Day 277 - Sky Bright

Love the look of the sky - too bad the power lines detract from the beauty.

Day 268 - Fall Field

Yet another cheater day - this is a cool pic from up north this past fall. I added a little mocha preset action to it!

Exposure: 1/1250 sec

Aperture: f/2.2

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 640

Day 264 - Snow Forts

Some outdoor fun today - looks like a snow fort waiting to happen!

Exposure: 1/4000 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 160

Day 259 - Jagged Hill

Another missed day - ooops. This is a pic from our ATV ride in the desert when we were in Arizona! That was such a fun trip!

Exposure: 1/2000 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 24mm

ISO Speed: 320

Day 255 - Frosted Forest

We had a good snow storm today which subsequently buried the pile of chopped up tree that now sits in front of my garage. Not an overly exciting picture so I did a little "antique-ing" to it!

Exposure: 1/40 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 800

Day 254 - Carvings

Looks like I missed another day, so this one if from our trip out to Arizona for Christmas. When we were hiking at Christmas Tree Pass there was an area of rock that had carvings all over. They were black on some areas which made them even more interesting!

Exposure: 1/50 sec

Aperture: f/14

Focal Length: 24mm

ISO Speed: 250

Day 252 - Peace

This house near me does this every holiday season. It looks really cool when there is a full snow cover over it as the lights get a little muffled by the snow, but still show through. Because of the lack of snow on this particular day the pic was not that fantastic, so I played with some presets to give it a little more excitement!

Exposure: 1/40 sec

Aperture: f/1.4

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO Speed: 1600

Day 247 - Desert Hike

I seem to have some issues getting pictures taken when I'm off work. Missed another day, so this is a shot from our last day in Arizona while we were hiking. This area has some neat hieroglyphics on the rocks.

Exposure: 1/1250 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 35mm

ISO Speed: 250

Day 246 - Big Kids

A day out sledding with the kids - some bigger than others! Fun was had by all and much hot chocolate enjoyed afterwards!

Exposure: 1/250 sec

Aperture: f/10

Focal Length: 84mm

ISO Speed: 200

Day 244 - Life

So it appears that I do not have a picture for today. This shot is from our trip out to Arizona/Nevada for Christmas at Red Rock Canyon. Love how you can have all the stone and then a tree growing seemingly out of no where.

Exposure: 1/800

Aperture: f/4.5

Focal Length: 90mm

ISO Speed: 160

Day 243 - Jagged Horizon

Out last day in Arizona for our Christmas trip. We had a red eye flight later that night so we spent the day at my mom's. We decided to go for a hike at Christmas Tree Pass and of course I took my camera! It was a great day - a little chilly and a little overcast but so beautiful in the desert. This is one of my favorite shots of our hike. I love how the clouds look around the sun and the textures of the earth below.

Exposure: 1/640 sec

Aperture: f/16

Focal Length: 32mm

ISO Speed: 250

Day 241 - Rusted Slumber

It's Christmas Eve and believe it or not, I did not get a picture in today! So I'll use one from yesterday. On our ATV tour we stopped at an old mining area and hiked around a bit. Laying there in the gravel was an old mattress spring. It looked pretty cool - so I took a few shots of it! I didn't do any post processing to this shot.

Exposure: 1/1000 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 65mm

ISO Speed: 250

Day 240 - Desert Adventure

Today was the family ATV tour in the desert! I have to say it was a blast! We were out for over 3 hours in all different types of terrain. My grandma even went with us - and she just turned 80! The only bad thing was that even with sunglasses on, I got SO much dust in my eyes they hurt for a few days!

Exposure: 1/500

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 32mm

ISO Speed: 320

Day 239 - Canyon Snow

Day two of our trip at Christmas was to visit the Grand Canyon. We drove over 5 hours the night before to get there and I had big plans to get up early to get to the best viewing area for sunrise photos. Unfortunately Mother Nature had different plans for us. When we got up - it was snowing like mad and already had 3-4 inches on the ground. We still made our way to the viewing area (not easily - the roads were horrible) but you couldn't even get down to it because they had closed it off due to the snow! At that point we decided to go get breakfast at a hotel restaurant in the park. After we finished eating it had nearly stopped snowing so we were able to see a little of the canyon (as seen here). Overall it was a little disappointing as there was so much haze and clouds that you couldn't see down into the canyon at all - which I'm guessing is were you get the hugely immense sense of beauty and grandness of it. But I did see the Grand Canyon in a snow storm - so there!

Exposure: 1/3200 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 24mm

ISO Speed: 1600 (accounts for the grain in the shot)

Day 238 - Contemplation

We were out visiting my mom for Christmas and we spent a day hiking in Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas. It was a beautiful day for hiking - just a little brisk. We were walking back on one of the trails and I saw this guy just sitting and looking out at the beautiful view. He looked so peaceful - reflecting, contemplating.

Exposure: 1/1600 sec

Aperture: f/4.5

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO Speed: 160

Day 234 - Chevrolet

A few missed days coming up - so I went back in my (quite large) archive of photos for one today. I just had to get some shots of this car when I saw it on the side of the road. We were up in Door County and came across this gem! I just screamed out for an antique color wash!

Exposure: 1/80 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 58mm

ISO Speed: 400

Day 231 - From Above

Another day I apparently forgot to take a pic. This one is from our trip to Door County earlier in the month. We were in Peninsula State Park and climbed up the tower. The original was ok - I liked the curves of the road and the sparse look of the bare trees, but the color was pretty drab. So I tried to give it a boost with high contrast black and white. I really like how it turned out!

Exposure: 1/320

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 32mm

ISO Speed: 400

Day 230 - Enlightened

So a little warning as we get further into December - I seemed to have my forgetful hat on a lot and had my share of missed days! But 230 days into this crazy project and I refuse to give up! This was one of those days - so I pulled up this pic from our Christmas light viewing in Cathedral Square. I love the light on the church an that most of the Christmas lights in the shot were blue or white!

Exposure: 1/6 sec

Aperture: f/5.0

Focal Length: 24mm

ISO Speed: 1000

Day 229 - Santa's Helper

We made our way out to the Santa Rampage (our 2nd annual) this morning. This is an awesome Milwaukee event (kind of an underground idea that went viral) where a couple hundred people dress up like Santa (or elves or the like) and ride their bikes across town stopping at 5 or so bars along the way! Todd and Mark and I heard about it last year and had to check it out. It was so much fun to watch that it has now become an annual event. Maybe next year we will even ride in it! After the fun, we grab lunch at El Ray. That night we join up with Ray and head out to see the Miller Valley Christmas lights then down to Cathedral Square for more lights!

Exposure: 1/1000 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 102mm

ISO Speed: 320

Day 226 - Birdseed Sadness

It's a sad sad day for the little birdies in my yard. In the snow/rain/ice storm last night I had a limb snap off my tree. It was unfortunately the one that held the bird feeder. On an up note, the damn squirrels can't steal from me any more! I did have to risk my life for this picture as the branch had pulled down an electrical wire as well! Good times in Julie's backyard!

Exposure: 1/2500 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 75mm

ISO Speed: 400