Day 231

Day 231, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It’s really becoming a challenge to find enough light for a good capture during the day because of the weather and the shorter dayligh hours. I set up for this one under the 95th St. bridge in Redmond to take some shelter from the rain and waited until the bridge’s light went on late in the afternoon so I had some light to work with. I put the camera on a tripod and waited across the river for someone to walk along the path and into my viewfinder. I stayed there for around 30 mins and had about a dozen people walk, run and ride bike thru.

I chose this one because of the quiet quality and somber mood. At first I was conserned that I was breaking the compositional rule of the subjects direction moving into the frame. When you break rules you really need a good reason to do it or the image may feel uncomfortable to the viewer. But the balance in so good in this image I felt I could get away with breaking the rule. His direction draws attention to himself which alerts the viewer to look closer and notices the school of fish on the back wall. The viewer then understands that the person is walking upstream and then it becomes a more interesting image.

Day 230

Day 230, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It was a nice night to take pictures at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. They do this great Holiday lights display every year and this years was as amazing as ever. It’s always a better to experience the display when there’s a little moisture on the ground because of the reflections.

I saw this Mother and her Son walking toward this tree when I got an idea to do a silhouette shot. When I first envisioned the shot they were the only two people in my field of view but once they got into position, there was a crowd closing in around them. I was lucky to snap this when I did because a second later and they were nowhere to be seen.

Day 229

Day 229, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is a sculpture from the backyard I photographed right after a hail storm. It was a crazy weather day today with freezing rain and hail followed by sun breaks and then changing back to rain again. It really limited my outdoor time for taking pictures.

When I take pictures of other people art, as in this sculpture, I want to do something different with the composition so that it’s not just a record of someone else's work. I shot this as if it’s a portrait and tried to give the composition some gesture to help bring this inanimate object to life. The bokeh helps create a focal point at the sculpture’s face and the color helps create a mood.

Day 228

Day 228, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Another PowRider portrait. This is Calvin, who I met up at Steven’s Pass today for another great day in the backcountry. I took another four portraits today and you will be able see them on the PowRiders Project website when I get a chance to develop them: www.powriders.com

I’m really liking the idea for this project. I wrote a short project outline this week and I really feel like it’s going to improve my photography. This will take me out of my comfort zone and force me work creatively with the lighting at hand, which in turn, changes the importance to taking a relaxed, honest portrait. I also have plans to create a photo book from this project.

Day 227

Day 227, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

The holidays have begun! Here’s a Holiday image that’s unique to the Pacific Northwest, a rain soaked ornament hanging in the Rhododendrons.

Michele and I hung the lights up on the house today and decorated the Rhodies. It’s our traditional thing to do the day after Thanksgiving. When we were done I though the ornaments hanging in the Rhodies would make a great holiday card. It was raining and very low light so I had to shoot with the fastest lens I have. Man, the 50 prime is really getting a work-out so far this Winter....and Winter’s not even here yet!

Happy Holidays everyone from the Pacific NW!

Day 226

Day 226, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

We had a bit of a scare this morning with our 15 year old Golden Retriever. She wouldn’t get up , she wouldn’t eat and she had terrible problems walking. We were lucky enough to have our friend, who’s a vet, come over to diagnose and treat her in our kitchen. What a wonderful person to have come over on Thanksgiving to help our dog. We were just dumbfound as to what to do and really thought that we would be putting Gilda to sleep tonight instead of eating turkey.

This is a shot of our friend working some of his acupuncture magic on Gilda. She’s doing better now but she’s still really stiff and needs help getting up. She had a little dinner and was able to go up and down the steps on her own.

Day 225

Day 225, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I’ve been wanting to take Monette’s portrait for a couple of weeks so when she came into work today in this striking orange hat we made plans to shoot right after lunch. The reason why I’ve wanted to take her portrait for awhile now is because of her light blue eyes. She really does have these color eyes too. I really didn’t have to do much to make her eye light up in post production. Also, the orange hat helps kick the blue color up a notch too being a complementary color.

Day 224

Day 224, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I shot a similar photo at the end of the Summer but I said I wanted to go back a recapture something when there’s a little snow on the trees. I stopped in the morning to get a couple of shots but I was disappointed in the images. So I left work in time to shoot something during the golden hour. When I envisioned this shot in the beginning of last Summer, this is what I was thinking of. I’m glad I was finally able to get a shot that reflected that vision. For now, I’ve played out the snow on the Christmas Tree theme with three shots in a row so I’m on to something new tomorrow.

Day 223

Day 223, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It snowed in Seattle this morning. I stopped at the Christmas tree farm and took some shots in very flat and colorless light.

Day 222

Day 222, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Winter is here and the holidays are right around the corner so here’s a quiet little composition I shot in my front yard. This image reminds me a lot of some of the Christmas cards my parents used to get back in the 60s.

I really like all the different types of contrasts in this image. There’s the contrast of shapes, sharpness and of course tonality. The bokeh helps with the sense of depth as the contrast of sharpness really makes the foreground branches jump off the page. And I’m really liking how these dark boarders give my compositions a nostalgic feeling.

Day 221

Day 221, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is the first in my new photo series called “The PowRiders Project” (a website and Facebook group will be forth coming). My intent in this project to take backcountry portraits of people I meet in the backcountry and explore the the feelings of riding fresh, untouched powder snow thru these portraits.

This is one of 8 people I meet in the backcountry today at Steven’s Pass WA. The Ski resort wasn’t open yet but there were plenty of people up there hiking to the top of Skyline. The snow was really good for early season and you can tell by the smile on this man’s face.

I’m also going to be exploring some new boarders in this project. I think it gives the portrait a nice feeling of nostalgia.

Anyways, I hope you follow along with this new project of mine, it's going to be fun.

Day 220

Day 220, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

We treated Noelle to lunch today for her 21st birthday. Now that she’s 21 she’s going to have to start buying her own drinks. And I never even knew she was underage! That was the joke at lunch because she’s well past 21 but really doesn’t look it.

I made sure we were seated near a window so that we would have some nice light coming in for a birthday portrait of her. Happy Birthday Noelle!

Day 219

219, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Another dark and dreary day today so I decided to make the best of the soft lighting and shoot a portrait. This is a portrait of Deane, an artist here at work. My first thought was to take a portrait of someone in deep shadows with highlighted facial features. But after a quick scouting trip during lunch I discovered that I would never get the look I was after without some help. The light is so soft that I needed something close to the face that would create a shadow area. I talked Deane into using this black umbrella which I thought would not only help set up the shadow areas but also be a nice contrast with her blond hair and fair complexion.

Day 218

Day 218, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is a hood ornament from an old dump truck for sale on the side of the road. I saw it a couple of days ago and wanted to stop but didn’t. This morning it was really dark and raining so I was thinking about shooting either something with color or something with texture. This fit both needs so I made the stop and took the shots.

Day 217

Day 217, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I originally passed this image up in Lightroom thinking it was just a door knob and nothing too exciting. But when a friend walked by my desk and commented on how much she liked the image, I took a second look. Then when I was listening to a webcast with Chris Orwig he was talking about finding quiet in images, this image came to mind. It has a haunting feeling to it that I’m really drawn to but I’m still not sure if I really like it. It will be interesting to come back to this photo in a couple of months and see how I feel about it.

Day 216

Day 216, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I went over to Redmond Town Center in search of light on a rainy day. I’ve been shooting a lot of portraits lately so my intention was to shoot something other than a portrait. I know it’s too early in the season for this but when the real Santa presents himself, you have to take the picture. This portrait reminds so much of the Coca-Cola Santa from the 50’s that I do believe this to be the one true Santa. How else could you explain the resemblance.

This was all shot with natural and available lights and composed in the camera, for what it’s worth.

Day 215

Day 215, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is a portrait of the Lucy, one of kids in the neighborhood. It was very overcast today so the light was a bit flat but that diffused lighting really does make for some nice portraits.

Day 214

Day 214, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Having to work on a Saturday, I took advantage of the opportunity to take some portraits. This is a Casey, a character modeler here at work. This man spends a lot of time in front of his monitor so it seemed fitting to take his portrait in this manner. We were discussing how the solve the world’s problems I was taken by the light coming from the dual monitors in the background and how his dark shirt created a great graphic element in the foreground. I made sure to capture this while he was talking to avoid a posed gesture. His jaw looks a little soft because of the movement but the rest of the gesture is perfect.

Day 213

Day 213, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Steve left a note on my monitor this morning that he was wearing his favorite Harley shirt today and wondered if I’d like to take a picture of him in it. I shot some nice photos on the way into work but I always welcome a chance to take someone’s portrait. So we just went out in the parking lot and found some nice morning light. I took the shots of him in his favorite Harley shirt but I really like this headshot with the rim lighting.

Day 212

Day 212, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I’m putting in some long hours at work so I have to get my photos in when I can. This was taken during lunch today at Sushi Mojo. I think she’s was actually saying “Mojo” when I took this photo. I really like the orange background and love her gesture. I was a little apprehensive about posting this because I wasn’t sure how she would feel about her expression but every time I look at this photo it makes me smile and in a good way. I wanted to share that bit of happiness with everyone and hopefully bring a smile to some faces. So, I hope she understands.

Day 211

Day 211, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

My model was feeling ill so she had to cancel on me today. I was all set to shoot a portrait in what I was going to be some great light in the afternoon. I was right about the light and I frantically walked around the City Hall park trying to find something worthy of such great light. I settled on this sculpture of a women near the bike trail. I felt like I could have found something better but I just stressed out and forced it too much. I should have slowed down but the light was fading fast. This was all done in the camera, I just worked the color a little. This light would have been such a great portrait!

Day 209

Day 209, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is a quiet little moment that I noticed on my drive back from lunch. I like the idea of these legs coming out of the building without seeing the rest of the figure. I guess it’s the mystery element of this subject that intrigued me. I drove around the block and snuck up on her from down the street. I did actually walk up to her after wards and ask to take her picture but she refused. I walked away with a nod but I knew I had my shot.

Day 208

Day 208, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It was a strange weather day in the Seattle area with sun breaks one moment and then pouring rain the next. The clouds were really spectacular though so I tried to make sure they were a part of any compositions I captured today.

Michele and I went out for lunch and took the dogs over to Silver Lake for a quick walk. While we were eating Tortas in the parking lot, we noticed this guy unload his paddle board. I’ve seen pictures of these boards but never had the opportunities to actually see one in action.

When we got down to the dock I struck up a conversation with the paddler, Wes and asked to take a few pictures. He was stoked to have some pictures taken of him while he was out paddling as most lone athletes are. I know this from snowboarding by myself. Arm-held selfies are just not all the rage any more.

I really like his gesture in this pose. If you look close you can see raindrops on the surface of the water. It feels like he’s contemplating whether or not to continue. I like the angles of the boat and the paddle but I was a little disappointed with the way his head crossed into the darker, treed area. But I think that connection actually helps to bring the top and bottom together.

Day 207

Day 207, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Kenmore Camera held their expo today at the Lynnwood Convention Center. Not far from my house I decided to stop in and see some of Sony’s new cameras in person and maybe attend a lecture or two. I noticed that Sony had a guest speaker that was talking about conservation photography so I attended the 1:00 pm lecture of Gitga’aat vs Big Oil by Cristina Mittermeier, a photographer and Executive Director of the International League of Condservation Photographers.

She was a wonderful speaker and was so inspiring that I may start moving in the direction of conservation photography. I stayed for awhile after the lecture and asked to take her portrait. I did what I could with the lighting in that room. It wasn’t the best for a portrait but one has to make due with the resources at hand.

Day 206

Day 206, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Well this one almost got me arrested! I was walking around the community center at the Old Redmond School House checking out what could be a potential place to show some work and I was using my intuition and followed some light coming from the top of the stairwell. When I was almost at the top I saw this little girl sitting on a bench in a doorway. The image reminded me so much of being sent to the principal’s office in grade school I had to take the shot.

I left it at couple of captures and walked back down the stairs to explore the rest of the first floor hallway. Within a couple of minutes this man comes around the corner and starts questioning me as to what I was doing. I smiled and just explained that I was an amateur photographer and was just taking a couple photos of light and such. I guess my smile must have helped me out because he accepted my explanation and walked away. I’m sure he went back to his office and called security. I took a couple more photos on my way out the front door but I made my getaway with a great shot!

Day 205

Day 205, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I set out to take some panorama shots at Marymoor. I set up in a couple different places but nothing was working for me. Then I had the idea to take a panorama of the velodrome. I took some initial shots to get a feel for the surroundings and took a couple of shots with the lone riders in the frame. After a couple of laps the rider came up and introduced himself to me and asked if I could take pictures of him because he doesn’t have any of him riding. I agreed! I spent some time taking shots from different angles and worked on some panning shots but I came back to this initial composition. I asked the rider to get as close as he was comfortable with and I laid on the ground and shot into the sun.

Day 204

Day 204, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I wanted to get this one done early in the day so I could concentrate on other things and I shot a perfectly good image this morning. But I just couldn’t leave the camera behind when I went to lunch. It’s a beautiful day in Seattle with the sun shining and temps up in the 70’s so I went to the park. This was taken at the RC Airfield at Marymoor. I took a series of shots of this man and his plane as I walked toward him but when I pointed the camera toward the sun, I got the shot I really wanted. I really like all of the reflected light on the red plane and the rim lighting is spectacular. The color scheme of red and green makes this composition really light up too! Of course I talked this man for awhile about his plane and he was really proud of it but I couldn’t stick around to see it fly because I needed to get back to the office. I hope he didn’t crash it!

Day 203

Day 203, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I’ve been looking at this Christmas tree farm as a subject since mid Summer but I never was able to catch it at the right moment. I finally was able to capture something tonight on my drive home while the sun was setting. I’m still not totally satisfied with this shot and I’ll keep an eye on the farm as the snow starts to fall in the lowlands this winter. A nice morning shot with a little snow could make for a stunning photograph.

Day 202

Day 202, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Alert the media….it’s raining in Seattle! I know this comes as a complete surprise! I shot this from inside of my truck thru a very wet windshield.

I decided to stay dry today and was eating my lunch when noticed the rain on the front windshield. I studied it for awhile and then brought out the camera and started finding interesting moments. After about 10 minutes of working with distortions thru the windshield a women with an umbrella walked past the side of my truck and came into my field of view….I held down the shutter release. I had the look dialed in at this point because of my earlier experimentations so it was just a matter of holding down the shutter button and getting the right gesture. I really liked the painterly quality of this shot and the implied movement of this women’s hustle to get across the street in the rain.