General Update

Its been awhile since I've blogged. I've been very busy.

Last weekend I had to go to Columbia in pursuit of a job opportunity, so some of the St. Louis crew came out and hung out with Morgan and I for the day. Little Becca is sweet and adorable in real life, and photogenic when captured in two dimensions.




This one ("Sleepin", above) was taken from the tripod with a remote shutter control, in a very dark room with only a bathroom light on behind the camera. F4.5 and a three second shutter speed gathered the light necessary to create a viable image. She wasn't moving (tee hee!) so blurring wasn't an issue.




This ("Trust" above) is my favorite of the swimming pool set. The positioning of Becca's arms is perfect, and like alot of my favorite images, this one gets better with repeated viewing.




I like the diagonal composition of this image and the detail of the bubbles around Jennie as she plays "where did momma go?"



I like the hot tub pic just for the gimmick value. Long exposure time (1.5 seconds) gives a neat effect to the swirling water.

I also acquired a new vehicle yesterday, as my old Civic's engine failed catastrophically at 252,000 miles. I have affectionately named this 1997 Honda Passport "The Crate", and it was the cheapest Honda I could find in good running order. On the road to my house, my wife demonstrates the 4 wheel drive thusly:



F2.8, 1/2000 shutter speed did a good job of freezing detail of the water and rocks being thrown up by the tires.

More updates to come hopefully soon, including some nice bird pics I managed to grab on a recent sunny day.

Family Love

Not my family, but I'm sorta LIKE family to them. I was feelin' the love anyway.

Canon 50mm 1.8 and portraiture

Got a new lens for Christmas, the famous Canon 50mm 1.8 IS. Supposed to be an excellent "must have" lens for the Canon shooter, an incredibly good lens for around $100.

A review of the lens can be found by clicking here.

I haven't had much of an opportunity to play with it yet, but so far I'm quite impressed. It focuses precisely and has excellent light gathering properties.

A good friend of mine is quite beautiful but self conscious in front of a camera. I convinced her to let me take a few pics while she was watching TV. The light source is ambient indoor lighting and a nearby lamp next to the couch. ISO 400, shutter speed 1/30th which is about as low as I can go handheld (without putting the camera on a tripod).

Notice the insanely short depth of field with this lens wide open at 1.8f. The intent is to draw the viewer to her large brown eyes, which are the focal point of the images.

A few more from 2009

As this year finally draws to a close, here are a few random pics from the past year that didn't make it into the blog, but are really worth sharing. I have even more I would like to share, but honestly my best pics are the ones I haven't taken yet. Lets hope 2010 is a better year.

A soccer match between two Mexican teams at Arrowhead Stadium, September 16:




At a Civil War Reenactment September 20:





At the Plaza in Kansas City:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's hoping this post finds you all in good health and in good cheer, and in the company of loving family. I had an opportunity to bring the camera along to my parent's house today and my brother's children, as always, gave me some good opportunities.

Our 2009 American League Cy Young Winner

Photos taken with my EF 75-300mm zoomed all the way in, September 9, 2009.






This is not one pitch, in fact if you look at the dirt on the pitching mound you can see that the second two pitches were delivered much later in the game.

Congratulations to Zack!

My wife

My photos are improving and I'm getting more comfortable behind the camera all the time. My wife is modeling for me alot these days and is getting comfortable on both sides of the camera.

At a playground in Warrensburg.




At a wedding in downtown Kansas City.


At a wedding rehearsal (nope, not the same wedding).


At the shooting range, and posing with one of her steel targets felled from 50 yards away (with a .45 pistol!!!).



At home in a makeshift studio constructed from inexpensive household materials and previously owned studio lighting I got for cheap off of craigslist.



I have many other good photos I really want to share. Hopefully I will find the time to update again soon.