After a year and a half of including a ‘pic of the week’ at the end of my weekly training summary, I’ve decided to let it stand as a post of its own.  I’m also implementing a rule that the Friday Foto needs to have been taken sometime in the last week.  No recycling.  I am doing this to keep me engaged in building my photography skills, and to make me work harder to get fresh shots.  Click here to see my previous Friday Foto posts.

The annual Canada Goose invasion is on in full force right now.  They reach a near pest-like status here on the Colorado Front Range, because they are so common.  Taking pictures of them is usually about as exciting as photographing a blank wall.

While my kids were playing at a park on Saturday, I decided to get the camera out and do some ‘target practice’ on the very active flock of geese that was in the nearby pond.  Everything pointed towards lame shots.  The sky was overcast and the lighting was bad, the subject was blah, etc.  That all changed when small groups started coming in one after the other and landing in the water.

I used a high shutter speed along with a moderately-high ISO setting to freeze this guy.  Then I was able to obliterate the sky in post-processing and give the shot a cool high key look that I think works really well.

Despite the fact that it’s ‘just a goose’, I like it a lot!

High Key Canada Goose
1/1250, f/5.6, 220mm @ ISO 640

After a year and a half of including a ‘pic of the week’ at the end of my weekly training summary, I’ve decided to let it stand as a post of its own.  I’m also implementing a rule that the Friday Foto needs to have been taken sometime in the last week.  No recycling.  I am doing this to keep me engaged in building my photography skills, and to make me work harder to get fresh shots.  Click here to see my previous Friday Foto posts.

Published.

I am bending my own rule a little bit by posting a shot that was taken outside of the previous week.  The magazine did arrive a few days ago, though…

This is the first photo I have had published in a magazine.  It is a great reminder of the fun day I had shooting the Bear Chase 50M/50K race in late September at Bear Creek Lake Park near Morrison, CO.  It was actually the first running event I attempted to photograph.  While I didn’t get any direct reward out of it, the intangibles have been great.  Getting a reward is not my focus anyway, trying to take good pictures is.

Of course Dustin made for a great subject which made my job easier.  Not looking too shabby for being on mile 28!

I enjoyed the process of working with Tia at Ultrarunning, starting with a cold-contact and going all the way through the specs needed for print.  It was a good learning experience and I look forward to doing it again!

DL, 50K
1/800, f/4.8, 116mm @ ISO 100

After a year and a half of including a ‘pic of the week’ at the end of my weekly training summary, I’ve decided to let it stand as a post of its own.  I’m also implementing a rule that the Friday Foto needs to have been taken sometime in the last week.  No recycling.  I am doing this to keep me engaged in building my photography skills, and to make me work harder to get fresh shots.  Click here to see my previous Friday Foto posts.

It’s tough having short legs!

This is Katie the Wonderdog, our 4 1/2 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi.  We adopted her from a local rescue organization a year and a half ago.

She is a total sweetheart, and loves people.  Other dogs, not so much.  She has tons of personality, but only seems to be revealing it in bits and pieces over time.  It was challenging to get a 3 year old dog without knowing anything about her background or previous life.  She was very loveable and well behaved, but super reserved and somewhat un-doglike.  She wouldn’t play, didn’t like to be out in the yard, etc.  It took several months for her to even use the bathroom in the yard, we had to take her over to the park multiple times per day.  In the middle of a walk she would just sit down and refuse to go any further.

Ever so slowly, bit by bit, the layers have been peeling away.  She has become part of the family and now enjoys many of the typical dog activities.  She loves walks, playing with her squeak toys, and has recently started to fetch a ball really well.  It has been a very rewarding process.