Penning Photography Daily

Karen’s Train

A photo of my bride Karen’s charriot, bringing her home from a week in

Chicago.

I’m glad she’s back! =)

* Sent from my Palm Treo 650

Solo

From a cold Winter’s day of almost a year ago.

At Washington Park lagoon, while capturing images of various ducks and geese, these gulls were the bandits in the sky. Always on the prowl for food. Swooping down whenever someone tossed bread or whatever to the birds.

This one is particularly interesting to me. It’s hard for me to capture birds in flight. I have a Red Dot Sight (RDS), which hunters use to assist in tracking moving wildlife. It uses mirrors and a lens along with a red LED (light emitting diode) to superimpose a red dot on your object of interest, your target. I hold the camera at arms length and line up the red dot in the RDS with the bird and snap away. It increases my good to total shot ratio for fast moving objects. Some folk use an RDS for airplane photos. I use it for birds.

I was drawn to this picture today by it’s solo character.

I have been feeling a bit solo lately. My bride, Karen, has been in Chicago for a week on business. The nights have been long. I miss her so, when she is away. I go to pick her up in a few minutes after writing this. I’m looking forward to having her at my side once again.

Solo isn’t a bad thing. We’re each solo all the time, but also connected to everyone else. All the time, whether I acknowledge it or not. I have hope for all my solo brethren in this crazy world of ours. Some days that hope’s a bit hard to find, but I always do find it.

Carrie – Beautiful Mother

Last August, my niece Carrie gave me the privilege of photographing her in her last days of waiting for my grand-niece Charlotte Beverly to make her appearance.

We had a delightful two days of time together with Carrie and Terry, her husband and Charlotte’s father. Of the many photos taken that weekend, this one caught my eye.

I’m learning and pushing myself to grow in skill at capturing the essence of what I see. Carrie’s beauty is far beyond my skills then and now. I’m hoping you can see in this photo, the joy and glow of being a new mother that I saw that day.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My challenge is to capture what is deeply a part of that which is photographed and translate it in full meaning to the viewer.

We each bring much with us when we look at a photograph. I hope what I have brought to you in this photograph speaks of beauty, hope, joy and expectant fulfillment.

Candle Glow

Karen received this nice candle. It’s a wax cylinder with different wood and paper embedded into the walls. At the bottom is a short platform which holds a tea candle. Very nice light.

Candles must touch some deep gene for the wonder of fire.

I’m pushing the limits of noise on this with my Panasonic FZ-30. Soon will have a Pentax K10D in my photo toolkit.

This glow helped to wash away the greyness of the weather today. Very overcast and gloomy all day long.

I hope there’s a candle glowing where you are to remind you of the fire of the sun that’s behind the clouds of today.

The Hunt

Parking lot of a local shopping area.

Gulls and other birds.

On the hunt for food.

Prepare, Pre-focus, Wait.

Bursts of continuous capture for several minutes. Then wait some more.

Sounds like the birds were in the same pattern as I was. One gull on top of each pole-light, watching and waiting, then swooping, all in a graceful pattern of competition for the goal. Food for them, Good photo for me.

This one interests me with the two species of birds in the extremes of the frame. All of us on the hunt.

candle

Just playing around.

Took a picture of a new candle on a table. Brought it into post processing and played for an hour. A learning exercise.

I like the color and the dimensional feeling.

But then, I’m easily amused.

You?

Flowers For My Karen On Her Birthday

Today is the birthday of my bride, my Karen Sue.

We are celebrating apart from each other.

Karen’s in Chicago, putting in some long days in her role as buyer for the hospital gift shops. That role is just one of many she takes on as Director of Samaritans for St. John’s Hospital. They are darn lucky to have her. So am I.

My Karen is my partner, my helper, my love. I’m filled with gratitude that we found each other and held on.

Karen’s grandfather worked with my grandfather in a local heavy equipment factory. Her grandfather was a foreman, mine a factory efficiency expert. After we had been married, and we both found out of this connection, he declared: “If I’d a known that Larry Hartley was your grandfather, I’d a thrown you out!” He said with a twinkle in his eye.

I am hopeful that Karen won’t throw me out, now that I’ve put this out to the world.

Happy Birthday, Karen Sue. I love you, now and forever. Hugs and Kisses too.

-Your Matt