Day 18 - January 7, 2011 - Books Rock!

Earlier this week Ashton, my 8 year old, came home VERY excited to enter a Bookmark Contest put on by the library. They choose winners in every grade from K-8, frame their bookmarks and print them out and have them available at the main library here in Vancouver.

He wanted me to help him, so we brainstormed some ideas, he sketched a few rough drafts and still wasn't happy with any of the ideas. Finally, yesterday we came up with "Books Rock!", but he wasn't sure how to draw it onto paper. I sketched something really quick and he took what I did to make this beautiful bookmark! He did a great job and was very pleased with himself. I didn't get a chance to scan it, so I took a picture of it before he took it to school this morning.

Day 17 - January 6, 2011 - Bridge across the Coumbia River

We got a break in the rain for a little bit this morning and I had to drop some books off at the library, so I decided to bring the camera and tripod along. I went down to Vancouver's waterfront and took a few pictures of the I-5 bridge and other things in the area. The sky was overcast and things looked blah as far as color goes, so I decided to shoot in JPEG and in RAW just to see the difference I guess. The color is more enhanced, but I'm going to need to experiment more with RAW files before I get a better understanding of what I'm working with. Anyway, this is an HDR image shot in RAW and then edited.

Day 16 - January 5, 2011 - Black & White Barn

It was pouring rain today, which is a nice break from the freezing weather, but it doesn't make for good shooting conditions. I kind of like my camera and didn't want to get it soaking wet so I stayed inside today. Inside pictures are just not my thing so I'm going to break the rules and post a picture that I took Monday. I could post a crap picture that I took today, but I'm a little tired of setting up my camera in my living room window and taking pictures of my neighbors cars. It's getting quite boring and I want to post something different.

I was in Brush Prairie, on my way to help my mom with some things at work when I saw this barn not too far from the road and pulled over. There were houses on either side of it and I didn't want to trespass, although I would have loved to shoot the barn at an interesting angle or even go exploring inside.

Day 15 - January 4, 2011 - A Self Portrait

It was overcast this morning and FREEZING, so I decided not to venture out of the house today to take pictures. I have a couple places in mind that I want to photograph, but I think we're expecting rain for tomorrow and the rest of the week so it might be awhile before I'll be able to. I have pretty much photographed everything here at home of any interest visually, so I decided to take a self portrait. I needed a new profile picture for facebook anyway. :)

Day 14 - January 3, 2011 - Rustified

I love cars! I love them rusty, classic or new. I'll even admit my love of the AMC Pacer. It's one of my favorite cars. I even have a hot wheels collection. I started it over 16 years ago. That's how much I love cars. So, I guess it was just a matter of time before my love of photography led me to photograph another love of mine....automobiles.

For the last couple of weeks I've been driving by this old truck admiring it and it's coolness. Finally this morning I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed out. It was in somebody's driveway and I didn't want to be intrusive so I parked a little ways from it and walked down the sidewalk to it. I set up my tripod and took a few pictures. I kind of rushed because it was about 27 degrees outside (was not dressed for it) and I wanted to get out of there before I was noticed. I had to do a little cropping but here's the final result.

Day 13 - January 2, 2011 - St John's Bridge

A little over 16 years ago, my husband Anson, and I stood under the St. John's Bridge in Portland, Oregon and took our engagement pictures. Back then Anson was the one into photography and took the pictures. Today we went back under the same bridge and I was the one with the camera. We should have taken a picture of ourselves there (I didn't think about it until now), but the sun was going down quickly and it was about 32 degrees outside and my fingers were frozen and red by the time we left.

Day 12 - January 1, 2011 - Keep on Truckin'

Not much, not even pretty, but I took it today and that's all that matters.