Happy 4th of July!

July 4, 2010 // Posted in 4th of july, Camera, D60, Nikon (Tags: , , , , , , , ) |  No Comments

Just wanted to say Happy 4th of July to all U.S citizens (wherever you currently are) that are reading this. Take a moment to think of all the patriots past, present and future that make this the best country in the world.

We actually dropped some money on some decent fireworks this year, and it was worth it. They were awesome! The kids loved them and so did my wife and I. I took these just an hour or so ago and I hope you like them, because I sure do.

These were all taken in full manual mode, on a tripod with a remote shutter release. Aperture of 8, and exposure varied between 1 and 3 seconds. ISO 100. My favorite of the bunch is actually the least fancy. It’s the firework with the straight line coming out of it. It’s actually a rocket taking off, and I managed to open the shutter as it flew out. Pretty cool and I was very proud of myself. :-)

Anyway, on with the pics!

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Butterfly in the sky, I can fly twice as high….

June 11, 2010 // Posted in Camera, Family, Nikon, Park (Tags: , , , , , , , , , ) |  3 Comments

These are some quick and dirty photos I took this weekend at the White River Gardens in Indy. Each year they have hundreds (maybe thousands) of butterflies flying around the enclosed garden area. It’s very cool, and if you have the chance, I highly recommend checking it out. Anyway, if you like any of these, please drop a comment. According to google, this site gets a fair amount of unique visitors each day, but no one ever leaves a comment. Yes, I realize that this last sentence was full of self pity, but I love attention, so there you go. Anywho, these were all taken with my D60, Sigma 70-300mm lens, mostly in aperture priority, though some in manual, and ISO 100, 200, or 400.

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Toledo Zoo

June 9, 2010 // Posted in Camera, D60, Family, Zoo (Tags: , , , , , , , , , ) |  1 Comment

We went to the Toledo Zoo this past weekend and although I am still looking through the photos, I wanted to at least share some of them right away. So here you go, and let me know what you think. (The shots of the water at night are from our hotel room). My favorites from this group are the Orangutan, the two shots of the Gorilla, the bald eagle, and the shot of the water reflections without the star filter. These were all taken with either my Sigma 70-300, or my Nikon 50mm lens. Also, you really should hit FS (full screen) to see these in detail. These are somewhat low rez versions, so if you see something you like, let me know and I can send you a high rez version.

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You down with PHP, yeah you know me!

June 1, 2010 // Posted in .NET, Camera, Coding, D60, Nikon, PHP (Tags: , , , , , ) |  2 Comments

I haven’t posted in quite a while because I’ve been busy and haven’t had anything worth talking about. All that has changed!!!! Just kidding, although I am doing some cool stuff. Right now I am teaching myself PHP for a project that a guy from work and I are working on. He had a pretty cool idea, and as neither he nor I knew PHP, we thought it would be a good opportunity to learn it.

I’m using PHP 5, with Netbeans as my IDE. So far, I have to say as a die hard Microsoft .NET coder, PHP is pretty freaking sweet. Seems very easy to jump into and learn. I normally do a lot of java coding for work, and for the past 7 years I had done Microsoft .NET, so it’s pretty neat to learn something new.

Right now the project is pretty hush hush, but hopefully I’ll be able to share some info in the near future. As for pics, the last couple of days I haven’t taken any photos, but today I was able to pull out my camera and snap a few. These were taken in my backyard with my sigma 70-300mm lens.

So…on with the pics!

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It’s the twins birthday!!!

May 26, 2010 // Posted in Birthday, Family, Twins (Tags: , , ) |  No Comments

This is a repost in honor of my twin daughters birthday:

As they were:

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And as they are:





Time flies.

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A plethora of photos!

May 23, 2010 // Posted in Birthday, Camera, D60, Family, Light Tent, Nikon, Swingset, Twins (Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ) |  No Comments

We had the girls third birthday party this weekend, and it went off without a hitch.  The first gallery is some random pics from the party.

Also, I got my light tent up and working, so I took some photos of some stuff around the house, and yes, those are original kenner Star Wars action figures.  In case you care, the white background is called an “infinity sweep” and is used so the back and floor are seamless.  For mine, I used a roll of white paper, and then used a Gaussian blur to get rid of any wrinkles that showed.  My light tent is a cardboard box, some pieces of tracing paper, a roll of white poster paper, and a light.  That’s it.

Finally, I added some pics I took today of the kids on the playset.  I thought they turned out quite well.  So, on with the photos! (click the “All Categories” button to switch the image galleries.  

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Zoo Animals

May 19, 2010 // Posted in Camera, Family, Twins, Zoo (Tags: , , , , , , ) |  1 Comment

I went to the Zoo today with my twin daughters and my mother.  We all had a really good time.  I took these photos while I was there, and to do something a bit different, I added the name of each animal to the photo.  So, have a gander, and let me know what you think.

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Some new twin pics

May 16, 2010 // Posted in Camera, D60, Family, Nikon, Twins (Tags: , , ) |  2 Comments

I just wanted to throw these photos up here before heading off to bed.  I took these today of my twin girls, and I like the way they turned out, so I thought I would share them.  Also, I completed my home made light tent today, so hopefully I’ll have some pics from that soon to post.

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No new photos

May 10, 2010 // Posted in Camera, D60, Nikon  |  1 Comment

So…I haven’t had any new photos to put up lately for a variety of reasons.

The main reasons are:

A)  I’ve been pretty busy.  Work has been keeping me hopping and lately I’ve had to become an expert on some pretty interesting code, which has left me tired at the end of the day.

B) Lack of subjects.  Don’t get me wrong, I love taking photos of my kids, but I feel like I need to start branching out some.  Hopefully this summer will allow me to start taking some photos other than just of them, or at least them in different situations.

C) My back.  I ended up hurting my back pretty badly this weekend, and as that is when I take most of my photos, it explains the lack of photos.

I did get the materials this last weekend to construct a homemade macro light tent, so hopefully, once I am up and around a bit more I can put that together and get some decent macro or “product” type shots taken.  While cleaning out our basement utility room I cam across this really neat incense burner that would make a great macro type photos, so I should have that up soon.

I’ve been looking for classes in my area, because I would like to take some actual photography classes and learn the lingo (key lights, fill lights, etc) and learn how to better compose my images.  However, it seems like unless I want to start in the Fine Arts program at the local college, the only classes I can take are “getting to know your digital camera” and “photoshop elements for beginners” which does NOT interest me.

Finally, I’d like to get some new equipment, primarily flashes, and lighting kits for the home.  I really want to start experimenting with studio lighting and really see what I can do.  However, disposable income has been too easily…disposed of lately, so I need to save up some money before I get anything new (hence the diy light tent).

Anyway, soon I’ll post some photos of the light tent as it’s built, some macro photos, and maybe some info on how I’ve taken some of my photos and what I look for when I’m really trying to get something good.

Until then…..

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New Playset and some (somewhat) decent photos

May 5, 2010 // Posted in Baseball, Camera, D60, Family, Nikon, Swingset (Tags: , , , , , , , , , ) |  1 Comment

We had a brand new Rainbow Play Systems Play Set installed today for the kids.  Why didn’t I build it?  I’m not mechanically inclined, so I  would rather pay the money to have it done right.  Anyway, here are some photos of the newly installed playset along with the kids enjoying it.

Also, I added a couple of pics I took today.  One of a dandelion that had changed into a parachute ball (I’m not making that up, check wiki).  The others are photos of an old baseball mitt I had lying around.  I threw out in the backyard and snapped these photos.  I really, really like them because of how they make the mitt and ball look old and worn.  Anyway, as always, if you see anything you like, drop me a line or follow me on twitter.

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