful. I always try to have something more when I photograph sunsets but the color of the clouds is really why I like this photograph. I also like the texture and detailed silhouettes of the trees.

Day 197 Moon-Night

Moon-Night

I have always wanted to do it more and struggled with photographing the moon. I like this one even though it is all pure black other than the moon itself. I like the simplicity and how the exposure and focus on the moon is good.

Day 196 Peacock

Peacock

I joined Lise and Laura in driving to pick up our two new baby lambs. There were many strange and photogenic creatures on the farm one of them being this peacock. It made very funny sounds and is really an amazingly beautiful bird. This was m favorite photograph of the peacock and from the day. I like the U curve that is made by going down the tail-feathers and up the neck, and the shocking blue is great as well.

Day 195 Green Fresh

Green Fresh

I love the singel tone of this photograph. The low contrast with mostly the same color and then the one part more brightly lit and in focus that gives the eye something to center on.

Day 194 Lettuce

Lettuce

The garden is finally starting to look full and lush. I was out photographing the harvest and saw the sun shining through the lettuce leaves. At first I photographed with the sun behind my back but my shadow got in the way and I wanted to have the sun make the leaves glow. So I moved and made this photograph with the sun infront of me. I like the glow and how it contrasts nicely with the red lettuce leaves.

Day 193 Hold Me Mommy

Hold Me Mommy

The new baby chicks are very cute and photogenic. Laura wanted profile photographs of the chicks. It was nice evening light and I loved the way the chick is cuped in her hands. The chick is also very animated being halfway through a peep.

Day 192 Rocky Lake Superior

Rocky Lake Superior

The north shore of Lake Superior is very rocky most of it like this photograph depicts and the rest pebble beaches. For this photograph I was enjoying using my new polarizer filter. I think this is a good representation of the north shore of Lake Superior that is also artistically pleasing.

Day 191 Welcome to the World

Welcome to the World

When we returned home there were 5 baby chicks waiting for us. Laura is in-charge of taming them and started work right away. I like this photograph for the way Laura is looking at the chick and the composition having the two main elements in opposite corners.

Day 190 Love Feast

Love Feast

To start out the final all night celebration to wrap up FGC(Friends General Conference) Gathering the AYF(Adult Young Friends) hade a love feast. The feast rule was that you couldn't feed yourself and could only eat what others fed you. It was lots of fun and made for some great photographs. This one was my favorite and I think it illustrates the feast well.

Day 189 Upside-down!

Upside-down!

This cute young girl just loved being hung upside-down. I got to witness it a few times and also made a few photographs. This was my favorite of those. I love her wild expression.

Day 188 Dancing with the Child

Dancing with the Child

Contra dancing is loads of fun and photogenic. I especially liked this one mother who strapped her young child onto her back and danced away. They both seemed to be having loads of fun which I think I managed to depict in this photograph.

Day 187 Diversity

Diversity

I loved the color of this blue sprues then saw where is was laying over some hedge. I just love the contrast and diversity of color, plant species and texture.

Day 186 Light Shows

Light Shows

Today there was a dance and at the dance there were some light shows. The neat thing is instead of spinning fire they are light globes. To make things even more exciting the globes change color intermittently as they spin. It makes a neat show and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to get all the different light sources balanced nicely.

Day 185 Fireworks

Fireworks

I read some good blog posts about how to make good firework photographs late in June. So I was ready and waiting when the time arrived. Unfortunately I had other obligations that caused me to miss the beginning and not get much choice in location or preparation. I made the best of the situation and was actually very please with many of the photographs. This one most of all drew me partly because of its simplicity with it only showing one firework.

Day 184 Ultimate Frisbee

Ultimate Frisbee

I love the game both playing and photographing it. Recently I have been doing more photographing and less playing but its less sweaty so I'm okay with that, for now. This is one of my best shots from the games at the FGC(Friends General Conference) Gathering. I love the movement and energy in the photograph. I also like the other photos in the sequence that show him catching the frisbee and not falling.

Day 183 Apples to Apples Guess What

Apples to Apples Guess What


The first day of FGC(Friends General Conference) Gathering started. We playing a get to know you game where you had to try and guess what card was on your forehead by asking yes or no questions. It was very fun and I made some great photographs and they all look funny because people have Apples to Apples cards on their foreheads.

Day 182 Climbing the Stairs

Climbing the Stairs

Today my family, girlfriend and I drove back down to a swelteringly hot Iowa for the FGC(Friends General Conference) Gathering. Due to all the driving I didn't make many photographs so I then wandered around the campus that the gathering was at, Grinnell College, looking for interesting things. I found some cool stuff but ended up liking Laura's pose of climbing the stairs the best.