Lunch is Optional

More Goodbyes

2012-01-26T08:29:00.000-08:00

Today we start the process of saying goodbye to Carly's Dad. He was a good guy, and was taken way too soon. The older I get the larger my "peer" group becomes. Marketers may keep me in my own bin, but I consider my peer group to extend from about 20 to about 70 at this point. I feel like I've lost a peer. My wife has lost a father, and my kids have a lost a grandfather. I lost a grandfather when I was roughly Kathryn's age also. I remember what that felt like. I also remember what it felt like when I was 17 waiting to go on the graduation stage, and again at 21 waiting to go stand in front of a few hundred people and watch Carly's Dad walk her down the aisle. My thoughts have been with Kathryn, and like me, she isn't really going to tell us exactly what she is thinking. I'm not sure it will affect Tobias in the same way, he is a bit younger, but I think he will have his moments too-- I just don't know what they will be.

There are a lot of things to tell. But most stem from his sense of humor. As an example when Carly showed him our engagement ring he said "You realize you can't give her back?". I did. I do. I will keep her safe, and Scooter, and Toby.

And finally, I suppose I should explain the picture. I'm not exactly sure how or when I decided to this. It was probably a combination of putting off a haircut (not uncommon for me), and receiving word that Carly's Dad was diagnosed with a lung cancer. I decided I would let it grow out completely to donate it Locks of Love, or similar organization. I learned a lot though the experience, people treat a long haired guy a lot differently than they treat a a clean cut guy. I can't say its all bad either, just different. My favorite experience was the well meaning church lady giving me the evil eye. The reason it is my favorite is because it contrasted SO much from how others looked at me there. It reminded me that while there are always supportive people, there will always negative ones*. I can choose which ones I will listen too. I can also choose which one I will be.

I suppose that among the last lessons Carly's Dad taught me. He taught others by example, like keep fighting, don't complain, and do what you can for others-- even if it isn't as much as you once could.

* And it always seems the negativity comes from those that don't know the story, which makes it an easy to forgive "crime". And another reminder for me to not be so judgmental in similar circumstances.

A couple of old pictures

2012-01-22T20:42:00.000-08:00

This was an experiment stacking a 2x teleconverter on my 80-200 lens with a dual element close focusing lens attached to the front.

I spent an hour or so today trawling through a bunch of old pictures looking for some specific ones. At the end I realized I had been diligent about tagging my images and could have found them in 3, maybe 4, seconds instead. However, it wasn't a complete waste, I found a few interesting things. Here are a couple I never shared before.

This just caught my eye. Its not that special I guess.

Tobias as Mario

2012-01-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

We are doing a lot of these lately. This one was by Tobias' request. My brain hasn't felt very creative the last week or so, but that is okay. It hasn't stopped Tobias. I decided to try something slightly different and present Mario as a diptych.

Favorites of the Year: 2011 Edition

2011-12-31T08:26:00.000-08:00

For the past handful of years Jim M. Goldstein has posted an absolutely huge list of "best of the year" blog posts from people around the world. This will be my third year submitting a post for the list [ If you missed the past ones, check out year one and year two. ]. I look forward to participating in this, and going through the list when he posts it. ( The 2011 list is posted. )

And now to the pictures. If you'd prefer to just look at them as a set and not read my ramblings hit up the flickr set.

I consider this picture one of my best in the last few years. There are a number of reasons why. I like the composition, the green and orange, the drizzle dancing off the pavement, the people, and that I got completely soaked making it. As I brought this through post-production I sat and stared at it like in an idiot. Its rare I do that. I also made a large print of it, which is also quite rare. I like this one so much I encourage you to see it a bit bigger on the flickr lightbox.

This one makes the list because I hope it makes people think and it scared me to place it in public. Truthfully, it makes me nervous to re-highlight now. If you see this and are a little peeved with me, maybe my explanation makes it better. If not, I'm sorry, don't hold it against me too much because it isn't meant to offend ( If I truly wanted to, I'm sure I could think of easier ways to offend people ).

This is one of my attempts at landscapes this year. I don't feel I'm too good at them. I like the more compressed approach to landscapes that some people take, so I attempted to emulate it. I am placing it third in this list because it has the same orangey feel of the first two. I had a couple of others that almost made the cut, but this one outdoes them.

These three represent a little project I have rolling with Tobias. He likes to dress up in costumes. I try to make some pictures that might capture the way he sees himself in them, instead of like the toys that they are. My favorite of the three is the Knight, it is the catalyst of the idea. The Clone Trooper is a very, very close second. There are others in this flickr set . We will continue adding to it over time.

Kathryn has gotten too "cool" for pictures. So, it is nice when I am able to get a decent one of her. Hopefully next year I will get the chance to make a few more. They grow up fast.

Carly isn't much of a fan of this picture. I, however, do like it. Granted, its harder to get Carly to sit for a picture than it is to get Kathryn to sit for a picture, so I'm pretty happy with anything I can get at this point.

This is my favorite puppy picture for the year. The snow she is running about in was the first hour or so worth from a of a pretty nasty snowstorm. It started slightly before rush evening hour. I opted to stay home that day because of the weather report. People that went in spent hours upon hours upon hours on the highway on the way home. Some had to abandon their cars and get them later. I got to take pictures of my dog.

Here is the final picture on my favorites list. It was an "out-take" from a some dancer pictures I was making. Why is it an out-take? Its not, really, I guess. But I opted to use a light setup for this different than the safer "one size fits all" approach that I used for everything else. It looks different. I put it last on this list because it seems like she is holding all the other pictures up.

If you have made it this far, thank you for looking and reading. If you stopped somewhere at the top, thank you too-- although you will not see this.

Have a good 2012.

Tobias as Spiderman

2011-12-29T19:27:00.000-08:00

Spiderman is probably my favorite superhero characters. In a way that is unexpected because, for the most part, I preferred DC comics to Marvel ones. [Editor Note: For those who didn't read comics Spiderman is a Marvel character].

Tobias likes Spiderman too. He has had this suit for quite a while. Its getting pretty beat up, and he will probably outgrow it soon. It was time for a picture.

Again, like before this uses fairly straightforward lighting, and I pushed the processing a little to the side of overdone.

The one at the top is his favorite. Mommy picked the second one.

My Clone

2011-12-25T18:48:00.000-08:00

Tobias got a a new suit for Christmas. Of course, this pretty much meant we had to make another picture for the character project. I kept the same basic idea I started with the knight picture. Processing is just a tad to the side of overdone, and the lighting is pretty straight forward.

I'm not sure if he is really my clone. He looks a good deal like me. But I'm pretty sure he is smarter, and he is going to be a lot bigger and stronger than I ever was.

The suit is a tad too big, above is the pullback shot. That one isn't hyper-processed.

Pictures of the "kids"

2011-12-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

This is a quick update. I was going to put 3 pictures up, but I had to leave one out. I couldn't isolate Tobias enough on stage during his Christmas production avoid kids that I don't have permission to post.

The first one is Jazzy doing her best Scrooge impersonation.

And this is Kathryn in one of her Christmas dances.

Dogs!!

2011-12-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

I have a theory, that I've mentioned before, that the only reason people have higher end photo gear is to take pictures of their pets. It makes sense. Inexpensive point and shoots don't focus, or release the shutter fast enough to make a picture of most of our animals.

Today I spent some time making pictures of a few Dalmatians. When I got home I thought it might be fun to do something useful with Jazzy's "Sit! Stay!" trick. This is also very slightly before she should clipped, and she looks funny clipped, but pretty cute like this.

A Christmas Tree (even though I don't like 'em)

2011-12-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

I don't really like Christmas trees. I just don't, can't help it. I wrote a little bit why last year.

However I still make a couple pictures of the ones I find, and sometimes post it. Last year's post about Christmas Trees helped me discover a little bit about the hated Christmas Tree story I was forced to read in first grade. That story was more than likely based on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen's story also ended badly for the tree, but you don't really feel sorry it.

Like most years I wanted to make an HDR picture of our tree. I tried to place my camera where I haven't tried previously, above the tree. I also used Photoshop CS5's merge to HDR pro feature instead of pushing the pixels around with open source software. I also tried a picture using a flash. Both make reasonable record shots of this year's tree. Maybe if I think about it a bit more, I can make an interesting picture.

A present

2011-11-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

Its not often we manage to get a picture of Kathryn. This weekend was different, we have a picture. Of course, she has a box on her head, but so be it.

She is growing up. It wasn't that long ago I could have fit her in a Christmas stocking. Now there is very little chance of that being successful.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow marks the Thanksgiving holiday for 2011. As every year, I am thankful for a number for a number of things. To be quite honest though it has been difficult to keep those things at the forefront of my thoughts. This has been a rough year. It has brought loss, frustration, more loss, more frustration, and a bit of extra frustration for good measure. Its not just me either, I have watched the same types of things happen to people I know near and far.

However. When I really think about it I have a great life and this year hasn't really changed that. I have everything I ever wanted. This is partly because I don't tend to want that much, and mostly because blessings beyond my control have been granted to me.

I can look back on this year and see enjoyable bits too.

Those are what I will choose to hold onto, and what I will actually detail.

I have watched my kids learn how to do a lot of things. Kat is trying new dance styles, and learning to read music and play an instrument. Tobias is going through the process of learning letters, and preparing to read. He wants to read so badly he can taste it. Watching them build their wings one day at a time is both gratifying and terrifying.

Carly? I can't think of words that don't sound lame. She is at the top of my thankful for list-- and anything I've typed to explain why sounds hollow compared to what I want it to sound like. Maybe one day I will get hit upside the head with the gift of poetry long enough to be able to write it properly.

Me?

I think I have gotten better at photographing (you may disagree! :^) ). Even if I am not better, I am more confident and quite a bit faster.

I have started to really learn how to play guitar. Its a fun diversion, and I play some things well enough they are at least recognizable. It also provides a way to clear out my mind. Photography doesn't do that, it never has-- probably never will. But I can play and be aware of nothing but the sounds.

I guess I should also explain the image at the top. I watched Tobias making the classic hand turkeys today. So, I decided I wanted to make a turkey too. That is my result. I wanted to try to use only fall-like colors, make the turkey reminiscent of the hand-turkeys, make it look child-like, and use acrylic paint. Despite not really being a painter, and despite making my turkey look a bit penguinish, and despite the green going on a bit heavier than I wanted.... I think I succeeded.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Veterans Day

2011-11-11T16:31:00.000-08:00

I seem to want to photograph toy soldiers to mark these days of remembrance. I don't know why.

Grabshot landscapes

2011-11-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

We were at a corn-maze farm in Aspers on Sunday. Because of the time change we were there at sundown, and that gave me the chance to make a couple of pictures. I tend to like telephoto'd "compressed" landscapes when I see them. I think it is the layering that pulls me in. They need to be done in the right light too, otherwise they feel very boring to me. These are close to the ones I really like, but I think they would be better if I had been able to use a longer lens [ these were shot around 200mm and cropped a little bit ].

Hello, hello...

2011-11-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

...baby you called? I can't hear a thing.

Okay, I know not the the best song in the world, except Igor's version is pretty cool. But I kept thinking of it when I saw this phone in the lobby of a hotel I stayed in recently. I figured that was a good enough reason to make a picture.

Pictures like this are what make up this post. Items I found and that for one reason or another I decided a picture should be made. Most of the time it was something about the light.

I have taken some pictures of people over the last few months, but I didn't ask permission to post. I know at least one individual would have a panic meltdown if I posted her picture...

I haven't been posting a lot lately, but it isn't for lack of pictures. I've been spending time reading, trying to play a guitar, and occasionally drawing. It hasn't left much time for posting. But, I'll get back in the habit.

This is a picture of the building going up next door to my current office building. In the early evening the sun hits those ugly walls and make them simply glow. It alters them from ugly to amazing. The glass also tends to pick up the blue sky making a nice color contrast.

I think its cool when leaves go transparent because of back lighting.

There isn't too much to say about these two, except its fall, and I must at least attempt to get some fall colors. Usually I fail. I think these would be better with people in them.

And finally, this is from the first fall grilling. Its fun to grill in the fall because it is usually somewhat dark before you start. These flames are present in the summer too, you just can't see them.

Tobias as a Jedi Knight

2011-10-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of the project I decided to pursue. This is Tobias as a Jedi Knight. I need to learn how to do up a lightsaber blade a bit better, but overall I think it looks decent. It fits in well with the other two pictures in the project.

Tobias as an Explorer like Indiana Jones

2011-10-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

A while ago, I made a picture of Tobias as a knight. That picture has become one of my favorite pictures of 2011 ( the other one lives at the top of this post ). Since it is one of my favorite pictures, my mind will wander over to it sometimes. During one of the wanderings I decided to try to make a few pictures of Tobias as various "characters". I decided to tie the series together with similar hyper-real processing, and simple backgrounds. We have a couple other characters in mind, and I hope to get to a number of them this year.

We decided to start with Indiana Jones. He loves the Lego Indiana Jones Wii game.

I think he did a good job here, and gave us a bit of a sardonic grin.

Corn

2011-09-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

It has been a little while since I put something up here. I decided to stick with the same theme I followed with the last post.

This picture came about a little differently though. This corn was trying to go bad, so I needed to do something useful with it. So, I opted to make some pictures. I had a number of things influencing the pictures. It reminded me of pictures I have seen from successful duck hunts. It reminded me of creepy songs and scarecrows. It made me think of Ed Weston making pictures of his peppers.

I was also not feeling the greatest, so I was pushing my way through a pretty horrific headache. I don't know if that influenced anything or not.

And I will end with another picture from the setup. This one feels like the "duck bundle" I was thinking about.

I processed these with some high pass filtering methods. I wanted to push the contrast beyond reason. I pushed until the "halos" showed up, and backed it up very slightly, the halos are still around. It seemed to fit my inspirations.

Just Peachy

2011-08-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who always answers the question "How's it going?" with "Just peachy!". Sometimes it is truthful, and sometimes to you know she is lying through her smile. In any event, it has made asking the question a bit of a tradition.

I tried a few compositions before getting hungry. I don't like the following one as well, but you can see a bit more of the peach.

So, are things? I would have to say, just peachy.

Thurmont Carnival

2011-08-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

The Thurmont carnival happened in the middle of last month. I decided to try and pay a little more attention, photographically, to the workers. The first picture I like because of its coloring and overall feel. The one below I can't really comment on too much, but I found it surprising enough I HAD to shoot it.

Family?

2011-08-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

This is probably the most ridiculous thing I've made lately. But, as I mentioned in the last post I'm messing around with learning new software, or learning more about "old" software.

This came about because Carly and I were looking through the Awkward Family Photos website. We were chatting about how we don't have a family photo. We then came across one of those creepy double exposures where a parent's profile is large and floating above a 3/4th length portrait of a kid. I said "aha!" and she said "oh, no" -- and so I got to work.

If I had shot these pictures with the intention of making this silly composite I would have lit them a little bit differently. I would have used a stronger rimlight so I wouldn't need to create the "halos" around the kids to have them standout from the background. But, more than likely, a picture like this will never be my intended target.

Maybe this one needs to be blown up to a 20" x 30" and hung prominently somewhere. ( I kid! This is horrible. But funny. )

Trying to Learn Some Software

2011-08-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

I spent a little time trying to learn to sync up audio and video today using Adobe Premiere Elements. The first order of business was creating the audio and video. Carly was out shopping and Tobias thought the idea of making her a "video card" was fun, then changed his mind once everything was rolling. Its still amusing, so I went with it anyway. I used our P&S camera as the video camera and a little Zoom handheld recorder for sound.

So, what did I learn?

The fish tank is loud.
Adobe Premiere Elements doesn't come stock with a motion jpeg codec. That was annoying, but I converted the video with ffmpeg to get around that for the time being.
Window light works for video too.
The camera doesn't default to HD (d'oh). It is set correctly now.
Its not too terrible hard to sync the audio and video together. First trick needed is to unlink the audio and video on the timeline. After that it is pretty simple really.
It really was worth it to record the sound separately -- The audio off the camera has lots of white noise and seems to really "spike" up in volume when Tobias was talking.

Some day maybe I'll use a camera that can capture decent video. For now, I'm going to use what I have to goof around.

Big Windows

2011-08-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

I like big windows. I like looking out of them, I like seeing them on the sides of buildings, and I like trying to use the light coming in them in an attempt to make pictures. These tend to become black and white images because the inside lighting contributes to the coloring. Its just a simple way to make pictures.

Excuses, excuses

2011-07-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

Its been a little while since the last post. Part of that is because we went on small trip. The other reason for that is things are frustrating at the moment. :) One of the things I discovered is the marketting material for our little P&S doesn't lie. It really is water proof. That being said, I didn't bring it in salt-water, I think that would be a bad idea no matter how well the sealing might work.

That was the primary camera on the trip, mostly because it fit in my pocket.

The kids were there too.

I've still been making a number of photos, I just haven't been writing entries to post them under. That should change in the near future.

I haven't been writing much because I've busied myself drawing, painting miniatures, reading, and trying to figure a few a things out. If you've ever heard the Tears for Fears song Everybody Wants to Rule the World you are familiar with the line "I can't stand this indecision married with a lack of vision." That is pretty much where I'm at. I can figure out what do at a tactical level, because I have no strategic plan.

Just captions

2011-07-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

So far, this has been one of those years.

And it has been one of those days.

Shiny new guitar

2011-07-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

A while ago I bought my wife an electric guitar. One of the side effects that had was I started to learn to play. We had two guitars in the house and I thought it was rather silly to own something I couldn't do anything with. I found myself spending more time with the old, pretty battered, acoustic guitar and not the shiny electric guitar.

Shortly after I realized I liked the acoustic better I tried some "better" acoustics than what we owned. They sounded different, but more importantly (to me) they were easier to play. I decided that "one day" I would get a better instrument, and didn't really think about anymore (pretty unusual for me, maybe I've finally grown up?). Then a couple of similar events made me realize that life is pretty short, so why not just get the instrument now?    Guitars, if chosen properly, don't become worthless doorstops like digital cameras over time. It's not like I'm wasting a good instrument on a beginner. I'm simply borrowing it from a better player, my future self.

I realize that just like owning a "great" camera doesn't make you a photographer, owning a "great" instrument doesn't make you a musician. In fact I have no delusions at all about my lack of musical ability--   I realize any musical path I take is probably a little bit of side-street. But, its a good one for me to take. I believe we give up creating in our lives to consume what is on TV, on the radio, in books, in movies, or on the interwebs instead of making our own stuff. I don't think there is anything wrong with enjoying the work of others, but if it prevents us from creating anything on our own I think we have a HUGE problem. We all are creatives at our core, but unfortunately we have lost touch with that. Playing the guitar is my way to (attempt to?) create musically instead of merely listening-- it gives me a chance to reclaim that piece in my life. It doesn't matter if it is terrible or not. The point is I am doing it. I had given it up, and simply became a consumer of others' work.

I'm visual by nature so a lot of the choice behind this guitar is because I like the way it looks. I find cut-a-ways fun to look at and I really like the unadorned simplistic, maybe even rustic, approach Martin took with this model.   I also like the way it smells. Yeah, I know, that seems ridiculous. But I wasn't prepared for that aspect of an instrument made with real woods. Of course it sounds good... when someone else plays it.

Anyway, if anyone cares it is a Martin DC-GTE, and did I mention is smells pretty incredible?

Emmitsburg Fireworks

2011-06-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

The metropolis of Emmitsburg, population 2400.

That small number doesn't prevent us from having the best firehouse in the county. It also doesn't prevent us from putting on a pretty good fireworks display. The two maybe related, or not.

These top two pictures are linked to flickr, I suggest clicking through to see them on black. They look so much better that way. Especially the second one.

We watched from the top of an old, abandoned for now, housing construction dirt mound. It gives a great vantage point into the town.

I haven't made pictures of fireworks since the days of film. Its not too much different on digital. The nice thing is you can push and pull detail around from the lights and darks easier. It looks a lot nicer, and makes it easier to share a sense of place. I did hit the limits of a two of the files and managed to reveal that my camera when used (abused?) incorrectly can produce hideous banding. No, I'm not sharing those files.

Emmitsburg Carnival

2011-06-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the pictures I made at the Emmitsburg Carnival at the end of May. As an aside, I updated my painfully outdated portfolio tonight. I added a handful, I dropped a few. Its a good enough excuse as any to check it out.

The fun house was painted in a ridiculous manner, as fun houses are. The dog is my favorite. The ladies seemed a little out of place at the carnival. I'm neutral on the sign hanger.

Of course, there were rides. The kids had fun I think.

All the Grandchildren

2011-06-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

I had a chance to photograph all my cousins. This represents all the grandchildren on my Dad's side of the family. I'm there, just hiding behind the camera [they say the camera points both ways right?]. This is one you probably have to click on to really look at. It looks a bit wonky so small.

The ages here range from 35 (me) to about 5. That is a pretty large span of time!

It is a single light, in a barn. Seeing this all together, I should consider pulling up the midtones in a few of these.

Engaged: Ben and Klare

2011-06-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

Ben and Klare gave me the chance to do an engagement session for them. I'm happy they did. Since the moment we agreed to this I had a picture in mind I wanted to make, however the weather simply didn't allow for it this go around! We found the one above though, which quite frankly, is better than what I wanted to do anyway.

We made some stylized portraits.

We made a perfume/cologne ad. Okay, its not really an ad and that wasn't quite the original intention, but that is what it reminded me of when I finished it. So, for now, I'm going to pretend it was completely on purpose.

We also managed to capture a little bit of the sweetness they have for each other.

We talked a bridge into lighting up for us, in the rain. I forgot to mention they are both smart-cookies, which is why they were under the bridge and I was standing in the rain...

Most importantly we caught a little bit of the fun they brought with them!

The first "photo shoot" I ever did was around 10-11 years ago. It was an engagement session for a couple of close friends. Before this weekend I have done a grand total of zero more. So, to say I don't do this much is an understatement. However, I should probably change that, it is fun, even if the weather doesn't do what I want-- and then taunts me with perfectness the following Monday.

Found pictures

2011-06-09T20:45:00.000-07:00

When I first started making pictures I had this naive idea that photographers simply fell over interesting things and took pictures of them. It took me a while, but I learned that isn't quite the case. Photographers tend make pictures more than find them waiting. But, that doesn't mean there aren't things that are just waiting to be seen! This post contains a handful of the interesting things I came across lately.

Goodbye to a storyteller.

2011-06-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

Just about a week ago I wrote another short goodbye. This morning I received a phone call and was informed that my grandfather had died. I don't have a link to an official writeup, cause it isn't published yet... but the general facts that will be in it will include such things as married to Leona, 6 sons, around 20 grandchildren ( I've counted a few times, named us all, and get 19 18 ~~each time~~, but I don't trust myself and don't feel like doing any fact checking at the moment -- I'm sure you understand ), and 4 great-grandchildren

Just about anywhere I travel within my county I run across someone that a) I'm related to or b) knows me or c) knows people in my family. If one of those 3 things doesn't hold true it is because the person is usually a "newcomer" to the area. Depending on where you live you may think that is completely normal, or you may find it odd and disconcerting. But that is life around here for me, and my grandfather is is one of the driving forces behind it. First he is a member of a largish family, that itself was created out from largish families, and he and my grandmother carried on the tradition by having a largish family themselves. Second, he held big opinions and wasn't afraid to share. In an area with such an efficient gossip network, that has a way of raising your profile.

He told stories, I can't recall all of them, but I was listening. Even if they weren't directed towards me-- or even appropriate for my age ( my parents called me Ears when I was younger, I had a tendency to eavesdrop ). He also had a way with numbers-- particularly money. Most of us estimate, but he could quickly calculate things down to the penny in his head, and wasn't satisfied until he was sure he was correct. I usually dive for paper or a calculator if I really want to be correct with my numbers. He didn't need to.

So, again I find myself writing a goodbye. And again I hope this will not become a habit, its not very much fun.

Kathryn

2011-05-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

It is notoriously difficult to get Kathryn to cooperate for a picture. She let me make two frames. They were separated by about 10 minutes of time, so for all practical purposes I got one frame.

I thought if I could find a place where I didn't have to futz around with anything, no lights, no reflector, nothing but what was already there I'd get a better chance. I'm pretty fast with that stuff, but Kathryn has about zero patience for these things.

So, I found a spot that would work, and managed to get a reasonable expression.

I put her here to take advantage of the approximation of Rembrandt lighting provided by the big open barn door to the left of the frame, the big barn door somewhere over to camera right acting as fill, and the built in background light provided by a window or two in that doorway.

Memorial Day

2011-05-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

For Veteran's Day I tried making pictures of a little green army figure. I wanted to do the same thing for Memorial Day, but put a different twist to it. I ~~stole~~ borrowed a flag from Church this morning and messed around with pictures early this evening. [ I did ask first... ]

Its been a while since I have done anything with silhouettes and this is the picture I had in mind. Memorial day also marks the unofficial start to summer, so I am hoping to make a picture that describes that theme too. However, this one is more important-- so I did first.

I couldn't decide which composition was best so I am including both here.

As an aside, I managed to break a light stand today. *sigh*

Another Short Goodbye

2011-05-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

Hopefully I won't be making a habit of these. But I have another short good-bye. The Frederick News Post has the official writeup. But mine is more interesting.

This time I am saying good-bye to Carly's grandmother. I knew her for about 18 years. She is a great lady.

You know how it is the little things in life you remember? Well, I will always Grandma Piney for the date cookies she gave me almost every Christmas. They are probably the most amazing things ever made. I would eat the majority of them in one sitting-- and I was pretty reluctant to share. Then the next day I would regret eating so many. First, it meant I didn't have that many left-- and second they had a lot fiber.

There are other things I will remember too. The cadence of her voice when agreeing with someone. The conversation we had when my foot was broken about what we both would be doing when we could walk properly again. Both of us chose to ignore the fact that only I was really going to experience walking perfectly again.

She also had a way of saying exactly what she was thinking. I think it is a right we all gain as we age.

She will be missed.

Sad, Sad Flowers

2011-05-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

Almost anyone who has picked up a camera and attempted to use it to make "art" has photographed flowers. I'm no exception. Flowers make some pretty cool subjects for a number of reasons. They are colorful. We automatically associate them with beauty. Friends and family that see a photo of a flower ooh and ahh over them, the only subject that creates more excitement is babies. Okay, maybe kittens and puppies generate some serious oohing and ahhing too.

Because of this it is also hard to make a truly interesting flower picture. It doesn't stop me from trying. I find that the pictures I made of flowers that I like best make them look extremely sad. This one made me think of Aslan from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe after the White Witch killed him.

I usually don't bother to make the "standard" flower picture anymore. Here is example:

Kinda boring right? Well, besides not being that well done. My heart wasn't really in the attempt and it shows.

If I am not making sad flowers I try other ways to make a bit different. This time around I messed around with a bit of motion.

They were fun, but ultimately my sad flower won me over... again.

Center of the Arts Rehearsal 2011

2011-05-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

I had chance to make some pictures of the people that perform with Freedom Valley Center of the Arts this weekend. I do a few of these types of things a year. It is a little different than the photography I do the rest of the time. I needed to find a setup that works with whatever gets placed in the scene, yet one I don't think is too boring. Afterall, I need to look through a few hundred frames on the backend.

I have based my setup on 1 key light, with no fill. I like to create some shadows on the other side of my light. I'll then either light up a white background with two lights. Or, if I am using a grey background I will use one light to provide a spot light on it, and use a second light as a rim for the subject. Both are pretty simple, but seem to work. At least it isn't cross-lit, which is what you see so often quick mass-shoots like this.

With the performers I generally ask them to pick a pose from their routine or training that they like and is easy for them to hold. When I saw this through the viewfinder it looked pretty perfect, it fit in with a theme running through the production, it was simple, the main light was mostly right... The final picture was already in my head, black and white, I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like, but ...

But-- the setup I was using, the white background setup I described above --wouldn't allow me to make it. Fortunately she allowed me to kill the background lights and make another. This is pretty close to what I would have done if I was just making one picture, instead of one of 60 or so more people.

Every time I am seriously photographing something, whether it be completely personal, or a very interactive customized session with a small number of people, or even in the midst of a mass assembly-line style shoot -- I look to to make one image that is for me, something that reminds me why I pick up a camera in the first place. This is the one from this weekend. A few more examples from other "assembly-style" shoots are here, here, , and here.

Couple of Pre-Storm Grabshots

2011-05-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

A small storm brewed up today. I liked the way it looked so I tried a few frames. Again, landscapes and I don't get along well, but we called a bit of a truce this afternoon.

I'm not sure, but I think I like the color treatment better. Its nice we have digital cameras, I had no need to choose what I wanted to make ahead of time.

More Softball

2011-05-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

I found a new place to try and make a picture from today. I've been asked a few times where the fence went. Its pretty easy to make it melt away with a telephoto lens. You need a lens hood, and a large aperture. Put the lens directly against the fence trying to center your lens in an opening. Then use biggest aperture (smallest F-stop number) you have available on your lens. The fence will go out of focus. Next time I'll try from the other side of the plate, you know, so we can see a face (hangs head in shame...)

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T20:17:00.000-07:00

Today is the day we celebrate mothers. Our resident mother had a little trouble getting up today. But look at the affection given anyway.

I messed around with split toning for the first time, so I'm sorry if it is really terrible. I'll continue trying, probably to abandon the notion to pure black and white once I get it figured out. In any event this is a slightly warm grey in the highlights and a slightly cool grey in the shadows.

Hope your Mother's day was good.

[ And yes I realize this is basically a snapshot, its my blog, so .. uh, yeah, snapshots are allowed ]

More Construction

2011-05-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

A while back I took a picture of these cranes with my cell phone. I walked around a bit with a real camera. The next one gives a little better idea of all the activity they have going on.

I've mentioned before I tend to like pictures that are a bit more abstract in nature. So, it may not be much of a surprise that this last picture is my favorite of these three.

Softball!

2011-04-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

Kathryn had a softball game today. It wasn't quite as easy to nab a picture as the T-ball game last night. She got on base a time or two and scored a run. Again, a pretty good box score!

T-ball

2011-04-29T18:28:00.000-07:00

Tobias played a T-ball game today. It is called T-ball, but they get a chance to hit live pitches before placing the ball on the T. The top picture is Tobias following through after a miss. I chose it because it shows off the team's sponsor. I'm a good spokesperson, so if anyone out there wants to sponsor me... wait, I'm kidding! Sorta.

In any event, the Ott House is a little pub/restaurant on the square in town. Even if you don't live around here there is a reasonable chance some of your local firefighters visited there. The National Fire Academy is located in town, and I see hordes of Academy students walking there in the evenings after classes.

[ See how smooth that was? ]

Here is a shot of Tobias getting coached between innings.

He did pretty well tonight. He had fun, hit a couple times without the Tee, made a couple plays in the field, threw a bunch of dirt in his hair, mudded up a pair of pants, and ran all the bases.

That is a pretty good box-score.

I Wish We Celebrated Easter a Little Differently

2011-04-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

Easter.

I believe it should be our most significant holiday, but Christmas seems to get all the attention.

Even if you are not a Christian, or even a religious individual, it is hard to argue that the life and events celebrated at Easter did not have a far reaching effect on history. If you are a Christian, it also represents the fulfillment of God's plan to reconcile his creation back to himself through the ultimate sacrifice. The riff wasn't even God's fault, but God fixed it.

Yet, we celebrate it with chocolate ~~fertility symbols~~ bunnies and eggs.

I heard the Easter message I remember most in the state of Virginia, we were there visiting. I want to say I was 16 or so. The pastor was a huge history buff, and had researched how the Romans treated their prisoners. He was also a good story teller, and created pictures of big burly soldiers with whips and hammers in my head. I now carry an internal narrative of the Easter events that rips me apart any time I think about it.

And then there are the bunnies.

It strikes an odd chord in my thoughts. I am not trying Jesus Juke anyone, or take away the fun that a holiday is suppose to bring. Afterall, Easter is a happy occasion. The good guys won. Dance, laugh, sing, shout!

But bunnies?

I do wish we would celebrate it a bit differently sometimes.

Maybe I'm just bad about holidays, Christmas trees make me scratch my head too.

I admit I was a little nervous to make this picture, and probably more nervous to post it. But, I did, and not lightly either. I almost talked myself out of it.

Maybe it produces the same cognitive dissonance, that little hint of discomfort that I feel whenever I see an Easter basket.

Walk in the Park

2011-04-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes this photography thing is literally a walk in the park. I had no real goal in mind, photographically speaking, so I tried a few pictures of the kids. I also tried an experiment.

The above is about 30 or so pictures merged together. The idea is to simulate a wide angle lens with a ridiculously narrow depth of field. I think this picture fails to show that, especially at web-sizes, but it gives me some ideas to try as I try to learn this technique. Focus is on the bench.

This picture of the kids is the closest I got to a "real" picture.

And this one shows how they prefer to act around a camera.

FCS label image

2011-04-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

I decided to fancy up the label I printed for the FCS banquet shots.

I had to create an image that would reproduce properly from a laser printer. It took me a few test prints to get it where I wanted.

In the end, I think they look pretty cool. Of course the finished label has some lettering on it, is circular, and has a big hole out of the middle. But this should give a feel for it.

Now I need burn and prepare about 30 discs.

Charlie's Teachers : FCS Banquet 2011

2011-04-10T20:38:00.000-07:00

Banquet time. Here is a fun one that a couple of the teachers graciously allowed me to talk them into.

This year I brought some seamless with me. I also decided to light to make real, noticeable shadows -- this makes the picture seem a little more three-dimensional. Most years I placed lights on both sides creating an even, flat, safe, boring light. Despite that one short-coming the setup meant I couldn't possibly screw up, at least not lighting-wise. With less than a minute to say "hi", get people in place, and make a few frames ... limiting the ways I can screw up is pretty important.

This year I was confident I could run a more interesting setup, still keep it ridiculously fast, and not screw up. So I did.

It still isn't the same as spending quite a bit of time with a single person. But, this is still fun, even more so now that I am not slinging boring light about.

Scripting Photoshop

2011-04-06T19:43:00.000-07:00

A long, long while back I talked about scripting the Gimp. At the time I knew Photoshop allowed the recording of Actions. What I didn't know is that the Gimp script I wrote can basically be done in "real time" using Lightroom's Detail panel-- better, and faster, and with visual feedback.

I also I didn't know Photoshop has a full-blown scripting engine in it too. The scripts open into an editor titled ExtendScript Toolkit CS5. The language used is Javascript. For me its a heckuva lot easier to read and code than the Gimp's Scheme. To be fair, I think Gimp can use Javascript too. I just didn't find too many examples of it.

Why am I writing about this? I need to quickly piece together a book, and I ended up coding to make it happen. I had each page of the book loaded as a layer, and I wanted each layer pasted over the background layer and saved to its own file. Photoshop ships with a script called "Export Layers to Files". I was so excited! But, alas, it didn't quite do what I wanted. It would not include the Background layer. I did a small amount of digging and found out how to edit the script to force the Background layer to be present also.

However, this wasn't good enough for me in the long run. I'd like to be able to toggle the ability to save the background layer or revert to the original functionality of script. I spent a few moments tonight to tweak the user interface, and add ability to the script. Here is a screen grab of my tweaked dialogue with my new option selected.

If you want to try this for yourself, below are my tweaks to the code... I included some of the original lines of the file so you can find the place in the script to make the changes. I don't think I can distribute Adobe's code, and I don't have diff installed on this computer, so hopefully this will help :

This is found under the global variable section (note, these are getting split into two lines, they are 1 line each, be careful of linebreaks through these snippets -- cutting and pasting them into the editor seems to do the "right" thing.)


var strCheckboxVisibleOnly = localize("$$$/JavaScripts/ExportLayersToFiles/VisibleOnly=&Visible Layers Only");
// KT alterations
var  strCheckboxIncludeBackgroundLayer= localize("$$$/JavaScripts/ExportLayersToFiles/IncludeBackgroundLayer=&Include Background Layer");

This is in the function settingDialog


// -- the fifth line in the dialog
dlgMain.cbVisible = dlgMain.grpTopLeft.add("checkbox", undefined, strCheckboxVisibleOnly);
dlgMain.cbVisible.value = exportInfo.visibleOnly;

// -- adding my include background layer checkbox KT
dlgMain.cbIncludeBackground = dlgMain.grpTopLeft.add("checkbox", undefined, strCheckboxIncludeBackgroundLayer);
dlgMain.cbIncludeBackground.value = exportInfo.includeBackground;

This is in the same function, my code is the second line, remember the first is to help you locate it.


exportInfo.visibleOnly = dlgMain.cbVisible.value;
exportInfo.includeBackground = dlgMain.cbIncludeBackground.value;

In the function initExportInfo I set the variable to false


exportInfo.includeBackground = false;

And finally in the function "main" right before the call for exportChildren I inserted this block of code:


if (exportInfo.includeBackground == true){
try { duppedDocument.backgroundLayer.visible = true; } 
catch (e) {} // Background layer is kept.  In future add this as a dialogue?
}

You can see my comment is a remnant of my first pass at making this work. Programmers leave comments in code long after they are useful, so I felt no need to clean it up.

The original Adobe script is in the CS5 install directory:

\Path\To\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5 (64 Bit)\Presets\Scripts

Baseball

2011-04-03T18:26:00.000-07:00

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.

I haven't really seen baseball since I attended a Baltimore Orioles playoff game versus the Cleveland Indians. The Orioles managed to lose in bizarre fashion.

The Orioles essentially forced manager Davey Johnson to resign in the off-season over an incident involving Roberto Alomar. That irritated me enough, I was "done" with baseball.

Since that time I have attended one game. I watched the Nationals play a game as part of a work event. That was an interesting game, too, two balks were called.

However, that will change this year. The kids are involved in softball and T-ball. I bought a glove to play "You know, Dad! That game where you are catching the ball over your head!", as Tobias calls it. Most of us know it as "catch".

I figured, I would try and follow both the Orioles [ although I'm still irritated with them ] and the Nats. So far the Orioles are 3-0 after sweeping Rays, and the Nats managed to win 1 game out of their first 3.

I probably won't go to a big league game, but I may drag the kids out to a minor league game.

Logan at One

2011-03-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Earlier I made a few pictures of Logan when he was around the 6 month mark ( a little later, but what is a couple of months here or there? ). I followed that up with some pictures around the 1 year mark, again we missed it by a month, maybe two, maybe more, but in the end does it really matter? We have pictures

These were taken at the same time as the not-quite-a-sneak-peek sneak peek.

I bet you can see the moon with that lens!

2011-03-19T20:54:00.000-07:00

Why, yes, yes I can. If I try really hard I can see it without the lens too.

Tonight the moon passed by at the closest distance it will be all year. It also happened to be a full moon. I thought I'd give photographing it a go. I am never really happy any time I make a picture of the moon. Its a purely equipment driven kind of picture, and well, I'm sorely lacking in moon picturing equipment ( getting longer a lens to take pictures of the kids playing ball may help ... hint, hint Carly [she doesn't read these anyway]). But, this one turned out okay.

The rest of this post is purely about the technical side of this picture, so most of you probably want to go web surf elsewhere...

This was taken with my D200, with a 2x teleconverter mounted on my 80-200 lens. My tripod is up to the task, but the tripod mount on the lens really isn't. Stacking a 2x on a zoom lens hurts quite a bit too. I chose an exposure of f/11 at 1/30th of a second. Because the shutter was so slow, I used the mirror lock up function on the camera. It makes a noticeable difference. I have some frames where I didn't wait long enough from the initial mirror movement to make the picture. They look like mush.

Anyway, fun exercise-- and I have a picture of the moon.

Playing with a new light

2011-03-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

First I want to say Kathryn rarely makes an appearance here because she doesn't really stick around past the "first" stage of making a picture. I make the 2 or 3 frames that show me where I want to be and she's ready to leave. Before you think its because I am taking ages to do this, I'm not. It takes me about 45 seconds. This time I managed to get close to what I wanted at frame 2, then the whining started so I let her leave. When it was Carly's turn she lasted a little longer, but she had to go rather quickly too.

So, what was doing? I was playing with a "new" light. No, not equipment, just a new way to use what I had. I saw blog post discussing using two hard lights together in an approximation of hollywood lighting. I like the look in those older photos, and thought I would try it "someday". Like my models I didn't really feel like making a picture tonight, but... I remembered something I read that is attributed to Freeman Patterson, "If you only photograph when you feel like it... you'll never be totally successful as a photographer." Ouch, that hurts-- and out came the camera.

I would have liked to explore this idea a bit more, and I will. I don't think I got the best poses for the light. I'd like to see what it looks like with the lights a bit higher overhead.

The top picture is made with my Alien Bee flashes with the standard reflector, and a softbox lighting up the background. The second picture is the same setup but using only the modeling lights on the flashes-- I adjusted the ISO and aperture to compensate for less light. The second picture is closer to the look I am emulating. It will be my starting point next time. Maybe I'll get more than 5 minutes of shooting time.

Our House Will Have Football

2011-03-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

I am not sure who is right, the players or the owners. I see fault with both side's position, and lines of reasoning. In the end it doesn't really matter who is wrong and who is right, what matters is there may not be NFL football this year while it all gets sorted out. It may not affect the owners, it may not affect players, but it does affect fans, the guys and gals that work at the stadiums, cities that expect some return on the investments they have made in the stadiums, and TV networks. All because $9B isn't enough money for two groups to split up.

Even if the NFL doesn't manage to have a season in 2011 there will be football at our house. Sort of, we may have to suit up ourselves. Maybe it won't be so bad to have extra time on the weekend?

Army Dude

2011-03-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

Tobias got this hat at a birthday party to start the weekend. He took it off to sleep. I think. Other than that he has been wearing it. Constantly.

I am not really a fan of the yellow and purple processing I see all over the place. I think it looks silly on most pictures. But, I found myself creating that look as I processed this one. I wanted it to seem like a faded print. Maybe one that is about 50 years old or so. I also added some grain.

This one was one of our test out shots. You have no idea how difficult it is to get a serious face out of this guy.

The Explanation

2011-03-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Maybe this is a sneak peak, or perhaps it just answers why I rarely photograph people under the age of 15.

A dog day

2011-03-12T17:13:00.000-08:00

We made a couple of snapshots of the dog today. This one we were testing a setup to use.

We expect the puppy to spend the whole summer doing this. She is watching the kids play outside.

She needs her hair trimmed.

Under Construction For a Year

2011-03-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

This post has been under construction for one year. Okay that is not completely true, I have been gathering the images for it for a year on my cell phone, but because I never brought a USB 3 cable home I never pulled the images off.

After getting the updated phone I repeated a picture I liked out of my previous blackberry. [Editor's Note: Who takes pictures of lamps anyway?]

Of course I used it to find new pictures too. One thing I noticed when going through the images tonight is a lot of them come from restaurants. I must be easily distracted while waiting for food, or a table, or people to show up.

I also used it document the every day events. This particular stapler went missing from my office until I caught on.

Perhaps this wasn't worth a whole year's wait, but it was fun to go through for me.

Tow Truck

2011-02-27T13:33:00.000-08:00

I could talk about a number of things with this picture.

I could talk about how I've driven past a million times, and thought "I should stop and take a picture of that." But never did until today.

I could wonder about if it is art or not (not the picture, the truck, the picture is mostly a record shot I suppose).

I could discuss the post-processing involved to get the sky and truck both at reasonable levels from one exposure. Then I could lament that I didn't feather the layer mask enough, and the truck looks a little cut-out in places.

I could completely ignore the picture and talk about the hand-held field recorder I bought this weekend because of a strong need to learn something new. Heck, I could even wonder why Firefox shows the sky as aquamarine, but every other application shows it as blue.

But, I won't.

I'll just tell the locals who may not have seen this were it is. It is on 97 between Gettysburg and Littlestown.

Small Model

2011-02-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

It isn't often I will photograph something like this. But, I was thinking about it for a number of reasons. Someone asked me about photographing smallish objects on white.

I also spent some time this weekend looking for a particular kind of model.

I wanted to find a cowgirl model that was at least 54mm. I was looking for a female version of the "man with no name", a couple of six-guns, hat, a long flowing duster, cotton button-up top, jeans, boots. I couldn't find what I wanted. It seems most of the sculpts that are produced of cowgirls leave out important details, like most of her clothing (Seriously? Who is going to wear chaps without pants?). Fortunately, it wasn't a completely fruitless endeavor, I did find other figures that are interesting to me like this crusader.

I ended up getting out some of my finished models, remembered the question about photographing on white and thought I would give it a go. I think for this kind of figure using a grey background might be better. The particular lens I was using also doesn't deal with the light off the background well. It washed out the figure quite a bit under proper exposure. I could bring it back in post by upping the contrast, but in a picture that should be all about showing off subtle color blends it largely fails. I'll try again on a neutral grey background in the future and see if I can use a better lens.

For those curious about the model: It is part of a gaming line called Warmachine by Privateer Press. It is in the "scale" of 28mm. This particular figure stands about 15mm tall I guess. It probably took me about 15 hours to paint.

Weekend Light

2011-02-20T20:50:00.000-08:00

There are many reasons I like the weekend. One of them is that I am home to see the light that comes in the bedroom window, bounces around a little "hallway", picks up the warm color of the carpet and falls softly in the middle of some dressers. Its a neat light. Its like a huge softbox. But, the light isn't completely soft. It shows the textures, folds, and colors of clothing. It makes skin glow. The weekend is generally the only time I get to see it. This weekend it was perfect, and Carly spent part of the early afternoon running about in it getting ready to take Kathryn on a shopping trip. As always, I stayed in the way. I also made some pictures.

Carly ixnayed my favorite picture from being posted, and no, it is not NSFW or anything of that sort.

Sir Tobias, Dragonslayer

2011-02-12T18:57:00.000-08:00

I like fantasy novels. It doesn't matter to me if they are "serious" epics like The Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, or if they are completely silly yarns like Asprin's Mythadventures, or if they are something in between like Edding's The Belgariad. The authors generally find a way to say something thought provoking about people in the midst of all the dungeons, dragons, swords, and sorcery.

At the moment Tobias likes knights. He was very excited to find this costume today. He needed a picture. When he puts the costume on I know he sees himself like the knights in his picture books, or maybe in movies. I tried hard to make the plastic toy costume feel like metal in this picture. I wanted him to see the picture he has in his head, and not a photo of a little boy wearing a few plastic bits.

I hope in the near future he and Kathryn will sit still long enough to listen to me read The Hobbit or one of the Narnia books to them.

Little influences

2011-02-11T18:13:00.000-08:00

My kids are the largest creative spark makers in my life lately. Above is Kathryn at her Christmas production dance. She was pretty excited. Enthusiasm is inspiring. Tobias and sat around and drew pictures a couple of weekends ago. His use of language is also quite interesting at the moment, and sometimes the funny things he says are even intentional.

Around the web I have largely been looking at blogs and sites that seem to have a strong photography component, but are not about photography. The first is the Sartorialist. It is created to share pictures of interesting looking people or outfits. The photographer, well, he describes his motivations very well in the "Bio" section of the blog. The other blog, Kendi Everyday is generally about the everyday style and clothes worn by the "protagonist", and blog author, Kendi.

Clothes and style aren't really my interest, which judging by my outfits, is probably the understatement of the year. However, there is something very interesting in those two blogs. Sometime in the future I'd like to blend those two ideas and follow the everyday style someone I know. It shouldn't be hard to find someone with a greater sense of style than me.

Short Goodbye

2011-02-05T21:50:00.000-08:00

This is an image of my great aunt Edna that I made last year during a trip to North Carolina. Is it the best picture in the world? No, not really. But it is the last one of her I will ever have the chance to make. I had almost talked myself out of leaving the camera in the bag. I would be disappointed now had I done that. I'm glad I made the picture, even though it made me nervous, even though the light wasn't perfect, even though I didn't think I was going to share it with the world.

It is strange even though I wasn't around her for any great length of time I feel if I could find all the words I could probably write for a while about Edna. Most of my time spent with her was when I was fairly young. Even though my memory is very good, recalling those times brings up pictures and the feelings of my surroundings, and the going ons of the moment -- I can replay the scenes, but these things aren't easy to make sense of in words. But I will leave you with some small things that are easily said: she was an amazing cook, a lady who cared greatly about other people [ she showed it through hospitality amongst other things ], and she will be missed.

The Band

2011-02-02T20:25:00.000-08:00

It seems like every photographer wants to photograph a band. I'm not sure why that is exactly. Maybe it is because we feel like musicians are kindred spirits. Maybe its because they are performers and aren't afraid of a camera in their face. Maybe its because music is simply amazing, and so are the people that make it.

No matter what the reason, I think its true. Photographers have fun making pictures of bands.

The thing I don't quite get is you can tell a picture is of a band simply by looking at it. The look has grown somewhat cliché. However, I think it is used so often for a reason. It does look good, and does say "BAND" loud and clear. I thought I would give it a try the look and see how it felt to build, even though I don't have a band handy. I'll break down what I tried and why it maybe used so often in real life.

1. The "flying V" formation seems rather popular. I can't say exactly why, but if you have seen pictures of people standing in straight lines looking at the camera you realize how dull that is. This is an easy way to avoid that particular composition.

2. Hard light. This helps create an edgy feel. It doesn't matter if the band sings songs titled "Deathbringer! Smasher of Ants" or "Look at All the Happy Daisies", the picture needs to have some sort of an edge to it it seems. Hard light seems a good starting place.

3. Backlight. Again, it helps add to the edgy feel. And I needed it or our band would be floating in space.

4. Slightly desaturated look. This one I'm not sure why its done, but it looks nice. Perhaps it adds to the edgy feel, or perhaps it is just trendy. Either way, I like it, so that is how I approached my shot.

5. No instruments! You can already tell it is a band from the stylized look, instruments would simply be redundant. Besides, have you tried to find a guitar small enough for an action figure?

Okay, perhaps I'm having a little too much fun with post. I do like the pictures that are currently being made. However, I do think it has become a bit formulaic, I definately noticed a pattern. As I looked at pictures of muscians thinking about this post I really liked what I saw from the sixties and seventies. It is a different. If I get a chance to shoot a band I may try to work with those older ideas, but I will also try something like what I tried here. It seems expected, and it is a lot of fun to make.

Playing in the snow

2011-01-26T15:44:00.000-08:00

Tonight looks like it will be the first, and hopefully last, real snowfall of the year. The puppy goes absolutely crazy in the snow and I thought it would be fun to try take a few pictures of her. Tobias held the flash, and this was the only one I got that met the idea I had in my head. Fortunately, it was a pretty good shot. Tobias aimed pretty well.

We were out less than 5 minutes.

My camera got soaked. The flash was in a ziploc so it is still dry. The camera mounted trigger I shielded as much as I could, it didn't get too wet. However, that is the piece I am the most concerned about. I don't think it is designed for abuse.

I may try to make some more pictures tonight when I consider shoveling some of this off the drive. However, I'm bringing my point and shoot, which is built to take out in any weather.

No Smoke, no fire?

2011-01-17T12:54:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since I put anything up here. I'm not sure why. Camera has been out, but nothing super special. I've been trying to piece together what I need to do in order to pull a few ideas together into a picture. I've got a little while before Spring arrives to think it through, but it isn't really that far away.

I've also been taking a break to some extent. Mostly reading. I have gone through about seven novels since Christmas. I know that isn't a whole lot, but for me its a pretty staggering pace.

I made these as elements to hopefully use in some box designs. Nothing really amazing, but fun to do.

Christmas Card: 2010

2010-12-22T19:04:00.000-08:00

Click to Enlarge

It is that time of year again. The time of year I go to the mailbox and pull out a Christmas card or two. Of course, with everyone I open I become more and more and more aware we haven't sent any yet. Part of that is because we only know the snail-mail addresses of about 3 people. Yes, it has occurred to us that we could write down the return addresses from this year's cards. Yes, we probably are still too lazy to do it. The other reason is I feel I should make something clever. My ideas seem good, but I quickly run out of time to execute them. I have a feeling if I am ever going to put together that awesome photographic Christmas card I want to, I'm going to have to start in April.

I decided that this year, even though I don't have addresses or time to get a card printed and mailed I was going to "send" one out anyway. Here it is. I hope it finds you well.

Ken, Carly, Kathryn, Tobias, and Jasmine-Puppy.

Favorites of the Year: 2010 Edition

2010-12-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

The year is winding down. It is time for me to start thinking about my favorite photos of the year. I have a few more this year than I did last year. There are a few reasons for that. The main reason is simply I made more pictures. I have a larger body of junk from which to select the few pictures to represent. Also, I feel that I did better this year than last year. I learned a bit. I gained a lot more confidence. Also, shooting more, as I did, simply helps.

This first one is my absolute favorite from the year. I think I did okay on the lighting. But more importantly I managed to take a picture of my wife that actually shows how she looks, and not some awkward photographic caricature that only shows up in my pictures. I don't have this issue with anyone else. But, at least we managed to do it right this time.

This was made to celebrate Kathryn's new bike. For me, the most important event for her this year was learning to ride. She put aside whatever fear she was holding onto and rode. It was great to see her do that! It made her nervous for me to watch her try, so I peeked out the window. She still doesn't know I saw her. She also doesn't know I almost cried.

This one makes me smile. I'm still not sure why Tobias decided to pick flowers. Maybe it was because it was Easter. More than likely, it was probably simply because they were there.

We added a new family member this year. This sleepy shot is the first night we had the puppy home. She is a funny, fluffy, and sweet girl. She is also a pain in the butt.

Some close friends also added a family member this year. This wasn't the first night they had him home. But it is still very cute, no? He wasn't quite ready to sit up completely on his own for these. It was a bit of a challenge to capture him before he started to topple. He loved the "game" of catch that Mommy was playing though.

These 3 come from the HS Senior portrait sessions I did this year. These were a lot of fun for me. I am not sure how these guys thought about the sessions. I know in high school I ranked visiting a photographer right up there with visiting a dentist. I think I did better than that though. At least I didn't introduce any awkwardness by pretending to be a teenager. I did stoop to telling elephant jokes though, so that may be worse.

These two pictures represent my attempts to make some landscape style pictures. Most of those I tried to make last year largely failed. I don't think these compare favorably to what a real landscape photographer can make, but its the best I can do right now and don't seem like total failures.

This is my favorite picture that fell out of my cell phone this year. I think I like it because of all the curves, and the red against the blue-ish sky. It amazes me that if I use that little camera on the proper subject, and aim for the proper aesthetic, I can make 8x10 prints from it that work really well.

I am not sure why, but this picture always draws me in. Something about it really appeals to me. I'm also a little sad it didn't win it's category in the community show this year. [ But not much, I really like anyway. ]

I spent some effort this year making pictures of as many different people I could. This one is the result of about 3 minutes with this individual. This picture is interesting to me because it looks like a studio shot, but its not. It was made in a cafeteria. The background is a portable wooden "wall", and the main light is coming from what is essentially a big glass wall.

This final picture was taken at the dress rehearsal for COA's spring production. That night was final polishing before months of effort got tested in performance. It was nice for me to peek behind the curtains a little bit. It is rare you are made aware of the hours an artist puts into their work.

If you have gotten this far, thank you for looking!

Christmas trees disturb me

2010-12-09T19:05:00.000-08:00

I've said before that Christmas trees are curious things. They are. They also disturb me a little bit, okay a lot. It's not just because I feel compelled to make garish pictures of them. Its not just because of the verse in Jeremiah that warns against bringing trees into your house and adorning them with gold and silver [Yes I realize this is a warning against idolatry and not specifically against Christmas trees, please don't flame me. I also realize I'm taking it out of context on purpose. Fun, no?]. It is not even because the tradition has its roots* in ancient fertility symbols. The tree and its decorations represent... eh -- if you want to know Google will tell you.

No, the real reason these evergreen holiday visitors disturb me is because of a story that was in my first grade reader. It is the only story I really remember from that year, but it haunts my thoughts every year. The story starts out with a happy little tree living on a hill. He is curious why men come and take his hill-mates every year. Every year he is sad he isn't chosen. One year he is chosen! It stings a bit when they cut him, but he is too excited to feel it. He is brought into a family's home where they decorate him, and he is the center of attention! What a wonderful life he is having! However, through this period he feels himself growing weaker. Of course, we know what happens at the end. He is tossed out with the trash and placed in the incinerator. The story ends with the poor tree wishing for his old life back on the hill crying from the pain of the flames. THAT is why Christmas trees disturb me.

If anyone knows the author, I'd love to ask them why they wrote a story like that. And I'd also love to know who the person was who decided it was a good idea to include in a first grade reader.

*roots. trees. roots, get it?

Hollow Victory

2010-11-27T08:42:00.000-08:00

Mice.

They like to sneak into our houses. We notice, we catch them. This year we opted to be a little more pro-active in our approach. We set bait on the outside of our house, and we set up about 50 glue boards and traps. It maybe overkill, but quite frankly I'm tired of the little buggers. We have caught one so far.

It is funny in a way. I like mice has heroes, but I am beginning to really hate them in reality. I really like the Mouse Guard graphic novel. And I am more than a little annoyed I didn't buy this game when I had a chance. I thought I would ask for it as a Christmas present, but no, stupid thing went collectible in the last six months. But, its not like anyone would play it with me anyway.

Picture after the jump. I did it out of order this time because some of you may not want to see a dead mouse. If you are following a link, or on an RSS reader this courtesy can't be extended to you. I'm sorry.

I tried a few different lighting setups and a few different points of view. But, this seemed to be best of both. Its a single light, and shot from above. I also used a "cleaner" background of black foam board, but preferred the out of sorts wrinkling from the sheet.

I didn't do it on purpose, but after the fact I realized the way the light is set up the picture fades to black from left to right. It is somewhat fitting.

And, yes, I have done this sort of picture before. Perhaps one is a little weird, two maybe more so. But when I get to 4 or 5 it will become a series-- which isn't quite as odd.

Fall

2010-11-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

I've said this before, I'm not much of a nature/landscape/outdoorsy photo-person. However Fall is my favorite season for a variety of reasons. We are coming up on my favorite holiday of the year, and today was a gloriously dreary, slightly rainy, overcast day. These are my favorite days to get a camera out. I had to try.

Then I spent some time making rather crappy boring-looking pictures like these:

I felt a little disappointed, but wasn't expecting to do much better. And that was the problem. I decided I was going make something I liked better, and started thinking again.

I then got an idea. Maybe if I tried to be a bit more abstract, maybe I would get something. The leaves reminded me of a forest fire, so that is what I tried to make them. Maybe you disagree, maybe you like the ones I don't-- or maybe you don't like any of them, but finding the fire made me happy today.

I learned my lens does terrible at its closest focusing distance and 200mm. Terrible? I mean remarkably horrible. I'm not sure if it is the camera and lens combining to miss focus, or if is more focusing close at maximum focal length teams up to cause the problem. I might look into it a little bit, but I almost never use it like that-- so I'm not too concerned about it.

Fuji XP 10 a Review (Sort of)

2010-11-16T20:22:00.000-08:00

I primarily use two kinds of cameras, SLRs and camera phones. I don't use small compact cameras very often. It is because if I am going somewhere to make pictures I take a real camera, and if I come across something unexpected my cell phone is the camera I have with me.

However, sometimes I find point and shoot cameras handy. This summer after our little Canon broke I started looking for a replacement. I had a few criteria. I wanted a camera that didn't have an externally protruding lens, I hate them on compacts*. I also wanted it to be fairly tough, so Kathryn could run about with it. I thought it would be nice if it had manual control. There is a criteria you may feel is missing. What about image quality? I didn't care that much. Most of these cameras do a reasonable job, and I would never make a P&S my primary camera.

So, based on my criteria how does the Fuji XP 10 stack up? Pretty well I think. It is a sealed, water proof camera. That helps in the toughness department. It also means the lens is non protruding. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it underwater sometime. The idea of that makes me slightly nervous. Unfortunately, it does not have manual control. The control available with it is adequate, but I would prefer more. Even though it wasn't a primary consideration image quality is reasonable. It can make pretty noisy images, but Lightroom seems to handle it to the point where I don't notice it. Detail is still good.

It is the kind of thing I would carry to football game, or hand to Kat at a party. I wouldn't make anything too serious with it, just because serious stuff requires planning. If I am planning, I'd grab my SLR. I have posted a few pictures here that were made with it.

Do I recommend it? Yes, with some caveats. From what I can see on the net most other P&S cameras will outperform this one in the image quality department. If this is to be your only camera, perhaps another choice is better. If you require more manual control, you will also have to look elsewhere. Otherwise, I think it is worth consideration, and I felt it worked with the best for us.

*A friend of mine has an interesting way to describe this type of lens design...

Veterans Day

2010-11-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

Thanks to those that serve.

My birthday

2010-11-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my birthday. This year "my" present is actually one I will share with Carly. We decided to buy a guitar. She already knows how to play a bit. I know nothing. She feels it is something she needs to learn to do. I think it is pretty, so I'm compelled to learn how to make noise with it. We will take some lessons together sometime soon.

This, like Kathryn's bike, was chosen in a very atypical way for me. We went to a few stores, and found a guitar we thought looked nice. Then we went home to the internets to make sure there wasn't anything horribly wrong with that particular brand and model. You know the kind of stuff, reports like "um, wow, the body fell apart on day 3." We didn't see anything horrid, so we felt it was an okay choice. Then we went to around to local stores to see if they had them in stock. We ended up going back to the place we saw it originally. Other stores had the guitar, but not in the cherry finish, even though we wanted a store closer to our house.

For those guitar-people out there curious what this is, it is an Ibanez ART100. For photo-heads curious about the lighting it is my medium octobox bounced of a reflector, with a gridded light behind it to pick out the edges. Its tiny bit on the underexposed side, but this is on purpose. The instrument is a mystery to me, so I kept it in the dark. Literally. For those curious why it is so dusty, it is because dust is friggin relentless and I got tired of wiping it down after 6 or so minutes.

I also made a picture without the reflector. I thought it was cool how the finish picks up the books on the nearby shelf.

Because this is my birthday post I wanted to think a bit. This year has been the first year I've noticed age at all. What do I mean by that? Its the first year I've noticed that I'm supposed to be an adult. Here are some of the items that tipped me off:

1. The high school seniors I photographed were barely born before I graduated high school.
2. Some high school classmates of mine have children who are now attending high school.
3. My wife has been reading Redbook. What happened to Cosmo?
4. I'm now old enough to run for President. Anyone want to vote for me? The election is in two years.
5. Star Wars is over 30 years old. Star Wars. 30. Over. Crazy.
6. I used to think everyone was older than me, now I think everyone is my age, even if they are 10 years younger or 10 years older.
7. I'm six years younger than Brett Favre, and he has already retired something like 3 times.

And a few other things.

But, I guess I'm an adult now. I wonder what I will be now that I'm all grown up?

Doggy Pictures? On the Interwebs? Inconceivable!

2010-11-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

It has been a little over 3 months since Carly brought this puppy home. In that short time period she has done her business on our floor, ate a jacket, ate flip flops, chewed through speaker wire, chewed the power cord to a stereo component, knawed up a few of the kids' toys, and devoured about 40 pounds or so of puppy chow. About the only thing she hasn't done yet is sneak up on the counter and scarf down a roast or stolen butter off the table*.

It is about what I expected out of dog. A bit of mischief, but that is what dogs do. They are very good at it.

"What is it girl!!?? Mommy closed herself in that room and won't come out!?" Okay, so its not as dramatic as Lassie. At least it isn't to you or I, but I'm sure Jazzy found it very important.

Carly was trying to take a nap, and Jazzy waited outside her door. Everytime I started to go up the steps to get her she started barking at me. She was trying to convince me to open up the closed door. I figured it was a reasonable time to make a few snapshots.

*She isn't as big as the Dalmatians we had growing up or I'm sure she would have done similar things by now.

I had no choice. They arrived right before you did. I'm sorry.

2010-10-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

Tobias and Kathryn went to a Halloween/Birthday party this weekend. Some of the adults got in costume also. I tried to get Tobias to get a picture with Mr. Stormtrooper, but he wasn't so keen on that idea.

Tobias went as Mario.

And Kathryn went as a 50s girl.

Senior Moment with Kaitlyn

2010-10-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

These are from another recent senior portrait session. I did this beforehaving the chance to work with Matthew, but waited until the end of the month to post. The reason will soon become obvious. If you skipped over my words and looked at the pictures you already know why. If you haven't, why are still reading this?

Kaitlyn's family knows my good friends Tim and Sandy, and this is how they found me. I'm happy they did. I had the chance to talk with a lot of fun people, and make some good pictures.

The following picture is why I waited until the end of this month. It seems to fit the upcoming "holiday". The idea for this germinated from the question I ask when I am planning to do a session, "Can you list a few interests?". I admit, this took me out of my comfort zone a bit. I don't usually don't do this much post-processing. But, I had an idea of what I wanted this to look like-- and post-work was the only way to get there. For one thing, the dress is blue (see above) and that just doesn't fit the idea!

There is another image from this session floating around my flickr stream.

Lessons learned from Modeling

2010-10-26T20:02:00.000-07:00

No, not that kind of modeling. I am talking about the kind of modeling that uses plastics, metals, glues, and paints.

I have done modeling in some form or another for a long time. The only other artsy/craftsy activity I have done for more time is drawing. My first kit was built in 3rd grade.

I've built a number of radio controlled models.

More recently I have built and painted a lot of gaming miniatures. Somehow I was under the delusion that I might actually play the games, but that didn't really come to fruition. But, the modeling was interesting.

I decided to try another "traditional" model kit. I'm working on a Tamiya 1/12 scale motorcycle.

While building up some of the sections together, I started thinking about what modeling has taught me that I apply to photography and other areas.

First, modeling reminds me that I'm never going to have everything figured out, and much of the time I am going to be completely wrong. When I built my first model I thought the point was to assemble the bits. When that was done I was happy it was complete. But the model never saw any paint. At the time the notion of painting the kit seemed rather silly and dull to me. Now, I realize the way a model is painted is key to creating the illusion of reality that good models give us. The preparation and assembly now feels like drudge-work prior to giving the piece life with the brush.

Modeling showed me that you can learn things in unexpected places. In college I took an art class that was suppose to teach the foundations of a various artistic media. Instead the professor blathered on about perspective for one lecture, and then left us mostly on our own with the materials. Thanks. I learned how to use acrylic paint with my modeling instead of the class I expected to teach it to me. Because of that I can now thin, layer, wet blend, and dry blend acrylics properly. Modeling also taught me the importance of an underpainting, and a ton of other painting techniques. With photography I believe I've learned more from paintings, drawings, comics, movies, etc than I have from photography books. The photography books show me techniques-- the other stuff shows me interesting ways to apply those techniques.

I learned that flaws disappear the further in the process you go. Many of the small gaps and imperfections that a model has disappear when primer is applied. Bigger flaws can be addressed prior to primer with gap filling glues, putty, and other material. But, trying to fix these things when the parts are first put together is futile. This is true in photography too. Somethings you need to get right in the camera i.e. lighting, composition, expressions-- but some things are better handled in post. Why spend 20 or 30 minutes getting something "right" in camera, when 20 seconds in photoshop will get you what you intend? Why waste the time? I think the trick here is knowing what absolutely needs to be accomplished in camera, and what doesn't.

Modeling taught me there are times when the proper tool for the job is really the only way to go. Once I decided to spend the small amount of money on proper files, clippers, brushes, and so-on my modeling vocabulary went from R-rated to PG. Its that way in photography, too, except the tools carry much heftier price tags.

I learned when to sense when my mind has drifted off task through modeling. If I try to hurry through something to get "done" I tend to make mistakes. Whenever I start thinking about just being "done" I learned to stop messing with the model. With personal work, I will do that with photography too. If its not personal work or I have others' efforts invested in the outcome, I take a few minutes to refocus, more if necessary.

Modeling also taught me to enjoy the process as well as the final outcome. How many times do we read that life isn't the destination its the journey? Heh, if it was about the destination we'd all be in a hurry to die right? Again, this is the same with photography-- I like the process and final outcome. I also try to really pay attention to and enjoy what I am doing when I am making a picture.

If you got this far, my hats off to you. Thanks for reading.

Carly in a Hat

2010-10-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

Carly found this hat Saturday and mentioned something about a picture with it. I don't think she meant that we make it today, but there really is no time like the present? Right?

I've been on a bit of a black and white kick lately. It didn't surprise me any that I was imagining this as black and white before I started.

Senior Moment with Matthew

2010-10-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to get together with Carly's cousin and make a few senior year portraits for him. As we were driving over to this location I was informed Matthew doesn't smile in pictures. That was fine with me, I don't want fake picture smiles anyway. However, I do like to create a variety of real expressions, and smiling can be part of everyday life right? This was taken right after I asked him to keep in eye on the little girl returning library books. What if she was planning to attack me? I know Mom probably doesn't like the windblown hair (I do though), and I am a little uncomfortable with chopping off his toe in the right corner (sorry Matt!), but this one is my favorite from day.

One of the things we wanted to incorporate was this motorcycle. When I first started thinking about it I didn't know how I wanted to show it. I briefly thought about re-using this idea we did for Kathryn. But, even before seeing the bike I realized that probably wouldn't work. I thought it would be cool shoot it on seamless, and so, I set up a "studio" in my garage. I'm glad I prepared the studio idea, there is no way we could have fit that motorcycle on the rocks.

This was a fun day. We got to hang out with family. Matthew did do a good job, and we had some fun. Guys are "suppose" to be more difficult to photograph than gals, but really its just different. I also had the technical challenge of setting up a studio style shot-- which is something I haven't done for a bit.

Senior Moment with Ashton

2010-10-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

Carly's favorite

Here are some pictures I made in a recent senior portrait session. Ashton was fun to be around, and she brought great outlook and a happy smile with her through the day. Its rare that anyone loves having their picture taken, and Ashton was no exception, but it didn't really matter after a few minutes. She did awesome in front of the camera. All I really had to do was find some light to show-off her eyes*, the rest was easy. She even humored me by laughing at my elephant jokes.

My favorite [ My favorite's are ALWAYS different from Carly's ]

Ashton, if you read this, thank you for your time and effort. It is appreciated.

This cool swing was brought along

Somewhere along the line this kind of high school senior portrait became my favorite category of photographs. Its interesting, I didn't even know these were being created until a few years ago.

I think the reason I find them so cool is because they are portraits of individuals who are right at the beginning of their live's journey. Its the time of our life when we begin to see ourselves for us, and not necessarily just part of our peer group. Its also a time where we make a lot of the decisions that impact our lives long term. No pressure right?

I, personally, like making these portraits because no matter if the individual is just there to appease Mom, or if the person is really excited about it-- I always make a few good pictures. They are pictures I hope they look back when they are my age, and remember the fun times they had "way back when."

*Free tip... figuring out how you want to show a person's eyes is a reasonably good way to start to a portrait.

[Editor's Note: The photos for this post are sitting over on Flickr instead of Picassa. I thought I would try that way of posting out.]

Feeling fuzzy

2010-10-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not feeling so well today. In fact, the whole world looks like the picture I put here. Except I'm indoors now, and its not very bright in here.

But I do have a point besides complaining.

I'll make out of focus pictures sometimes so I can peek at the screen and see how light is falling without being distracted by details. This one let me know that the sitter's face was bright enough to compete with the blown out sky (faces have more visual weight than almost anything else in an image, so it is okay that it is a little less bright than the sky), and and the light behind her should be enough to make it appear 3D.

This works for flash exposures, or available light. This particular example is done with available light.

No Flash -- Again

2010-10-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

One of the things I have been trying to do over the last few months is learn more about finding and seeing "available" light. In general I believe in using any freakin' light available ( saw that in a book I think ), but lately I am specifically looking to use and modify the ambient light. This is the lobby of my office building. The front is a huge building sized window, and the inside is all white. It not only gets a ton of light, it bounces the light around like crazy. I'm pretty certain it is impossible to end up with unflattering light in there.

I'm am still trying to create and catch different expressions. I won't pretend to have influenced this one, but I did manage to catch it.

Guides

2010-09-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

Today marked the official opening of the Intersection Church in Gettysburg.

These guys were working as ushers. After service they were kind enough to give me a couple minutes of their time. I found some light, a clean background, burned a few pixels, and here is the result.

New Bike

2010-09-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago Kathryn learned how to ride a bike. Last weekend we bought her a bike that actually fits her. We had been waiting to make sure she got over her fear. I thought it would be neat have a picture with her new bike too. I think I did a little better job with these. I don't think I dropped low enough to the ground earlier. This shot is a little closer, a little wider, and a lot lower than my previous try.

Its interesting. I did hardly any research into what I consider a major purchase. It used to be whenever I was interested in a thing I would go on the 'net and find all the pros and cons of various makes and models of said thing. I realized something recently. ALL the major well known brands are generally pretty good for any given thing, and choice usually boils down to personal preferences that are only really learned over time. The chatter that roils across the net is either nitpicking, or fanboy strutting. With a bike, all we really needed to do was find a shop that works on them. Service is a pretty important thing that I used to overlook. I did spend enough time searching to see what the "major" brands are, and then looked for local shops that carried one or more of them.

Does this have anything to do with photography? Maybe. I know a lot of us spent a lot of time "researching" our first "real" camera searching for the best. I think if I had just narrowed it down to Nikon or Canon, walked into a shop and picked the one that felt right-- I'd have saved a lot of time. I'm pretty sure I would have bought the same camera too. So, what did I really gain by spending a few weeks looking at all the models and specs and reading opinions? Nothing, it was wasted time.

My kids playing tough

2010-09-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

I got a new toy today, a new lens! Its been a really long time since I (willingly) bought a new lens. The last lens I got came bundled with a camera. I had no choice, unless I didn't want to wait another handful of months for Nikon to clear up supply issues. I had to buy the kit. I didn't want to wait because my local lab had stopped doing E6 film. But the next youngest lens in my bag is older than Kathryn.

But, getting back to the present. I bought a new lens. For the curious it is Nikon's new 85/1.4G. Yeah, I convinced myself I wanted it so much I pre-ordered it. There are many reasons I wanted it. Most of them aren't rational. Some are, but they stem from wants not real needs. I really wanted a short telephoto for portraits. My 80-200 doesn't focus close enough for me to use like I want for portraits at the shortest end-- and my 28-105 is a little too slow at 85mm for the look I wanted. I also wanted a really fast lens. Why didn't I go with the older 85/1.4D then? After all it has been available forever, and is a lot cheaper. I'm not sure I have a good answer for that. But I'm happy with my choice. I probably would be happy either way, so I wouldn't read much into that.

Of course, I needed to test it out. Since I don't have any test charts or cats handy, I employed the help of my kids. You can see they are overcome with joy at the prospect. I guess I could have tried to photograph the dog, but she wasn't in a cooperative mood either.

The little bit I got to play with it tonight I think it will help me do what I want. I'll need some more time before I am completely comfortable with it.

But when I am, I will be using this one a lot. I may write up one of my "reviews" some time. I didn't really want to do that after only having it a few hours.

[ Note: That is chocolate on Tobias' face, not cuts -- but he thinks its cooler if you call em cuts. ]

Community Show this Weekend

2010-09-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

The Thurmont, Emmitsburg community show is this weekend. The have a photography section as part of the exhibits. I put a handful of prints in. It gives me a worthwhile reason to go through what I did the past year, and allows me to get some prints made. There is something nice about an image in print form. It adds something that you cannot get on the screen.

I encourage anyone that can to go and look. There is a really nice picture of a netted crab. I think it is my favorite in the exhibition. If I had thought far enough ahead I would have written down the name of the exhibitor, and searched to see if it was available to view somewhere on the internet.

The picture at the top is the only one I entered that hasn't been posted here before.

Others entered :
Tobias with Dandelion (second picture on the page)
Snake
Doggy Picture
Poor attempt at a landscape
Dance Picture (top picture on page)
Hand Collage from Photowalk
Weedy flower picture (second on page)
Tobias

Bitten Heroes

2010-09-07T20:31:00.000-07:00

Quick, September 2001, what springs to mind? I think of a number of things. First, I recall learning that Kathryn was on her way (found out September 9, 2001), followed by Carly's first doctors appointment (September 11, 2001 for confirmation). We all know know what else happened that day. The final thing I remember is attending the US Grand Prix at the very end of the month.

I'm currently scanning a bunch of my old film and decided to start with these from this event. Any guesses why?

I will explain. This event was only 2 weeks or so after the 9/11 attacks. This team generally wore the livery "Buzzin' Hornets" when they were in a country that would not allow them to advertise the tobacco product that sponsored them. However, they chose to recognize their hurting host country that weekend. Its one of the things I have never forgotten.

Big Day

2010-08-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

Kathryn finally gathered up the courage to ride her bike without training wheels today. Its quite an accomplishment. Of course, we had to throw a few pictures together to celebrate the day. No, she isn't riding the rocks yet. I think we can thank Kick Buttowski for the pose.

Tobias wanted a picture too. I'm not sure where that Han Solo-esque grin came from.

I love watching these guys accomplish new things.

Elvis has not left the building.

2010-08-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've posted, but I haven't abandoned photography. Pretty far from it actually, I just have been doing things related to my photography that aren't producing many pictures at the moment. Yeah, I didn't think that made any sense either. I slowed down a bit today and made this picture. No, its not amazing, and in terms of my intentions it is a total failure. But, it still is a picture-- and I need to make pictures. If I stop, I cease to be a photographer.

I wanted to make a few frames at different focus and blend them together. None of the lenses I have seem to keep the image the same size when changing close-focus. I tried blending anyway, and it led to a whacky result. So, I left that idea alone, and chose the frame where the front bits are in focus. I'll borrow a real macro lens someday and try again.

So, what have I been doing? Mostly I've been doing a lot of thinking and some reading. I've been trying to figure out who I am as a photographer, and who I want to be. I'm trying to identify the strengths I have that can help get me where I want to be, and the weaknesses that stand in the way.

What have been thinking about? What do I see in the world? What do miss? What is my reason for photographing? What am I trying to say? What is my voice? What am I interested in enough to make a long term project out of? Who can help me? Who can I help?

What have been reading to help me? I read David DuChemin's Within the Frame, and Chris Orwig's Visual Poetry. I also read Adam Perry Lang's book Serious Barbecue. What does that have to do with photography? It has nothing (in general) and yet everything to do with (my) photography. He is a guy that found his voice through barbecue, the way he writes about meat borders on a religious. Listening to passionate people, tends to make you passionate.

I also decided I had to learn something new, which is why there is a harmonica at the top of this page. My musical ineptness is only matched by my inability to dance, so I thought it was a perfect thing to try. It takes me away from my creative comfort zone. Has this taught me anything so far? It taught me that I can have fun even if I suck. I should make sure I take that same attitude with me behind the camera, it can only improve my pictures. The harmonica is fun, with a little work you can play recognizable songs. That is enough to keep me amused and my family annoyed.

So, no, I haven't left. I'm just trying to figure out where I'm suppose to be.

Ken Trout : Not really an Emmitsburg Baby Photographer

2010-08-15T20:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, the title is a deliberate attempt at being tricksy with search engines. Its a pet peeve of mine to read blog titles like that, so I thought I'd poke a little fun at it. But the title is true, the only baby I have really photographed in the last three years is Logan.

Sandy told us Logan was ready for some 6 month pictures, he could sit up on his own. Since its not quite time to stick him up in a tree, I thought a seamless background would be best. It was a lot of fun. We did basic portraits, some action shots, some stuff with Mommy, some stuff with Monkey, and we even did an outfit change-- or rather an outfit reduction.

Setup was almost my typical seamless setup. There are two lights on the background. I have a large softbox to camera left of the little guy, and a reflector to the right.

I experimented a bit this time. I decided I wasn't going to blow out the paper into pure white, I was aiming for more an eggshell white. It doesn't look as "clean", but I like it. It doesn't make post-processing as easy as a pure white does though. I couldn't, for example, make it look like he was sitting in front of a 100 foot wall with this lighting setup.

Hope you enjoyed peeking at some of my favorites from the session.

As always click on the image for a larger version.

Expressions

2010-08-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

Carly hates probably 90% of the pictures I have made of her. I needed to find out why, and fix it. After looking through a number of pictures I am pretty sure it is because she looks like she is anticipating that the picture will look bad. I think everyone probably feels that way, but I have been able to distract them from that thought. It could be others just trust me with my camera more.

Last night, I finally figured out how to distract Carly enough to get a natural expression. I know this isn't a "nice" portrait with perfect light, perfect clothes, perfect hair, perfect make up etc. It isn't meant to be. I was just trying to get some natural reactions. We can work on bringing those other elements together later, the important thing to me was figuring out how to get a good expression, the rest is "easy".

[ setup large softbox camera left, feathered away from subject. Reflector subject right. Intended to be shot around f/4 -- I think it ended up f/5 ]

Yellow Pepper #2

2010-07-31T19:53:00.000-07:00

I was making kabobs this weekend when I took a look at the peppers I was getting ready to chop apart. This caused a small detour in my food preparation.

I am not the first person in the world to photograph a pepper, and I probably won't be the last.

For those that peek at exif data, you may have noticed something interesting. I will probably write more about that in a month or so.

An internet cookie for the first commenter to name a famous photographer who pictured some peppers. This is a really easy trivia question, so its probably just a test of who can post fastest!

Vuescan

2010-07-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

I recently finished up a roll of Kodachrome and had it developed. This got me thinking (again) how I was going to get my slides and negatives from my photographic beginning into a digital form. I want to do this partly for backup purposes, and partly because it is much more likely I will see them if they are in my Lightroom catalog.

This is of particular importance because all the pictures I have of Kathryn until she was about 4 years old are on film! The photo at the top was from way back when Kathryn was a little beaner.

I have an older film scanner, but it wasn't supported by Windows 7. I found a program called Vuescan. Not only does it work, but the scans seem better than what I used to get out of original software.

However, I really don't like all the dust and scratches that come with film. Not to mention the scanning itself is ridiculously time-consuming. There is a reason no one with sense uses film anymore. I am only somewhat kidding. However, I have decided I will at least play with it again. The Kodachrome shooting was a fun diversion.

I never claimed to have any sense.

Small realization

2010-07-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

This has been bugging me for a while, but I didn't know what the issue was. I felt it photographing at Harvest Cry. I carried it with me to North Carolina. And I felt it deeply Saturday at the photowalk.

I forgot how to look for photographs. Sure, when they were gifted to me by my surroundings I recognized them, and occasionally made them. Or, if my primary subject was a person or group of people I didn't have much trouble finding a suitable place and using/making the light I needed. But, those are easy. I know where I am going when I am doing that.

However, what about taking a camera somewhere with no preconceived ideas and hunting down an image or two? Other people's photowalk images showed me I had grown pretty lazy in looking. That is a painful realization, but its fixable.

Today we went to the local zoo. I was determined I would break this bad habit. I spent a lot of time watching butterflies flutter about flowers. Even though it would be easier to make a picture of them in the morning when its cooler (not to mention more cooperative light) I still managed to get a picture. I think its because I spent time there and learned to look at them. I also pushed my wide angle a bit. I can't picture what that lens gives me reliably without looking through it, so it encouraged me to explore behind the viewfinder.

And the snake! I spent quite some time looking through the lens at it. I only made 3 frames. And I really like this frame I got.

I plan on spending more time hunting "random" pictures, I don't plan on forgetting how to do that again.

Worldwide Photowalk - Oldtown Federick, MD Year 2

2010-07-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Frederick

I attended the Worldwide Photowalk again this year. It was a lot of fun.

Yes, its a picture of grass. I make a lot of this kind of stuff as warm ups, but rarely show it.

If it wasn't so blasted hot I probably would have carried only a camera and a lens. But, I needed my bag to carry my drink in. Since I already had the bulk I added a small amount of weight with a second lens.

Bike. I didn't use quite enough depth of field here, but I think it was better to err on the side of too little for this picture.

A pretty nifty church door to add to my door collection

I went with very little pre-planning. My plan was very small and very simple. I decided to concoct a "project" along the way and get a bunch of images for it, how is that for winging things? This year I want to put together a collage of related images for my entry instead of looking for a single detail shot. I found it in the hands painted onto the bridge mural.

I also wanted to gather some shots to try some of Photoshop's ability to blend and merge multiple images together into one. I made a rookie mistake, and that didn't pan out. I forgot to lock my exposure for the various images, but I still got to see what Photoshop could do. I'm a little irritated about the mistake, because I should be beyond such silliness, and I rarely make technical errors. Artistic errors? Sure, I do that all time, but technique is rarely a problem.

One of the hands that could end up in my collage

This is a painting on the wall near the Carrol Creek Bridge

I think the real value in attending these is in meeting and listening to other photographers. This year's bunch needed to be pretty dedicated to wander about in 100 degree F heat.

And I'll end with this image. I could NOT get what I wanted here. I tried both my lenses, and this was the closest to what I wanted. I have about 10 other attempts. They all just don't really work. I decided to show you anyway.

Second Carnival of the Year

2010-07-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

We went to our second, and final, carnival of the year. I thought it would be fun to get a sister silhouette for my previous shot.

I also realized its been a long time since I really incorporated motion into my pictures. It is one of the things I really like to do, but somehow let it slip aside. So, I played with it some today.

I took notice of more dSLRs at the carnival this year than I have ever seen. It is nice to see more and more people spending some time with photography. There was one person there taking it very seriously, he was using a huge tripod. I always wondered how I could use a tripod at the carnival. Now I know, you just set it up, everyone walks around you except for a few teenagers who deliberately try to photobomb your shot.

I still don't think I want to carry to a tripod to a carnival though, I think it would suck the fun out of it for me.

Oh look! A doggy picture!

2010-07-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

I'm convinced that most of the high end photo gear that finds its way into us normal folks' homes is used to make pictures of nothing but family pets. A quick look through any photo-forum should prove part of my theory. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe because it's too heavy to take on vacation, and most of us are too afraid to aim our lenses at people? Pets generally don't complain about having their picture taken, and it offers excellent justification for buying more gear.

This is a snapshot* of my family's new doggy. I think we are naming her Jasmine (Jazzy). I, personally, am not sure about this whole deal yet. I grew up with too many dogs. But, at least now I have justification to buy a new lens... whenever Nikon gets around to announcing and building a new one I want.

*Okay, okay, there is a large softbox involved here-- but it is still very much a grabshot of a half asleep puppy.

Potato Masher 1, Strawberries 0

2010-07-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

I spent most of day anxious. I wanted to, no, I needed to make something. Usually this means I gather a camera or two and go find a picture. But I couldn't come up with any feasible ideas because of some time constraints. So, I spent a little bit of time assembling some models, and I spent a bit of time making strawberry jam.

I highly recommend assaulting strawberries with a potato masher. Its therapeutic.

Vision Mongers: A (book) review (sort of)

2010-07-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

A while ago I came across a few discussions about David duChemin's book Visionmongers: Making a life and living in Photography. I found the discussions intriguing, and headed over to Amazon to order it. At the time I saw Amazon wasn't offering any discount so I just put the title in my head so I could look for it locally.

I eventually did see it locally and picked it up (I should have been checking Amazon too, they offer a substantial discount now). My intention was to read it on the trip to North Carolina. That didn't work out, I started to read it the night I brought it home-- and didn't stop until it was finished.

If you have any desire to make a creative endeavor a business, I think it is an extremely useful book. If you have never thought about things like budgets, pricing, marketing, service, and beyond -- it is probably eye-opening. It contains a handful of discussions with photographers that have "made it" in the field, and a little of the story of how they got there. One of the most interesting, and scary, things is how many of their paths went through bankruptcy or worse before they got where they are now.

I like the warnings he laid out for avoiding the field. I also enjoyed the way he tries to stoke the fires of your imagination, and works you towards ways of applying creativity your business process. Photography isn't the only place you can be creative in your life.

I could go on and attempt to list everything I like about the book. But that would be difficult. I like it a lot, after-all I did read it in one sitting.

Instead I will list a few of my niggles. I think I would prefer to see more of the author's primary work photos, with some captioning and context as the book's illustrations. He can't do that for reasons explained in the book, but I think it would be more interesting. In fact I feel the photos are the weakest part of the book. I am not saying the photographs themselves are weak. They are strong (the one of a red seat on page 35 keeps me looking at it over and over again for some reason). However, they really have no context. They are merely very pretty eye-candy.

Who do I think this book is for? Anyone contemplating the idea of paying their rent with a camera. Who isn't this for? Anyone thinking this is a photography book-- they will probably be disappointed.

I like it enough I will probably pick up additional books written by the author.

Lunch is Optional

More Goodbyes

A couple of old pictures

Tobias as Mario

Favorites of the Year: 2011 Edition

Tobias as Spiderman

My Clone

Pictures of the "kids"

Dogs!!

A Christmas Tree (even though I don't like 'em)

A present

Thanksgiving

Veterans Day

Grabshot landscapes

Hello, hello...

Tobias as a Jedi Knight

Tobias as an Explorer like Indiana Jones

Corn

Just Peachy

Thurmont Carnival

More Video Learning

Family?

Trying to Learn Some Software

Big Windows

Excuses, excuses

Just captions

Shiny new guitar

Emmitsburg Fireworks

Emmitsburg Carnival

All the Grandchildren

Engaged: Ben and Klare

Found pictures

Goodbye to a storyteller.

Kathryn

Memorial Day

Another Short Goodbye

Sad, Sad Flowers

Center of the Arts Rehearsal 2011

Couple of Pre-Storm Grabshots

More Softball

Mother's Day

More Construction

Softball!

T-ball

I Wish We Celebrated Easter a Little Differently

Walk in the Park

FCS label image

Charlie's Teachers : FCS Banquet 2011

Scripting Photoshop

Baseball

Logan at One

I bet you can see the moon with that lens!

Playing with a new light

Our House Will Have Football

Army Dude

The Explanation

A dog day

Under Construction For a Year

Tow Truck

Small Model

Weekend Light

Sir Tobias, Dragonslayer

Little influences

Short Goodbye

The Band

Playing in the snow

No Smoke, no fire?

Christmas Card: 2010

Favorites of the Year: 2010 Edition

Christmas trees disturb me

Hollow Victory

Fall

Fuji XP 10 a Review (Sort of)

Veterans Day

My birthday

Doggy Pictures? On the Interwebs? Inconceivable!

I had no choice. They arrived right before you did. I'm sorry.

Senior Moment with Kaitlyn

Lessons learned from Modeling

Carly in a Hat