Óndago Arts Photo Blog

We thought it might be cool to show you some before and after shots from time to time. Sometimes we’re happy with a capture just as it is….here’s a dog, here’s a beach, the end. But sometimes a shot just begs to be played with.

Like this one. We were supposed to be shooting some surfers last weekend, but this dog stole the show. He was happy. I’m talkin’ run and wag and grin and bark and run some more happy. A kick to watch and a bigger kick to photograph. We tried to cram as much unbridled exhuberance and the “here and nowness” of that dog’s joy into as many pixels as possible. We’ll try to post a couple more later in the week.

For you Photoshop geeks out there: several adjustment layers and layer masks were used to create this image, along with some very cool filter plugins (Nik, Lucis Art, and onOne photo edges). Finally a pretty strong high pass sharpening was selectively applied by ‘painting in’ the effect on a layer mask. For those of you interested in learning more about some of these techniques, we highly recommend the free video tutorials that Andy Heatwole provides on his amazing blog, BlueHour.

Here’s to unbridled exhuberance!

Beach Dog “Before”

Beach Dog “After”

One from my stock collection….I took this photo of a gas sign, cloned out the prices, and Photoshopped the words in their place. After spending nearly 40$ to fill up this weekend, figured we could all use a little humor!

Gas Price Humor

Hmm, not feeling too wordy today, but I have a few pictures to share from my great nephew’s birthday party last weekend. He’s an awesome kid…sweet, smart, handsome, and way cool. Guess he takes after his great Aunt Heather! Heh heh.

The Birthday Boy

Grandma “Rocks”, and she does. What a lucky family we are.

Mike, recovering from the egg toss game

Jazzie, can you believe how cute she is?????

Uncle Robert, muy muy guapo!!

On Friday, we set out to put our new long lenses to the test, certain we would find some exciting surfing action or interesting animal life to shoot. After many miles of driving (at $3.20 per gallon, thanks) we were frustrated to not find anything of interest and the lighting and surf conditions were poor. We had wandered aimlessly up and down the country roads, filled up with gas and were about to head home as we were both getting tired and discouraged.

Instead, on a whim, we headed north towards Los Osos, CA, turned onto a lesser used back road and happened upon a little pond with some very interesting bird life. We were fortunate to spot a group of Cinnamon Teal ducks, not a common sight, along with a variety of shore birds, egrets and herons we see fairly regularly. Also spotted was a Western Bluebird–seldom seen and very difficult to shoot, but it was cooperating quite nicely! After the birds went their merry way, we headed on to Morro Bay harbor and couldn’t believe our luck when we spied an OSPREY atop a boat’s mast. Talk about rare, aren’t these freshwater birds? We never even see them on the lakes where they should be!

That magnificent bird never moved and about 400 shots later (!), we finally left to check out if any otters were hanging out near the rock. Sure enough, we were blessed with the appearance of one of those adorable creatures who seemed to be washing up for a night on the town. And after that ended, just across the way, we got to see some sunset surfing action after all.

What a day. Good thing we didn’t quit looking earlier…

Western Bluebird

Osprey

Sea Otter

Sunset Surfer Girl

Just a quick photo today. Our good friend Maggie and her wonder dog Henry. Two amazing souls.

Today was a spectacular 80 degree day we spent doing homework in the wooded hills near Santa Margarita. We Pixel Chix have recently joined a local camera club and “wildflowers” was the topic for this month’s photo shoot. However, the Central Coast hasn’t had much rain this year and said flora was hard to come by to say the very least. Even in the most prolific places, there were virtually none to be found. However, with the heads up from a couple good friends we hung out with for the day, what we DID find was pretty darn cool.

An old, discarded piano. Yup. Apparently cars and couches aren’t the only things being dumped in remote locations these days. We all had a good laugh when I found a note under some of its rubble that says, “Tuition is due and payable at the next lesson. Thank you.” It seemed a fairly drastic way to get out of lessons, but at least our own assignment was completed! …Although maybe not exactly what the club had in mind??

Tuition Due

“Desert Bones” In the Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine, CA

First off a little warning: we’re new at this blogging stuff. Please hang in there while we figure out how to fit these pieces of prose and pixels and personalities into a meaningful blog. Sometimes I (Heather) will post, sometimes Jenn, and sometimes we’ll post together. We hope to post pictures at least a couple of times a week. Truth is we’re drafting the rule book as we go…in pencil. Lucky you; you’re our beta testers. Consider yourself warned!

Now on to today’s photo. I was frustrated when I clicked the shutter. I could see so much potential in these newly found arches (thanks Joe!), but the soft warm light of morning had long since headed west by the time we found them. No matter how I moved my tripod, I couldn’t convince all three of those arches to fit gracefully into my viewfinder. We took a few ’snappies’ with the intention of coming back in better light. We didn’t. Did I mention there’s never enough time over there? Back home, nose to my computer screen, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The hard light sculpted the rock into a cavernous skull–I converted it to black and white, increased the contrast, and viola! My blog photo of the day was born.

Peace, Heather

Okay, you asked for it…pictures from our latest forray to the east side. Few places we can think of provide this much beautiful and bizarre all rolled out together within a few hours’ drive. Lone Pine was our base for this four day adventure—never ever enough time for us, but we managed to pack some quality time exploring the Alabama Hills, photographing the high desert ghost towns of the Owens Valley, and walking amongst the real ghosts of the Paiute and Shoshone on the volcanic table lands just past Bishop. We were ready to return about as soon as we landed back home!

Alabama Hills, Tuttle Creek

“Arching”, Alabama Hills

The Alabama Hills, off of Movie Road

“Grave Heart”, Native American Cemetery, Lone Pine

“Home Sweet Home”, On the shores of the now dry Owens Lake, drained by the sucking mouth of Los Angeles

“Keeler Beach Resort”

“Art & Politics” — Keeler, CA If you’ve ever driven the streets of Keeler, you can’t miss this house. Old car parts, skeletons, political buttons, naked barbies, street signs, paintings, antique chairs, americana kitsch, road signs, and heaven knows what else adorn the front and sides of this place. We’re talking seriously bizarre–half a block of found objects somehow glommed together in what can only be described as, as, as….political art??? satire??? just some crazy person’s collection? Whatever it is, you’ll be seeing more posts from our photographic gawkings of this place.

“Keep Right”

“Ghost Cafe”, off of Highway 14 near Pearsonville

Belly up to the bar…

The Pixel Chix in Bodie, 34 degrees and dropping!

Hi!

We’re the Pixel Chix–proud partners in Óndago Arts, a small business borne out of a shared passion for photography, nature and all things creative. We’ve had cameras in our hands for as long as we can remember. The tools have changed since those formative years, but the wonder and joy have thankfully remained the same. We hope you can feel some of that in our photography.

This blog is a place where we’ll post new photos that may or may not end up on our traditional website. Some days there may be a running commentary on techniques, feelings at the time of capture, or a rant of some kind or another. Other days just a photo and you can do the commentary…

If you’d like to see more of our photography and other artistic ventures, check us out at www.OndagoArts.com

Thanks for stopping by! Heather and Jenn