Month: December 2010

A Brief Moment in Time…

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A Brief Moment in Time…, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Lake Tahoe in the early evening. This was a short photo op on the way to Emerald Bay to take sunset shots after a day of chasing Fall Color in Hope Valley.

I thought I’d give the Orton Effect a go on this photograph to see how it worked. I’m happy with this one too.
I especially like the light on the foreground logs. There is a trail on the other side of this fallen tree I wanted to go explore, but didn’t have time to.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 17-35mm @ 19mm| f3.5| 1/500sec| ISO 200| Manual Mode| Singh-Ray 3 stop Grad ND filter| On a Tripod

” There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is having lots to do and not doing it. “~John W. Raper

Posted in California, LandscapesTagged 2 Comments

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Today I wanted to try a new technique my friend Geo told me about. It’s called the Orton Effect. Created by Michael Orton in the 1980’s he sandwiched two slides together one in focus, and the other out of focus to create an ethereal painterly quality.
Today we can recreate this effect with a single image in Photoshop. Or do it the original way of taking two photos. One in focus and over exposed 2 stops, and one out of focus and over exposed one stop. Load the photos into Photoshop then do a little blending, and layering et Voila!
Be sure to use a tripod when taking your photos if you plan to use this technique.
It doesn’t work for all types of images, but wooded areas, and winter scenes seem conducive to the technique.
There are a couple of flickr groups devoted to the technique. One is here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/orton/

I thought this photo I took at Sorensen’s Resort back in Oct. would be nice to try the technique out on. I like it!

Sorensn’s Resort established in 1926 is popular stop along the Hope Valley Fall color route located at the junction of Hwy 88 and Hwy 89.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 17-35mm @ 17mm| f3.5| 1/60 secon| ISO 200 | Manual Mode| On a Tripod

Sunrise Hike to Mission Peak

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Sunrise Hike to Mission Peak, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Big Baby Boy, Anne a photography friend, and myself met to hike Mission Peak for a sunrise, and to help get Anne ready for an upcoming 10k run she’s doing.
It took me 2 hours and 5-6 minutes to make it the peak. Both Big Baby Boy, and Anne are in excellent shape. Neither of them huffed or puffed the whole way up. I on the other hand took lots of breaks, and huffed, and puffed like a steam engine! They both beat me to the summit by 10 minutes.
The climb- The trail starts at 500ft and the top is at 2,517ft. A 2,100 foot ascent. It was according to Anne’s GPS 3.06 miles from bottom to the top. Pretty STEEP!
The trail traverses rocky loose soil, rutted, dusty, and very little tree coverage going up the Steep Route. It’s a fire road that is nothing but switch-backs all the way up. There are only 2 flatish little breaks the entire way up, you may run into cows that roam freely through the park on or near the trail, and open areas can have strong winds, and gusts. Today the weather was nice going up. Hardly any wind, but once up at the top it was breezy and cold.
The fog started to roll in too so we moved quickly taking our photos around the Marker pole.

Then I took photos of the sunrise. After our descent we stopped at a local coffee house- not the big chain. We had a well deserved breakfast.
Big Baby Boy came home for the Holidays last Tuesday night since then he and I have hiked up the Steep Road twice, and gone to the track twice, and this morning hiked Mission Peak. Tomorrow I’m sure we’ll hit the track to stretch our legs, but I doubt I’ll be adding the bleachers to my routine tomorrow.
I’m sure hiking up to Mission Peak was something he never thought he’d do. I’m very glad he went with me. He did say it was worth getting up at 3:50am for, but nothing he would do on his own.

Total hike 6.12 miles
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 18-200mm VRI @ 18mm| f3.5| 1/6second| ISO 400 | Manual Mode| On a Tripod

“Noncooks think it’s silly to invest two hours’ work in two minutes’ enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.”~ Julia Child

Posted in California, Holidays, NikonTagged 2 Comments

The beginning – prep

…more veggies!

…ready for the oven,

2 hours later,

May your hearts be filled with every joy this lovely season brings!

Nikon D300s| Nikkor lenses|

Thank you Wayne for showing me the way!

 

2010 Lunar Eclipse

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2010 Lunar Eclipse, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
DD, T, A, and I went out the Henry Coe State Park late last night to try and photograph the Lunar Eclipse.
We fought heavy mist, light rain, and fog all night.

I kept wiping my lens, and for awhile everytime there was a hole in the fog cover I would fire away. I struggled with my tripod controls and the rain sleeve all evening, and the STEEP angle of the moon was a killer. To get my lens pointed up nearly straight above my head I had to turn my camera to the opposite side of my tripod. The adjustment knob was on the right side then, and I am used to adjusting my camera’s position with my left hand. It was frustrating not being able to move my camera as effortlessly as I normally do. I was clumsy to say the least.
I gave up trying to photograph it about 11:30p and just became a spectator. This is my best shot of the night. Some of the penumbra. It’s a bit soft due to the fog /clouds I think…or my manual focusing. 🙂 It was beautiful! I’m glad I saw it from start to finish.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 70-300mm@ 300mm| f16| 2.5seconds| ISO 200 | On a Tripod| Manual Mode

Big Bike for Deborah…

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Big Bike for Deborah…, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Christmas 1963, San Diego, CA.

I scanned this from a copy of the original photograph that my Mother still has. The copy I have isn’t very good. I added some contrast and sharpening in photoshop to help it a bit.
On the back of the photo my mom wrote:
Big Bike for Deborah
Trike for Rebecca
Tractor for David
Riding horse for Ke-ke
Christmas 1963

This bike was awesome. It was blue with white metallic trim, streamers on the handle bars, and white wall tires. Anyone familiar with San Diego knows it’s hilly. Our house was in the country then on top of a what I thought was a mountain, but was a good size hill. Probably about 500 ft high.
There was a flight of stairs from the driveway to the front door. I remember man handling this big bike down the stairs then hanging onto the bike for dear life as I walked it- yes walked half way down the hill- far too timid to dare try riding down the whole hill on my maiden voyage! I had just sat on the on the seat and was ready to let er’ rip down the down the hill when my father shouted from the top of the stairs ” Deborah, bring her up, we’ll take the training wheels off!”
After many crashes, bruises, scrapes, and hours I learned to ride my new Big Blue Bike without ever riding her with training wheels. A Christmas I will never forget.