I went on a camping trip this past weekend, maybe it's because I'm tired but it doesn't seem like I managed to get very many good shots. I don't know I'll look at them again tommorrow. Besides the season finale of 24 is on tonight so I have more important things to do!
My son experimenting with his scooter.
I've gone camping this weekend so the photoblog is running on automatic mode for a couple of days. See ya when I get back and hopefully I'll get a bunch of good shots!
I've gone camping this weekend so the photoblog is running on automatic mode for a couple of days. See ya when I get back and hopefully I'll get a bunch of good shots!
I've gone camping this weekend so the photoblog is running on automatic mode for a couple of days. See ya when I get back and hopefully I'll get a bunch of good shots!
Nothing spectacular, but I like it for some reason.
I was about to delete this because it isn't in focus. But then I thought I'd just play around a bit and for some strange, maybe demented, reason I like it.
Went to the Zoo last week. For some reason I had left the camera on 400 ISO.
This didn't turn out quite as sharp as I had hoped for, but the sun was going down and the mosquitos were tearing me up!
Take a step back from your monitor and tilt your head to the right a bit.
Trying to get out of a photography funk. So I thought I'd post something that I normally probably wouldn't. This was actually an accident. I turned and saw this guy working so I thought I'd shoot him. Of course I had the autofocus on which zeroed in on the fence. I fumbled for the manual focus switch and the guy was gone. So I got irritated and kept moving, mumbling "dumb autofocus.." Then I opened my shots later in Adobe Bridge and saw this shot and thought "dumb autofocus..." I went to open the shot next to it in Photoshop and accidently opened this one instead. "Dumb Photoshop" I thought. "I guess since I've got it open I can play with it a bit." As I played, something clicked, I sat back and thought "Dumb Jason." While my shooting yesterday didn't turn up anything spectacular I think it made me think about trying to do more of this type of abstract shot. I guess it opened up a new direction to experiment with, if that makes sense.
From earlier last month wandering around a railroad yard. Such a lonely feeling place, yet really interesting to me.
More from the archives...
An old shot. Thanks for the words of encouragement, I said yesterday that I am entirely un-inspired and it still holds true. I've been working some of my archived stuff. Hopefully I've got enough to last until I can feel it again. Have you guys been to this point? It seems everything I shoot is blah and un-impressive. I went out Sunday and ended up deleting everything I did.
I'm feeling pretty well un-inspired, everything I shoot is stinky.
I think this shot would help La-zBoy sell more couches don't you think?
What happens when you sit in a car for 20 minutes with your camera waiting for you child to get out of school? Well, you pull out the extension tubes and start playing of course.
Nothing new (nothing postable that is) so I'm digging through the archives. Dying to get out and shoot, but family sicknesses, job, Church, Holidays and other stuff not exactly letting me lately.
This finishes out Flower Week. Happy Easter!
I wish I had framed it a bit differently, but I like how it came out other than that.
Road rage and a silly back seat driver. A different side to my normally mild mannered children.
I think that nature photography is what grabs me most. Getting up close to a tiny, tiny wild flower like this is just fun. For this shot I used a reverse ring adapter with my Nikon 1.8 50mm. I need to get my extension tubes back from someone and venture out again focusing on macro shots in nature. I took the kids to this nature center and thought, we've been here 50 other times, I probably won't find anything new...wrong. The outdoors are an everchanging canvas waiting to be painted and re-painted.
As I drove home from a business trip fog set in and made the countryside pretty interesting. I wanted to take more shots, but I was tired and wanted to get home, plus it was cold, so I snapped a few and kept going.
My brother in law complained that there are no pictures of him on my photoblog...so, here are his 15 minutes of glory.
A heart shaped cookie cutter up close sitting on red construction paper with strange reflections off the flash and lights.
This is a pretty neat foot bridge that spans the railroad tracks from last weeks shots. Too bad that both sides of the bridge are nappy run down neighborhoods. I really don't understand how people can be so neglectful of their homes.
Pretty original title huh? I just couldn't come up with any more clever than "Lime"
Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Another from my shooting around a railroad depot. I actually got more that I liked than I thought I was going to as I was shooting.
More railroad shots.
Every now and then you get an image that you just look at it and you think, "I like that." This is one of them for me. Even if no one else in the world likes it, I do. :) Something in it speaks to me, I'm not sure why. I think partially it's because I'm drawn to the railroad. I'm fascinated by it. It's wierd to me how you can look in both directions and know that it just goes for miles and miles somewhere. Sometimes I think how cool it would be to jump on one and just see where it takes me. But then where would I plug in my laptop and recharge my batteries? So I don't and I go on about my business.
It wasn't actually intentional, but today's post is kinda amusing considering we had major storms come through this area and our internet and phones were down. I heard that several homes where destroyed in a couple of the surrounding towns in our area. We had major winds around my house and I found some golf ball sized hail scattered around my yard. I managed to pull my car and truck into the garage so they were spared the pounding.
I didn't actually see them until I zoomed in to do some cleaning.
This isn't exactly what I was going for, but out of the hundred or more shots I took while playing with Sprite and a lime this is the only one that looks half way decent.
Macro photography really does change how you look at the world. Normally when you walk around and look for interesting shots you look in terms of what makes an interesting shot within an area that might be several feet or maybe several thousand feet for a landscape type scene. What can I shoot that will say something? Maybe it's some scene with people doing something or looking interesting. Maybe it's just something that catches your eye as you are sitting at a stop light, like yesturday's post with the lost dogs sign. With macro shots like this one it's harder sometimes to find until you just take the camera and point the lens at something. When I put the extension tubes on, pointed at this carnation, looked through the viewfinder I immediately said whoa. The carnation at a normal distance is an interesting flower, but at this distance it becomes something entirely differnet. This interesting scene was only about 1/2 an inch in size. How many of these 1/2 inch size scenes are all around us everyday, waiting for us to see them and say...Whoa...
I don't like this one as much as yesturday's. There's something wierd about the area by the head light. But I do like the lines around the hood and the reflections.
Check out yesturday's post to see what they are entranced by.
My kids love donuts...ok, I like them too. So, we went to Krispy Kreme and watched the donuts being made and ate a couple as well. Lots of fun.
What am I?
Update: Check out my blog post on macro photography for more info on how I shot this and the recent macro shots.
I thought this camera looked cool, I found it in a flea market. Film is not my thing, I have a 35mm Pentax point and shoot that my parents gave me several years ago, so apart from that I'd be lost on anything but digital. This Brownie Twin 20 has two view finders, neither of which are though the lens. I'm not sure if it works or not either. Of course I'm not sure where I'd get the film for it or what type of film it takes for that matter. Do you see me in the shot?
It's too cold outside, so I've been playing around inside with macro stuff and such. I've seen others do these types of shots with light bulbs so I thought I'd give it a try. It's trickier than it might seem to be. Getting the glass off the bulb took some work to do it without breaking the filament inside. Then when you get one setup you only have a couple of seconds, or less on some bulbs, to get the shot before they burn out. So, 6 light bulbs later I got this and a couple of other shots that I liked. A bit of cold winter inside sort of fun.
Check out my blog post on macro photography for more info on how I shot this and the recent macro shots.
Check out my blog post on macro photography for more info on how I shot this and the recent macro shots.
This one turned out interesting because I didn't really do much at all to it in photoshop. It had one duplicate layer set to overlay and one gradient map layer set to 40% opacity. The softness and the dark background were as it was shot and as I had pictured it in my head when I shot it, which is rare. Usually I have to work at it a bit to get the shot were it actually is in my head as I see it.
Never really thought leaves had hair, but this one does! It doesn't look like it but this leaf is really small, not quite 1/2 an inch (1.2cm) It almost looks like some sort of cactus at this scale.
I was amazed at the information that came from my fortune cookie!
I'm just amazed that something so simple can produce light and alot of it.
Shot taken with all three Kenko extensions stacked and 50mm Nikon f/1.8.
I played with the Kenko Extension tube that I got this week. It takes some playing with to get used to these, but you can get in close! The tube consists of three seperate pieces that are placed on the camera and then the lens is attached. They basically just move your lens out further from the camera allowing for focusing up closer and getting in tighter. You can stack the three rings in whatever combination you want. The smallest one is 12mm, the second is 20mm and the third is 36mm. I'm pretty sure that on this shot I had all three together with my 50mm 1.8 Nikon lens. I shot for hours playing and trying to get a feel for them. I'm anxious to get them out in the spring and try to get some bugs with them.
Update: Check out my blog post on macro photography.
I'm not sure why this shot keeps sticking out to me. Technically it's not too great, there's not much if anything in focus. I wish I had framed it a bit to the left, but I was just firing away. Yet I keep looking at it. Maybe because the girl is static among the other people moving around her along with her posture and the expression on her face. I guess you decide.
Another shot of this lime factory. I thought of doing it black and white, but I did the other shot black and white and alot of my recent posts are either black and white or sepia toned. So, I figured it was time for some color.
I have some new shots, but I haven't even pulled them from the camera yet. So, with little time tonight to work on anything I pulled this one from the archives. Taken in Chicago last September. The subway is an interesting place. I'm glad I don't have to do this every morning and evening, like some of you might have to. I am quite lucky. I live about 3 or 4 blocks from my work. So I hop in the truck and pull up to work a minute or two later.
Update: I just realized after some of your comments that this was not on a subway, but a bus. Silly me.
I'm disappointed with this shot. I had it pictured in my mind pretty much as it is, but the grain is to high and it's just not totally what I wanted. It was pretty dark, early and cold. That's pretty much how shooting this whole day went. I had the whole day off and hoped to get alot of good shots. I got home frustrated and disappointed. I guess that's how it goes.