November 9th, 2009

First up is the 7th Anniversary video of my Photo-a-Day challenge . . .

Went to a very charming birthday part for my daughter's friend over the weekend. It was at a Build-a-Bear Workshop and they did a neat little thing with these little hearts that go inside each bear. They tossed a few handfuls onto the floor. The kids were asked to pick up two hearts. The first heart, they were asked to make a wish on for the birthday boy . . . all of those went into David's bear . . . the second one was for a wish for themselves. I thought it was a wonderful way to teach the kids compassion for others . . .

Captured with the Nikon p6000 set on Aperture Priority mode and lit with the built in flash.

November 8th, 2009

Sometimes, shooting something ordinary, but from a different perspective will give you an extraordinary shot. This Ivy covered wall made a great subject, but I wanted to shoot it differently . . . it's my ambition to put my camera where other's wouldn't consider, so I scaled the 12 foot wall and shot down from above, giving me a great depth of field and a clearer subject.

Captured with the 50mm prime at f/1.8 with a shutter speed of 250th of a second. ISO is down to 100.

November 7th, 2009

Got a quick one for you today . . . a tribute to my wonderful hobby. I collect old cameras to remind myself how far the hobby has come. The most leaps in technology have only happened in the past decade. It's such an exciting time to be a photographer in terms of what tools are available to us . . . makes me wonder what Ansel Adams might have done with a Nikon D3x . . .

This was captured with my Nikon p6000 in macro mode and natural lighting. Converted to Black and white with Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta.

November 6th, 2009

So while I was in the cemetery, I passed by a grave marker that had, engraved in the very bottom of the stone, the Free Mason symbol. As I had just finished reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, I couldn't resist snapping a shot of this engraving. It was about the size of a half dollar and nearly hidden by some greenery . . .

Captured with the Nikon p6000 set to shoot in Macro mode. ISO was down to 64.

November 5th, 2009

I love shooting in cemeteries . . . does that sound morbid? I think not. They are full of history and unknown stories. I saw this stone with the surrounding plants and just knew I had a wonderfully mysterious shot.

Captured with my p6000 set to shoot Aperture Priority mode . . . some times the best camera made is the one you have with you! I always carry a point and shoot everywhere I go!

November 4th, 2009

The more I play with the camera, the more I learn . . . I shot this last night as the moon rose. It's a stunning site - so large in the sky, but here's the trick. To perfectly expose for the moon in the nighttime sky, you really knock everything else back into shadows. Because the moon is so bright, I am shooting at 400th of a second - pretty fast for dark conditions. Next time, I want to try painting some light in while I make the exposure - you know, get some tree branches in there somehow . . . this is easily achieved in Photoshop, of course, but I want to do this in-camera!

Captured with the Nikon 70-200mm VR - I was even shooting handheld! I switched to full manual mode so I could dial in the right amount of shutter speed and exposure. I shot at 1/400th of a second with an f-stop of f/11 to make sure everything was nice and crisp. ISO is down to 100.

November 3rd, 2009

So as I lay in bed this morning, thinking about how much work goes into 'getting the shot,' I found myself determined to try and just walk about this morning, one lens and not spend so much time thinking about exposure, depth of field, composition and all those things that go into making a marketable image. It's a wonderful exercise and totally reinvigorates passion for image making . . .

This was captured with the Nikon 50mm prime set on Aperture Priority mode at f1.8. The camera provided a shutter speed of 1/8000th of a second and the sun did all the rest. Finalized the image with Lightroom 3 Beta - which if you haven't downloaded the free beta yet, you're missing out - heck of a program!

November 2nd, 2009

So I am reading Chris Orwig's Visual Poetry (www.visual-poet.com) and it's got me thinking about my images and the stories I am trying to convey in them. What does this image tell you . . . how do you feel when you view this image. I know what I had in mind when I shot this - it's a personal story that can be interpreted in many ways . . . so let's hear what story this says to you!

Captured with the Nikon d100 that has been converted to shoot in the IR spectrum. I bumped up the ISO on the camera to 800 to give it a very grainy feel. Shot at a 50th of a second at f/2.8 with the Nikon 70-200mm VR lens. Processed in Lightroom 3 Beta.

November 1st, 2009

It's that time of year again where we turn our clocks back and we photographers loose our evening light that much earlier - the upside is, I can snag my sunset shots a tad earlier and not miss our evening family meals as much! This also signals winter's approach - and while I am not a huge fan of the burdens that come with snowfall, I do love to photograph the delightful white stuff! I thought this shot - taken on my back deck, captures that passage of seasons perfectly.

Taken with the Nikon 70-200mm VR at f/2.8 with a shutter speed of a 60th of a second. ISO is set to 200. This was also taken with my Nikon d100 that has been converted to shoot in the infrared spectrum, which always seems to create a pleasing shot!

October 31st, 2009

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween this year . . . to wrap up my creepy image of the day, I've employed a little prop I had left over from my Konxari (www.konxari.com) shoot from last year.

Captured with the Nikon 50mm prime and the use of to Nikon Flashes. I mounted the SB 900 on top of the camera, but had it firing only a signal to the handheld SB800. I shot a few images, moving the flash around until I got the dramatic lighting I wanted. Show at a 60th of a second at f/1.8 with an ISO of 100.

October 30th, 2009

Halloween kinda snuck up on me this year . . . so I thought I'd do some themed images for the next couple of days. This was a fun one and an impromptu shot as Peyton, my little 5-year old had gotten a toy flashlight in one of her goody bags. It came with several caps that you put over the light to make scary shadows - she loves it and I though what a good way to shoot something fun.

Captured with the Nikon 50mm prime at f/1.8 with the shutter speed set to a third of a second. ISO is down at 100. I set the camera on a tripod and simply shown the flashlight on the pumpkin. It's that simple. The ghost looks as though it's been sun bleached onto the pumpkin!

October 29th, 2009

So it's almost Halloween and I am realizing I haven't put up any creepy images of the day! So in honor of all things scary and creepy, here's what I fear the most - yep. In my house, I'll take care of any critter and creepy crawly, with the exception of spiders. In my house, my wife is the designated Spider Hunter. I am not in any way ashamed of this . . . there's nothing natural about them - 8 legs, the way they move . . . how they can surprise you. Ugh . . . enough . . . moving on to the technical details . . .

Shot with the Sigma 70-300mm macro on a tripod - I was a good 5 feet away! Shutter speed is at 125th of a second with an f-stop of f/5.6. ISO is down to 100.