Walter's Ferry, Idaho

Today, a group of us led by Jane went down to Swanye's Museum at Walter's Ferry on the Snake River 16 miles south of Nampa. Googling Swayne's Ferry Museum, it is stated on http://www.ultimateidaho.com/sec3/extras/swaynesferry.html that "Local resident Pappy Swayne (1887-1976) created what has become a conglomeration of historical museum, botanical gardens, animal farm, and religious arena. After Pappy’s death, his widow, Cleo, took over operations and has since added an extensive collection of both life-size and smaller works from artist Gary Lee Price. Upon entering the “museum,” visitors will encounter numerous birds strutting around, lizards, squirrels, and a swan-filled lake. Moving ahead, a nature trail loops through a forest dotted with gnome statues, past Pappy’s grave, and to a prayer garden. "

Reading through http://detour.webdatabases.net/site_detail.html?ArtistID=11463&ArtID=11463 I see that Cleo has also passed away but I understand that the Museum is still cared for by family and friends.

The weather was mostly cloudy and a few sprinkles, but I took my camera to see what I could manage to capture in photos. Here are a few of the results:

March Idaho Photocrawl - Downtown Boise

On Saturday, March 21, I went on the Idaho Photocrawl for March in downtown Boise. After meeting the rest of the photography gang at the Egyptian Theatre, we were stuck under the roof trying to keep dry while it was just pouring outside. After a long while, the rain subsided and the sun came out and provided us with a couple of hours of shoot time. So we strolled around and took photos and ran into each other once in awhile when we gave tips to each other on good photography subject matter.

Here are a few of my pictures from that shoot.

One good coincidence from the rain is the nice rainbow afterwards.

Reflections after the rain.

Jeanette and I ran into these 2 ladies in freak alley and asked if they would be willing to pose for us. As you can see, they were great.

Side view of capitol building done in HDR.

Barrels were also done in HDR.

I liked the two different reflections on each side of the building.

Boise City Hall waterfall done in HDR.

I liked the way I got the side of this building to reflect the cloudy skies and the capitol in the building extension and then the sunny skies behind it.

Unleashing the Power of High Dynamic Range (HDR)

I started my HDR class today. It is being taught by David Nightingale. See some of his HDR photos on http://www.chromasia.com/iblog/galleries/hdr.php. Perhaps I can finally figure out some of the mystic of getting good HDR pictures. Pictures to come in the near future as I do the assignments.

Last Tamarack Ski Day

Wednesday, March 4th, was the last day Tamarack Resort was open. The entire resort, ski resort, golf course, x-c ski and mountain bike trails, lodge, restaurants, the whole shabang closed down due to financial difficulties. The condos are just standing there unfinished. The staff were getting their final group photos done before starting unemployment. They were trying to get rid of all the food in the restaurant. It was very sad.


However, the skiing was fantastic. I went with Glenda. There were no lines and we skiied like crazy all day long. Our legs were burning on the last few runs.



I didn't bring my camera, but Glenda took a few with her Point and Shoot.

March 1st

It has been another interesting weekend. On Saturday, I went to Idaho Camera to see a presentation by Ernest Lombard who did a Trans Africa Safari and did a slide show on his wildlife photography. It was great and puts an African wildlife Safari on my "want to do" list. There were slides from South Africa all the way up to Tanzania and the variances of wildlife that are present along the way.


Afterwards, I met up with Bobbi and we headed up to snow shoe into Elkhorn Yurt, where Judy and Norma have snow shoed in earlier that day.

I decided to haul in my SLR (It is so darn heavy). Thus, my backpack was heavier than I would have liked it to be. We got into the yurt at 6:30, just at dusk. The four of us just had a great time talking and enjoying wine and food and planning future trips. After a warm night (heated by the wood stove), we got up to a nice sunrise with cloudy skies. The weather was nice, not windy and just warm enough. It was an enjoyable show shoe/hike out and back home.

View from the Yurt

Hiking Out

Craters of the Moon - February 21

Some of the IWOW gang decided to head out to the Craters of the Moon National Park in eastern Idaho to do some snowshoeing, skiing and photography. It turned out to be a fantastic weekend with great weather and conditions.

We left on Friday night and some of us went to Shoshone for dinner at the local "Americana" diner for some burgers and fries. We then continued on to Arco to our motel rooms. Here is a picture of the Arco Graffiti Rock.

Saturday was Craters day. Here are a couple more pics I took. I'm sure Jeanette will have some great ones as well to share later on the IWOW site.

On the way back, Bobbi, Jennifer and I came back via Fairfield to meet the rest in Mountain Home for dinner. On the way back, we suddenly saw all these kites in the air. People were snowboarding and skiing attached to kites. (Kite skiing?) Apparently, it is an offshot of windsurfing but done on the snow.





Thanks to:
Jennette, Bobbi, Nicki, Jennifer, Heather, Connie, LaRae, Meg, Denise

You guys are awesome!

February 18, 2009

Last night I went to the Boise Camera Club. The meeting displayed members photos via projector. They first show the picture, then judges judge it on a scale of 1-25 I believe (except there were a couple of 26 pts for pictures that were photoshoped into great pieces of art).
After the judging the shooter describes how the picture came to be. Finally they let us know the results. I submitted my first photos ever to any kind of organization outside of a camera class. My first picture was the one of the egret. It turned out well received. Later my Tampa skyline at dusk was displayed and also well received. I am on my way to sharing my photos more. It is taking me forever to figure out this hobby, but I feel I can start showing some of my work.





These are the 2 photos submitted.