Day 109

Day 109, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I spotted these two Pink Flamingo's on the side of the road at the end of someone's driveway this afternoon. I've heard this species was indigenes to this area but I've never been lucky enough to find a mated pair. I've heard they mate for life so this was a rare opportunity to get some visual documentation. The female was very shy while the male was protective but they were intrigued enough by my camera that they stayed put long enough for me to take this shot. It was kind of amazing that they were still sitting there and staring at me as I walked away. Strange little birds!

Day 108

Day 108, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I saw this lifeguard from the back as I was walking around the park during lunch today. I was taken by the red sweat shirt and the way the hood was pulled up over the lifeguard’s head. I had no idea if it was a man or women at that point but I knew I wanted to take the portrait of that lifeguard. I walked up and asked if I could take the picture. As I was looking thru the viewfinder I discovered what a beautiful woman this was and I kind of froze up a bit. Her pose was absoultly amazing with the slight bending of her legs, it was so classic! After a dozen shots I felt I had the shot I wanted and didn’t want to overstay my welcome so I stopped. I really wish I would have kept walking around to her left side and took more shots with the sun at her back to get some rim lighting but I froze. The shot turned out the way I envisioned it when I first saw this in my minds eye and hopefully this will be a learning experience so I won’t freeze up the next time. It’s the shot that got away that I’m kicking myself for.

Day 107

Day 107, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Another addition to my Strong Woman Series. This is a portrait of Liz who contacted me this week and asked if I'd like to photograph her vintage Mustang. Of course I was more than willing to photograph her car but I was more intrigued in taking a portrait of her with the car. You see, Liz lost her Father suddenly last year. He was a great inspiration to her and they had bought the car together for her.

Her contacting me gave me the final piece to what my "strong woman" series is to be about. What it's not about is physically strong women, which is too obvious a concept. It's really about what gives a woman their strength, that thing that gets them thru the day. In Liz's case her strength is in her Father and although he's now gone that strength lives on for her in the Mustang.

I thought this would be a beautiful and touching portrait and I'm really glad I was able to take it for her. I composed the picture with the Mustang in back of her as if her Father were right behind her as she makes her way thru life. I like that we only see little bits of the Mustang but we still know what it is. The letter "O" in Ford is in the perfect position for her line of site and has the look of a little halo! This was a happy accident but it works better than anything I could have thought of.

Day 106

Day 106, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

The Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park in Redmond never seems to disappoint. I was out shooting during lunch today at my favorite park when I saw some girls getting horses ready for a riding class. I walked over and started taking pictures of the saddles that were sitting on the fence when this girl, Fiona, came up and said she liked my camera. I thanked her and asked to take her portrait. After I snapped a few I asked her some other questions about how she liked working with the horses and we had a quick conversation while she saddled up her horse. Another girl came up and corrected what Fiona was doing and then she got a little shy on me. The moment was gone but I ended up with a wonderful portrait.

I particularly like how the trees in the background frame her face and the highlighted hair on the left side is gorgeous. She has a nice, relaxed gesture and she’s showing just a hint of braces. This gives the viewer an indication of her age and that she may be a little shy about them but maybe she left her guard down a bit when I took this picture because of the circumstances. I think this fits nicely into my strong women series even though she may not be a women just yet. Fiona is gaining her strength thru her work with horses and that will carry her thru out her life.

Day 105

Day 105, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is my friend Robert who works the lunch counter at what used to be called Larry’s Market. In the past this was one of my favorite places to eat lunch but since it was bought out the food quality has really suffered. Robert weathered the storm from the buyout but now he’s out looking for a new job because they are closing this store. In fact he was out the door immediately after I snapped this. Good Luck Robert!

I took a couple of first shots a little father back but then I remembered my friend Molly’s advice of taking two steps forward and got in really close. I knew I was going to be taking this indoors so I mounted the fastest lens I have, my 50mm 1.8 and fully opened it up to get that soft background. That’s a great lens!

Day 104

Day 104, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

A little whimsy today. I saw this shot from across the hall while I was having a discussion with an engineer about our current task. After we finished up our conversation I ran downstairs and grabbed my camera. The cross lighting that’s streaming thru the blinds gives this little two dollar toy a great personality and brings it to life. And we all know how I love to bring inanimate objects to life. I hope that’s not a problem for me as I get older. There’s something about this little guy that makes me smile.

Day 103

Day 103, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is the second in my photo series on Strong Women. I got the idea to do this series when I was looking over the proofs from Noelle's photo shoot and it dawned on me what a great sub-project to my P365 this could be. I'm still trying to define what this photo series is about for me but I like the idea of photographing women as strong individuals. More about this as I move forward.

Christine and I took her purple road bike down to Alki beach because there was suppose to be a full moon tonight and I thought that might make for some cool shots. We worked for an hour when we discovered the moon was just not going to cooperate, it was just in the wrong part of the sky for our location. We call it a night after reviewing some the shots because it looked like I had enough to work with. This shot has some nice golden highlights in the original capture but it felt to harsh and garish for Christine's gesture and facial expression so I went with a sepia tone to soften the look and give it a more graphic quality.

Day 102

Day 102, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is Oliver's sister Sophie. She came over today for a play date and the two of them had a blast in the backyard. It's great to see them play. She's a bit of a devil (both of them are when they get together) and it's really hard to keep her stil for a portraitl so I had to point, shoot and hope for the best. I think this turned out nice as it has a soft quality that reflects her personality....when she's not around Oliver.

Day 101

Day 101, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is my friend and ski buddy Noelle who I work with at Sony. I actually think of her as the little sister I never had. I wanted to take her portrait on her favorite thing in the world, her Ducati. So I found a place close to work, up on a hill and we took pictures during the golden hour when the light was nice. I wanted this to be something more than just a cheese cake shot and I tried to depict her as a strong women who rides an awesome motorcycle. I shot over 500 photos and I ended up with maybe 10% that are usable. But some are so stunning I may submit them as stock images. I love the facial expression on this one and the framing is spot on. You can't believe how hard it was to get this shot because Noelle is always smiling! I had to say bad things to her to get her to not smile.

Day 100

Day 100, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Wow! One hundred days. I was thinking of doing something special to commemorate the day but instead I did something totally different, a high key image. I don’t think I’ve ever shot a high key image, in my life. High keys are really hard to find so I guess when you’re presented with one you have to go with it.

This is the eye of a goat. I went over to my favorite farm park in Redmond not knowing what to shoot when this goat came up to me and posed for this picture. She was probably begging for food but I like the idea that animals will pose for me.

No messing around with this composition, put the eye right in the middle and let the edges fall off. Sometimes the simplest approach is best….actually most of the time.

Only 265 days to go!

Day 99 (Alternate Version)

Day 99 (Alternate Version), originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is an alternative version of my Day 99. I still like the color version but after I started flipping some dials in Lightroom I came up with this. I just had to post it.

Day 99

Day 99, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I’ve been going over to the climbing wall at Marymoor for a couple of months now in search of a picture. Up until today I have not seen one climber. I just walked up to the wall today and saw this women lit really well for midday and knew I had the shot I’ve been waiting for. The gesture is great and her expression of striving to make it to the top is incredible. It’s an interesting composition that is split on a diagonal almost in two equal halves. I framed her near the bottom so that she’s looking in the direction of her travel. Plus she offsets the equal balance of the two halves nicely. I’m actually pretty happy with this image but I wish I would have shot it at f8.

Day 98

Day 98, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

A portrait of Billy and Lucy. I called up my neighbor Billy tonight and asked if he was willing to do a photo shoot of him in his art studio, he agreed. When I got there I was greeted by him and his children sitting on the front porch. Lucy went into instant photo shoot mode and started posing for me with her Father. It was such a nice photo I could have stopped right there and not shot the rest of the photos in his studio. I developed it with a nostalgic quality as if it was something Lucy could frame and carry it with her thru her life. Did you notice how similar arm shapes are? Sometimes photography is so easy. If only Lucy were in every shot! The photography world needs more Lucys!

Day 97

Day 97, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

After we broke camp and headed out of town we wanted to go to the beach one more time. Our campsite neighbors told us about a boat launch where they had been going to swim their dogs. When we pulled up to the beach low and behold they were there and having a great time playing with their dogs. I believe that a dog is the reflection of the owner so even though this photo looks like a portrait of the dog Sydney, it's really a portrait of Bryant, a Air Force helicopter pilot stationed in Cheyenne,WY. Bryant's gesture feels like a pilot with it's lofty position and extened arms. And the dog helps bring this feeling home by looking up at him, thanks Sydney! I really liked the idea of taking a portrait of someone without actually taking a picture of them, it's something I got from Chris Orwig's book, Visual Poetry.

Day 96

Day 96, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Another part of the Lavender Festival is the Artist's Studio Tours. This was our favorite part of the festival. Fields of lavender are cool but once you go to a couple of farms, there's not much more to see. Our first tour stop was to the studio, home of Charlotte Watts, a wonderful nature photographer. We spent a good amount of time talking with her, viewing her work and we discovered that she studied under Ansel Adams. I was totally impressed. We strolled out on her back deck for a tour of her beautiful backyard and pond garden when she started to explain one of her works of art, a prayer wheel, sitting on a table. I asked if I could photograph her and she reluctantly said yes. I snapped off a couple of quick head shots as she smiled but then as she relaxed and went back to talking about her art. I stepped back and took a couple shots of her with her art. Her gesture in this shot is relaxed and wonderful and I even love that her foot is pointing out of the frame. This is a very structured composition with a feeling that everything has a place and everything is in its place. After spending a little time with Charlotte and experiencing her art and living environment, this is the feeling I got from her. I was thinking this trait may be the result of her background in traditional photography. Traditional photography was so much more process intensive, you needed to be organized to be a good photographer.

Day 95

Day 95, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is a shot from a street festival in downtown Sequim that is part of the Lavender Festival's many events. We got thru the street fest quickly and as we were heading back to the car this lavender colored dog in a backpack caught my eye. It was dyed lavender for the festival to raise money for a animal shelter in Sequim. As I started taking pictures of this unique pooch, I began to notice that everyone around me was also taking pictures. So, wanting be be different, I pulled back and took some photos of the crowd. I especially like interaction between the dog and the women in the black hair. The dog's expression is stunning! These two are the focal point of the photo but as you explore the scene you discover the many cameras and gestures in the crowd. It really is just a fun picture with a great documentary feeling and if you look close you can even see the golden mean composition. I also added a slight lavender tint in honor of the festival but was careful not to over do it.

Day 94

Day 94, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Michele and I went to the Lavender Festival in Sequim this weekend. We have been meaning to go out there for a couple of years now but we always found an excuse to make other plans. This year we booked a campsite in February and planned ahead. The weather worked out great as it was gorgeous all weekend. This is a shot from the first day, on the first farm. I saw these girls cutting lavender, talking and really enjoying the moment. It seemed like a great poster shot for the festival so I took it. I like that the are both holding up lavender bouquets in plain site so you get an idea what they are cutting.

Day 93

Day 93, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

A friend asked if I’d shoot a photo of a bus for his band’s demo CD. His band is a Ska Punk band so I created something that I thought would appeal to ska punkers. I really have no idea what that means so I just went out and found a bus that looked cool, filled the frame with it and developed it with a surreal, nostalgic feeling. This reminds me of the bus in the “Midnight Cowboy”, a movie from 69 starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight.. Shooting square compositions is kind cool. I may try and do more of that.

Day 92

Day 92, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Lately I’ve been working on photographing people as they interact with my compositions so I walked over to the Redmond Senior Center while they had a Ford Model A car show during lunch today. I wanted to shoot something other than just some car photos and I like the idea of somehow involving the spectators. I walked around the cars and took the obligator car show shots but then I just sat down on the ground and composed a photo with one of the cars and let the spectators walk into my frame. In this shot I wanted focal point to be the Model A so I made sure I was focusing on something interesting while letting the background, with the spectator, go somewhat soft. This is a different composition for me with the focal point centered in the frame. This reinforces the feeling that this man is peeking into the picture space and interacting with my composition.

Day 91

Day 91, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This was taken at the “Art in the Park” event at Redmond City Hall today during lunch. I was sitting in the crowd noticing things happen around me when I saw this boy playing with a tree trunk. I really like what he was wearing, his gestures and the light was just right. Compositionally, I placed him on the left side looking into the empty space while he’s tugging back on that same space. It’s an interesting compositional balance device I wanted to try.

Day 90

Day 90, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It’s nice when the shot for the day comes so early in the morning. I saw this welder on my drive in this morning and debated whether or not to pull over, I’m glad I did! When I first saw him, the sparks were on the outside of the flange so they were in full view. By the time I parked the truck and walked to a good vantage point, he was working on the inside of the flange blocking the sparks from my view. Now after looking at this image, the metal plate was better for the exposure as the sparks would have blown my meter. Plus it’s a nice compositional element so I think it’s a keeper!

Day 89

Day 89, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It's been awhile since I've been in the Cascades so I took my photography to the mountains today! This was taken from the foot bridge over the Snoqualmie River near the Middle Fork trailhead. As we were crossing the bridge I was taking a couple of shots up and down stream when I noticed this guy fly casting. He was totally in the shade but the light was just sparkling around him. I had to do some dodging to make this work but I'm happy with it.

Day 88

Day 88, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

My friend Noelle brought her two kittens over tonight for a photo shoot. The two kittens, Ollie and Eli Mae, have never been outside so it was a big deal for them. We were able to get in a half hour of shooting when Ollie (the kitty) discovered how to get under the deck. That ended the photo shoot but it was a good time to stop. We shot over 300 pictures and it was time for dinner and drinks anyway.

This Eli Mae, she was a little shy and liked to hide in the bushes. This wouldn't be a typical portrait a client would choose but I really like how she's peering through the shadows. It has a nice sense of mystery and her eyes are just just amazing! I think the shadows actually draw your attention to her eyes too. I didn't have to do much to develop this either, it's pretty much right off the sensor.

Day 87

Day 87, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

In this image I'm trying to convey how hot it was today. It was in the high 90's and for Seattle that's a scorcher. This was taken in the main hall of the Redmond Library where I held the camera near the floor and focused on different areas until I got something I liked. I didn't actually lay on the floor but I would have gotten a better picture faster. But, people were already looking at me a little strange and if I was in a different time zone I could have been arrested for taking pictures up women's skirts.

I did have to do some cropping to make this work. The center of interest was much farther to the left and composition was split right down the middle. I cropped in and to the left so the dark area took up only the right third. This balances out the images much better.

Day 86

Day 86, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

The last couple of days I’ve been concentrating on bokeh (blurry backgrounds). So during lunch I was sitting in a outdoor restaurant, taking pictures from my tabletop when this women walked into my view finder. The gesture was so “St Pauli Girl” I had to take the shot. Yeah, it feels like a beer commercial but it also has a nice moody feeling to it.

Day 85

Day 85, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is the carousel horse in front of the Ben Franklin in Redmond. I was working with depth of field today during my lunchtime, photo walk. I was headed back to the office when the light on this horse caught my eye. I made sure the eye was the focal point and crystal clear like I was photographing a living being. This gives this inanimate object the feeling of being alive. The DOF gives this a real creepy quality that I couldn’t have gotten with everything in focus. I’m also really happy with the bokeh, fast glass is so pretty!

Day 84

Day 84, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is a Horn of Plenty sculpture outside the Woodinville Police Station. I noticed it a couple of weeks ago because it's where I park my car so I can get a 6 mile ride into work on my bike. I thought it was cool but I wanted to wait to shoot it until the light was better. Tonight was the night! I love the squiggly highlights!

Day 83

Day 83, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Lazy day after shooting almost a thousand pictures in the last three days so I spent most of my time trying to catalog everything. My hard drive is about to explode from all the photos for this project and I still have a long way to go.

I grabbed my old Agfa Camera I had sitting on the shelf for a quick self portrait. I like the comparison of the eye to the lens. The composition is right down the middle which is normally a bad decision but I think it works because of the thumb's pose and the repeating shape on the camera. Kind of a mirror image. I also like the repeating circles leading the eye around the composition. I'm actually pretty happy with this one for a quick shot in the backyard.

Day 82

Day 81, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is a shot from the Bothell 4th of July parade. I had a lot of choices for the shot for the day but I felt this was the best one. The crescent composition encircles these two and leads your eye to them while finding other interesting things along the way. The women's head breaking the negative space is what makes this an interesting image for me and the gesture of these two people is so wonderful I was lucky to capture it. This is the closest image I've shot to a Henri Cartier-Bresson who I admire greatly.

Day 81

Day 81, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I've shot more good photos in the last two days than I know what to do with. It really makes it hard to choose one for the day but it is the 4th of July weekend so I thought I would post a shot from the Everett Naval Base tour we took this morning. That's the USS Abraham Lincoln in the background. We toured that bad boy!....Also, I need to give Michele an art direction credit here as she pointed out the shot. Thanks Michele!

Day 80

Day 80, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I took a drive up to Cama Beach on Camano Island and discovered a great little boathouse with old wood boats. I shot this as 16:9 but not sure why Lightroom is converting it to 4:3. That's a strange thing for a state of the art photo tool! If anyone knows why it's doing this, let me know. It's very frustration to not be able to display an image in the way it was captured.

Day 79

Day 79, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

These are rowing paddles hanging on the side of the Sammamish Rowing Club boat house. The Seattle area is rich with rowing history so I thought I would try and tap some of that. So, I took a walk down there today just to try and find something different.