Wednesday, August 19, 2009

State Fair'n it

Attending a state fair is always a unique experience. Where else can you find so many options of food on a stick?

The Indiana State Fair is no exception. Scott and I did the whole fair experience last week: Rode the Fair Train, ate tasty-but-bad-for-you foods, and took in the balloon glow.

I found photographing an evening at the state fair a great chance to challenge myself behind the camera. Throughout the evening, I was constantly adjusting exposure settings to compensate for the fading light. For the price, you can't beat the photo opps at the fair!

See the whole set in my Flikr Stream here.










Tuesday, August 11, 2009

A Rainy Evening

A few shots from after the rain came through this evening...





By the way, Digital Photography School has a whole thread dedicated to the 50mm. Seriously, the whole thread is a great example of its versatility. Have I mentioned I'm in love this that lens...oh, I have...like a hundred times...

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A week of composition

For Amy's Photo Week, the topic of interest was composition. I found this to be quite the challenge. The idea was to pick a principle of composition to focus on for the week and shoot with it in mind.

I pretty much failed at this concept! It felt really unnatural to me for some reason. So, I modified the concept a bit. The week was spent shooting whatever I found interesting, then examining the pics I like best, and figuring out which composition principle drew me to the photograph.

Not too surprising, two of my favorite shots I would consider in the realm of lines and curves. Of course, they all have multiple principles within them, but I feel these first two are dominated by lines.




This final shot I would consider negative space in action...


If you want to see the rest of my favs, check out my set on Flikr.




Thursday, June 18, 2009

Father's Day at the Library of Congress

One place I've spent a massive amount of time browsing is the Library of Congress Digital Archives. It almost sounds smart to spend that much time in a library, even if it's only virtually!

The archives are full of old photos free of copy right restrictions (for the most part.) Combine that with some Flikr inspiration found in pennylrichardsca's photostream and suddenly I've got a nearly instant personalized Father's Day gift.

Here's the concoction:

This picture from the digital archives, which I believe might
be the original pagoda at the track (or at least one like it.)


+


This picture I took of the 2009 Indy 500 Pace Car



=

This gift for my dad.
(I love the way the guy in the front is eye-ing that hot ride!)




Happy Father's Day, Dad! Hopefully, you don't get your computer fixed till after this weekend...


Saturday, June 13, 2009

Dog Olympics


One item on my neglected list of 28 for 28 was to donate my time. You might remember this post a few months ago about volunteering through photography. I contacted my favorite animal rescue organization, ARPO, and volunteered to take pictures at different events. Here are my favorites from their annual Dog Olympics fundraiser a few weekend ago.

Anticipation building before the Pie Eating Contest.
(The people ate regular pies and the pups ate cupcakes from a dog bakery.)



One of a litter of adoptable puppies and one of the youngest volunteers.


The winner for the Bark Contest, by a landslide.
(A surprising amount of stage freight going around that day!)


To see the whole set, click here.


Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The Perfect Storm for Photography

Last night, "the perfect storm" for photographing lightning passed just north of our home. It was really fun to play with manual camera settings and enjoy the beautiful show the skies were performing.

I set the camera up on the tripod and used the remote to control the shutter. For the pictures from earlier in the evening, I cranked the aperture nearly as high as I could to allow for a longer shutterspeeds without being over exposed. As night fell, I continued to lengthen the shutterspeed to increase my chances of catching a strike.





Monday, June 1, 2009

A Sky Timeline

Saturday evening, Scott and I were driving home from Danville. We were in seperate cars at the time, I was following, one eye in front of me and one eye on the sky. The sun shining through the clouds was beautiful. All the sudden Scott pulled over and said we have to get a shot of that...my thoughts exactly.

We enjoyed the little stop, took a few shots, and continued on our way. About the time we're rolling into Lebanon, 30 minutes up the road, Scott calls on the cell phone to tell me a funnel cloud was spotted a few miles north of Lebanon. Evidently, over my singing along with the radio, I didn't hear the tornado siren going off in town. I spent the rest of the ride home, about 30 more minutes listening to local talk radio station.

The radio advised of a possible tornado headed toward Sheridian at 8:45, just the time we'd be driving though! We decided to forge ahead. I took this shot out the window on our way into town.


We finally made it home where we proceeded to stand outside and take in the amazing depth of colors in the sky. Luckily, we never saw any funnel clouds or tornados, and the skys finally calmed down after the sun went down. These last two shots are from our place.


Anyone remember the end of Ghost Busters? Same sky...

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Greatest Spectacle in Parades

Okay, that's a lie, there are technically two greater spectacles in parades... allegedly... But can you see 33 race car drives, a caveman, and a dragon at the freak'n Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? I doubt it! Only at the 500 Festival Parade can you take in that kind of diversity.

Here's my fave shots from the day:


That dragon had just eaten a young man and he doesn't chew very well...


This is my very favorite of the day. 
I managed to get the officer's face nearly in focus and capture the movement!


Yes, that is a caveman sitting next to Paul Tracey!
The lengths teams will go to in order to please a sponsor is amazing.


The Monument reflected in a tuba.


The view from our seats.


Friday, May 15, 2009

Photo Week - Checkered Flag Style

Is it me, or does time go by insanely fast?! We're already here at Friday, the photo finish day of this Photo Week.  

The challenge this week was to take pictures inspired by the high contrast black and white checkered flag that will be waiving someone to victory next Sunday at the Indianapolis 500. 

This first picture is actually primarily black and white, for the other two I removed the color afterwards. These are flowers from a Lilly of the Valley plant we have out in the yard. 

What I love about black and white photography is how shapes and composition catch the eye. Black and whites always look so graphic. Love'em! 



Sunday, May 10, 2009

Photo Week - Checkered Flag Style

May in Indy is an exciting time, so much happening even if you're not a racing fan. And now that I've got the mini-marathon under my belt, I'm ready to take in the rest of the other festivities the month has to offer. So I'm thinking, let's do this thing right with a Black and White Photo Week. You know, Black and White, like a checkered flag...yeah? Who's with me?!

Here's the plan: Shoot all week and post'em on Friday for a photo finish...sorry, had to do it.

What's a Photo Week without a kick off shot? 






Friday, May 1, 2009

A Long Way To Go...

Today, the eve of the Mini-Marathon, I've been having some anxiety about the monumental challenge ahead. Okay, "monumental" might be extreme, but I am in no way a skilled runner, therefore to me this is monumental.  

Then this morning, while on a walk through the neighborhood, we came across this guy.  Our little crayfish friend was at least a half mile from the lake and that's assuming he went straight through some yards. No joke, from the time we first crossed paths till this picture was taken, this guy had traveled more than three tenths of a mile in the curb gutter. So, I'm thinking, if this tiny little crayfish can travel thousands of feet on those little crusty legs and holding those huge claws in the air, I can do 13.1 miles tomorrow morning. Thanks, Little Crayfish!

Taken with my highly adored 50mm at f-3.2 with the camera on aperture priority. 

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Lightpainting Take One

Ever since I did this Love shot for Photoweek, I've been wanting to play with light and long exposures.  Then a few weeks back DIYPhotography.net had this post on Lightpainting, which refueled this desire (along with a little warmer weather around here...)

So we got together with our good friends and unbelievably creative people Amy and Alex last night to create these:





For these shots we cranked the ISO, set the shutter speed to "bulb", and mounted the camera on Amy's sweet tripod. 

We're hoping to put together another evening of lightpainting in the near future and further develop our techniques.  But as a first effort, I think these turned out quite well!



Friday, April 10, 2009

I played with my food

What do you do when you have 4 stale, purple Peep bunnies laying around for a whole week? Make a shot a stop-motion video, you say! You read my mind.

Here is a quick and dirty first attempt at stop motion. It's crude, but that adds to the charm, right??



Sunday, April 5, 2009

Spring in Action

I find it amazing how quickly Mother Nature snaps out of her bleak winter cover. In just a matter two weeks the small green shoots in the backyard bloomed into beautiful daffodils. Thanks to Sara for throwing down the challenge to capture this sign of warm things to come. 




While I was laying in our flower bed, also picked up these...


 

Monday, March 23, 2009

Pits on Parade

Ever since my friend, Amy, sent me this link about giving through photography I've been wanting to take action, but of course, I haven't... Part of my reluctance steams from a lack of confidence in my work...So, this weekend I did a little "test shoot" with my parents pack.

Meet Max and Deacon, both shelter adoptees, both very spoiled...

Max

Deacon

Max refusing to do a trick without a treat.
(Like I said, spoiled!)



Thursday, March 12, 2009

Spring, come on down!

The first sign of spring in my backyard!

Breakfast @ the Uptown Cafe (#19)

A little update on the 28 for 28 list, and yes, I'm a bit behind on posting. Is it me or 09' flying by?!

So for February's new place (#19) it was off to Noblesville for Breakfast at the Uptown Cafe on the southwest corner of the courthouse square. 

The building won't blow you away, kinda looks like someone gave up in the middle of a paint job...


But the inside is super cute!


The menu is pretty basic, but tasty, and the cook is right behind the counter making all those yummy breakfast delights.

Bottom line:
A great place to grab a quick bite and cup of coffee before hitting the Saturday morning auction.