Walking around Mission Hills Country Club this morning.

Golf cart path along the Palmer one #1 fairway.

I called out for our neighbor Carol to join Ray and me on our walk.

Reseeded early light on the fairway #17 on the Westin course near Sandi's house.

Photos from Santa Fe, NM that I've presented to my teacher for review.

I'm done. I've tweaked the few photos (out of over a 1000 photos) I'm not too embarrassed to post for my teacher's critique.

I spent most of the weekend prepping photos for the 2 month online class, assignment #4 - Office Art as well as these photos from the workshop I took last week in Santa Fe, NM. I am out of balance in my life with all these photography projects.

I have another photo trip with my teacher, Carol Leigh, Oct 12th for 3 1/2 days in Half Moon Bay. I am one of 12 of Carol's students who responded immediately to the offer to shoot Half Moon Bay for a book Carol is going to put together. Once Carol sent out the invite in an email, it took only one hour before she had 12 students saying they were in. I'm glad I didn't procrastinate behind my fear that I'm not good enough.

I certainly am stretching myself these days. It feels good. I'm learning. I'm learning that I have much to learn. If I'm not shooting photos, prepping photos, I'm reading about photos. Hmmmmm. This is what I always kid Ray about.....golf, golf, golf!

Well, which photo do you like of these photos I've just posted? If you don't mind, would you tell me why you like the photo (Gee, I hope you like one or two.). I'm trying to learn what is appealing in photos. I haven't a clue about my own photos. I get so tired and bored looking at the photos during the tweaking and selecting process that I don't like any of them. I need some distance.

My teacher Carol is swamped with work so she is somewhat behind in critiquing our online class assignments. I have three assignments I'm waiting to have critiqued. When I receive the comments, I'll post them.

Off to bed. Ray and I are hiking at 5:30 am in the morning. Any later and the 105 degree temps fry my brain, not to mention what this kind of heat does to my enery levels for the rest of the day.


11/4/08 - Since posting this blog entry I have received and posted critiques on the following photos from my teacher.


GREAT DOOR FRONT WALL
We were victims of bright sunlight here. I think you could turn this
into a moodier, lusher photo by applying the Orton Effect. Go into
Photoshop. Make a duplicate layer. Select Gaussian Blur filter. Select
a "strength" of 20. Go to blending modes and select "Soft Overlay."
Then use your opacity slider to tone down or play up the amount of the
effect. Voila!

Or, play with something Judy Tillson mentioned: "Multiply." Go into
Photoshop. Make a duplicate layer. Select blending mode "Multiply." It
might look way too dark, so use the opacity slider to lighten it up.
Voila (again)!


BLUE VIGAS
You're killing me! Would be GREAT if it were in focus. And I mean
GREAT. You must go back and re-shoot this. :-)


WOMAN STATUE
Very good. Love the golden bronze and the turquoise mix. The bright
sky coming through the trees distracts me from her face, however . . .

WOOD DOOR
You're killing me AGAIN! I love the golden tones of the wood, but to
me the whole thing looks out of focus. Heavy sigh . .

YELLOW BENCH
Here again the light was doing you in. And I'm thinking that maybe
your shooting angle might have been better if you'd gotten down low
rather than shooting from above. Great colors, though, with the purple
and yellow . . .

THREE CROSSES
Beeyootiful lighting and blue sky. Looks great with warm brown adobe
walls. Whites nice and bright, crisp. Kind of wish we could see down
to hem of friar's robe, but I'm being nitpicky.

APARTMENT SIDE
I like how this came out, and I think your shot is better than the one
I took. This was a tough angle and, if you hadn't been there and
hadn't taken the shot, I think I probably wouldn't have attempted it,
so thanks for the little push. This is the side of the La Fonda Hotel,
if you're keeping records of your shots . . . What's particularly good
about this picture is the warm lighting and the fairly deep depth of
field. Well done.



BIRDS IN FLIGHT
Aha! This came out well. Mine was too wimpy because I could only go to
200mm. Your 300mm makes a big difference. What I especially like are
the out-of-focus soft clouds.
BLUE SKY AND FORM
Once again, good complementary colors. I like the simplicity of this
shot, Linda, it consisting of just three (three!) things: sky, adobe,
shadows. Am wondering if if looks too lean-to-the-leftish. Would it be
better if you rotated it somewhat to the right? Don't know without
seeing it . . . But what I REALLY like is the little highlight running
along the very top horizontal piece as well as on the little bit of
horizontal piece on the left.

DOOR WITH BLUE TRIM
Very nice feel to this photo. Has a soothing sort of tone to it.
Dappled shadows help, don't hinder the look. Kind of wish bottom right
of door wasn't clipped, but again, that's just me . . .