Oakland at Night

Hubby and I were feeling pretty good about our photography skills until we started looking at photos of Wisconsin taken on their photo sharing website, then we were suddenly introduced to our own inadequacies.  In an effort to solve this problem, we were inspired to take Collins and wander about Oakland at night attempting to be awesome.  I'm not entirely sure that we were awesome, but here are the results of our labor.

This fountain has been lovingly named by my father as "Turtle Spit"  It is located in front of Frick Fine Arts on the University campus.  It is creatively named after its turtles that spew water from their mouths.

This photo was taken with a shutter speed of approximately 13 seconds.  I like how dramatic the star of light seems.

This is taken from the front of Frick Fine arts with approximately the same shutter speed.  The strange sculptures are not facing our way, but I don't know that this is a drawback...

This photo allowed us to see the Cathedral of Learning along with the sculpture. I like it because the turtles are spewing in their happy way in full view in this shot.  I think I would make a poor fountain designer...

Day or night, I am always happy to photograph or visit Phipps.  We had to wait a few minutes to get this shot because the employees were exiting after a long wedding reception filled day just as we arrived.  We tried to look casual until they got to their cars.  Unfortunately, looking casual is difficult with a tripod.

There are some lovely lampposts on the sidewalk just infront of the conservatory.  I wish this lamppost were nearer to the woods, and a wardrobe....

Hubby's Hard Week at Work

Hubby told me that he had to go to the upper peninsula of Michigan for work last week.  He took Collins with him just in case he had the chance to take some pictures.  When he returned I discovered what "work" really meant... 



This is Lake Superior from the vantage point of one of the many parks and forests in the area.  After seeing this photo I immediately felt sorry for Hubby for the lousy conditions that he had to endure for four days.

The large rainstorms that were occurring in the area early last week lead to some awesome swollen rivers joined with post-storm blue skies.  

This photograph was taken in Wisconsin at Copper Falls State Park.  This is evidently the 'Bad River'.  I like how the sun almost looks like it was taken with a star filter.

Evidently Michigan is not very efficient at clearing large rocks out of the way of their rivers.  As a result, they have a 'flood' of waterfalls in the area. har har har. Hubby went exploring and found several. 

The lighting in this photo gave it some awesome contrast between the falling watter and the fallen water.  This one is one of my favorites of the group.

Unfortunately, the sun was so bright that some of the photos of bright white water looked a lot like a polar bear eating ice cream in a blizzard.  This one was taken when hubby changed the aperture to the extent that there was some better contrast.  I think the shade helped out with this as well.

I thought that the bright blue water made this next photo a standout.  I wonder if they dye it green for St. Patty's Day.

Finally, hubby drove past a Michigan liquor store on his adventure in hiking.  Evidently this place sells very large bottles.   

It seems a little bit like overkill to label the large corkscrew in this way, it makes me wonder what other obvious things need labels around there. Perhaps a good business venture would be to create shirts that read "Henchman #1" just in case any bad guys need some clothes.

All in all, it was a long week for hubby but the photos show that it wasn't as rough on him as he would have you believe.  Although the good people of Michigan evidently speak like they are straight from the movie Fargo, hubby has come back without any scary wood chipper stories and didn't even see any snow. 

How do you take a good photo of sixteen people?

I don't know the answer to that question, but clearly Katrina does as she is my guest photographer for the family shots.  The whole family has been together a few weeks in a row so we pounced upon the opportunity to trick Katrina into taking a photo that includes our newest redheaded family member.

This photo is a rare accomplishment because you can at least see some of everyone's face... even pink pony.  I'm not sure how that bearded man avoided holding a child. Maybe he's not as popular as the rest of the adults.

Everyone was supposed to be looking in a different direction in this photo, but even that is hard to accomplish with sixteen people.  Also, the redhead and pink pony's owner are faceless in this one.  It's a fun photo anyway.

 
This little girl wandered from the group.  I caught her as she was taking off with a rose.  I think we need to bring a sheepdog to family get togethers to solve this wandering child problem.

Sissy thought it would be fun to take some portraits with the new wide angle lens. 

I don't think I'm capable of appearing in a series of photos without leaping in at least half of them.  The rest look like I'm flapping my arms trying to fly. 

For all of you who wonder what a family get together is like at my parent's home, these photos do not capture even the tiniest glimpse of the madness.  Maybe next time...

Artsy Arcitecture, and Steamy Steel

We decided to take a drive southish today to see what we could find in the woods.  This place looks remarkably like ours.

This is taken with Collins' new wide-angle lens.  I'm not sure if this is the best way to show off the capabilities of the new lens, but I haven't taken a better example yet. 

Here is another taken with the zoom.

While we were driving back home, we passed the Clairton Steel Mill.  I thought that the industry that made Pittsburgh both famous and infamous deserved some photos.  This one was the most interesting of the group.

Here's another view with the wide angle lens.

We saw a lot of awesome views while we were driving, but none of the rest of the potential photos accompanied a place to pull over, so Collins had to stay in her bag.  At least we were able to add some variety to our photos this weekend.

I Thought it was a Bonsai Party

We actually went to Phipps today in search of the Greater Pittsburgh Bonsai Society's annual show.  Evidently by saying it was at Phipps, they actually meant it was in Shadyside.  Anyway, it was the cause for a fun journey of photographs.

These butterflies looked like they were in a mirror.  We thought they looked like an upside down heart.



It's the time of year that even the desert is in bloom.  Hubby found these beautiful pink flowers on this intense looking cactus.  I love how even the dangerous plants have delicate blossoms.



If the movie Alien were a flower, it would be this one.  If you don't understand then  you should rewatch the movie.

After we were done with Phipps we walked back home through the park.  In the process we decided to jump into a gulley and take some photos under the bridge.  Although it preceeded a fast return walk with a limping husband, this photo made the journey worth it.

After patching up hubby's foot, we finally were sucessful in finding the bonsai trees.  This tree was part of the competition.  I don't know if it's good or bad but it looked nice to me.

There is fun weird art at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.  It's immediately next to the park where they hold Bach, Bethoven and Brunch, which I will attend someday.

This grassy oscrich or goose or whatever it is was in a cirle with the horse and rider. 

This giraffe is the third in the grassy animal series. 

Finally, I remember when this face was built.  We would drive past this place regularly after visiting with relatives and we would always imagine sneaking onto the property and planting a tree in it's mouth.  One day, the city did it on it's own... weird right?

When Hubby Steals the Camera

The Phipps Summer show is in full bloom so we decided to add to our assortment of flower and butterfly photos.  Hubby took the camera and decided to see what he could find in the gardens. 

This purple spikey flower was very noticable in one of the rooms we usally just glaze through.  I don't know exactly what type of flower, but it looks so unusual you'd almost think it was made of silk.

We actually had some time in the orchid room, which is very unusual since it is such a popular room.  I thought this was a standout. 

This was in the butterfly room.  I think we need to plant some of these around the house. 

This was in the children's garden.  I like how hubby took this at a cool angle.

There were a large number of bumblebees in the children's garden.  This little guy was having some fun on the bright yellow.  We need to work on the color balance in these photos, but I think this one turned out pretty well anyway.

This was on a tree half way between the japaneese bonsai garden and the desert.  It was gloriously fuzzy and mixed up.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should permanently take on the role of photo-editor rather than photographer.  Hubby had an amazing artistically inspired day!

Memorial Day at the Ballpark

We went to two baseball games over memorial day weekend, but Collins only accompanied us to the second.  These seats are about as close as you can get on the first base line.

This was obviously a foul but I like how it kicked up the dust on it's way to strike heaven.

I thought this was a nice profile of McCutchen.  There's a photo of me that looks exactly like this from my tenure in bar league softball...

Well... maybe not exactly.... I think his batting stance may be a bit more technically correct, but my batting average was way better.  Until the fat drunk guy got off the mound and all the way to the ball after my pathetic weak hits, I almost always made it to first base.

Anyway, Here are some more cool baseball photos from last Monday's game.

You know how the coach always says you should keep your eye on the ball?  This guy's got that part right, but not the swinging at the ball part.

Unfortunately, swinging doesn't always work out any better than looking.

That's all for our holiday at the ballpark!