Sunday, February 21, 2010

Skiing and the Olympics

Sorry I've been so abscent lately. I've been skiing and of course watching the Olympics. (our US coverage of the Olympics is really lame BTW.) I thought this year it would be different but actually it still sucks. More about this later..

When I got on the mountain today I rode the bunny hill chair as usual to get to the other chairs. The ski school instructor hooked me up with a four year old girl to ride the chair with. I enjoy riding the chair with these little kids but I don't like the responsibility. There's no restraints on the chair so I put my poles infront of her and hung onto her hood/ coat from behind. Heaven forbid that a little four year old fall off of my chair... This girl was a little wiggle worm too. She was a talker too. We talked about the weather, cats dogs and also rabbits. She asked me if I had a rabbit. :) Well yes I do actually!.. How I wish I had a little kid of my own..

Here's a picture of me at the top of the ski hill taken by my friend Reinhard. He rocks a Nikon like I do.. He was rocking my Nikon in this pic actually.. He got the exposure exactly right, and that isn't easy when it's so bright out like it was today. I like this picture. You'd never know I weight almost 200 lbs.. :)
click on picture to see bigger..
And here's a good photography tip.. Make sure the horizon is level. I don't know how many people screw this up.. I see a lot of good photographers get this wrong. Honestly,..If you do nothing else in your pictures,. get the horizon level. It isn't that easy to do actually but that's why they call it the horizon,.. it's horizontal. Some cameras have lines you can impose on the screen if you don't have a good feel for it.

Some rules are good. :)

6 comments:

Diane Lowe said...

That is a great rule Don! (Not to mention a great photo!)

I'd never heard it before, but I know that photos which have their horizon's "off" don't look right. . . even when the attempt is to be "artistic".

don said...

Sometimes I don't mind if it's an action shot but it usually bothers me in a landscape. It's harder than people think to get the horizon level. I know I don't always get them level but I try.

Jules said...

What a beautiful photo for all reasons! You'd never know you almost ended up killing yourself that day.

don said...

Helmets are a good thing, I can't imagine skiing without one.

Vixey said...

Uh oh. Suddenly I feel the need to check all my pics. lol. Can't say I ever pay that much attention.
:-)

Enjoy the skiing and be careful out there.

don said...

It's really hard to do on a boat..

And thanks, I will enjoy the skiing!