One Dad's Life

The "Official" Easter 2012 Portrait!

And without further ado, here is our "official" Easter 2012 Portrait of the kids!

And, yes, every year I take pictures of our kids in front of the same floral arrangement at our church! 

This year, I've been doing a 52-week photo challenge with some people on flickr and either my skills are increasing, or at least I'm noticing my flaws, because now that it's done I'm seeing a lot of problems with this shot!

In any case, that is Rachel on the left at age 10 and Rebecca on the right at age 16 and driving! (PT Cruiser, stick shift!)

52 Weeks of Photography - 2012 Style!

I think one of the most useful motivational sayings is "practice makes perfect."  This seems to hold true no matter what subject area you are talking about - learning a musical instrument, painting, acting, writing, cooking, and even walking (think back to when you were one)!

In fact, experts tell you that it takes something like 80 BILLION hours* of practice to become really really really good at something.  They call this proficiency.

Well now, in the area of photography, if you browse Flickr at all, you'll stumble across people doing 365 day challenges and 52 week challenges where the idea is that you take and post a new picture every single day (or every week) for an entire year.  Lots of people are reluctant to start because "they aren't any good",  but by the end of the period, THEY ARE GOOD!  At the very least they get a lot better.

So, I've always wanted to try that with photography, too! (me too, me too!)

Naturally, I've never done anything about it.  Enter my online friend Samantha Renns and my big mouth.  See Samantha had pretty much the same thoughts - she always wanted to DO a 52 week thing, but started and stopped and didn't keep up with it.  Now Samantha is already a fantastic photographer (and makes her living at it), but you can always get better, right?  This is where Samantha did a really dumb thing.  SHE WROTE IN PUBLIC THAT SHE WAS REALLY TRULY DEFINITELY GOING TO DO IT THIS TIME.  Get that?  IN PUBLIC.  On Facebook.  Now she is stuck.  She doesn't want to have angry mobs at her home if she misses a week, does she?  No!  So, she has to do it.  She even said that she has a LIST of the subjects for each week.  Wow.  She's serious.

Now, here's where I did an even dumber thing.  So far, I'm completely not involved, right?  No responsibility, no angry mobs at MY door.  Well,  I go and (trying to be all encouraging and stuff, because I'm nice like that) I tell Samantha, "Hey, this is really great!  Good for you!  I can't wait to see what you come up with!"  (so far, not too bad, right?  Stay tuned.)  "Hey, do you know what you should do?"  (look for it, here it comes) "YOU SHOULD PUBLISH YOUR LIST SO OTHER PEOPLE CAN PARTICIPATE!"  

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding.  (That's the stupid bell going off)

Now, to my credit, I didn't really expect anyone to listen to me, in particular an online friend, right?  I mean, we aren't that likely to run into each other at Dierbergs and have to feel all embarrassed about ignoring such a brilliant (stupid) idea, right?  'Cause, chances are, we could pass right by each other and honestly not notice because guess what?  Online, THERE IS PHOTOSHOP!  Also, I mainly post pictures of flowers and other in-animate objects... NOT MYSELF.  (foreshadowing, people, try to keep up)

Well, the next thing I know, I'm getting an invitation from Ms. Renn, asking me to join her new 52 Week Photography Challenge for 2012 on Flickr.

Awesome.

Honestly, I have no choice but to join what with my encouragement and all, but by now I'm not really feeling all that energetic about a 52 week project, right?  To make it all worse, what is Week One?  A B&W self-portrait - natural.   I wasn't sure what "natural" meant, but I took it to mean no Mardi Gras masks and no "manipulation."

And that, my friends, is why last night, in the middle of the night when half the family was sleeping and the other 25% (other than me) was in their room laughing hysterically over inane YouTube videos with her friends, I was in my living room, setting up tripods and step-stools, getting the lighting, exposure, and fill flash JUST RIGHT, and practicing posing while not looking like I had just triggered my camera's two second timer and thrown the little remote control onto the couch.

In my mind, I have pretty much failed on all of those tasks, BUT THIS IN WEEK ONE folks.  Look out for Week 52.  It will be something completely different.  Oh, and luckily, not every week is a self-portrait.

For your own safety, I recommend not enlarging this photo.  You've been warned.

*80 Billion hours was a completely made up statistic because I was unwilling to look up the real number.  Your actual time should be much less.

 I used a Nikon D60 with the kit 18-55mm lens, on a tripod, a little negative exposure compensation, and fill flash at the end of the exposure at -2.7 stops.

New Fingernails!

Rachel turned 10 a couple of weeks ago and one of her gifts were these fingernail decals from her sister.

Wordless Wednesday - Quarry at Sunset

There is an abandoned quarry in Lemay called Ruprecht Quarry.  Last night my wife drove by it and saw PERFECT lighting on some of the old buildings and urged me to go take pictures.   So, off I scurried.  Unfortunately, the sun had dipped below the trees when I got there, so the buildings were no longer lit up, but I still got a couple of good sunset pictures!

These are actually different pictures taken from the same location, but I applied the "Advanced Tone Mapping" plug-in for GIMP on the second one in an attempt to bring out some of the building details, as well as the amazing sunset.  The "Advanced Tone Mapping" plug-in lets you simulate the High Dynamic Range effect that is so popular, but with only a single photo to start with instead of two.  It works pretty good, actually.

Taken with a Nikon D60, 18-55mm, f3.5-5.6 kit lens.

Wordless Wednesday - Homecoming 2010

My oldest daughter, Rebecca, on her way to her first homecoming dance. No, she did not go as a lumberjack! This was phase one - hair (done by my wife, Dianne). She went to a friend's house for getting dressed and makeup, then out to Francis Park for pictures, Del Pietro's for dinner, then the dance, then overnight at another friends house.

All pictures taken with a Nikon D60, f3.5-5.6 18-55 mm kit lens. Click on the first picture for a larger version.

Next two shots at Francis Park in St. Louis, after getting dressed for the actual dance.

Wordless Wednesday - She Can Fly!

This past summer, my oldest daughter, Rebecca, attended the UDA Pom-Pon camp with the rest of her High School's dance team.  I snapped these pictures of her performance on the second to last day.  The camp has GOT to be grueling on the girls - at the time this series of pictures were taken, they had already been dancing for over 8 hours on this one day!

Taken with a Nikon D60, ISO 1600, 125 mm, f5 at 1/40 second.   It was a real challenge to balance the low light, and fast moving subject.  This is where having professional (and fast) lenses could really help!  Handheld from across the gym.

The windup!

She's flying!

Landing!

Ta Da!!!

Wordless Wednesday - Moon Shot, Version 2

The moon is one of those subjects that always SEEMS like a good idea to take a picture of, but in actual practice rarely turns out the way you can see it with your eyes.  The reason is that your eyes can see a much wider dynamic range at once than the ol' camera.

As it turns out, the last time I tried to do this was over two years ago!  Apparently, it was quite traumatizing.

As a bonus today, if you click on the picture, you can grab a bigger version, suitable for smaller desktop wallpaper, or click HERE for an even BIGGER version.   My gift to you (for personal, non-commercial use only!) See what I do for you?

Exposure information after the picture.

So, if you expose for the moon, which is ASTOUNDINGLY bright, everything around it is just black.  If you expose for the surroundings, the moon is just a round light, completely blown out.

My solution to this dilemma is to do two exposures and sandwich them together.  Even that poses certain challenges, as the moon actually moves quite fast in the sky compared to your point of reference.

Here are the particulars on the two exposures used in this picture, which I took in my driveway yesterday using my trusty Nikon D60, mounted on a Bogen 3021 tripod, with 3047 head.  The shutter was released with my infra-red remote.  I manually focused on the moon.  Camera was in full manual mode, meaning I could set both shutter speed, and aperture.

Clouds: ISO 100, 125 mm, f11, 5 second exposure.

Moon: ISO 100, 125 mm, f11, 1/2 second exposure.

I cut the moon out of the second picture, and pasted it over the burned out moon in the first picture using GIMP. I then tweaked the composite levels a bit, so it looked as close as possible to what I saw with my eye outside.  Clever, no?

I like how the clouds are all blurry in this shot (due to 5 second exposure, with moving clouds) while the moon remains sharp.  I think what I really need to do is get one of those adaptors to mount my camera on my telescope, and get cool closeup pics of the moon!  That's ONE item for my birthday wish list...

Wordless Wednesday - Fireworks at Jefferson Barracks

The last couple of years, we've gone to the Fourth of July celebration that is held in the historic section of Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis.  They hold a concert and then the traditional fireworks at the end.  This year, I took 138 pictures of the fireworks!  In general, I did a better job than last year, I think, but haven't had a chance to go through them, yet. 

This shot looked good in camera, so it is the first to be posted.

Nikon D60, 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens.

Taken with the camera on a tripod, 100 ISO speed, manual focus (at infinity), f10, bulb shutter time.  I'd hold the shutter open random amounts of times to capture some bursts.  This shot was 2.6 seconds.

Click for a size appropriate for many desktops, if you so desire!

Wordless Wednesday - The Ants are Big This Year!

When I saw this ant at Gringo Jones, I knew that I had to have it! 

Nikon D60, 18-55mm, f3.5-5.6.  Handheld, used built in flash to fill with somewhere around -2.3 or -2.7 stops compensation on the flash (don't remember!)  Click on the picture for a larger version with less jaggies!

Wordless Wednesday - Peek-a-Boo!

My dog, Maggie, "hiding" in the Daylillies...where it is COOL!

Nikon D60, 18-55mm kit lens.  Cropped in GIMP (started out in portrait mode, changed my mind).  Click for larger version.