Archives 2011

Another beautiful spring weekend and another day of wondering around taking shots.  I decided to attempt something I have failed previously at, HDR photos.  It seems like when ever I have done them before they have never turned out how I like, but today I got several HDR shots that I was pretty happy with.  I used the camera’s Auto Exposure Bracketing feature which made snagging the HDR shots tons easier!  For the uninitiated, HDR, or High Dynamic Range is basically one photo that has been merged from several photos of varying exposure levels in to a single image, creating a unique and surreal looking picture.

This is one of those lone trees you see in a field along the side of the road.  Nothing else around it but the currently empty field.  I suspect there was once a house here, but the house is long gone, just leaving this tree behind.  The tree is unique also in that it appears to have been struck by lightning at some point since it has a weird strip of bare tree running down it with no bark…  Any how, here it is:

“Solitary”

I got to put my telephoto lens to good use this week.  We were supposed to get rain every day this week but we hardly got any.  However on Friday it felt like we got all the rain from earlier in the week in about one hour.  I had my camera with me all week hoping for some good storm pictures at some point, so when the down pour started Friday afternoon, I ran out to my car and grabbed my camera.  This is from my office’s parking lot.  Water was just pooling in it and the giant rain drops splashing down made for a real neat picture.

“Showers”

Spring is finally here!  The weather has been warming up, and the outdoors has come back to life.  Everything is blooming, green, and colorful again, which was this week’s inspiration.  I went out to a local park today and shot a few things around the park, but I didn’t really find exactly what I was wanting to capture spring.  When I got home I took a quick walk around the house for the heck of it, and found our Magnolia plant blooming away in the backyard.  It was just what I was looking for, and right in my own backyard.  I just wish I would have looked there before aimlessly wandering around the park (which didn’t have a single flower garden, way to be Taylorville).

“Magnolia”

It has been a rainy past couple of weeks here in central Illinois which has made getting out and shooting harder than usual.  Luckily this weekend we got a break from the constant rain and I was able to get out and do some shooting.  There is a country road out by Lake Sangchris that always floods over, so I figured with all of the rain we have had, it would be flooded over now and might make for some cool shots.  Well, as happens often it seems, I go out with one thing in mind, and end up with something completely different than what I was thinking, and for the better.  I played with today’s photo quite a bit, and I had even uploaded a different version of it, but something hit me at the last moment, which I’m sure you’ll figure out.  I like how it turned out a lot though.

“Reflection”

Back to the real world with me.  I wasn’t sure what to shoot this week, plus it has been a very busy week since we just got back from our wedding and honeymoon.  On Friday I decided to build a do-it-yourself lightbox, or macro studio.  I had the box and plastic bags to use as a diffuser, but I needed some high power lights to light up the box.  I picked up a couple 500 watt halogen work lights for around $20 from Walmart.  I was worried at first that 1000 total watts of lighting power would be way too much, but it wasn’t a problem at all and it worked out for the better.  After a half hour of construction I tested out my rig and it worked great!  I was psyched!  Getting the camera set up properly required full manual mode shooting.  So, that would make this photo my first 100% manual shot!  For past shots I would typically shoot in one of the priority modes, like Shutter priority or Aperture priority, or Sports mode, etc… but for this set up, using any of the single priority modes didn’t work out.  The camera would try and over-compensate for the high amount of light I had coming in and the pictures wouldn’t come out right… so I put on my big boy pants and went for full manual mode.  I set the aperture as low as it would go, iso at 100, and then played around with the shutter speed.  I also learned that with the flash on in manual mode, your fastest shutter speed was 1/200th.  I’m not sure the reasoning on this and I’d imagine I could have over-ridden it some how, but after previewing the flash shots, I didn’t like them anyway and abandoned the use of the flash.  The shot I ended up going with was a 1/60th second exposure, f4 aperture (lens was slightly zoomed, and it was the kit lens, so I had to go with f4 even though I wouldn’t have minded going lower), and iso 100.  It came out quite beautifully, and I get to showcase another of my hobbies.  Android collectibles from the amazing Andrew Bell.  Yes, I am a nerd… but you’re here reading this article, so I’m sure you already knew that.  I think I’ve gone on long enough for now…  Here it is:

“Invasion”

There are weeks when it is hard to pick one photo out of around 50-100 shots I have… but this week was the hardest yet.  I had around 1000 photos to pick from.  Heather and I were married April 9th on Fort Myers Beach in Florida, and the next day we left for our Honeymoon, a 7 day Western Caribbean Cruise.  We visited 4 ports and saw and did so many amazing things, that it was impossible to pick a “best one”.  There were SO many pictures I would have loved to have used in this project… but I have to go with just one for this week’s pick.  I decided to go with a shot of the main palace at the Xunantunich Mayan Ruins in Belize.  This shot spoke to me most among all of my MANY favorites simply because of the history that can be seen in just one single image.  As I am finding out during this project, I can’t help but imagine what once was.  What did this palace look like in its prime?  What were the people like?  How much has changed in the well-over 1000 years since it was constructed?

“Xunantunich”

Whew, what a busy couple of weeks!  Heather and I went to Fort Myers Beach Florida for our sunset wedding with our immediate families and a couple close friends.  Everything was absolutely amazing.  I took this shot the night before the wedding on the beach during low tide.  It was after a great night of eating out and sitting around with family and friends just talking and enjoying the absolutely amazing weather.  That night, and the whole trip itself is something Heather and I will never forget and will always look back on with fond memories.  This was a 30 second exposure taken from where the water would usually be during the day, but since this was night and low tide, you could walk out further than usual.  I loved the way the light was reflecting off some water and the glow of Fort Myers Beach at night.  It was beautiful there and I would love to go back some day.  I hope to have week 15 posted tomorrow, so keep an eye out, then I’ll be back on my regular photo-posting schedule.

“Low Tide”

I have still taken a photo for this week and will take one for next week… but I am getting married in Florida this weekend (or if you’re reading this, I am married now actually), and will be on a cruise out of the country the rest of next week with out internet access.  Because of this, my photo postings will be delayed until after we return from our honeymoon.  Once I am back I will post the photos I took for week 14 and week 15!   They should be some good ones!