My Nephew's Visit

I didn't take these photos this month but I edited them this week so I feel like it counts. My nephew was visiting and I got some fun shots of them outside in the snow, watching the birds and playing King of the Mountain.

I love this shot but I'm not sure of the crop.  I feel like maybe I should have isolated my nephew more?  What do you guys think?

I took this shot for Kids Stuff magazine for an article about kids and birding.  I need the birds to be in focus.  It didn't matter if the kids were or not. My aperture was f/4 but I got away with it being a little higher because the bird feeder was so far away.  I made sure to select what I wanted the camera to focus on.

Gotta love fat snowflakes that show up well in photos!

Remember that if you want your photos to be large like these so we can get a good look at them, click on them while you're editing your post and select x-large!

Reminders

Farewell, January!  We hope February brings warmer weather and with it a chance to get out to photograph more!  I have found myself making excuses to not go outside and shoot--I can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can get some good winter shots!

Reminder #1: The next Artistree Camera Club meeting will be this Tuesday, February 4th at 6 pm at Artistree.  Bring a friend!  We hope to have some more members join soon!

Reminder #2: You can bring up to five WINTER photos to share with the group for some gentle suggestions and many compliments!  You may post them here on the blog yourself or email them to Becky at rubsomedirtblog@gmail.com.  I can't wait to see what you all have been up to!

Reminder #3: I will be doing a brief mini-lesson on aperture at the beginning of the meeting.  This is one of my favorite topics!  Excited to share it with you!

Please comment below if you have any questions or suggestions.  See you Tuesday!

Finally warm enough for a walk...

but still cold enough for ice sculptures!

winter scenes

winter shadows

Winter sun...

Here's a moody picture for a gray, snowy day.

 

Frozen Bubble

Did you all know that you can freeze bubbles?  It was a challenge to photograph this because my kids could neither hold the stick still enough nor take the photo, so I had to do both.  After many missed attempts, I got this one.  I edited it a bit in Lightroom to add some contrast and lower the highlights to you could really see the design on the surface.

So fun!

Warm Thoughts...

Here are some coals from the wood stove to warm your thoughts on this frigid night!

Photo Walk Cancelled

Just FYI: the photo walk scheduled for tonight at Artistree has been cancelled due to frigid temperatures. Hope to see you at the next Artistree Camera Club meeting in February!

Snow photo plus a few from Acadia National Park this fall that I like

 Fog in Maine

 Schoodic Peninsula

 Baker Island Lighthouse

Sunset at Hadley's Point

 Sun setting on Isle au Haut

Becky's Winter Photos: Playing With The Kids

Emmy catching snowflakes

Emmy catching a ride with Daddy

Hannah's 1st Snow Angel

moon photos

Hi ladies!
Going to try and upload a couple photos from today...fingers crossed. I have never taken a picture at night before so it was definitely interesting. I couldn't resist given the beautiful moon out tonight!

Jan 14th Meeting Recap

We met tonight for the first time and I am so excited to be sharing this experience with an awesome group of ladies!  For any newcomers to this blog, the more the merrier and we welcome new members!  Tonight Mackenzie, Helen, and Tara met with me upstairs to hash out the details of this club and nail down specifics.

The most important item on the agenda was the dates to meet and we have now decided to meet on the FIRST TUESDAY of the month at Artistree for a group meeting.  We will spend the first hour going over an photographic element or technique (February's focus will be aperture) and then the second hour sharing up to five of our own photographs.  January's focus is WINTER.  From now until our next meeting February 4th, we will be photographing anything that says winter to us.  I can't wait to see how our members interpret that assignment!

We will also be meeting on the THIRD TUESDAY of the month for a group photo shoot/photo walk.  We will meet next Tuesday January 21st at Artistree to take some winter shots at 4 pm.  Please join us and bring a friend to see what the camera club is all about!

Finally we helped Helen to decide which photos she should submit for the photography contest at the Howe Library in Hanover.  She has some really remarkable photos to choose from.  Good luck, Helen!

Looking forward to the photos being shared on this site as well as any comments members may have.  Please use this site often and well!

2014 is going to bring great things to Artistree!

How To Protect My Image On This Blog

So you finally take a photo you're happy with and you are excited to share it with the ACC community.  The last thing you want, however, is to have someone steal your photo and pretend its theirs.  A quick and easy way to protect your photo is to put some kind of watermark on it.  For the sake of critique, you don't want the watermark to overpower the image, but it can still be done.

The easiest way is to take a photo you love and upload it to Picmonkey.

Click on the Tt icon on the left sidebar and add some kind of text to your photo to make it obviously yours.  You can even select fade if you like to make the watermark less conspicuous.

Save the image under a new name so it doesn't delete your original unmarked image, and then upload it to the blog or email it to Becky so she can do it for you.  Now everyone can sleep better at night knowing their images are safe and sound!

Who Is Becky Whitney?

And why is she leading the Artistree Camera Club?

Becky is a native of Massachusetts, educated in Connecticut, ex-resident of California and now mother of three in Quechee, Vermont.  Becky has her BA in English and her MA in Secondary Education and taught English at the high school and middle school level for four years before staying home to be with her kids.  Becky has her own rather popular parenting blog called Rub Some Dirt On It and writes for The Quechee Times. She has a flourishing lifestyle photography business and has taken photos for Dartmouth College, DHMC, and Kid Stuff magazine.  She has taught photography classes at the Women's Health Resource Center in Lebanon, NH and at Artistree since 2012.

Welcome To The Artistree Camera Club!

Welcome to the Artistree Camera Club blog!  If you have stumbled upon our shared site, you probably have a love of photography and are looking for a way to further your passion and technique and perhaps make a few friends along the way.  As a group we meet on a monthly basis at Artistree in Woodstock, Vermont to share our experiences, talents, photographs, as well as hone our craft.  Please join us!

This site has been created as a space to share the photographs we take over the course of this club's lifetime, as well as a place to gently critique our fellow club members.  We all can use a guiding hand on this journey to becoming a better photographer, and through constructive criticism we will improve dramatically.  Everyone can help each other learn!

This group will be formed, changed, and improved as it runs its course and its goals become more defined.  As for now, our goals are to

• Meet monthly to discuss technique and share photographs
• Plan a monthly photo walk to take photos together and apply what we have learned
• Determine what assignment we will be responsible for for the next group meeting

Beyond those goals, the sky is the limit!  Looking forward to sharing and learning with you all!