Photo Club Sky and Pumpkins

Guess blogging hasn't become a habit yet..... totally forgot about keeping this up.  

Last night the photo club girls plus some came over for a fun night of photos and painting.  We were supposed to have rain but for a split minute we got a fun sky to photograph.  

I challenged them to sun flair using the clouds.

One of the newbies said as she was taking pictures "this must be what heaven looks like"  

Heaven on earth that is and it's right out my door.

Then it was a lesson on exposure.  Exposing for the grass gives you this with sun flair right in the center of the lens.

And something totally different with it off to the side and a bit hidden in the clouds.  

Then I had a pumpkin painting project all ready for them.  I didn't take any pictures of us painting them but these are from a few weeks back with the grandkids helped paint some.

The grandkids and photo club girls had a blast painting them.  They are lovely in mass quantities.  

It was a great night with some amazing friends.  It's always nice to carve out some time from our busy schedules to enjoy the moments that make us who we are.  

Golden hour

The photography club that I lead or maybe I beg for them to do challenges with me throughout the months so I'm not alone in this addiction of taking hundreds of photos a week...... anyway this month was the golden hour and how it can change the look just by moving your feet.   It might have caused me to burn up a few hundred photos in one night.  

The morning started out like this.  Those clouds were just amazing.

Then fast forward to night time about an hour before sunset.  Looking into the sun and took the photo.

Then moving to the other side of the grass and taking the photo with the sun to my back.   Pretty amazing how it can look so different just by moving my feet.

When I was walking out into the field I noticed the reflection in the soggy field with the farm in the background.   There is a farm to the east of us and the west and I've probably got millions of photos from both of them.

Sun in front of me

Sun behind me

Sun in front of me

and another one

And who can resist photos of an old bike with a dreamy golden hour background..... not me.

Then the sun behind me........ no longer looks as fun

Just a little golden hour practice.....  enjoy.

October Photo Club

After a few text messages and email I found a free night to sneak in photo club.... those girls can get pretty demanding about something they love and I love it just as much as they do.  Getting together to chat, eat, drink and take photos is always a good time.  We picked Cherokee Park because Cherokee is the bomb this time of year and our night was perfect.  Some sunshine, warmish temperatures and still leaves on the trees.  I have been wanting to try the dreamy waterfall look with the fall leaves but haven't taken the time to do it so tonight I did.  I should have grabbed my other lens before I walked back into the woods but I didn't so I had to make what I had work.  

One of the girls is taking a class and needed some video footage of a photoshoot so I sweetly asked my daughter Lynn to step on the other side of her camera and do some gypsy modeling for us.  She fit the part perfectly. 

In this background you will see the video girl photo bombing me but she blends right into the bokeh. 

It was a great night and we all learned something and hopefully the video Mindy got was okay.  The bad thing about video is recording our conversations.... that could be hours of laughs while playing them back. 

October Photo Club

For October we've had it planned since February to go to the cemetery and the time finally came.  It sounded so good then but the closer it got the colder it got and the sooner it got dark.  Cemetery, Halloween, Dark, Spooks, Cold..... oh yeah what fun it was going to be.  

Gayle and I went a bit early and placed spooks around for some interesting Halloween photos and then we walked down by Mom and had a glass of wine to warm up and get our nerve on for later when it got dark.  Well Gayle says "hey Mom we're taking pictures tonight wanna come out and play?"...... I said "what are you doing?, are you crazy?, do you remember how she played pranks on us?"  Oh well it was too late, she said it and we had to deal with whatever mom had planned.

The other girls got there and the night started out great, it was actually warmer than what I thought it would be and the sky was great for photos.  

Here's one of our spooks guarding a metal cross.

A few loose heads.....

and rats.....

and crows.....

And one very scary monster

I'm okay with all that since it's still light out.  There are a lot of interesting photos to take in the cemetery during the daylight hours.

The skeleton man and I had a little photo shoot session, he did very well.  No complaining, no wiggling, but very few smiles.

It quickly got dark so we placed a spot light and shined it into the graveyard.

One spooky star shinning in the sky.

Love how the light shined through the cross stones.

Here is a shot of the truck with the spotlight shining.  It lights up the stones with the spider (far right) and the skeleton man with the felt hat (far left) and the crow (close left)

Okay now here's where it got weird.  We didn't know it at the time so that helped a ton not to be freaked out.  We stayed there for a long time in the dark and thought it was really fun.  A bunch of girls in the dark in the cemetery close to Halloween with my mother invited.   AHHHHHHHHHH

So when I got home I uploaded my photos and started culling through them and when I flipped past this one it caught my attention and quickly scrolled back to it.  WHAT is that?  Do you see the human like figure leaning over the skeleton man?  That was not there, we were all in the same area and no one was in front of us.  The figure appears to be wearing big alien type boots that you can see through and a power ranger like mask/helmet.  

It was a great night, every month it just keeps getting better and better and we have so much fun.  I'm so grateful for this great group of girls to spend one night a month with even if we are in the company of spirits.  (liquid and transparent)  :)

September Photo Club - Horse Ranch

I'm not much of an animal lover, actually I don't touch animals unless I really have to and that doesn't happen very often.  BUT I love to look at most animals..... from far away.  When driving by cows and horses I think the sunlight is so beautiful on them.  So I asked a good horse lover friend if she had any suggestions for our photo club.  She hooked me up with the sweetest horse lover ever.  She has a cool barn, a pond, horses, a donkey, fence, trees...  Okay that's all we need and she was willing to let us into her ranch to roam as we pleased with cameras in hand.  There are quite a few of us and we laugh a lot so she has no idea what she's getting into.  

Sorry for the watermarking in the center I need to protect the photos for the owner

When we arrived it was a beautiful site right from the get go.

The pond was shimmering with colors behind it

The horses were so friendly that they got right up in your face so close ups was the name of the game.

They started to relax and move away from us.

I love this one with the blue eyes and those long eyebrow hairs.

Well remember that I don't like to touch animals.... well these gals didn't care, they were demanding attention from me.  I did pet them a little, someone even caught it in a photo or I could deny that it happened.  

She has the cutest donkey and the sunlight on her hairy ears is the greatest.  

Cleanest barn I've ever seen

She's back and in my face again demanding attention

This one is a happy accident, I forgot to change my settings and happen to get a pretty amazing outcome of the little gal.

This little horse got a bit spunky and had to go for a time out.  

Now it's time for the horses to run

and buck

and jump

The owners heading out to bring the horses around

Mallory came with Lynn, of course when there is animals involved Lynn's not getting out of the house without her.  She loved it and of course found flowers in the field.

Mally is showing me how the horses mouths look

Will you share your flowers with me.  "Nope but you can take a close up"

One last look at the little girl on time out.  She's so darn little and cute.

These horses all have stories behind them and since Kristy is much better at telling their stories because it comes from her heart I'll let you read about them on her site here 

Thank you Kristy and Brandon it was truly a pleasure to share in your night.  I could come there everyday and photograph the horses, they are beautiful.