Leicca’s Neighborhood

I'm really sick of the rash of broken technology I'm getting

I know this is not a big surprise for this week's Quest!  This quest runs for 2 weeks so you have time to get some photos during this busy season.

Photos can be recent or old...you are free to use any photo enhancements, color or b & w or sepia tones. Make a collage, a Christmas card, a poster or just a single photo.  Post how you took the photo and what enhancements you used.

If you haven't ever posted before just jump in and have some fun.  No worries we are all learning here and enjoy seeing everyones photos.

Get creative and show the Photo Quest Group what Christmas means to you.  Is it about the ornaments, the tree, the cookies, friends, children, parties (this is for Yan), pets, nature, church...what makes a Christmas special for you.

Since this quest runs through Christmas...I want to take time to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

 

Maureen

This was the first time for this subject, shoes on Photo Quest.  It was fun to see what you creative minded photographers posted for this quest. 

First to post was Realworld with his Cat Shoes.  I want to know how he stuffed that kitten in the shoe?  OK so that probably didn't happen but what a cute, candid photo!  Nice job Realworld as it is hard to get the cat's eyes clear on a photo...mine sometimes look orange or a strange green.

Next post was from Maju, with her purple sneakers trying to run away from the boring black shoes.  Great composition with the purple shoe in the ROT spot.  This photo really made me laugh...nice work Maju!

Then along came CountrybyDesign with a very mystical photo of her shoes in the stream of light.  WOW this is a very cool photo and I think you should use this technique again with other subjects.  I like the slightly out of focus shot here as it makes the photo have a more mystical feel.

Not to disappoint, Cap'n Stephel brings us some very Jazzy, Saxie shoes.  Very nice play on dark and light and lines.  I liked the second photo the best as it has just enough light to make me want to check it out closer. 

Finally Yancunyong brings it home with party shoes.  Japan must be a lot more fun than I ever thought.  Yan seems to be parting it up big time.  Loved seeing the shoes of his fellow party goers.  I like the last photo the best...the red lighting and the reflection of the shoe was very cool. 

 

Thanks again all for a great quest...hope to see you again next week.

Got new CPU parts in - nothing works and don't have replacement parts to narrow it down

Splish splash giving the baby a bath

Off to bed

 

I bought this pair of shoes ages ago to use as props for photos and I've never done anything with them.  Today, I took them outside for their first photo shoot.

Because they are black and shinny...not I didn't polish the

m...I set my exposure down from 1/2 to 2 steps depending on background of the photo.  I used my 28 - 105 mm lens, ISO 100, F stop from 3.5 to 4.5, WB set at sunny, focus on one-shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The shoes and I had some fun today and I learned a lot about backgrounds and lighting.

Boy it has been ages since I've done a real post and not just a Photo Quest Post.  Last Sunday, hubby and I took a drive south to Tumacacori to see the Dancing Horses.  I had spoke with Dan Gerate during the week about writing a letter of sponsorship for our project to have the Colonial Spanish Horse named as the state horse of Arizona.  Dan told me about the Tumacacori Festival and the Dancing Horse that would be preforming.  Well I was hooked.

The festivities were to begin at 10:00 am and if we wanted a good parking place we should arrive early...like 8:00 am.   Hmm lets see it is about 1:30 drive to get their by 8:00 am.  I did the math and didn't like the results...second plan.  The horses were to preform at 2:00 pm now you are talking!  Second plan, leave around 12:00 pm ask the universe for an awesome parking place right at the front of the church..us oldsters don't need to walk that far...OK, OK well I was packing camera and equipment.

We leave our place around 12:00 and picked up coffee for Don on the way out.  As we leave, I restate my request for a close parking space...would be a shame to drive all that way and not be able to get a parking place.  The drive was uneventful...my favorite kind of ride.  We turn off the freeway and start down the road to the mission...there are cars everywhere...parked on the side of the road parked in places that sure looked illegal!  Hubby says he has an idea of were we can park...I peep up wait "I requested a parking place up front let's just pull into the parking lot in front of the church."  He take a right into the parking lot and there right in front is a parking place..in fact there were two so we had a choice! 

Weather was cool and a little breeze but we had dressed right and could manage fine.  First stop was to take a photo of the church's white dome.  This mission isn't in great shape and was never finished as the church ran out of funds.  I had some issues with this photo as the sky wasn't all that blue...storm coming in and everything in the old church is crocked!  Hard to make it straight...when I got the building straight the dome wasn't.  I settled for a straight cross. 

Next we took the path to the Festival Grounds just north of the church.  Oh boy, oh boy I spied a Harris Hawk on a girls hand!  Now that was worth a few photos right?  I took a bunch of photos.  The hawk was very photogenic but the backgrounds weren't that good.  Lighting was OK and there was a light breeze so he kept his wings out as if to fly away.  This hawk was around 3 years old and had been injured as a youngster and couldn't fly. 

I like the focused look of his eyes. 

We got to see a cute group of children dancers.  In this dance they all had canes and were acting like old people.  They were a hoot and we all got a good laugh!

 

Next we were entertained by a wonderful Mexican Band.  I got a few photos but some were misses as I didn't get all their feet in the photo...lesson learned yet again...check your composition dummy!

I ran into Don Garete and he said the horses were coming in about 15 minutes...we dash around the grounds to find some lunch.  We settled on a both run by some lovely Indian ladies and had a great fast lunch. 

I saw the horses coming down the path and ran over to take some photos.  I couldn't get close enough to them for a good shot before they took a left turn off the path.  Not to be denied a photo, I circled way left and went down to the clearing that they were using for a warm up area.  I got off a few shots before the nice park ranger told me to leave. 

 

 

After what seemed like an hour they finally called the horse to preform their dance to the music of a Mexican Band.  What a wonderful treat!  I'd never seen anything like this before.  The horses were so well trained and beautifully groomed.  The performers tack and outfits were beautiful.  It was a big WOW.  I was right along the outside of the ring and could get up close for good shoots.  I used my 28 - 105 mm lens, polarizer lens, shot mostly 400 ISO, took exposure down a 1/2 step as it was cloudy, played around with the f stop from 4 to 8 and had a ball.

 

 

 

 

 

I took hundreds of photos and it was so much fun being so close to these wonderful horses.  Finally the show was over and we walked back through the Mission grounds and I took one last photo of the Mission dome.  It was another attempt to keep the photo straight that I'm not sure really works...old buildings!

 

Oh here is one last photo that says it all...we had a great day and it was worth the drive:

 

Someone was just killed in a house I used to rent - I feel very weird about that