The 2nd Annual Slumber Party!

Sixteen of us spent from noon Saturday to noon Sunday together! It was a wonderful gathering and I thank all the ladies who made this such a wonderful 24 hour celebration. I just wish I'd felt better.


The photos are much better than they appear. Next year I WILL know how to show the movie video and a TV showing of these still photos.

Cindy had her own slide show of the 24 hours.

Last Thursday wasn't fun.

Before we went on vacation in Mammoth, I went to the dermatologist's office to have 4 new spots checked for cancer. I got a call with the results while in Mammoth that the two spots that had been biopsied were squamish cell carcinoma.

Last Thursday I had two different surgery appointments. I took photos of myself, I guess as a distraction. After asking the doctor if I could take a photo while he was doing surgery, he thought a moment and said, "Ok. I've never had anyone ask me that before."

The swelling on my upper lip is finally going down. One of the three sets of stitches on my leg come out Thursday.

My teacher's photo critique of my first assignment : Doors, Windows and Walls

I signed up for a 2 month (Sept and Oct) photo class with the teacher I had for the last class - Carol Leigh. Her students say her classes are addictive. Well, I can see I am hooked.

I think I may end up a wee bit out of balance when it comes to all the photography commitments upcoming (all with Carol Leigh).
1. Sept 21 - 24th, 2008 Santa Fe Workshop
2. Oct 12th - 15th, 2008, Half Moon Bay shoot

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CRITIQUE: Linda Jeffers
DOORS, WINDOWS, WALLS
SLANTED ROOF DOOR
I've led a lot of photo workshops at Bodie
Ghost Town and the lighting can be quite harsh
and unforgiving. So I know what you were
dealing with when you took this photograph.
It would have been quite easy for this shot to
have turned into a disaster. Why? Because
you've got a fairly dark reflection in the
window yet there's brightly lighted wood on
the far left and on the far right. If you expose
for the dark reflection (where the shutter has to
stay open longer to suck in enough light) then
the sunlit walls can easily be overexposed. If
you expose for the sunlit walls (where the
shutter speed is faster to prevent too much light
from coming in), then the dark reflection can
go almost black.
To quickly illustrate what I mean, look at your
photo and squint at it. See how you
immediately see a dark block in the center and
a light-colored area on either side? If you were
to squint at the scene in the field, before you
take your photo, you can immediately see if
you're going to have exposure problems.
You, clever photographer that you are, found a very good middle ground. We can see the
reflection in the glass quite well, yet the sunlit walls aren't overexposed. Congratulations!
Although the weathered wood and the overall rustic look are appealing, I'm thinking that,
because of the harsh light, maybe it would have been a good idea to just concentrate on taking
the reflection rather than the whole side of the building. You might have stood closer to the
door/window and filled your frame with some of the old wood, the mullions in the window, and
the reflection. That way you still capture the feeling of age and time and weather, but you
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downplay the harsh sunlight.
Something I've recommended at Bodie is that if you've got a bright sunny day, go for the
reflections and the big overviews. If you've got an overcast, ugly sky, go for architectural detail
and shots of the building interiors.
To photograph a building in Bodie as you did, with the lighting that you had, is often
impossible. I'm amazed and pleased that you got as good a shot as you did. Again,
congratulations.
BUSY WALL
Once again, you dodged a bullet.
I probably would have looked at
this scene and walked away from
it. Which would have been a
mistake on my part.
I would take one look and think to
myself, "Why, oh, why couldn't I
be here on an overcast day?
There's so much cool stuff in here
to shoot, but the lighting is way
too contrasty. I need softly
diffused light, not all this
miserable sunlight. Woe is me.
Woe is me." Well, I wouldn't have said "Woe is me." I would
have used stronger language.
Once again, squint at your picture. See how dark it is over on
the right? See how bright it is on the left? I wouldn't have even
tried this shot. But you did. And it worked out quite well. (I'm
going to be seeing you in a couple of weeks at my Santa Fe
workshop. I'm thinking that whatever I tell you about the light during that workshop, DON'T
LISTEN TO ME! You seem to be doing fine on your own.)
What saves this picture is that even though it's dark on the right, we still see details in the
shadows. And even in the brightest hot spots, we can still see some detail. Nothing is
completely underexposed and nothing is horribly overexposed. There are a few ultralight areas
on the spokes, and if you wished you could clone in some darker coloring on them, which
would be relatively easy to do. But overall, you did a good job.
What I particularly like is how you placed the hub of the wheel in the lower right corner, in
accordance with the Rule of Thirds. The spokes radiating outward move our eye into the
picture, and then the horizontal lines of the siding and of the wooden yoke hanging on the wall
continue the movement, almost forcing our eye left to the edge of the frame. Well done.
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WINDOW REFLECTION
You were in Bodie on a good day for
reflections. The blue sky and the touch of
green on the surrounding hills add some
color and brightness to the building, which
is primarily brown wood. The bright colors
catch our eye and make your shot dramatic.
If the sky were a dull grey, this wouldn't
have worked.
Your shooting angle is such that you've
really emphasized how weathered the wood
is. Look at how curved each board is,
something we notice because of your angle.
This was a tough angle to work with,
however. If you were to line up the window
frame on the left, making sure it was
perfectly vertical, the door to the building
would have leaned back even more than it
does. As it is, the backward-slanting look
sort of bothers me, but, overall, the photo
came out fairly well, didn't it?
If you have the opportunity to re-visit Bodie, you might give yourself the assignment of
shooting reflections and specifically select those windows that have something a bit more
interesting reflected in them. This can often be tough to do in Bodie because invariably some
fannypack-wearing turista will wander into your reflection just as you click the shutter. I think
that if you'd had some closer-in buildings in your reflection your photo would be even more
compelling.
You're doing well, Linda. It looks like you're giving your photos some thought and taking some
time and care in shooting them. You're going to get nothing but better in the next two months.
Thanks for posting these.
Carol Leigh

Stacy's Kilimanjara upcoming Adventure.

My friend Stacy is leaving Sept 4th to hike up Kilimanjaro. I'm home now and have spent the last hour checking out here website. http://www.stacyandjim.com/Kilimanjaro.html

She is so excited and if her website doesn't get you thinking about climbing Kilimanjara, I'll be surprised. Great job Stacy on all your research, preparations and planning.

Have a great hike Stacy!!!


Here is an email I received from Stacy with a link to her blog too:

Hello Friends:

I thought you might be interested in what's been going on as Jim and I prepare for our upcoming trip. I'll be heading to Africa on 9/4 and will be climbing Kilimanjaro with my good friend, Abby Dixon. Jim and our friend David Ascher will be joining us afterward for our safari and gorilla tracking.

If you would like to see more details about the Kili climb check out our website by clicking this link: http://www.stacyandjim.com/Kilimanjaro.html or you can also see my blog which I barely ever added anything to all summer, in spite of my good intentions by clicking this link: http://stacyandjim.com/blog/ The beginning is at the bottom, the most recent at the top. If you want to see more details about the safari portion use this link: http://www.stacyandjim.com/Kilimanjaro_itinerary.html

Also, in a seperate email I will be sending out an email link and instructions to access my Voice Blog I will be posting daily from the mountain. It will come automatically to you as an email link when I post every evening from the mountain. In a two or three minute message you can follow along on our journey and hear the details of daily life on Kilimanjaro.

Hope I'm not boring you to death with too many details, this will truly be one of the most exciting things I've ever done (or will do) and I'm eager to share it!

“One shoe can change your life.” -Cinderella

Stacy Jacob

Here are Stacy's instructions on how to hear her voice blog from the mountain:

RE: my voice drop where you can hear my updates from Kilimanjaro.

Check back between 9/9-9/17 by copying and pasting the url for this voice drop into your web browser or saving it to your favorites http://drop.io/stacyjacob then enter kilimanjaro as the password. All in lower case. You can try it now, there is a test drop on there.

I will be updating with a brief phone message each night on the mountain. When you get into the website you can click on the individual voice-casts by doing the following:

Look for "Audio" near the top left.

Left click one time on the red text that says "voice message" and the date. It should auto load and play for you. Be sure your speakers are turned up.

If there are multiple drops you can click on each one individually and listen in order.

If it does not auto load you may have to click on "download" in the box that pops up.

On 9/16 I intend to be letting everyone know we made it to the summit!

"A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water." - Eleanor Roosevelt.

Stacy Jacob

Ray went backpacking!!

My trail partners, LaZorra and TrailDad, are now doing the John Muir Trail. Their initial starting trailhead was Red's Meadow. However once they heard Ray and I were going to be in Mammoth and would like to backpack in with them their first day, they decided to change their starting place to 1 mile from our cabin where we'd join them for the first day and night.

On August 20th TrailDad and LaZorra arrived in Mammoth, spent the night with Ray and me, and all four of us headed out with our backpacks the next morning. At Coldwater Trailhead we (Yes, Ray too.) backpacked 4.7 miles up to Duk Pass (elevation 10,750'), then 1.7 miles down to meet the JMT. At the John Muir Trail junction, we hiked another 2.3 miles back up to Purple Lake where we camped for the night. If you add up this mileage, you get 9.1 miles. Ray backpacked 9.1 miles with a pack, in elevation!!! He did great, so great he now has a trailname - "Outtasight" - because he was so far out in front of us all for lots of the hike. (Today when Ray and I were hiking, he said, "You know my new trailname works whether I'm in the lead or trailing behind!")

We all had fun. as we awakened often, Ray and I giggled most of the night in the tent. Aside from being tired (Ray retired to the tent at 5:19pm), and having sore feet, Ray was a trooper, performed well and seemed to be enjoying this one night backpack. I won't mention how much I spent buying Ray a new sleeping bag and Osprey backpack, buying us a 2 man Sierra Design tent (I forgot my tent), and getting Ray a Prolite 3 thermarest, just so I could spend one night in the wilderness with my husband. Of course my mind says maybe he'll go out with me again now that he has all this new equipment. We'll see, but I'm not holding my breath.

Ray is his new Western Mountaineering 10 degree bag. I can't seem to upload all the other photos with this Mammoth coffee shop internet connection I have. I'll add the rest of the backpack photos when I get home next Sunday.

Ray went backpacking!!

My trail partners, LaZorra and TrailDad, are now doing the John Muir Trail. Their initial starting trailhead was Red's Meadow. However once they heard Ray and I were going to be in Mammoth and would like to backpack in with them their first day, they decided to change their starting place to 1 mile from our cabin.

On August 20th TrailDad and LaZorra arrived in Mammoth, spent the night with Ray and me, and all four of us headed out with our backpacks the next morning. At Coldwater Trailhead we (Yes, Ray too.) backpacked 4.7 miles up to Duk Pass (elevation 10,750'), then 1.7 miles down to meet the JMT. At the John Muir Trail junction, we hiked another 2.3 miles back up to Purple Lake where we camped for the night. If you add up this mileage, you get 9.1 miles. Ray backpacked 9.1 miles with a pack, in elevation!!! He did great, so great he now has a trailname - "Outtasight" - because he was so far out in front of us all for lots of the hike. (Today when Ray and I were hiking, he said, "You know my new trailname works because I could be so slow I'd be outta sight!")

We all had fun. Ray and I giggled, as we awakened often, most of the night in the tent. Aside from being tired (Ray retired to the tent at 5:19pm), and having sore feet, Ray was a trooper and seemed to be enjoying this one night backpack. I won't mention just how much I spent buying Ray a new sleeping bag and Osprey backpack, buying us a 2 man tent (I forgot my tent), and getting Ray a thermarest, just so I could spend one night in the wilderness with my husband. Of course my mind says maybe he'll go out with me again now that he has all this new equipment. We'll see, but I'm not holding my breath.

Ray is his new Western Mountaineering 10 degree bag. To see more of our backpacking photos

I'm gonna be "21" in 3 days!

I'm online at Starbucks in Mammoth.

Cindy sent me an early birthday present - a history of Cind and Lind she put on a YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksJgGzhpSe4&feature=related
Cindy and I do have history. I'm surprised by all the photos Cindy has in this slide show depicting so much of our history together. (I'm always telling Cindy to use her camera and she usually says, "I don't have it." or "Yeah, I should.")

I love my gift. I love you Cind. And, I miss spending time in the mountains with you. Thank you for putting together such a very special gift. I really love it.

Lind