28-JUL-2008
Got a good smile
We got back today from our 4 day Saco river camping trip. The last day is usually quite busy for me so photos are few and far between. All the shots I'd wanted to get to were left untaken ;-)
When my son was heading upstairs for bed, I got my wife to help me stall him so I could take a few shots. I didn't expect to get a shot this good of him. Because I take a lot of photos, he has gotten into this model mode where he has these goofy poses. My wife was talking to him while I was shooting, trying to get his mind off the camera. This was shot in our stairwell and I was having a heck of a time getting the bounce just right. I wound up bouncing this off the wall to the right and part of the ceiling.
This is the more conservative processing option, I have another one with a serious green tint to it. I think I need photoshop to get the effect I was going for with that one. I'd wanted it to appear like an old polaroid, I got the tint right, but I need to add some distress to it and that can't be done in LightRoom. I will add it to my photoshop 'TODO' list for when I break down and actually get it.
27-JUL-2008
Fearless Seagull
They actually closed down the river to children today. It was too high, too fast, and too many trees were floating around. We went back to Woods Pond and I took the kayak out for a trip around the lake. On my way back from the other end, I noticed all the docks had these fake owls on them to keep birds away (this is my belief). I came across this one dock that had a Fearless Seagull. Apparently this is one bird who was not fooled by the Owl.
This was shot in haste from my kayak, I was floating all around as there were a few boats creating a heck of a wake. This is one of those times where just getting the shot is the important part.
26-JUL-2008
Monkey Boy
Day #3 of our Saco River trip. This was our down day, a rest from the 13.8 mile canoe/kayak trip the day before. Since the Saco was at flood stage, there was no beach at the campground. We were given directions to a few local swimming holes and chose Woods Pond, about 10 miles away. Woods Pond was pretty high too. There was all of 2' of beach, the town docks were under water. We enjoyed it though, the water was much warmer than the river.
Even though I brought my S3IS, I only took a few stills (most were videos of the kids). I had to get some shots of my son on the Monkey Bars, his favorite past time.
25-JUL-2008
River Fun
(Still catching up)
I took the S3IS with me on the river. It was in its bag, the bag was sealed in a large (1 gallon) Zip Loc bag, the Zip Loc bag was in a small carrying bag, the small carrying bag was in another plastic bag. I wasn't about to take any chances with the camera. It was a bit of a pain to get to the camera, but my wife & I were in a canoe, so I could take a few minutes off every so often to take some pictures and video. My daughters were in kayaks, the orange (Mango) one is actually mine and the lime green one is our newest, bought for the trip & to make life easier when we do get out to go canoing and kayaking. The girls were having a blast scooting around the river (which was pretty high due to the rains) and splashing each other. In this shot, my oldest is trying to push off on my youngest's kayak. She is not trying to tip her. They did that all day long, pushing off giving them some forward momentum and the other would come to a halt. Most of the time, the 'other' was my wife & I in the canoe.
For a river that normally is pretty dry this time of year, it was higher than most spring times. The next day, it rose 3 more feet.
24-JUL-2008
Mastermind (Camping Trip Day #1)
(Catching up from the camping trip)
Day (well, evening) #1 of our 4 day camping trip on the Saco river (Maine). Torrential downpours, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and rising river be damned.
We stayed in that night (after setting up in the rain). My two youngest broke out Mastermind and were in a heated game that evening.
23-JUL-2008
Fall Baby Shower?
These blue flowers (weeds?) were growing just outside my favorite meadow (that has been closed off due to an upcoming post office). I took my chances and darted through at the tail end of my "running around" lunch (the kind where you try to catch up on the things you forgot to do earlier in the week).
I used a "Color IR" preset for this, though I like the image, I am not ready for fall. A bunch of us were talking today about our "big plans" for the summer and realized that Labor Day is coming up pretty quick. How the hell did it get to be the end of July?
We are off yet again tomorrow afternoon. Our family is headed a bit north (just a couple of hours) to go camping on the Saco river. The campground has a shuttle service, we will be putting in (1 canoe and 2 kayaks) up river one day and paddling back (about a 6 hour trip). The next trip leaves from the campground and we head down river & a shuttle will bring us back. I'm bringing the camera gear, though I probably won't bring the 40D on the canoe or kayak. I think I will pack the S3IS for that trip. I plan on taking some video to, the S3IS comes in handy for that.
So, I will have to play catch up with the PaD since I doubt we will have WIFI or even internet access in general (or time) up there.
22-JUL-2008
Disconnected
My poor guitar has been sitting idle for the past 6 months or so while I spend all my free "hobby time" on photography. I'd actually taken a few shots of the plug on the neck until I realized that the plug was pretty smudged. This is the "polished with my shirt" version.
21-JUL-2008
Hello Bee
I was setting up to take some pictures of these black-eyed-susans when this bee decided to get into my shot. He happened to chose the flower I was working on, at first I only saw him in the viewfinder as he popped in after I'd chosen this particular flower. It was a very bad day for nature shots, overcast skies and windy, but this was a pleasant surprise. Going through my other shots, nothing else was even close. I'd found a bunch of ants on a white weed, but could never get a sharp shot with the wind.
I haven't done a macro in a little bit, normally I am knee deep in macros by now.
20-JUL-2008
Kala in front
I've been wanting to get outside and use two off camera strobes for a while now. Even though the weather was not all the great today, I ran out of excuses to give this a try. I brought out one stand, but never used it. Instead I set both strobes on the ground and angled them up. The Vivitar will only go down to 1/16 power, so it had to get moved much further back. I might cave in at some point and dump my Vivitar & 430EX for another 580EX2, I really like this flash. The 580EX2 was set to 1/64 and was a bit closer to my daughter.
I have a number of shots of my kids in the background looking at mom, this one was more of mom was in the background and slightly out of focus, looking at my daughter.
19-JUL-2008
Serious Child
I'd wanted an outdoor shot today but it was too humid earlier in the day for anything decent and we were at the movies for the last part of it (Saw Wall-E). I drafted my son into subject mode and only needed a few shots to get to this one. There was one more that I cropped down to just his eyes and nose that really like because at that level, I can see me.
18-JUL-2008
Wet Chrome
So on Monday the Weather report is showing rain, very good chance of rain. None of us ride in at work, we all agree in the AM that it probably won't rain and it doesn't. We are then blessed with 3 more very nice riding days. This morning, the power is out and I can't check the weather report (even the cell tower was down, bad accident outside our development, downed power lines, closed a state route, etc). My daughter recalls that we had a 30% chance of rain later in the day. I risk it, come summer around here the Weather peoples are always trying to cover their butts by throwing in a "30 - 50%" chance of late afternoon thunderstorms. I predict that because I rode it, it will rain.
Fast forward to this evening at work, I look out and see some dark skies. I check weather.com and realize there are some cells moving towards my home, if I am going to make a go for it, I have to go at that point. So I wait 15 minutes (nothing's ever easy...). I leave, riding into the blackest looking storm clouds. My *hope* is that I can make it over the river [border] and to this gas station (Irving) where I can throw my rain jacket on. This is the same gas station that I coasted into two days ago when I ran out of gas 100 yards from it (nice!!). This time, 100 yards before the gas station, I start getting some rain drops. I made it under the roof & got my rain gear on. The remaining 9 miles to the house was in a torrential downpour. I really miss my Beemer ('99 BMW R1100RT) and my Aerostitch riding suit. The rain drops felt like needles in my legs on the ride back. My feet were soaked and somehow I got a steady stream of cold water running down my back and my front.
So, searching for my PaD for today, I did an off-camera flash shot of the wet bike. I bumped up the contrast to bring out the water droplets on the chrome and like the effect. A bit of vignetting to bring down some of the bright spots on the edges and I have something worthy.
My rain gear is drying inside (I think the gloves will take a couple days to dry though).
17-JUL-2008
Candy Corn
The kids have had this jar out for the past few days and I've been wanting to either take a photo of it or eat them. I decided the photo route would induce fewer carbs.
Simple LR preset (300 again).