Day 140

Day 140, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I set out to take a portrait of Geep and Henry but of course kids always take center stage.

It was rainy and dreary today which actually makes for light that is nice and soft so it‘s perfect for portraits. After a call out on Facebook for some portrait subjects I decided that Wisconsin was a little too far for a lunchtime shoot so I met up with Geep and Henry in front of the Redmond REI, just a couple of minutes away.

After some catching up with Geep we started taking some picture in the doorway of the store. REI has some nice landscaping under a tree covered area so it kept us somewhat dry. Geep is a Ski instructor friend of mine and I wanted to make sure to include some of the great outdoors in any of the images. Well, the Geep images ended up on the virtual cutting room floor because this shot of Henry turned out really nice.

Henry is a bit of a fidget and the lighting was dim so it was hard to get a shot of him that was not blurred. This one was in an area that was a little more lit up so I got a little lucky. I beginning to understand why some photographers use flash but I’m going to stick with natural light for as long as I can.

This nostalgic look gives this shot an end of Summer feeling that a really like. This was composed in the camera and processed in Lightroom with a faded color preset. I just enhanced his eye a little to draw more attention to them.

Day 139

Day 139, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I had no idea what to shoot today so I just walked around aimlessly. It wasn’t until I walked out the grocery store and saw these green peppers that I found something that was interesting enough to photograph. I guess I was in a bad mood today and it was reflected in my photography. Hopefully I’ll be in a better mood tomorrow.

Day 138

Day 138, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

We went to check out a different lake today and get in a little kayak time. Martha Lake is a little closer to home and has a great-put in for the kayaks. It's not a big lake but it's quiet. As we were scouting out the areas to put-in I saw these lily pads. There were thousands of them so of course I took way too many pictures. I wanted to try something a little different with the image and after a experimenting with a bunch of different combinations I settled on this.

Day 137

Day 137, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

After looking over my shots from yesterday and a little bit work, I decided to switch my shot of the day to this one. It's a much more interesting photo.

The shots from this morning could have been perfectly fine images and would have fulfilled my commitment for the shot of the day but I felt I could find something better. I was driving around for awhile after some kayaking on Silver Lake when I noticed a car show. Something shinny, I said and I slammed on the brakes and pulled into the parking lot. After a little walk around I centered on this 36 Chevy pickup. I was taking a series of shots of the hood ornament when the owner struck up a conversation with me. He said that everyone wants to shoot the bird and I totally agreed because it was really cool. Then I got the idea of having him in the background while I shoot the bird. He loved the idea!

So even though I had some shots that would have fulfilled my commitment for my project, I really needed to get a shot that would satisfy my need for a good shot. And I'm getting to the point where I not only need a good shot but also the human interaction that goes along with it.

I didn't quit get the framing I wanted in the camera so I have to do some cropping on this one.

Day 136

Day 136, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

The skies cleared just enough for me to get a good shot during lunch. When I was leaving the parking lot I noticed how awesome the clouds looked and I really wanted to get some good pictures of them. I drove over to Marymoor and was setting up for some landscape shots near the RC aircraft field when I thought “I should just walk over and talk to those guys”. I struck up a conversation with this guy and he was more than happy to talk to me about RC planes and let me take some shots.

It seemed natural to take a low angle shot with him in the foreground against the clouds. What was hard was trying to get a RC plane in the shot and have it be in a position that would enhance the composition. I shot this from a couple of different angles but I really like his alignment with the plane in thisone. It feels like the two are attached which is important when you’re flying one of these planes. I like the contrast of the plaid shirt against the clouds because it really separates the two. The cloud line slicing right down the middle was a concern when I was first looking at the photo but it adds some tension to the image that I’m really starting to like.

Day 135

Day 135, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It was rainy and dark during lunch today for the first time in a couple of months. It’s something I’ll have to adjust my photography to as we move into Autumn.

I took a good look at what the light was doing today outside as I was trying to get an idea of what to shoot. I was totally prepared to take some nature shots on a tripod. I drove over to Anderson Park in downtown Redmond and took a little walk around to get an idea of the conditions when I saw this little log cabin with some really nice warm lights inside. As I walked in I was met by a very friendly art teacher. She explained that she was holding a class in a couple of minutes but I was welcome to take some shots before hand. I struck up a nice conversation with her and she reluctantly agreed to a portrait.

Her portrait could have been my shot of the day but as I was making my way out the door I noticed this beautiful young girl getting ready for the art class. Her Mother was standing behind her and I asked if it was alright for me to take some pictures of her. After a couple of shots she closed her eyes tight for some reason. I told her, jokingly, to open her eyes up wide. She did and I took this shot.

It’s really starting to freak me out how good these pictures are getting. I never would have thought I could shoot anything this good.

Day 134

Day 134, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

As I was talking to Liz yesterday about Frisbee I noticed how wonderful her freckles were. I remembered this when I was thinking of what to shoot today so I e-mailed her when I got to work this morning.

I wanted to shoot someplace close to work so we didn’t have to take more than a couple of minutes out of our morning work schedule . We walked over to the river in search of some good light. The sun was pretty high in the sky by then so I was looking for some open shade. Under the 85th bridge was perfect and it gave me a lot of things to climb on to get some different vantage points. After moving Liz around the area and taking some sample shots I found the perfect spot just inside the large shadow of the bridge with a lot of reflected light coming from the gravel path. I shot from a slightly higher vantage point by walking up some steps and then climbing an embankment under the bridge supports.

Along with her freckles I was mainly interested in getting her eyes in perfect focus and made sure they shine. Liz was worried that she wasn’t wearing eye makeup and I told not to worry about it. This turned out to be such a truthful and honest portrait that I think makeup would have been a distraction.

Day 133

Day 133, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I saw these Black Eyed Susan’s yesterday while I was scouting out a good put-in for my kayak. I made a mental note to go back a shoot them when the lighting conditions were better. I walked back this morning just before noon. The sun was partially lighting them through the large Poplars trees behind the planting beds. This gave me some nice lit and shaded flowers to work with. I started with some basic flower shots to get in a rhythm and then worked into some close-ups. As I was shooting, I noticed that as the trees swayed in the wind the sun would shine thru the leaves and would intermittently spotlight this single flower. I pointed my camera at this one and waited for the wind to help me out. If a flower can have a gesture I believe I caught it here.

Day 132

Day 132, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I shot this at Grasslawn Park in Redmond during lunch today. I set myself up to shoot the sprinklers again but I wanted a darker background this time and the sun at my back. I took a nice comfy spot on the grass and as I was zeroing out my camera when a women pushed this stroller right in my field of view. At first I was like “what the…?” Then I caught the expression of this little boy and I had to take a couple of shots. The women returned and pushed the stroller away and I started shooting the children running thru the sprinkler.

I was going to totally disregard this photo as a snapshot of someone’s kid in a stroller but the more I looked at the expression on his face and the diagonal, slicing composition, the more I liked it. It got me to thinking about why wouldn’t this be a good photo? If this was a photo of a child in a far off country, not even a third world one, I would consider it to a great photo. But because it was shot in Redmond I was thinking it was mundane and trite. Then it got me thinking about what people in other parts of the world think of photos shot near their home. Do they think the images are trite and mundane? Do good photos really need to be shot in a far off land? Or is it composition, focus and gesture that make a good photo? Of course it’s composition, focus and gesture……..

Day 131

Day 131, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I relaxed today after a very active day of photography yesterday. I spent most of the day just cataloging and exporting shots from over 500 shots. A lot of the shots from yesterday are real keepers so I needed to spend the time to put them in a place where I'll be able to return to them in the future.

But I had to take a photo for today so I attached my 50mm prime and took a walk around the yard in search of some nice bokeh. This is always a fun thing to do and I like thinking in the abstract once in awhile just to get the creative juices flowing. This is a Smoke bush in our front yard during the golden hour.

Day 130

Day 130, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I went to the Arts-in Nature Festival in West Seattle today and it was amazingly rich with color, texture and light. There were so many great shots today it was really hard to pick just one.

I started by photographing Pearl Django a great gypsy jazz quartet playing in the lodge which produce some great pictures but because the performance was indoors the lighting wasn't ideal. I ended up with a lot of blurry pictures.

Then I saw some women practicing on some trapeze rings out in the main field. They were just getting ready for a show later in the day. So, I had some time to look over the location and choose a good vantage point. I chose a position where there would be a dark background behind the performers. I also made sure the sun was slightly behind and to the side to produce some nice rim lighting. It worked out perfect! The lighting looked great and the girls put on a great show.

Of the many shots I liked this one because it really is the best representation of the performance. In the composition I'm only giving the viewer enough visual clues to understand what this photo is about and making sure there are no extra elements to distract. “Less is more” as they say. I like how your eye finishes off the parts of the scene on it's own. It finishes off the arm, legs and ring so that I don't have to include them in the frame which could create unnecessary negative space. It's a very clean, focused composition just like the performance.

Day 129

Day 129, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I swear, I get some of my best shots when I'm not even looking in the viewfinder!

We went over to our neighbors for a little birthday dinner and drinks and while I was having a glass of wine at the table I saw Guy standing in the most wonderful light with this incredible background behind him. I held my camera down at the side of my chair and snapped this shot. I didn't even shoot a burst, I just aimed and took one shot. It's really unusual for me to take only one shot. When I took a look at the back of the camera I was so excited I exclaimed “shot of the day!” Everyone had to have a look at the back of my camera which pretty much ended the moment as Guy was gone with all of the excitement going on around him. But what a great moment it was!

I love how the shadows help to frame Guy while the back of the couch balances the color. The depth of field is so shallow that his eyes are in focus while the tip of his nose is just getting blurry. A half stop more would have made the difference. His pose is stoic and he has a great glint in his eyes. All in all, a photo literally shot from the hip.

Day 128

Day 128, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I saw this flower hut on my drive home from work this evening. I shot some other things during the day today but I really wasn't satisfied with any of the lighting. It was overcast for most of the day so everything was looking really flat. I saw the clouds breaking to the West and then this flower hut came into view and I was really attracted to the weathered surface of the hut contrasted by the soft clouds in the background. The drama in the sky really helps to give this shot some emotion.

I really didn't have much of a choice of compositions because nothing else around the hut was very attractive so I just had to center the hut, get some clouds in the background and shoot. The balance of the upper and lower halves works here, even though it's almost equal because the hut adds so much visual weight to the lower portion of the frame.

This shot really has a nice historical feeling to it and reminds me of a photo taken during the Great Depression, very John Steinbeck!

Day 127

Day 127, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Looks like the Photowalks at work I've been hosting are a total fail. I hosted one during lunch today but only one other person showed up. I won’t be hosting any photowalks anytime soon.

We still went over to the Farm Park in Redmond and shot some good photos and that what’s important. I like this composition because it reminds me of a tribal head dress. The claw gives the photo grounding and something for the viewer to realize what this image is….. it’s a turkey by the way. I thought of doing this in monotone but the blue, orange and red is just too nice to throw away and really adds more interest to the photo than anything else.

Day 126

Day 126, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I went down to the beach to give a print to the lifeguard I photographed a couple of weeks ago and of course I took my camera along. I saw a friend from work who brought his daughter with to go for a lunchtime swim. I took some pictures of them and tried to fit into the crowd on the beach.

As they swam out I kept taking pictures of them but when they were out of site I turned my camera to the subjects around me. I sat quietly and became comfortable with my surroundings and let my surrounds do the same. There were a few curious looks from some mothers around me but for the most part no one really paid much attention to me. I felt like I just faded into the background.

I noticed these two children building a sand castle together and I was taken by their silhouette against the water. I zoomed way in and fired off a bunch of shots. There seems to be a story behind in this one but I can’t imagine anything being too serious at that age. I processed it with a nostalgic look to make it feeling like a memory. I love her gesture! I may even be able to use this for my strong women series.

Day 125

Day 124, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I took a walk down to the Sammamish Rowing Club dock at Marymoor during lunch today. I’m really into boats right now for some reason and I wanted to get some shots of the rowers. I had no plans to shoot women rowers, they just happened to be at the time, I swear! If there were men rowers there, I would have photographed them. I don’t know what it is but there always seems to be strong women around when I taking pictures.

I felt a little out of place because I was just an old guy with a camera while everyone else was young and they were there to be rowing. This was not an easy shot to get as I took myself out of my element but that’s when you get the best pictures. So I tried to not look too creepy, take a good shot and get out of there.

I had to step back a bit so I wasn’t in the girls way as they pulled the boat out of the water and over their heads. It was actually a pretty cool thing to watch. I really like the water splash on the left side of the picture and the silhouettes are great compositional element. This was shot at midday shot but I gave it a golden hour feeling with a few adjustments.

Day 124

Day 123, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Introducing Violet and Sebastian our new inflatable Kayaks. I named them after my grandparents so I hope they keep us safe. A friend of mine is moving to China and he sold me these for real cheap. I spent the weekend cleaning them up and getting to know them. I can't wait to get them on the water, I just need a PFD and a dry box for my camera. I may even commute to work on one of these sometime this week.

Day 123

Day 122, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Oliver just had a big day yesterday. He was neutered, had four teeth removed and a rabies shot. He's just starting to feel better today.

Day 122

Day 122, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I did a photo shoot with Marc after work tonight. Marc is in a Ska Punk Band and wanted some cool shots in exchange for two Packers-Seahawks preseason tickets. I gladly excepted! I had the idea of shooting at golden hour under some power lines in a big ravine. We shot for an hour and nothing was too exciting to me so we called that area done and headed back into town to look for a different location. As we drove back I spotted an old barn with peeling paint and broken windows. I turned the car around and made a quick shoot of it.

Once I got the chance to look at the photos I came to the conclusion that it didn't turn out as bad as I thought. There were a lot of good shots with the power lines but I like this one from the old barn the best. There's something about the image on his shirt and the textural background that's intriguing to me. I think it's the repetition of shapes and lines. There's also a nice interaction between Marc's head and the cracks in the window. It looks like there's shards sticking out of his head. I thought of touching this up (taking them out) but it feels punk to me and reminds me a little of the punk images, especially the Sex Pistols, from the early 80s. It could be a little more over the top though but subtle is good too.

You can view some of the better images from the shoot here: Picasa page

Day 121

Day 121, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Kaylee is a barista at the Jacob’s Well Coffee hut. Lately I’ve been trying to not drink coffee on my way to work but I had a craving for an Americano with hazelnut this morning.

As I was waiting in line, watching some women search under her car for her lost quarter, I had the idea to take a picture of the barista when I got up to the window. The light wasn’t great but it was soft and bright enough to make for a nice portrait.

There’s two different baristas I see here on a regular basis and it just so happened that Kaylee was working this morning. She always has a wonderful smile and cheerful greeting for anyone pulling up to her window. I asked to take her picture and she looked at me kind of strange and asked if she should smile.

This is the best coffee hut in the Seattle area and it always brighten my morning when I stop for an Americano. They are friendly without being intimidating like some of the other huts in the area.

Day 120

Day 120, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Day 120: I went to the Farm Park in Redmond today and took a picture of a chicken. Actually, I took a lot of pictures of chickens today and this worms eye view was the cream of the crop. This image has a lot of tension in it just like chickens. Chickens just seem really tense to me. You know that chicken in art are very French!

Day 119

Day 119, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I was trying to come up with a location for today when I remembered that there was a regular event at Redmond City Hall called Art in the Park. The last time I was there I was sitting at the fountain on the steps of Redmond City Hall and children would pass by and put their hands in the water which is a very natural thing to do. It's actually hard to not touch the water as you pass by.

I wanted to set up somewhere and wait for a child’s hand to come by and touch the water so I could take a picture of a child's hand touching the water, a nice simple summer picture. Just as I got to the water, the two children walking behind me started playing in the water, just what I wanted, so I turned around and started shooting. After explaining to the Mother who I was, I discovered a crowd of children all putting their hands in the water and were happy to have their pictures taken. Too fun!

It was hard to pick a good shot from this shoot as there were a lot great images and some with many hands in the water. But I decided on this simple approach. I’m reading David duChemin right now and he talks a lot about keeping things simple and being responsible for the entire frame. This may be the first time I worked with green and orange comp too!

Day 118

Day 118, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Get back to work! It was dreary Monday and I pretty much had the blues all day. I went over to the worksite and snapped a couple and dragged my butt back to my cubical.....

The stripes on his chest really are what make this work otherwise it's just a geometric pattern.

Day 117

Day 117, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Pixie's foot. I was standing at a roadside burger stand with the group I went rafting with when I started to notice people's feet and all of the cool sandles they were wearing. Maybe it's a rafting thing but everyone in line was wearing some really cool sandles so I started taking photos. This foot belongs to a girl named Pixie who just happened to be standing right in front of me. I asked to take a picture of her foot and she thought about for a second and said "this one" and planted her foot in front of me.

Day 116

Day 116, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Tom is a snowboarding and rafting buddy of mine. I took this at the pot luck dinner after a good day of rafting.

Day 115

Day 115, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I wasn't able to spend too much time taking photographs today because I was loaded up at work and getting ready for a rafting trip to the North Cascades which I was leaving for right after work. As I was getting close to the campground I saw this barn glowing in the sunset with the North Cascades in the background so I pulled over and took the shot because I knew I wasn't going to get anything else that night. It works OK for a quick stop along the roadside.

Day 114

Day 114, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I was sitting on the river bank when this duck came up and asked if I’d take his picture, so I did.

Day 113

Day 113, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I took this while out on a photowalk with some fellow photogs from work. I really didn’t like anything I shot today but the photowalk was fun. It was nice to get out with other photographers and share notes. Hope we can do more of these.

This shot has a nice soft feeling but then when you look close you discover it a thistle. I like that contradiction. These are really beautiful plates, you just need to keep your distance.

Day 112

Day 112, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Ryan Woodland is a former workmate at Zipper but now he's on his way to a new gig in Shanghai, China. When I heard this news I knew I had to get a portrait of him. He's got this great rock star image that just begs to be photographed.

Going into this shoot I had the cliche idea about him walking down a road with his guitar on his back. Kind of the walking into the sunset theme but I just wasn't getting the lighting I was hoping for. The shots were OK but not anything I was excited about.

As I was wrapping up the shoot I noticed a ladder laying in the driveway that Ryan had been using to clean the roof of his house and I thought “high perspective!” I got up on the ladder and let the medium take control by just pointing and shooting the camera. I get some of my best photos with that method.

This was actually the very last shot and I think it works pretty well. Ryan helped this shot out in a big way by giving me the raised eye brow. The skewed perspective draws attention to the fact that there is something very different about this person, which there is.

Day 111

Day 111, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I went to Anderson Park in Redmond for the first time today. What a great place to take portraits! This park is in downtown Redmond and it has high trees so the lighting will be perfect for portraits. I saw a photographer shooting someone’s portrait there and he was using a flash. I didn’t see a reason for that but to each their own.

This is sculpture in the park that I was testing some focus bracketing with when I found a single tear right under her eye. I had to focus on it and take the shot. A little corny but it still works and I got in some focus practice.

Day 110

Day 110, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is a fish sculpture on the side of our pond. I've been shooting this same shot on the weekends as a standby for when I get too busy to take my oblibitory shot of the day. Looks like I had use it for real this time because it turned out to be such a nice photo. I really like the underwater feeling of this and the bokeh really adds a nice directional device to the composition.