300,000

How many people get to see a car get to 300,000 miles let alone take pictures to document the event? I don't know if it's the greatest idea to be taking photos of my odometer while going 60, but oh well, what's done is done...

Redesigned Website!

I've just recently updated my website to use WordPress now. Which is nice because now it'll be as easy to update as this blog here, but is much more customizable. If anyone is ever looking for a website that is easy to add content too you should seriously look into using WordPress. It took me a while to figure out how to fit it to my needs (and I still have a few issues to fix) it's such a breeze to add pages or photos once it's all set up.

Now all that being said though, I don't know how well I'll keep up this blog. My website is more professional, so this can still be my "rant" area, but any new photos or design work is definitely going to be posted there not here.

I really need to put myself out there more if I want to get more freelance though, hopefully this new site is a good first step.

Yes We Can....

What?

What can we do? Obama gives great speeches, he sounds like he cares, but what exactly is he going to do? He doesn't have much history in higher government so we can't look at that, and while his speeches are great and inspiring and hopeful, what CAN we do?

I think people have become apathetic and cynical of our government, but we can't follow blindly at some pretty words that Obama has to say. I like the humanity and caring he seems to have, but it's all so vague. He's talks in a very inspiring way, but what is he inspiring us to do?

I saw a graph showing what some polls said the people based their vote on. The highest percentage point was "change". What the hell does that mean? Change can be a multitude of things, McCain would have been a change too. Change can be good or bad, so what kind of change, can we be just a little more specific?

I didn't feel very strongly about either candidate, and I don't generally talk about politics, but I think many people have been blinded by their extreme dislike for Bush that they've been following this hope for an undefined "change" in the future.

I'm not trying to be a naysayer here, nor am I really bashing Obama. I think he's an intelligent guy and there are checks and balances in place in our government to prevent anything too extreme from happening (though if everything ends with a democratic majority I could be wrong). Both sides have valid points and ideas, people that are too left or right wing get blinded by being with the "I'm right, you're wrong" mentality and don't even consider another point-of-view.

What I'm saying is, we need to question our leaders and the decisions that are made. If we put too much faith in any one person (they are human after all) I think we are putting ourselves up for disappointment. And I feel that's happening somewhat with Obama supporters.

Be idealistic, but realistic, things won't "change" over night (and Obama did acknowledge, which I really like, even if it is vague).

At least Europe will start liking us again though.

Will's 1st Birthday!

He also makes a great Captain America...

Will is Indifferent

Even when grandma and grandpa fawn all over him...

Halloween Anthem

My sister asked me to take photos on Monday of her quintet's dress rehearsal for their Halloween Concert that was yesterday. I think I got some pretty good shots, though I could have done without the music stands being in the way and the driving to Fort Worth during rush hour part. But all in all it was pretty good.

I did get to use two cameras though (borrowed my bf's) and that was very nice for this kind of shooting. With two cameras I could have a wide-angle lens on one and a telephoto on the other. This way I can shoot with my primes (or my bf's 200L which I may have to steal) and not be too much out of convenience that a zoom lens would provide. Also, carrying around two cameras makes you look much cooler, there's been studies, it's been proven, that's a fact.

Again, I like the black & white shots better than color, and I also really liked the more abstracted shots I got. Brass instruments are pretty...






See more here.

Voted

I voted yesterday, and... it didn't do much for me. I don't really feel like it accomplished anything. Oh well, at least I took part of our constitutional right.

Will is One Year Old!

Well, almost.

My brother and sister-in-law hired me to take my nephew's first year photos. I have to say, he's one cute kid with some big blue eyes, which helps make my job easier of taking cute photos. They all came out pretty well I think, but for some reason I'm partial to the black and white versions...

See more here.

298985

And according to the file name of this photo I'm over 20,000 shutter clicks on my camera. I haven't even had that thing a year yet...

Just In Case You Didn't Know...

Boscoe is pretty damn cute...


Which is good because he's also pretty obnoxious. I don't have much else to say other than that, but I felt the need to post something. Maybe I'll write something more thoughtful later, but don't hold your breath.

Lurch-esque

So, I'm playing around with off camera flash a bit more and I tried taking a cool picture of my BF in his tuxedo tails, but mostly he just looks kind of Lurch like.

I kind of really like the images still, even though this isn't really the look I was going for. Hopefully Trombonista BF doesn't mind me posting pictures of him on the world wide web.

Haven't adjusted the exposure much, but I did blur and take some of the detail out of the door in the background on the first one.



I guess a trombonist is pretty scary costume for Halloween?

By the Railroad Tracks

Trigger Me This

Just got my Cactus wireless flash trigger today and I'm having some fun with the off camera flash. Except for the fact that I'm too lazy to set up the flash on my tripod and end up holding the flash with my left hand and my camera in my right. It's kind of tiring, especially when I decided to try some macro shots with my very long and heavy lens, which is a little hard to hold steady with one hand.

Anyways, just by being able to take the flash off the top of the camera I'm able to get some much nicer lighting and control where the shadows get placed, you know, somewhere other than right behind the subject.

I also learned that the sync speed is definitely 1/200 on my flash. Any faster and I got the "curtain" effect where the picture gets a black bar on the right side because the flash didn't have enough time to light the whole scene. Good to know I guess.

So, here's some photos of my little patio flowers...

Accepted...NOT!

Yay, more iStockphoto acceptances, and also a few more rejections, but all is good. Hopefully when I start getting a good portfolio of photos up on that site I'll start getting a fair amount of downloads and make a little extra cash. So far I've got 1 download that accounts to $1.25. I am so rich, NOT!

I remember using "NOT" all the time, what happened to that? I think I'm going to make a concentrated effort and bring that back into everyday usage. I don't think it was annoying enough the first time around, NOT! So easy to use and set-up, and so NOT funny, but also kind of is in it's own stupid way.

Anyways, my neck hurts, like... something that hurts a lot, I'm not really sure why, but it's bothering me quite a bit. Too much sitting and staring at the computer I suppose. I don't think my posture is THAT bad, but maybe it is. I think I'll try to start doing my cheapy yoga tapes again, they make you really stretch and think about how you're holding yourself. Just being aware of your posture actually helps a lot I've found, I'm just not very consistent about it.

I guess I need to go to bed now, maybe I'll try a different pillow or something. My neck is really killing me again right now. Oh, how I look forward to another day at work tomorrow...NOT!

Bewitching Burlesque

Okay, so I went to a burlesque show last night. Pretty random I know, not my usual venue, but it was interesting. It was mostly entertaining dance without being too raunchy (mostly, there were a few points...you know). All in all it was pretty fun.

I did get a few okay photos, but I was at my camera's limits in that place, it was so dark. I thought the photos looked better in black and white because there was just too much of a color cast to the light, which created a cool atmosphere, but created hot pink skin.

Be warned, scantily clad women ahead...

Fight!

Ninja vs. Ninja

You shall die by my blade...

Prophetic or Pathetic?

This 1999 NY Times article does read like a prophecy.

"If they [Fannie Mae] fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry."

BTW - This was sent to me by my brother, I'm not ambitious enough to find things like this myself.

Pseudo HDR

Following a suggestion to try a pseudo HDR (High Dynamic Range) look to some architecture shots from OCU, I think I've found a pretty cool way to process images that is way easier than any tutorials I've found online on how to do HDR (real or fake).

If you even care, here's what I did (using Lightroom): I've amped up the fill light A LOT, increased the blacks, brought up the recovery some, increased the contrast, and added a bit of sharpening.

All in all I think the result looks pretty cool, the only bad part is this process tends to create little halos around contrasty areas of the image, but if you tone down the fill light and recovery some it will usually go away.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Photoshop Masta

Before...

After...

Thank you Shane for figuring out the lighting on this shot. So far the Sigma 20 is looking pretty awesome.

Sigma 20 f/1.8

This...


Is one chunky, monkey lens...




But I think I like it.

This lens is going to take some getting used to, but I really like that it's going to allow me to take very different pictures than I'm able to with any of my other lenses. I think it was definitely worth the $300 (especially since that's $150 cheaper than buying brand new!).