Monday

Monday, some shots snapped, not much in the tank though.

crack of dawn

More early morning light just creeping over the valley where I walk my dog. I used to sleep in, now I can't even if I try, but I seem to find photo subjects that appeal to me more easily.

Went down to Durand Eastman Park this morning with my old photo buddy Johnny (dog).

Skies were wild

Skies were wild this morning, I love the changes in weather lately, good photo ops.

misty morning

The only time I've had to shoot lately has been between 6:30-7:00am, just really busy, but the morning light has been interesting none the less.

morning moon

When I walked out he door this morning I felt a warm breeze and saw a hazy moon still shining pretty bright. Made me wish I could just hang out for awhile.

dual natural light sources

A fleeting moment as the sun was setting. The long light from the side window was pouring in while the dim light from the open garage was illuminating the front of Leif. I had to shoot a high ISO creating a fair bit of noise, so in Photoshop I used a noise reduction filter on one layer and dropped the opacity on the adjusted top layer to 75%. A little soft, but not bad.

ISO exercise

Today the students and I went outside to shoot four pictures of the same thing, but for each shot we adjusted our ISO settings. The point was to show the students the trade-offs between between sensitivity levels, so we shot at ISO 100,400,800, and 1600. Most kids have never bought a ton of film, especially different speed films, they only use 400 in my photo one class. I then had them zoom way in and see the "Noise", or the digital equivalent to film "grain". The higher the ISO the faster the sensor responds to light, but the file accumulates more noise. The hope is that they will then learn to pick the appropriate ISO's as they shoot stills to action shots, and bright light to low light. I shot the flower at ISO 50 since it was so sunny out and I wanted low pixel noise. I shot the moss at 1600 to illustrate the noise especially in the rock portion to the right.

Easter Morning

Nice morning light, and a relaxed pace.

Town Egg Hunt

What town Easter Egg Hunt would be complete without a creepy Easter Bunny? Seriously, the kids enjoyed every minute of it, thanks town of Irondequoit! I saw several old friends that have moved back to the town we grew up in, it's funny how many people move back to Rochester after trying to buy a house somewhere trendy. 600k for a small bungalow is ridiculous at any time, but even crazier these days when the price of everything else is through the roof. Malibu is cool, but I'll settle for upstate.

Morning Walk

Took a walk along the new Genesee River Boardwalk this morning, and brought along a 70-200mm f2.8 Tamron lens. It was my first time using it, and it seems like a really nice focal length for many applications, can't wait to shoot certain parts of a wedding with it this Spring.

Some Older Paintings

Started photographing some of my old work yesterday, funny to look at now, but oddly I still like it. Notice my pre Katrina New Orleans painting. I took a photo of that scene during Mardi Gras back in 2004. Love that City.

Chinese Acrobats

Once again I was surprised by an event, and photographically unprepared, but I did have one of my cameras on me with a 50mm f1.4 lens, which helped since flash would be inappropriate. The skill that these performers displayed was incredible.

Restoration for Mom and Dad

This is a digital restoration of my Mom and Dad's 1970 wedding picture taken at the Crescent Beach Hotel.

Lots of discoloration, scratches, and a tear were repaired. I printed it on Archival Matte paper and re-framed it, it looks like it just left the lab in 1970.

snow geese

Stuck all day with a 17-35mm wide angle lens, so one can only zoom in so far, but try to find the Snow Geese anyway.

glimpses from the market

I always find snapshots I think are cool at the public market, maybe not my best work, but interesting to me none the less. A lot of times the shots are nostalgic in some sense, and trigger memories from my childhood.

A LOT OF UNEXPECTED FUN

Shot a bunch of pics at a BMX demo today at Park Ave Bike. I was working and didn't even know it was going down, so I had only my camera, a really wide lens, and no flash. I did the best I could while still helping customers.

Lucky Kids

We have cleaned, labeled, and maintained our little fleet of SLR's. The students don't realize how lucky they are to have access to these new Canon SLR's. Back in high school I had to borrow my mom's AE1, which was a sweet camera in the 80's, but these 10 megapixel XT's are really sweet. There is even a token Nikon in the mix.

Long Light

I find myself at the playground a lot lately, and these excursions are often the only free time I have to take photos.This is cool with me, besides my son lives for the action. I still love the late day light most, long shadows add drama and visual interest. Lens flare isn't the same on a digital sensor as Ectachrome or Velvia, but it works a little.

Student Restoration Projects

Students are restoring old family photographs using Adobe Photoshop, some pictures were in really bad shape, and others just needed color and level tweaking.

Great attitude about daily photography

Even though this guy's selling an Iphone App, his attitude in regards to daily photography is awesome. I want my students to remember that it isn't always about how great your gear is, it's about taking pictures with what ever you have available.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lotlwm38OM&feature=player_embedded#

cool blog

http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2010/03/exploring-risk-conversation-yields.html

Some things still make sense

If you're feeling beat up at the end of the week and sick of negative news surrounding us all the time, take a "news diet" and enjoy the simple things. Just watching these two play after some good Indian food with good friends last night was a good thing for me. No lousy sound bytes or garbage journalism this weekend for us, I just plan to shoot a lot of photos and focus on some family time.

indy grab

Mark "indy grab" Pineway

Another skate shot

enjoying the longer days

My favorite light is long evening light, not just for photos, but for mood.

Going Big

More skate photos, Tyler was going big all day.

Skate Sequence

Had fun snapping some shots over at the skate park last night. This sequence will be hard to see compared to the large 13"x19" print, but gives you the idea. It's really wide angle, so I'll make a cropped in version so the trick is visible on a web page, or smaller screen.