Frozen Stream

Frozen Stream

On the other side of the road from the barn lies this stream. I found it hard to caputre its beatuy in the camera. I hope that with more I practice I will find away to caputer the pure beauty in landscape scenery

ISO: 100

Exposure: 1/160 sec

Aperture: f/11.0

Focal Length: 28mm

Red Barn

Red Barn

I felt a little odd standing on the side of the road taking this picture as people zoomed by at 55 mph. As the cars went by slush from the road was picked up by their tires and flung in my direction. Several times I had to quickly dodge the slush to prevent the camera from being a target.

I pass this red barn every day on my way to work. I always wanted to pull off to the side of the road and take a picture of this barn so I finally did.

ISO: 100

Exposure: 1/80 sec

Aperture: f/11.0

Focal Length: 80mm

Flying Cardinal

Flying Cardinal

This was taken in my in-laws backyard. I was so surprised to see cardinals this time of year in Michigan. I really like how I was able to capture the birds as they were landing on the feeder. I hope they enjoyed the food as much as I enjoyed watching them eat.

ISO: 400

Exposure: 1/320 sec

Aperture: f/9.0

Focal Length: 135mm

Snow Pigeon

Snow Pigeon

Well some of us may want to shoot this song bird! No, they are not my favorite brid, but its hard to find many other types of birds still in Michigan during the dead of winter.

Taken in my front yard in, I like that I was able to capture the fresh fallen snow on the pigeons back. You probably will need to zoom in on the image to see it better.

ISO: 320

Exposure: 1/500 sec

Aperture: f/11.0

Focal Length: 135mm

Great Wolf Ice

Great Wolf Ice

This was a shot out of our hotel room at Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City, MI. I really liked the clouds in the background and the blue sky. Was nice to see in the month of February, most of the winter its cloudy in Michigan.

Looking at the ISO I wish I would of dropped it down and/or closed down the aperture. However, I still like the picture.

ISO: 800

Exposure: 1/2000 sec

Aperture: f/5.0

Focal Length: 56mm

Petal Light

Petal Light

In my search for another light to take a picture of I wandered in to our spare bed (junk) room. I really didn’t like this light much when we picked it out but it really has grown on me. The varying depths of frost on the glass make me think of the glass as a series of petals. I also like how the edges of the glass look as if they are glowing.

This light was taken while I was lying on the floor.
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/60 sec
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 70mm

Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse

Well Given that today we had a lunar eclipse I figured what better to take a picture. Not actually a light but as a photographer I suppose I am allowed to bend/break the rules.

This was difficult for me to shoot due to my lack of a tripod and a lens beyond 135mm. All in all I liked this shot of the ones I took because of the stars that also where in the picture. It was also freezing cold outside had to be close to 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you are wondering why ISO 800 well it’s because I was so excited to start shooting and it was so cold I forgot to check some of the camera settings before I took the shot.

ISO: 800
Exposure: 0.8 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 135mm

Lady Bug Light

Lady Bug Light

This light hangs in my daughters room next to her bed. She has to have it on every night or else she cannot sleep. I must admit when my wife picked this Green Lady Bug light out for her I was sure it would scare her! I guess I was wrong; but thats nothing new...

ISO: 1000

Exposure: 1/25 sec

Aperture: f/7.1

Focal Length: 65mm

Seeing Double

Seeing Double

These lights hang in our foyer and above our staircase to the basement. I closed the aperture down to 5.6 and speed the exposure time up to 1/125 of a second to try and capture the soft glowing light they give off.

ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 38mm

Halogen Cylinder

Halogen Cylinder

This is one light of a set of three that hang off the wall in our down stairs bathroom. After taking the photograph it inspired me to do a whole series on Lights. So my challenge over the next week or so is to take pictures of interesting lights.

I have discovered that shooting lights so that you can see ever piece of the light is difficult and so a new challenge was presented.

ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/500 sec
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 135mm

The Lady Bug

The Lady Bug

This is an Orchid my wife is growing in our living room. This is the first time it has actually budded. Its an very difficult plant to grow and I am very excited to see it bloom! The lady bug is the plastic in this photo and a cute touch my wife added to the flower!

ISO: 800

Exposure: 1/30 sec

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 47mm

Who Knew

Who Knew

Who when what we would use plastic for when it was invented. Today I think it is amazing where we can find plastic and its many uses. Its just plain every where! From the Memory Cards in the camera (I wonder why that one CF case is empty...) to the Cell phone and credit cards we use every day!

ISO: 800

Exposure: 1/15 sec

Aperture: f/4.0

Focal Length: 38mm

The Ultimate Plastic

The Ulitmate Logo

Well at least in this case the Ultimate Driving Machine! Not sure how much, if any, plastic there is in this BMW Logo; but I am a huge fan! My favorite Bavarian Motor Works model line up would be the 3 Serires. The M3 would be my favorite car.

I centered the logo in the frame to provide full attention to it. The reflection spots are neat and I think it shows how highly polished this car was.

ISO: 1000
Exposure: 1/60 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 100mm

Glowing

Here is some plastic Lexus style. Yes, this is glowing blue! It was taken off from a Lexus IS250 AWD door sill at the Grand Rapids Autorama. I am consitantly amazed at the attention Lexus provides to the details. However some may argue this is why the car cost $40,000+! I think it shows Lexus' level of commitment to a quality automobile.

ISO: 1600
Exposure: 1/30 sec
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 60mm

Cube

Well Since I couldn't think of anything better to take a photograph of I deciede to take a picture of my latest hobby, a Christmas gift from my wife, A Rubiks Cube. I have solved this about 4-5 times with the help of a guide on solving the cube. All in all its been fun.

Again my 60watt over head room light came in handy for my lighting of this subject.

ISO: 1600
Exposure: 1/15 sec
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 75mm

WingMan

This is the first shot of my new Photo Assignment of Plastic. Its been a long time since I have used this joystick. I thought it would be nice to pretend like I was taking a shot for Logitech's Marketing dept.

Anyway I have tried to align this object using the Rule of Thirds. You can see the center line on the stick is perfectly aligned on the left thrid of this image where as the blue hat is along the top thirds line creating an intersection. This was all done to draw your eye to what I felt was the most intersting piece of this image.

ISO: 1600
Exposure: 1/15 sec
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 35mm

Starting a Craft

Not that I am trying to use this site to sell things, but I think this applys to my photo assigment of getting started. Above are pics taken of my wifes newest craft of making purses. She is trying to get into some local craft shows to sell them. This will be her first time trying to sell items she has made.

From a Photograpghy aspect this was my first time using a background. I liked using it but quickly identified two things to keep in mind when using it.
1. A good solid surface behind the background. I found that I was getting odd color changes in the background having my wife stand behind it and holding it up as well as her shadow.
2. A good source of light.

ISO: 1000
Exposure: 1/60 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 38mm

Growing

Here is a flower of some kind my wife is growing in our basement. It got me thinking it was getting started to Bloom. I really like the roots and I think the fixed 50mm at F1.4 really helps you focus on what this plant is trying todo ... get started.

ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/60 sec
Aperture: f/1.4
Focal Length: 50mm