My daughter is learning to drive a team of horses from Tom Harris at Harris Stage Lines, Paso Robles, California. Last weekend I went along camera in hand and asked if I could take photos of Katie while she was driving. Tom was agreeable. He selected the Amish buggy for the day’s lesson saying it was the safest of the horse drawn vehicles at his disposal and asked if I’d like to ride along during the lesson! So here’s the view from the back seat of an Amish buggy.

I also got to see the carriage and coach collection. Tom trains the horse teams to pull the various vehicles and operates the ranch which also hosts parties and events. He partners with Stephen Robertson Yergers who actually has the carriage collection. The collection includes a 1906 hearse, chuck wagon, stage coach, Ben Hur chariot and several others used for events on the ranch, parades, movies, etc. You can view the collection and even ride in one of the coaches by appointment.

My great horned owl image taken at Click! The California Photo Festival made it into the top 50 images taken at the event. You can see all of the images submitted  by the photographers here.

I use A (aperture priority) mode when I want to control what’s in focus from front to back (depth of field).  In the photo above you can see that the first cookie is out of focus, the middle 6 cookies are in focus, and the back 5 cookies are out of focus again. My choice of aperture setting could make the photo have from 1 to all of the cookies in focus.

I mostly use A mode for subjects that are stationary and the closer I am to the subject the more likely I am to use A mode instead of P mode. It is my go to mode for close up food photography. The subject is stationary so I have plenty of time to fiddle with the settings on my camera.

Depth of focus can be used as a compositional tool. When you first looked at this photo did you notice that your eye is drawn to the part of the photo that is in focus? The depth of focus can be used to minimize busy background also.

I spent Friday and Saturday mornings in the vineyards and at the wineries near Paso Robles. Juan A. Pons Friday class Working Winery was for video and David Wells Saturday class Winery Photo Essay was for photos. The grape harvest was late this year so there wasn’t much activity around the wineries but we got in on the first day of picking in the Red Soles vineyard. I shot this photo of the barrel aging room in my video workshop on Friday when it really went with the photo workshop on Saturday!

Friday afternoon I went to the Birds in Flight workshop with Hal Schmitt at Zoo To You in Paso Robles, California to photography birds including raptors in flight. Here are a few of my favorite images – top to bottom two photos of a ferruginous hawk, great horned owl, and ostrich.