Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Zoo Lights

Once again, I can't tell you why one shot works and another doesn't at night???? I just keep moving the settings on my camera and I get something different every time. What I have discovered is that I can't get a clear picture unless I'm on auto setting with a flash, even though the subject may be a long distance away. I guess I'd have to use a tripod to get a good picture without the flash. Still looking for help. I liked the way the 2nd one showed the elephant clearly and the rest was blurry????? Also, the picture of my friend's daughter and her friend with my granddaughter.....interesting to me how the moving apes in the background came out clear. Go figure. Makes no sense to me.

Night Shots - Help!

When you have a husband who is not interested in picture taking, you take on assignments at stop lights. Totally boring..........keep scrolling...............

I thought this was a cool mistake, I have no idea what I was trying to take a picture of :)
I totally wanted to get out of the car and get a good picture of this "Made in Oregon" sign. Every Christmas they light up the nose on the deer. It used to be the logo for White Stag. Since Bill wouldn't let me stop on the bridge (especially since one lane was closed for construction) you get a partial sign. Maybe some day someone will move to Oregon that will walk the streets with me at night :) If you enlarge the picture, you'll see Rudolph's red nose.

1/2x f/3.5, ISO 400
1/60s, f5.0, ISO: 400

This was a bicycle shop that had bikes lit up all across the top of their store...I thought it was neat, however...........................

As you'll quickly see, I need help with night shots. Even though my camera (Digital Rebel XT) has auto settings for night mode, I cannot capture good night scenery. Besides getting out a tripod and putting it on a low shutter speed, can you help me?

Flooding & Wedding

For those of you who followed my absense while being with a friend....this is Chris (left) and her husband Ed (the one who was in the hospital for 2 months from a hit and run accident) at their daughter Maria's wedding last Saturday.
None of us ever thought Ed would be around to see Maria get married after spending many days in a coma and continued seizures and what seemed like everything else going wrong. He actually spent 2 days in the hospital right before the wedding from congestive heart failure. As you can tell, Chris is so happy to have him with her....she feels blessed every day.

Gayle, recognize this house? They did not escape the flood even though it was raised from the 1996 flood. Notice the life jackets on the railing. I could see inside the windows and all their things were piled high.
This is a pile of garbage in Vernonia from the flood. People were bringing their flooded belongings into the site by the truckloads. You get a sense of the size if you look at the truck and the people next to it.
This is normally an empty field which was turned into a lake along Hwy 26 in route to Vernonia. I couldn't help but capture the reflection of the fog and newly created lake. Thank goodness for the citizens of Vernonia, there was a little sun that day.

I wanted to post the stamps I had made of Mikayla and I just took a couple of shots around with the macro lens. Jewelry from my jeweled Christmas tree..............

HELP!

I took some pictures of Mikayla today that I am going to have made into stamps for Christmas cards. I need help choosing which picture to use. Will you please vote?

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Bald Eagle

I took Mikayla to the park by their house today and there was an eagle in the tree by the lake. I wanted to get him to fly off but he had more patience than me........then we saw some ducks. One is very strange and is a newcomer to the neighborhood. Don't know what kind he is. Then a heron perched on the same branch as the eagle. It was such a beautiful day today, caught some birds flying by and a little "animal" on the swings and running through the brush :)

Animal Shots

This is the extent of my "animal" photos. The bluejays were taken through a window so they're not really clear and the terrior is my girlfriend's dog who I happen to be with this last weekend. I threw in the leaf picture because I thought it was pretty :)

Portraits

Mikayla was a grape for Halloween. Couldn't help but put a couple of her in :)

Here are a few archive favorites for portrait week :)