Bowl Win!

I made this photo today after watching Oregon defeat South Florida today in the El Paso Sun Bowl, 56-21. I used my UO football helmet Christmas ornament, my Rebel xT with macro lens and a sun pendant for the background. It's corny I know, but it's the first photo creation I've made in this predetermined, set-up way for probably more than a year!
Thanks go to the Ducks for inspiration as well as to my friends on Carol Leigh's photo alumni group for encouragement, stimulation, and for providing great examples to follow and new techniques to try.

Walking In Winter

We had snow on Christmas Day! First time for a white Christmas in Portland in about 70 years, according to the news.

My husband, Hugh, rarely poses for me but he allowed this photo while we were walking in the snow that day.

Elegance

My daughter-in-law, Yukie, watches the photographer set up.

Wintertime

Found an outdoor Christmas tree decorated with apples and pinecones while walking in the neighborhood near the yarn store.

Happiness

My son, Andy (left), and his partner, Ivan, wait for the photographer.

Merry Christmas!

The Christmas tree is a gift to the Westmoreland-Sellwood community from local merchants and the neighborhood civic group.

Cool, Dad!

My son-in-law, Erik, and my grandson, Zack, exchange technical information while the photographer sets up for the family photo shoot.

Hardy Souls

From my walk this morning. It was raining quite a bit, but I must have seen 25 runners this morning in the hour I was stamping around and trying to keep my camera (mostly) dry. I wish the woman at the far right didn't have her foot cut off. I was panning on the lead woman and the group just came along with her. I experimented with cropping out the runners behind but I like the shot, as it goes along with my photo concept when I saw the runners, with all three than only one.

Discovering

I love this photo. The quality of the light, the pale pink walls, the soft window light, the relaxed and happy faces.
This is another candid I took at our family photo shoot. My granddaughter, Abbi, and her grandpa (my husband), Hugh, share some fun together.

Leftovers

Found this on my walk and couldn't resist making art out of it. My guess is it's what's left of a corner street lamp. Now it's mossy, spattered with street grime, and sprouting tiny blades of grass.

Girl Talk

My oldest daughter, Joanna, and my youngest daughter, Carolina, share a quiet moment while getting ready for our family photo shoot. We got the five kids and their partners/families together between Thanksgiving and Christmas to talk, eat, play, and hang out. While the photographer was setting up I took candids of everyone but me.

Collect Calls Dial *11

From my walk this morning. Every photog in the world has shot this subject. I really liked the yellow handset on a grey, cloudy day. I added a chalk filter with PSE6. Makes it look a little different.

Zoolights Fantasy

What kind of photos do you get when you're in the dark without a tripod and a P&S camera that will only rev up to 400ISO? Blurred photos. So blurring more to make abstracts was about my only choice. (Except for bracing my camera which I did for the Trust In Me image.) So, ta da!! Presenting Zoolights Fantasy! Or Zoolights Overwhelm, whichever way this strikes you. Note to Self: Next year at Zoolights bring the Rebel XT.

Utility Cover

From my walk yesterday. I decided to liven this up a bit in Photoshop Elements. I just upgraded to Elements 6 so I was trying to see what new things there were to play with.

Trust In Me

For our family, between-Thanksgiving-before-Christmas, get together, we went to Zoolights at the Portland Zoo. This was a total hoot! So what if the animals were all asleep--the place was packed with people and colored lights. I took this shot near the snake exhibit. It reminded me of a scene in The Jungle Book, a great animated Disney feature from 1967, with Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders, and Sterling Holloway as Kaa, the Snake.