End of Summer photos

On August 29, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, garden, navi, outdoors, pets1 Comment

This has been a weird summer. I’ve been working full time, with a ridiculously long commute, and the end result of all that is I feel like I wasn’t even home for the summer. Hopefully things will get better soon.

I abandoned my garden, and it’s all overgrown and weedy. I planted a few tomatoes in pots on the front deck, and they might kick out a few tomatoes before the winter comes, if we’re lucky. BTW, that’s Saki next to the tomatoes, they were visiting.

Mostly we’ve been working on cleaning the house and getting it ready to sell. It’s coming along better than I expected. But that’s another post.

Today I went out in the late afternoon and took some pictures around the yard. No particular reason. The light was so beautiful, I couldn’t help myself.

This picture was not in focus, but I liked the pose, so it seemed like a good use of one of those funky filters. Look at me, I’m being artistic!

My little perpetual-motion machine stops for a rare picture! Good girl, Navi!

Barclay just wants to play stickball, he’s obsessed with it!

Here’s another picture which came out overexposed, but is saved by one of those funky filters. Makes it look like I intended that ‘glow’!

Barclay in the Meadow

On August 26, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, navi, petsLeave a comment

Barclay in the meadow from Stephanie Roberts on Vimeo.

My first gallery show and sale

On July 31, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn barclay1 Comment

Our photo club, the Camas Camera Club (Camas is a small town about a half hour from here) was invited to do a group display in the Camas Library Gallery. We meet in the library every month, so we already have a relationship with them. We were each able to exhibit three pictures. I chose three of my favorites:

However, after having them printed out I decided I really didn’t like the way the horse picture looked – it was just too dark. It’s the first time I’ve ever had my digital pictures professionally printed, so it took a bit of trial and error to get them looking the way I wanted – but the horse picture just wasn’t working out. Luckily I had just been to Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge and took this picture, which I really liked, and substituted it at the last minute.

Our club was all using the same black frames from Costco, so they would be inexpensive, and all match, and so we would all be on a level playing field. The frames were 11×13 I think, and came with a mat sized for an 8×10. Some folks didn’t use the mats, or used Lightroom software to make mats that were part of the image, and did some really creative things. When I first showed the picture of Barclay to the club, folks suggested I should edit it to make the tongue stick out past the edge of the photo. So I handed it over to Dave and let him at it.

It came out very cute! Because the picture is a tiny crop of a bigger photo, it doesn’t really have the resolution to go 8×10, so I had it printed as a 5×7, on an 8×10 sheet of paper, and then framed that. To my complete surprise, when Dave and I arrived at the gallery opening (a little late because I had to get off work and go all the way across town to Camas) …

Barclay’s picture was the first one in the gallery to sell! A gentleman said his daughter had three Eskimos, and he bought it for her! I really didn’t expect that, in fact I thought I would get to hang it up at home after the gallery was over! What a thrill to have my picture sell to someone like that! Everyone in the club was jealous, and they were all teasing me that from now on everyone would be taking nothing but dog pictures!

Tomorrow the gallery display will be taken down, the Barclay picture will go to it’s new home, and the other two pics will come home to me. I may not be done showing though, I hear someone in the club may have found a coffee shop that would like to have our pictures displayed in it. I guess I’d better go get another Barclay print done – got to give the people what they want!

Our own private meadow

On June 27, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, navi2 Comments

Overgrown, overrun…

On June 2, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, garden, navi2 Comments

It has been a long, cool, rainy spring. We had a little dash of summer weather early on that got our hopes up, then it got dreary again. Of course there’s been a few nice days thrown in here and there, but with my new work schedule I’m mostly limited to working on the yard on the weekends, and many of those have been rainy.

This happens every year – it’s wet and rainy, and we can’t get out and mow the field because it’s a wetland. By the time it’s dry, it’s too tall. And are we ever there this year!

We got a little mowing in, but the rest is too tall to mow now. We’ve already looked into renting a tractor or a walk-behind brush mower to knock it down with. As soon as it stops raining long enough for it to dry out a bit, we’ll go rent one for the weekend.

The waving tall grass is actually kind of pretty, except every time I look at it I just see all the work ahead of us to get it under control.

Here’s Navi playing in the grass behind the water trough. Yeah, it’s that deep.

There she is!

There’s Barclay, prowling through the jungle.

The worst part is the garden. About a month ago I spent a couple hours cleaning it up, and it looked great. Now I haven’t had a chance to visit it for a few weeks, and when I went out there, I just wanted to cry Sad smile

Nothing a couple hours of hard labor won’t fix! There’s still more to go, but I didn’t want to hurt myself trying to do it all in one go. I got my exercise for sure today!

Spring Flowers

On April 28, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, flowers, mighty, navi3 Comments

The very first sprinkling of color is popping up all over the yard…

Of course I had company while on my photography spree.

Cats! They always seem to have such goofy looks!

Navi had a grand old time in the backyard, hunting mice in the tall grass and digging holes.

Barclay preferred to stay clean with a good game of stickball.

Even Mighty seems disturbed by how filthy Navi got!

I never get tired of taking pictures of her when she’s muddy – I just think it’s so cute! She really puts her all into digging for treasure!

How clean she gets after a quick round with the hose and drying off is simply miraculous!

Watch out for the laser eyes!

Dog Days

On March 26, 2012May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn alki, barclay, navi, pets3 Comments

Seems like I only have a chance to take pictures of the dogs on the weekends, since I get home from work so late during the week. Today was a beautiful sunny day, and we got to play outside all day. Barclay was my subject today, between rounds of stickball.

I am still LOVING my 35mm f1.8 lens. I love the soft backgrounds and the sharp focus on the subject.

This is the two year anniversary of our little Alki passing away after a three year battle with cancer. I’ve been so lucky to have Barclay to soften the blow, and then a few months later Navi joined the party. Sometimes Navi looks so much like Alki, or does something that just seems so much like her, I take a double-take. Rest in peace, sweet little Alki, you’ll always have a place in my heart.

Alki

Navi and the bath

On March 5, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, navi2 Comments

Navi had a great afternoon hunting mice in the field

She’s very concentrated when she’s hunting for mice

Digging holes, shoving her nose in them, is a dirty job. So I clean her up before she goes inside with a quick dip in the water trough

I said it was a QUICK dip!

Much better! But that’s no reason to stop playing with the hose..

Barclay has no interest in playing with the hose.

And just like magic, she is all white and clean. After a quick roll in the grass to dry off, she’s ready to come into the house again!

Navi and Car-Sickness

On March 3, 2012May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, naviLeave a comment

Navi (our little perpetual-running machine) gets car sick. She’s been having this problem since she was a puppy. I think it got to the point where she would get car sick, and then she would anticipate getting car sick, and then she would get sick because she was so nervous anticipating getting car sick.

We’ve tried Dramamine, and jelly beans, and having her ride in a crate, and outside of a crate, and in my lap (puked in my lap that time) and taking her for short rides (but I think I didn’t give it enough time or make it short enough), and forcing her to just buck up and put up with a long ride and nothing has really done the trick. She just runs away when she thinks she’s going to have to go for a ride, and when I do get her into the car she looks miserable, and drools, and eventually throws up.

So two weeks ago I started taking her for a ride every single evening after work. Just up to the mailbox and back, which is about 200 feet. The first trip I had to beg her to come in the garage, and then I had to pick her up and put her in the car. After a week of these super-short rides, she was running out to the garage, and hopping in the car when I said it was time to go for a ride!

Now we’ve expanded the distance, and we’re going to the park entrance, or the firestation – they’re both about a quarter mile. She’s still a little nervous, but I’m going to keep this up until she thinks a quarter mile is just plain boring! Then we’ll go a little farther. I’m going to turn her into a traveling dog yet!

Snow day 2012

On February 25, 2012 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, navi, snow3 Comments

Yay! Snow!

We woke up to an unexpected dusting of snow. It’s funny how sometimes they know the storm is coming, and talk about it all week, and then nothing happens, and other times you don’t hear anything and just wake up to snow!

Barclay knows how to enjoy snow…

Our neighbors have been hard at work tearing down the rusty old barn.

It will be nice to see it go. It’s not a cool old barn, it’s just an eyesore, and I wouldn’t trust it to house a horse without falling in on them.

Handsome Barclay!

I don’t want you to think I only take pictures of Barclay, but Navi just doesn’t hold still. She is constantly orbiting around me. She never stops running…

Running…