After the kids have left...

for school, I have some time to myself. This is the first full week of school but I've done some errands and shopping for more shorts for Tyler. I do need to have the Pilot's oil changed , get my hair cut and eyes examined but that will get done when I feel like it.

This morning I felt like a short mini-photowalk after taking Josh to school.

Relief

After almost a week of heat and humidity, our weather is nice and cool again.

The sky after the rain.

Pretty

This morning I woke to thunder and rain which was kind of nice. As I drank my coffee, another brief rain deluge came down and Josh was excited to go outside. By the time he got out, the rain had stopped and we were left with the just rained smell.
The clouds opened up just for a quick glimpse of sky and sun.

A glimpse of sky and sun.

Today was karate and instead of taking my usual knitting, I brought my camera and took some pics of the area.

Low Tide

Yesterday morning, we ventured out before 9am to check out the tidepools at low tide. We are fortunate to have a couple of places to observe the sea creatures and enjoy the lovely weather.  There were only a handful of people down there so we had the place practically to ourselves.

The tide was below 1 foot so we just had to be concerned with the rock hopping part and only saw tons of crabs scurrying around once we got close.

The kids were mostly interested in the rocks and all they have to offer while I lingered back trying to take pictures. Here are some to enjoy...





















Also, my experiment with Monty/365 project is not going so well. It's my fault since I always forget to bring him with me. I shall attach him to my camera so that should increase the chances of me taking more photos with him. I might start another blog project chronicling his adventures. Hopefully it will be better than Monster Bear's blog. :)

Alamitos Bay

Yesterday, I went to Alamitos Bay to use my bday gift certificate from ABYC and meet up with Kat for lunch/photowalk. I bought some lovely yarns, had a very nice lunch and took a few pics in the breezy marina.

These buds on this tree grew in random spots on the branches.

The buds emerge into this.

What I like about photography is finding that little detail and trying to capture it in a great way. Sure there are the nice boats in the marina but everyone takes pictures of those. I found myself drawn to the items around the marina, mostly the trees, plants and whatever catches my eye.

I shot down into the yucky water over the railing which looked disgusting in real life but in a photo, it has an interesting look to it with the colors of the rocks and little ripples in the water.

Flowers.

Flowers growing out of the concrete.

Overhead view of above flowers.

50 Steps: day 2

I'm feeling better every day since my bout with the flu but my tummy still gets upset at food. I decided to do another version of 50 steps since there is a bunch of stuff that I need to go through in my process of de-cluttering.



 Frying pan and spatula with bits of last night's dinner. I tried some Korean pork sausages that were given out as samples that the kids really liked. Hector then used the same pan to heat up a Filipino dish called seeg seeg (sp) that I have no idea how to spell. I had a little taste of it and it was good but didn't like the bell peppers that were added to it (Hector picks it out but the flavor is still there).



Hello Kitty coin holder.

Okay, now to sort through more things while doing more laundry...

Marina

Today I went over to the Alamitos Bay marina where I could take some pictures and check out some yarn. Double score!! The weather is definitely warming up which is a nice change from this past month's chilly wet weather. I might even wear shorts this weekend!!



Gorgeous day and weather. It was pretty bright but that just gives me a chance to practice exposure and settings.






It might be hard to see but in the last photo you can still make out our local snow capped mountains. :)

50mm test run

Today I rented another lens because there was a special of buy a 3 day rental and get 7 days. Perfect for the Thanksgiving holidays.

My first impressions and these are my opinions since I'm not a professional at all: this lens sucks up light (in a great way). Our house faces north so sunlight is fleeting in here. I took some pictures of some late bloom tomatoes in my kitchen at 3:30pm with no lights on.

Normally, the picture would be dark and/or blurry so I'd have to make adjustments. But this lens is so fast it makes most of my photos look great.





It does getting used to no zoom but if my pictures look like this all the time, I will be very happy. Plus the lens is light and doesn't stick out so this would be a fun lens to keep on for walking around.

So far so good, I would have stayed out longer but it is freezing cold! I have my fire going and my mystery socks are in its last stage (foot) so I will try shoot more tomorrow. :)