Archives 2011

It was a bright sunny day, but still pretty cold out (although not as bad as it has been, it got to 43 today).  My original destination today was a rock quarry in Nokomis, but on the way there we went by an abandoned house out the middle of nowhere practically.  I really like abandoned and run-down property, I’m not sure why but I always find it interesting.  To see what it is like now and imagine what it once was.  This house looked like it had been abandoned for many years.  The back door was missing and windows were broken.  The odd thing was though that there looks like a full closet of clothes hung up.  I wanted to go inside, but I could see from the missing back door that the floor had holes in it and there was a deep basement underneath that.  I love taking pictures, but I’m not about to get my self stuck in the basement of an abandoned house out in the middle of no where, so I limited my self to snapping photos outside.  I had many shots I liked, but I loved the long shadow in this picture and the haphazard way the power cable is just hanging off the side of the house.

“Disconnected”

Earlier this week, Nokia’s CEO came out and admitted something had to drastically change at Nokia, or they would basically be done…

“We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven’t been delivering innovation fast enough. We’re not collaborating internally. Nokia, our platform is burning.” – Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop

Well, Stephen, the former head of Microsoft’s business division, revealed his master plan to reinvent Nokia… and his answer?  Windows Phone 7.

Seriously.  That’s his answer.  To move from one failing platform to another.  Excuse me while I catch my breath from laughing so hard and wipe the tears away from my face.  This is golden.

During Nokia’s presentation, he presented this ridiculously optimistic graphic, showing what Nokia thinks will happen to phone OS market share:

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I told you to expect snow because that was what was supposed to happen, and while a lot of places got a lot of snow, we didn’t get near the amount we were supposed to (thankfully).  Unfortunately what we did get was ice.  Ice on EVERYTHING.  Sure, my car may have been frozen in the driveway for 4 days… but it sure made for some cool pictures, and this one was my favorite.  I loved how the whole chain link fence was encapsulated in ice, even down to each individual link.

“Frozen”

My subject for this week’s photo is actually my best friend’s 2 year old daughter.  She was having her 2nd birthday party this weekend so we were at their house enjoying the food and cake with them.

I spent a lot of time deliberating on which photo to use this week and it wasn’t an easy choice, but not necessarily because I had a lot of options, but because none really jumped out at me and screamed pick me.  I shot a couple other things this weekend, but I wasn’t really happy with any of those photos, so I ended up going with this one.  I do like it because of the innocence portrayed.   What it would be like to be 2 years old again… your biggest worries when you were going to eat next and when your next nap is!

I am usually not a big fan of black-and-whiting photos, especially this one since she has beautiful bright blue eyes, but this shot had a busy background.  The shirts in the background were bright yellow and bright pink, and it was very distracting from the subject of the photo.  I feel like the black and white really brings the focus back to her and the innocent look on her face.

After finishing up month 1 of my photo 52 project, I have already realized this is going to be a bit more daunting project than I originally anticipated.  I have already had to push and force myself to get out and go shooting.  But, that is also WHY I wanted to do this project.  I wanted to get out and shoot, build some skills, and hopefully get some nice shots along the way.

We’re supposed to have a big snow storm hitting this coming week, so expect a snowy picture for next week!

“Innocence”

Another frigid central Illinois winter day, but what else can one do besides wait for summer?  Well… I guess I could go out shooting, so that is what I did.

I was actually pointed to this week’s location by my Fiancée who knew of this old silo.  It’s actually off a main road, but not one most people have probably driven down.

This really peaked my fascination as I am extremely interested in run down, old, abandoned buildings and locations.  I hope to take more pictures of other abandoned or old places in the coming year!  I liked this photo because of the contrast between the brown weeds and the cold surrounding with the abandoned silo.   Mother nature reclaiming what is her’s.

“Aged”

Whew, it was a COLD day!  It was about 10 degrees outside this morning, so I bundled up and headed over to Lake Sangchris.  I didn’t have an exact place or photo in mind, so I figured I would drive around until I found something that interested me.  I eventually pulled in to one of the little camp areas and wandered off the beaten path.  From behind a group of trees there was an almost deafening sound of geese, so I made my way to where they were.  There had to have been a least 1,000 or more birds over there!  It was crazy!  I clicked off shots with my 70-300mm telephoto lens in sports mode until I couldn’t feel my fingers any more.   I learned to always be ready, especially shooting wildlife because you never know what they’re going to do, or when they will get spooked and take off!  Luckily I got a really cool shot that also happens to have some nice “rule of thirds” applied to it as well 🙂

“Flight”

2011 is shaping up to be quite a year for me.  One, I will be getting married in April.  Two, I have resumed a hobby from long ago thanks to my Fiancee.  Photography.  When I was much younger I loved snapping pictures on cheap little point and shoot cameras.  I’m not sure why, but I always found it to be entertaining, waiting to get the film back from the developer to see how your memories came out.  Like many things in this day and age, photography has gone digital, and sure I followed along with some mid-range point and shoot cameras, but I never had something I had always wanted… an SLR camera, or more specifically for the digital age, a Digital SLR camera.  In August of last year, I got my DSLR (thanks to my then-soon-to-be-Fiancee).  Since then I have been adding accessories and lenses to wish lists, practicing, and reading.  I am very much an amateur, and I have virtually everything to learn.  To help with my learning process I have decided to do a Photo 52 project.  Basically, this is a project where once a week I will post a photo I’ve taken (hopefully that week) that I thought was worthy of sharing.  Some people tackle 365 projects, posting one photo every day for a year, and some day I may attempt one of those, but right now I can’t commit to one photo per day.  But, I hope I can commit to one photo per week for an entire year.

For Week 1 I decided to attempt a self portrait.  I learned… I want my tripod.  It is on back order and will hopefully be here in the next couple weeks.  It was kind of fun to set it up with out a tripod, and a little scary balancing the Canon 550D on top of some empty boxes left over from Christmas, but I ended up getting a shot I was happy with.  I am very much looking forward to this year, going new places, doing new things, and hopefully learning something along the way.  So with out any further delay, here we go.

“Beginning”