Tail End of Fall

I went to Presque Isle tonight after work. Its so sad now having only about another hour of sunlight. Erie was back to more normal temperatures for Fall so I took my camera and headed to the beach for a few quick pictures. I was kind of sad to see much of the leaves are way past peak. Of course yesterday there was up to 8-10 inches of snow in the surrounding town so I should have realized there would not be much of a show. Still nice to see a few lingering signs of Fall colors and a beautiful sunset with lots of pinks. Here are two pics from tonight.

Thanks for looking. ~Jackie

Blue Heron

I took this shot of a Blue Heron at PresqueIsle this past summer. I cropped in a bit from what I shot to get a closer look. Thanks for looking. ~Jackie

Monday October 27-2008

A month ago I went to the Erie Zoo with the Erie Photography Club. We were able to go in for free and also enter about an hour before the zoo opened for the day. In return, all those that attended have to donate a matted 8x10 that they will auction off at their Fall fundraiser. Well the prints are due tomorrow so last night I finally made a decision on one to print. Printed it on my printer on some great paper went to Michaels Craft tonight after work and picked up a really nice double mat and assembled it. Gosh!!!! Talk about waiting till the last minute.

I guess some of my procastination stemmed from not taking a picture that was really really good. But with it printed and matted it does look very nice. Thanks for looking. ~Jackie

October 26, Sunday

Well a couple days ago I told you I would tell you about my class at the Art Museum. Thursday night was our last class for a beginning Photoshop class for Photography. Last Spring I started working on a small project at work that I would design and send out our company's monthly eNewsletter. This was a project that I was thrilled to try even though it wouldn't mean more in my paycheck. But as a bartering tool I said I think I really need Photoshop CS3 to do this right. So since May I have had Photoshop but mainly used it to create some very basic things not necessarily use it in photography. When I came across the Erie Art Museum schedule for Fall classes I had been dying to get into the Photography class then by chance I saw this class offered too. I am so glad I took it. The Art museum gets the greatest teachers in. This class was taught by two local professionals. Its funny but when I think of relatively small town Erie, PA I didn't realize the wonderful artistic talent that is here, or how many working professionals there actually are. Ellen Anon who is a freelance photographer and writer and actually authored a wonderful book with Tim Grey called Photoshop CS3 for Nature Photographers. If your into working with any type of photoshop or elements program and want to make the most of your photos check this book out. Art is more of a commercial photographer so he offered a different perspective than Ellens which really gave us a nice mix of what kind of a work flow we could implement in processing. Both of their approaches were similiar on the fact that photoshop isn't going to take your poorly shot photograph and make it great but instead take a great shot and give it that Wow or make it come alive look.

Now in six weeks you cant learn all the program but we were all able to take peices of the lessons and apply them to our work flow when getting a digital file ready to print or share on the web. So here are a few pics and some simple photoshop techniques showing before and after. Thanks for looking. ~Jackie

p.s. Since these were not great photos to start so you probably wont being saying wow!!!!lol But just sharing some improvements.

Thursday 10-23

Tonight I had a class down town at the Erie Art Museum. Super class taught by Ellen Anon and Art Becker. Both incredible professional photographers. Maybe I will have some time tomorrow to talk about that but before class I stopped at Perry Square to catch a picture of the fountain with Pink water to bring awareness to Breast Cancer. Its late so I will post only one.

Thanks for looking. ~Jackie

October 21 2008

Here are a few more pictures from the weekend.

Thanks for looking. ~Jackie

October-20-2008

Thanks for looking. ~Jackie

Some Last Signs of Fall

October 15 2008

Well I had my last class tonight of the beginner to photography class. Our class all did really well and all of us certainly improved upon where we were when we started in September.

There was talk of Art perhaps offering an intermediate or advanced digital class in the Spring. The exciting part of this would be we would actually move from the brick and motar classroom to out in the field. Very tempting and with the amount of pics I have been shooting lately I am confident I would be ready for the next class. I would also like to work on some special lighting conditions like night time shooting or maybe in rain or fog.

So I didn't take any new pics today but will show one that I took Sunday at Chaut. Lake. I wasn't sure if I liked this shot at first. I saw these neat Chinese lanterns in a window and loved the reflections. I didn't capture the look I had really wanted but I kind of like the shot anyway.

Thanks for checking in all. ~Jackie

Tuesday, Oct 14

Well tomorrow is my last Photography class in the Beginner Digital Photography class I am taking at the Erie Art Museum. It has been taught by Art Becker who has taught and shared so much over the last 6 weeks. Before this class I always shot in an auto setting and really didn't understand the relatinship between choosing your aperture, shutter speed or ISO. Of course I haven't mastered all yet but I feel challenged instead of intimidated in making the decisions of what I want from the shot and setting my camera to get those results. (hopefully) So if any of you are from Erie area and really want to learn the basics take his class. Here are a few general pics from this week, I think I shot most of these in Erie. Thanks for looking.

Chautauqua Lake More Pics

One of the neat things about Chautauqua is the unique houses. Here are a few more pics, mostly showing some of the unique housing. Thanks for looking.

Chautauqua Lake

This area was once again blessed with gorgeous weather. With clear blue skies and temperatures near 80 it was truely spetacular. Jim and I loaded Misha in his car seat filled with a bag of treats and cold water and headed to Chautauqua Lake in New York State for a little day trip. Chautauqua is such a neat town and I took lots of pictures. Here are a few quick pics from our day. Yes its true our Misha is a dog and safely rides in his car seat in the back. This way he gets to look out the window and be safe.

Letchworth State Park

Yesterday Jim and I took vacation days and headed to New York State, Letchworth State Park. We had hoped to see the Fall leaf change at its peak. Unfortunately it was not as colorful as we hoped but we did enjoy a wonderful day together. Besides hiking around we enjoyed a great lunch at Iris Inn. Here are a few pics from our day. Hope you enjoy seeing them.

Monday October 6-2008

Another assignment in my class this week is a few still lifes. I think I definately need some practice here but I will share a few fun shots I took tonight. Jim set up a couple lights for for me and hung a blanket and bravo!!! I have a little make shift studio. It was sooo fun.