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Morning Buck in Fresh Snow

10-30-09

Mike Hendren, Your Castle Rock Realtor®

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Office: (303) 268-4213

Mobile: (303) 503-1101

Photo © Mike Hendren, 2009

We had a few inches of fresh snow just a few days ago. The morning brought us clear skies and sunshine, and as I walked around the end of my garage, I was treated to this beautiful sight!

This mule deer buck was just meandering along, looking for food (or maybe love - it is the season), and of course my sudden arrival definitely got his attention. But he didn't run - he just stood there like a majestic statue studying my every move.

I quickly went back in the house, got my camera, and was fortunate enough to get off a few shots before he finally walked away.

I did discover a little trick with Adobe Lightroom on this image - I desaturated the blue channel to get rid of the blue colored snow back in the shadows without affecting any of the other colors!

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Copper Canisters - Fun with Software "Toys"

10-28-09

Mike Hendren, Your Castle Rock Realtor®

view my blog
Office: (303) 268-4213

Mobile: (303) 503-1101

This morning, while waiting for my first cup of coffee to brew, I noticed these copper canisters sitting on the counter. So, I grabbed my Nikon D700 with the 14-24 mm lens, set it on the countertop and fired off 5 bracketed shots.

Then I played with several of my software "toys" :

First, I exported the 5 images into Photomatix Pro to merge them into a single High Dynamic Range (HDR) image.

Next, I exported the HDR file into Nik Color Efex Pro and used their "Glamour Glow" filter to soften the image.

Finally, in Lightroom, I just tweaked the exposure a little and did some noise reduction to end up with this final image.

One of the things I like about this image is the way the four different textures work so well together: copper canisters, granite counter, stone tile back splash, and wood cabinet.

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Staying in Touch - And - Talking Dogs?

10-21-09

Mike Hendren, Your Castle Rock Realtor®

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Office: (303) 268-4213

Mobile: (303) 503-1101

I've been thinking about this for a while. We all stay in touch - sporadically - occasional emails and phone calls where we try to "catch up", but there are so many things that happen to us between times, it would be impossible to remember to talk about all of them. So we try to update the really important highlights and some of the other stuff gets lost.

But, you see, some of "the other stuff" - the little things - funny or heartwarming things - can also be helpful in keeping up with what we're feeling and experiencing on a daily basis. It can be a window into who we really are.

For instance - A couple of nights ago, just before bedtime, Sophie was hurriedly trying to eat a bedtime snack - a little something to get her through the night. Bella wasn't participating like she normally does so I looked around to see what she was doing. I saw her sitting there, in the dark, on the fireplace hearth. When I called she wouldn't come (she never does), so I went over to her. There, about 8 inches away, was an Oreo cookie. It was like she was purposely drawing my attention so I would find that "stray cookie".

Now, we give the dogs tiny snacks of what we eat, every day, and they are also interested in the rare chocolate snacks we have but we NEVER share those - supposedly, chocolate can be really bad for dogs.

So, has Bella learned that chocolate is bad? Was she showing me that cookie so I would find it before Sophie did, knowing that Sophie wouldn't care if it was chocolate - she would have gulped that thing down in about 2 bites?!? Or, maybe she was hoping I would come see the cookie, change my mind about chocolate, and give it to her.

Dogs may be smart but I don't think they think at quite that level of logic, although, I think most dog owners believe that their dogs understand a lot more than they're given credit for. Unfortunately, until dogs talk, we will never know for sure.

My point with all of this is that I'm setting up a "family blog" on Posterous .com to help my scattered family keep up with one another on a more regular basis. Posterous is a new blogging platform I've found that is ridiculously easy to use - I'll talk more about that later.

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Promoted on Wordpress.com! Yay!

09-19-09

Mike Hendren, Your Castle Rock Realtor®

view my blog
Office: (303) 268-4213

Mobile: (303) 503-1101

I apologize for "tootin' my own horn" - - - but I just couldn't help it. :-)

I recently moved my photo blog http://thrumikesviewfinder.com to Wordpress.com to be hosted there. Within a couple of days, my most recent post about "Canyonlands Nat'l Park", got promoted to the Wordpress.com home page. Man, you talk about a BUMP in hits - from almost nothing to over 700 the first day. Yeah, yeah, I know - for many of you that's not that many, but for me, it's BIG! :-)

Anyway, I knew that you folks, of all the people I know, would appreciate this the most so I wanted to share my success with you - I realize it can be fleeting, but it sure is fun when it happens!

Plus, I truly feel that all of the practice, comments, and support I've been so fortunate to receive right here on Activerain has helped me immensely.

So thanks to all of you for all of your help during the past months - I do appreciate it!

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