The Big Photo Challenge...Reflections

This week's topic is Reflections.

I haven't been participating in the photo challenge lately. Partly due to work committments and partly due to weather and lack of daylight. I decided to share this picture from a few months ago when we were still able to enjoy the outdoors.

I took this picture in the Idaho Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge. We were looking for fall folige scenes and went to the Priest Lake area. I took this picture with My Canon Power Shot S3 IS in program mode with color set to vivid. I was fascinated by the trees reflection in the stream. If you look closely you'll notice that the picture is actually displayed upside down.

I also took this shot of a small pond a little further down the path.

I was trying to capture the REFLECTION of the hill in the background in the still water.

We went up the path a little farther and when we returned we found a totally different scene.

Two otters were sitting on the log in the water and a blad eagle was in the dead tree behind the pond.

The Big Photo Challenge...FALLLLLLLLLL

This week's theme is Fall

It's about 2 weeks away from a full Fall color extravaganza in the Inland Northwest. We make a point to take a couple of days off every year and go some place to enjoy the rich Fall foliage. This year we will go to Lake Pend Oreille near Sandpoint Idaho. In the meantime, here is a picture of the only trees in our neighborhood that have changed to their Fall color.

Picture was taken with my Canon Power Shot S3 IS in program mode with color set to vivid F stop of 4.0 and shutter speed at 1/320 of a second.

My wife Julie has an entry for this week as well. This is her favorite picture of our grandson Aiden taken in the fall of 2005. She took it with a small Sony digital camera while at the downtown park on a beautiful day in October.




Isn't he cute?!!!

The Big Photo Challenge...EXPRESSIONS

This weeks challenge is "Expressions"



I took my grandson Aiden to Pop Warner football practice tonight. He's only 6 and they play tackle football with full pads and helmets. He lost a tooth at practice tonight, it was a loose baby tooth. He played anyway and I thought it would be the perfect book end to Jen's picture of his toothless brother Connar.



After practice I asked him to show me his most menacing football grimace GRRRRRR!!!!. You can see the hole in his gum and the tooth in his fingers.
I took the picture in the dark and the camera focused on the helmet instead of the face. I didn't realize it until I downloaded the picture at home and then it was too late. But I thought the picture captured the theme so well I put it in anyway.

The Big Photo Challenge...SIGNS

This weeks Big Photo Challenge is Signs.

I've always been fascinated by the faded and crumbling signs painted on the old brick buildings around our town. These were the bill boards of yesteryear. They advertized old wagon, tobacco, and dry goods as well as soft drinks we still see today. I went around town on the way home tonight and shot some pictures of some of these signs with my Nikon Coolpix S210 pocket camera so you could see some of them before they are all painted over or torn down.

This is an old wagon maker with the giant steam plant smoke stacks in the background.

Taken in sepia.

LaAzora cigars were only 15 cents and hotel rooms were 50 cents per day and up and boasted of steam heat.

The Frederic Hotel encouraged us to buy Rex Flour because "Rex is King".

Black and white photo showed Ketchum & Son sold Wholesale Dry Goods (what are dry goods?).

Coca-Cola was even popular back then, I guess because it was "Delicious and Refreshing".

You can see another rendition of the Cola-Cola bleeding out from under the paint.

The Globe Hotel is still operating as a Bar & Grill but don't exspect to get a room upstairs for 75 cents. Sepia seemed appropriate for this vintage sign.

The old City Ramp parking garage must have been a beautiful sight in its heyday with Art Deco finish and salmon paint. It's now dirty and falling apart with paint peeling off onto the sidewalk below.

and finally...

The modern version of the store side advertizing sign completed just today.

It took a vivid setting on camera to get the whole effect of this bright and shiny new painted sign.

The Big Photo Challenge...ME

This weeks photo challenge is ME

Or a picture of me or about me that shows what I am about.


This time of year I am all about Arena Football (American, with an oblong ball). Our local team, the Spokane Shock, are number 1 in the league with a record of 13 wins and 2 losses. We only have one game left and have earned a spot in the playoffs.

This is a picture of ME and my better half, who completes me, outside the football arena. We dress in the teams orange and blue colors and cheer are heads off. There is a fantastic series of metal sculptures outside the arena that represent an athelete jumping into the air. We dressed them in the orange fuzzy hats that we wear to the games. The last one behind us shows his head gone and legs stretching like a spring. There is another in front of us that you can't see of just his legs with the springs sprouting out.

Go Shock!

And check out this link of the team high-fiving my grandsons and wife.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_y9YGzRf88

Yay! We're in the newspaper. Me on the right, my son Derrick to my right, my wife Julie, my son Kyle (9th man jersey), my daughter-in-law Jen below me, and my grandson Connar to her right. Shock game Aug 12 against the Milwaukee Iron. Shock win 60 to 57 and are going to the Arena Bowl. Watch us on NFL network Aug 20 at 5 PM PST.http://www.spokesman.com/photos/2010/aug/13/111566/

The Big Photo Challenge...TECHNOLOGY

This week's theme is Technology.

I decided to take a picture of my work station.

7 computers (2 RAID Servers under the keyboards) running on 4 dual input monitors.

These computers are used to configure software to run a utility plant.

Then I noticed everyone was submitting pictures of their iPods, so I decided to follow suit. Until I realized I don't have an iPod. So I took a picture of my multimeter since it is small and has wires coming out of it.

I took the picture with my Canon PowerShot S3IS. I used the Shutter priority mode and set the shutter speed to 4 seconds. The camera adjusted the aperature to F4.5 automatically. I had to put it on a tripod due to the slow shutter speed or it would blur. I also set the timer delay to 2 seconds so I would have my hands off of it when the shutter opens. The meter is actually dark red but I used a black light to give it the eerie glow. I balanced the meter on a small rubber ball to give it the effect of floating in air.

The Big Photo Challenge...GREEN

This week's topic is GREEN


This is a picture of lily pads in Newman Lake in Washington State I took while kayaking.



I took this with my Canon S3IS using the Scene feature called Color Accent.
You can point at an object and press the set button and when you take a picture it will make a black and white picture except for the color you set.