Summer Photography Challenge: Day 1

Just for fun, I am participating in a two-week long Summer Photography Challenge that starts today. I expect to learn a lot, and get some good practice.

I was joking with my sister on Saturday about her photography: "Wow! You must have a good camera! You get some really nice pictures!" She laughed. "Yeah. I do. It's all about the camera." She knew I was being completely facetious. "Seriously," she said, "if a person has an eye for composition, even a cheap camera can take good pictures."

I remember my first camera. I saved up my money for it when I was in about the 7th grade. It was a little Kodak Instamatic that took 110 film. It took a steady hand (which I didn't necessarily have) and even then, the pictures usually turned out grainy. Cameras have come a long way since the late 1970s. And since we don't have to pay for film or developing (Kids, go ask your grandma about that!) it's fun to just snap-snap-snap away and then play around with the results.

Today's challenge covered composition, and talked about using the "rule of thirds" for composing your subject. Even before I knew about today's challenge, I enjoyed playing with that rule yesterday with my road trip snapshots. I had forgotten my "good" camera, so I was taking pictures with my cell phone and then editing them with Instagram.

#westerncolorado #i70 #roadtrip #headedhome #ezell2k15

A photo posted by Karla Cook (@ramblinroads) on Jul 12, 2015 at 6:43pm PDT

When I'm taking pictures from a moving vehicle, it's hard to think about composition, so that's where the editing comes in handy. Here's the original of the "finished" picture above:

First, I cropped off the mirror and window frame of the car. Instagram has the "thirds" grid built in so I was able to zoom in enough to put the canyon cut at the 2/3 vertical line and the guard rail at the 2/3 horizontal line. Then I applied a neat filter and frame. I like the way it turned out.

 Here's another one I did the same way. This one also has "leading lines" with the curving highway.

#utah #i70 #roadtrip #headedhome #ezell2k15

A photo posted by Karla Cook (@ramblinroads) on Jul 12, 2015 at 3:31pm PDT

And the original:

I zoomed in and put the horizon line at the 2/3 horizontal line, and the "end" of the highway (where it goes behind the hill) at the 2/3 vertical line. And then chose a different filter. I don't filter all my photos, but I think they are fun to play around with.

I'll be practicing some more during the next two weeks. I'm not sure if I'll post all the challenges here... or on my Instagram account. We'll see.

Weekend Road Trip

We spent all day Friday and Sunday driving so we could be in Nampa, Idaho for my parents' 50th anniversary celebration on Saturday.

It took us just over 13 hours to get there. We averaged 66 mph with 5 stops on Friday, so it was a long day in the car. Lyle did all the driving. The girls were content with their earbuds in the back seat. The dog and the guinea pig went along, too, and rode in the back of our Jetta wagon. We put our car-top carrier on for luggage.

Laura and I entertained ourselves as we drove along by snapping pictures, posting them to Instagram and Facebook, and texting them to friends and family.

I love the scenery out west!

On Saturday we all gathered in my brother's yard for family pictures.

My sister is the "real" photographer in the family, and she took the portraits.

Me? I snapped a few shots of the men with their heads under the 1949 Chevy pickup...

...and one of the yard, just because I thought it was so pretty with the morning sunlight streaming through the trees.

 That afternoon we had a "party" with cake, family trivia games, and a slide-show of family pictures over the years. It was a fun day.

On Sunday morning we started home again.

We stopped to stretch our legs at Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho...

...and then headed on down the road, through the salt flats of Utah...

...and through the mountains of western Colorado...

...and made it safely home again.

It was a good trip.

Denali Viewpoint South

The second "sight-seeing" stop of yesterday's road trip was at the Denali Viewpoint South. It involved a short uphill hike for the best view. I wasn't too sure where it would take us, so I asked some ladies coming down if the hike was worth the view. They assured me that it definitely was, and that I was almost there. So I kept going.

The strip of photos in the collage above shows the trail, starting from the bottom picture and going up. I could just barely see the top of the mountain as I started up. The background picture was taken from the viewpoint at the top of the trail. As were these...

The view of the mountain from this vantage point was breathtaking. At over 20,000 feet, Denali is the tallest mountain on the North American continent. Apparently, Mount McKinley is the official name, but the "real" name of the mountain is Denali. If you're like me, you've heard all this before but may not remember it at the moment.

As with most major mountains, seeing it on a sunny day is rare. We were thrilled that the weather cooperated for a stunning view just for us.

Talkeetna, Alaska

On our road trip today we enjoyed a detour to the little town of Talkeetna.

Tourists that we are, we decided that it was a quintessential Alaskan town.

 We walked down the street lined with authentic log cabins...

...whimsical buildings...

...and even a yurt!

I would have liked to try this coffee shop, but it didn't seem to be open when we were there.

We followed the signs to the "river view trail"... past the Mexican Moose where this little girl was selling cinnamon roasted nuts, along with random Mexican-y style gifts under the awning behind her. We never did understand why Mexican. In Alaska. Just to be different maybe. I have no idea.

The river view was well worth the hike.

A photographer was rafting down the river with his collapsible bicycle in the raft with him. In case you didn't recognize it, yes, that is indeed Mount McKinley way off in the distance.

Here. Let me zoom in on it for you.

You know what? I think it just needs its own post. But it's getting late. So I'll post those pictures tomorrow.

Kenai Convention

 Today was our first convention day here in Alaska. We even put together a special little display featuring books we carry that are set in Alaska and of course we had to add a cute moose mascot. He will be going home to live with Judy's little grandson, but for this week he's helping out in the booth.

Our booth space went around a corner and had a very large world map mounted on the wall behind it, which made for an interesting yet attractive set-up. Don't you think?

The convention ended at 5:00. We packed and loaded up for the 3-hour drive back to Anchorage.

We have been avidly watching for "Moose on Road" but saw nary a one this evening. (Road sign photo courtesy of Stan.)

We would also not have objected to seeing bears, caribou, or whales along the way, but no such luck. In fact, the only wildlife we've seen at all has been ginormous mosquitoes, various birds... and a very strange character at WalMart who was insistent on helping us load our groceries in hopes that we would give him a dollar for his efforts. Never mind that there were four of us who were perfectly capable of loading our own groceries. That was kinda scary.

We have seen more blue sky this year than last year... which make the snowcapped peaks much more spectacular.

 The late daylight hours made the drive back from Kenai very pleasant, in spite of all the animals apparently hiding from us.

It's been a long day, and tomorrow will be an early one, with set-up for the Anchorage convention first thing in the morning. 

No scenic drive on tomorrow's itinerary... but on a trip like this, you never know what might happen. It's always an adventure.

Driving to Kenai

Today's travels took us from Anchorage to Kenai. The drive was described by the convention sponsors thusly: 

The 3-hour (145-mile) ride from Anchorage to Soldotna on the Seward and Stering Highways is nothing less than magnificent, traveling first along breath-taking Turnagain Arm with wonderful views of glacier-capped mountains across the inlet, and then through a mountain pass before you drop down into the forest to drive alongside the glacier-fed, aqua-marine Kenai River.

And indeed, it is a beautiful drive. Last year I was driving, which is not conducive to much picture-taking. Today I was a back-seat passenger, so my view was somewhat limited.

I was able to get a few pictures through the side windows of the minivan.

I didn't realize until we got there that the back windows of this particular minivan will actually roll down, so I wouldn't have had to deal with reflections on the glass if I had known. Oh, well.

We checked into our hotel, then went and set up our booth at the convention venue.

Sheila (one of my co-workers) had discovered an interesting-looking pizza place in Soldota: St. Elias Brewing Company, so we decided to eat there for supper.

The pizza was delicious... as was the root beer which they make there on-sight (in addition to beers and ales and whatever else breweries make).

Sheila is good at taking group selfies. (Or do you call group selfies "ussies" or "weesies"?) She took this one at the restaurant before our food came.

After supper we drove out to the beach on the Kenai River. The breeze was cool but not frigid. We enjoyed picking up pebbles.

And we marveled at how high the sun still was at 8:30 p.m.

On a Jet Plane

Day 1 of my Alaska trip was mostly spent in the air. Our flight out of Denver was at 6:10 a.m. It usually takes about 40 minutes to get to the airport, so allowing time to get through security and such, we left home at 3:45 a.m. Ugh!

The first leg of our trip took us to Salt Lake City. Our layover there was relatively short, and of course you can't tell much about an area just from the airport, but we did enjoy seeing the mountains.

 As we flew out from there, I was interested to see what appeared to be bright purple water below. I don't know if that was the Great Salt Lake and the purple was minerals in the water, or if it was something else entirely.

 Our next stop was at SeaTac. In a switch-around of typical weather, it was raining when we left Denver, and sunny in Seattle. And so the "mountain was out." (Mount Rainier is often hidden by cloud cover.)

 I enjoyed the clear view of Puget Sound as we headed north from there.

When we arrived in Anchorage, Judy and I decided we should snap a picture of the stuffed moose in the airport lobby in case it was the only one we would see.

Tomorrow we will be driving to Kenai. I am hopeful the weather will be nice so we can get some good pictures of the scenery.

An Evening Drive

My parents visited us last week for Dad's spring break. One evening we took them for a drive up to Lookout Mountain Park.

A herd of mule deer were ambling around when we arrived. They weren't scared of us.

I was able to get quite close to take some pictures

 We walked around for a little bit, but the wind kicked up and it was pretty nippy.

We decided we could see enough from the car.

 It's neat to be able to see downtown Denver from up there.

 When we got back to town the sun was setting.

 Lyle pulled over so we could enjoy it.

I snapped picture after picture.

These were taken in a parking lot about a half mile from our house.

What a lovely way to spend a spring evening!