Category Archives: The Homestead

Images taken of my living space.

For good luck

February 19, 2011 Gary Wium Leave a comment

Rain rain rain. Chilly and wet February days in Northern California are good for staying inside and keeping dry. For indoor fun, I decided to create a little scene on the dining room table and take some shots. We have a bunch of these ceramic carp (symbols of “good luck”) around the house. I chose the two pinkish ones that live on our fireplace mantel for my little scene.

Pink ceramic carp

Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm at 95mm. 1/5 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400. Natural lighting from the windows, white balance on “cloudy”. To get the moody look, I converted the image to black and white in Nik Silver Efex then “overlayed” the Nik layer with the original image at 100%.

Canon T2i getting lucky.

Photos, The Homestead

If the rain comes

February 17, 2011 Gary Wium Leave a comment

They run and hide their heads… or pull out a camera and take pictures of stuff around the house. Tonight, this little weighted exercise ball caught my eye. I positioned it on the hallway rug, mounted the T2i on a tripod and gave it a go. It’s a short, narrow hallway so I took three shots from slightly different vertical angles. This low angle view got the nod.

Petaluma Bridge

Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm at 225mm. ISO 400, 1/4 sec at f/5.0, Tungsten white balance. Black and white conversion: Nik Silver Efex.

Canon T2i staying dry.

Photos, The Homestead

Coming out early

February 16, 2011 Gary Wium Leave a comment

February in Northern California is a mixed bag. There can be days in a row of heavy rain, maybe a few frosty nights, and then there might be stretches of halcyon weather. It must be confusing for the budding plants–it most certainly confuses me. If the rainy spells fall on weekends, pruning gets postponed. This unpruned hydrangea is ready for Spring, so I gave the one bud its green back.

Hydrangea bud in February

Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm at 135mm. ISO 400, 1/8 sec at f/5.0. Black and white conversion: Nik Silver Efex. Photoshop for the splash of green, crop, resizing and sharpening.

Canon T2i thinking of Spring.

Photos, The Homestead

Job’s Tears

February 15, 2011 Gary Wium Leave a comment

It’s rainy today so after I got home I decided to play around with a different lens–my new and yet to be christened Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM. These close ups of our winterized Job’s Tears plant were shot on a tripod with the lens at 300mm. The camera was set to 1/20 at f/5.6, ISO 200, and white balance on cloudy. I love the isolation of the plant against the completely blurred out green of the backyard. Makes me want to explore this lens more.