Day 262

Day 262, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

New Year’s Eve 2010! I took this portrait of Michele in an Edmonds café today. We were going to the zoo today but we had to change plans because it was 25 degrees and the animals would be staying inside. So instead we went to Edmonds and took in some local culture.

Day 261

Day 261, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I saw this as I was leaving the neighborhood on the way to the mountains. I shot photos in the mountains all day and I still like this one the best.

Day 260

Day 260, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

The marsh was stunning this morning! There was some snow which enabled me to shoot the final chapter of my photo book “Boardwalks in the Marsh”. Now that I have way to many images for each season, I’ll be spending a lot of time just choosing the shots I’m going to use.

This is a photographer I met this morning in the marsh, I forget his name. He was interested in photographing the barn with snow on it rather than the marsh. I really like the painterly look to this image which I tried to enhance in the developing. The stacked centered composition adds to the meaning of this shot which is about composing an image.

I’ll let you know when the book is done, it’s going to be really good!

Day 259

Day 259, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It was getting late and I hadn’t taken a photo all day so when Michele wanted to take the dogs for a walk, I welcomed the chance to get out. Just as we were leaving our driveway some of our neighbors drove up and their dog Rainy hung her head out the drivers side window. I loved the look so I took the shot.

Day 258

Day 258, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It was cold and wet in the mountains today. I rode by myself so I took the opportunity to take a self portrait in the mountains without holding up a group. This is a nice study in contrasting textures.

Day 257

Day 257, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

What an elegant young lady. I added some Hollywood style lighting to really add to the mood.

Day 256

Day 256, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads......Merry Christmas everyone!

Day 255

Day 255, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I met Marvin on the boardwalk at North Creek Park today while I was out on a photo walk. He mentioned to me that he was a cancer survivor and was out enjoying a Christmas Eve stroll with his family. It reminded me of the time we took Mischu to that park and I took a photo of her not far from where I met Marvin. I’m glad to have met him there and it inspired me to put together all of the photos I’ve shot in this park and create my first photo book.

Day 254

Day 254, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It was pouring rain today so I had to stay inside and find something to photograph. This is Dima, the lead character modeler at my work. We were talking about a gallery he really liked in New York I just snapped some photos while he was talking.

Day 253

Day 253, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Broken clouds today made for some interesting photos. This is a kayaker I meet down by Lake Sammamish during lunch. I struck up a conversation with him and then couldn’t get away. That’s the thing with a lot of these sports guys, they love to talk about their sports. I use that to strike up conversatios though so I can't complain

Day 252

Day 252, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I have lost my ever-loving mind! I just spent the last hour and half taking a picture of the penguin on the front porch in the rain. I was really unhappy with everything I shot today so I had to go to a stand by shot.

Day 251

Day 251, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I’m not sure why but I’ve been wanting to take a high viewpoint shot of umbrellas in a crowd since the Summer. Maybe it was something I saw a long time ago and wanted to recreate it. So when I got to Redmond Town Center and there was a line of people with umbrellas waiting to see Santa, I knew my ship had come in. I got up on the second floor walk and took the shot I had been envisioning since August. The girl running into the frame from the left was a happy accident, I never saw that in my vision, but it really completes the composition.

Day 250

Day 250, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

After spending some time with the photos from today’s shoot I’ve decided that this is a much better photo.

The light was really beautiful today and perfect for taking pictures of the newest addition to our neighborhood, Desi our neighbor’s adopted Golden Retriever. I shot almost 300 images in just a half hour but I only came out of the shoot with 100 usable images. Lots of lens flair and blurred shots from a very rambunctious dog. I chose this one for the composition, light quality and negative space between the Desi and Noah.

Day 249

Day 249, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is a nice quiet moment in my neighborhood. I saw this dog sitting on the porch from my car and stopped to take the shot without even opening the door of my truck. I guess it would be a kind of a drive by. Now that’s lazy but getting out wouldn’t have made it any better of a shot. This was a very flat capture so I had to add the lighting in Lightroom. It’s not cheating if you’re creating art, I say!

Day 248

Day 248, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This was captured on my way to work this morning while stopped at an intersection. I was drawn to the back lighting and the cloud of dust around the workers feet. This composition is about a glancing moment from a car so I’m only showing what one would normally see as they pass by. A moment like this happens very quickly so driver would only be able to notice something moving and in this case it would be feet and dust. This is full frame, camera composed capture and not cropped. Conceptually, I really like this fleeting moments idea, I may have to explore that more.

Day 247

Day 247, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I saw this as I was walking to a meeting at the local coffee house. I was busy all day so I didn’t have time for a photo walk so I just kept my camera out as I walked to my meeting and kept my vision at the ready. Balance and repeating shapes and strong in this melancholy image.

Day 246

Day 246, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Noelle has appeared as the photo of the day couple of time so I didn’t plan to do a shoot with her today. But when she came by my cubicle dressed like this in the morning, I had to take her picture. I wanted to shoot something more than a portrait so we made a quick trip over to the Redmond Town Center during twilight and we acted out a fashion shoot. It was fun!

Day 245

Day 245, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

This is Chris, a designer here at work. I caught him as he was adjourning a hallway meeting near my cubical. Compositionally it would have been better if he was looking toward the green light but there’s a comical aspect to him looking in the wrong direction and missing out on the green light.

Day 244

Day 244, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

It was pouring rain halfway thru my twilight photo walk so I had to cut it short. I really didn’t get a capture that I liked so I was glad to see this Lotus parked in front of my building. I see this car from time to time parked in front of work and I’ve wanted to take it’s picture for awhile but I always thought to save it for a rainy day when I can’t find anything else to shoot. I have a couple of those pocket captures stowed away waiting for the right time and this was indeed the day to capture the Lotus!

Day 243

Day 243, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I went down to the Country Village shopping center to take some photos of the holiday lights in the rain this afternoon. Although there was some wonderful light displays, nothing says Merry Christmas like a chicken with a cool hair doo. I spent a good amount of time irritating this chicken with my camera until he finally gave up and struck this pose. It’s a lot like how I work with people when I’m shooting their portrait.

Day 242

Day 242, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Not a lot of time to take pictures today but I managed to snap a quick one of Sophie, Oliver’s sister , as we were getting ready for a walk.

Day 241

Day 241, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I waited all week to take this picture at the Christmas tree farm in Woodinville. I had to shoot this during the twilight hour and Friday was the only day this week I could get out of work early enough to take it. I only spent about 15 minutes at the site but I’ve been thinking about this shot all week so I knew exactly what I wanted.

Day 240

Day 240, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

At a loss for what to shoot on another dreary lunch hour and I went for a selfie. With no tripod along, I set my camera a picnic bench and set up this shot. It must have looked pretty silly to some of the people passing by.

Day 239

Day 239, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I haven’t been to the farm park in awhile so I took advantage of some clear weather between the storms and took this portrait. I like the balance here and the way the sheep fades into the background. The gesture is very elegant and proud. I should find out her name and have her sign a model release.

Day 238

Day 238, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

In memory of all of the brave men who died on this day in 1941. May we never forget them.

Day 237

Day 237, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

When I got back from my photo walk during the twilight hour I was very disappointed with everything I shot. I thought I hit a wall. Was this the day that I didn’t get a shot? As I was searching thru the images in Lightroom for anything that could pass for a decent photo, I inadvertently clicked on a preset named “Savera”. This was a preset I created last week as a demo when I was showing Lightroom to a friend at work. I was fiddling with the controls and just saved the preset as “Savera” to show him how presets work. When I hit the preset tonight, it just lit up this image! It’s amazing how just by hitting a preset button you can go from totally depressed to being exhilarated! I love Lightroom!

Day 236

Day 236, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

I’m using what I’ve learned from working with the bleached bypass to make this image work. I saw this bird having problems sitting on top of the windmill and knew he was going to take fight so I set up and started taking pictures. I like the balance in this shot and how the bird interacts with the negative space.

Day 235

Day 235, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

“The Bandana” Being point blank to Marc's ski poles is really scary but I stuck to it and took the shot. Great day in this mountains today!

Day 234

Day 234, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Bleach bypass again today! This is my friend David Grega on stage at Ste. Michelle. We snuck unto the stage which is closed for the season. I thought we were going to get caught, it was really fun! This really seems to fit the bleach bypass process well with it’s high contrast and industrial feeling. It really reminds me a lot of the Maxell ads from the late 70s.

Day 233

Day 233, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

The Bleach Bypass development process has been in vogue for years now. I still don’t understand why it’s been so popular for so long but I’m going to work with the process and see what is so special about it. I did a quick search on the net on the process only to find information about the “how” to do it but not the “why” to develop with this process. This is pretty typical for the photography community in general though, a lot of tech but no substance.
My first impression of the Bleach Bypass process is that it works well with urban, industrial subjects where you want a high contrast and desaturated look. It adds a certain seriousness to an image and that may be one reason why it’s been so popular.

I took a walk thru downtown Redmond during lunch which is the closest urban area I can get to with the limited time I have for lunch. But they do have a skate park and nothing says urban like a skate park. I sat on the edge of the upper bowl and was just shooting different compositions of the cement and this skater kept skating into my frame. After awhile I struck up a conversation with “Wild Bill” and snapped some pictures of him skating and a couple of portraits. This is an environment portrait of him.

So this is my first attempt at this process. I kind of like it for this subject matter and I’m going to stick with this shoot with it for a couple of days and see where it takes me.

Day 232

Day 232, originally uploaded by Terry Schmidbauer.

Oliver is one year old today so to commemorate the day I took a portrait of the little guy. It’s really hard to believe that he’s already a year old. Where does the time go?