Day 39, Wednesday, May 30, 2012

So, on Tuesday I started a new job, working for API Healthcare, (that reminds me, I need to update the disclaimer at the bottom of the page.)

Anyways, back to the story, I realized that I could really use some office supplies.  I made a nice little trip to the local Staples, I got a few supplies that I needed.

Getting back to the photograph now, I simply was feeling a bit lazy.  I set my camera up on the tripod, setup my external flash, put a book in the way from the popup flash from lighting the screen, and aimed my flash through a gobo almost directly down on the subject.

Yea, that's what I did.

Day 38 - Tuesday, May 29, 2012

I had a bit of fun with this one.  I was on my way home, thinking about what I was going to shoot for the day when I noticed the little treelike bush thing in a persons yard.  I ended up going around the block, throwing on my telephoto lens.  I had to use the telephoto because standing close to the tree/bush/thing cast my own shadow into the picture.


Also, for post processing I used a new preset I found online for more of a JPEG look as opposed to the RAW look.  I like it.

Day 37 - Monday, May 28, 2012

I'd like to take the time right now for me to give thanks to our veterans.  Both my grandfathers were in World War II and my father was in Vietnam.  It's important to realize that Memorial Day is not just a day off of work, but an actual memorial for both those who served and made it back, and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.  Thank you. 

Day 36 - Sunday, May 27, 2012

This was shot at Dave's Falls state park.  It is a neat little area that Elissa showed me.  Unfortunately, it was packed with Memorial Day tourist type people.  Oh well.

Climbed up onto some rocks above the falls, it was pretty neat to see.

Downside was, once again I was reminded how out of shape I am!  Time for lifestyle change...again.

Day 35 - Saturday, May 26, 2012

Well first off, I would like to make note that I actually have a legitimate reason why this post is a day or two late.  I went up into the north woods this weekend to Elissa's parent's cottage, which has a complete and utter lack of any sort of cellular data signal.

But I digress.

This photograph was shot at Mary Hernandez's garden near Crivitz, Wisconsin.  Who is Mary?  Mary is a highly talented painter who uses whatever she can get her hands onto as something to paint on.  From what I saw in her studio--no, I will not call it that, that makes it sound fansy and what not, which it isn't.  From what I saw in her shop/barn/workspace was that she likes to use gords, driftwood, and other pre-made items such as old jewelry boxes, wooden bins, and scraps as her preferred "canvas."  Her shop is pretty neat.

Of course, there are other things that are great about Mary--she may have been one of the only highly liberal people in that entire county.  We got into a great discussion about Herr Walker--I mean, Governor Walker.  She is pretty passionate about the direction our state is going (or in this case, going backwards.)

All and all, I think Mary is pretty great.  I would like to add however, that the only real way to look at her artwork is to drive up there--as she said, she's not in the digital age at all.  You know what?  I'm glad--cause I wouldn't want anything to ruin what and how she is.

Going back to the picture at hand.  After we finished up inside of her shop, Mary's husband, (William I think) took us for a little walk to their butterfly garden.  It was quite beautiful.  I came to the realization that I don't mind the big fuzzy worker bees--for the most part, they pretty much leave you alone.  Anyways, I slapped on the 70-300mm lens and got to work taking photographs of the wildlife and the flowers.  This was my favorite capture out of the whole lot that I took (~100 or so.)

Day 34 - Friday, May 25, 2012

Today was my last day of work for the Beaver Dam Middle School.  I think I will actually miss this place, a little.  I have a bunch of fantastic coworkers and that made it difficult for when it was time to leave at 3:00 PM.

Tuesday I start my new job--can't wait, except I've got a weekend ahead of me!

Day 33 - Thursday, May 24, 2012

It doesn't seems like a lot of stuff to pack.  Missing from this picture is my D7000 along with my flash and wide angle lens (which I was using.)  Everything got packed into my Tom Bihn Aeronaut and Super Ego bags.  I wasn't close to being completely full between the two bags.

Day 32 - Wednesday, May 23, 2012

One of the reasons why I really like the D7000 is the dual SD-Card slots.  I have mine set up to shoot the RAW's on my 16 GB card, and JPEG's on my 8 GB card.  I rarely use my JPEG's anymore, as there are much more of a dynamic range that I can tap into with shooting RAW.  That being said, tonight's picture is actually the JPEG as it came out of my camera.

My shot tonight was in the complete dark--I rigged up my SB-600 off to the side of the frame (camera right.)  I triggered it via slaved pop-up flash, redirecting it with a notecard.  Here are some things I noticed tonight.

1. I really need to invest in a lightstand for my off camera flash.  Using velco bands to try to hold the flash up is a real pain in the butt.
2. I need to invest in a hot shoe sync cords.  I don't have money for pocket wizards, but being able to reliably trigger my  off camera flash would be GREAT.

Tonight I bumped up my ISO to 400--I wanted to catch more light and I was already at my slowest sync speed possible.


Edit:  Below is my picture as it came out of my camera shooting RAW.  I really need to find a plugin that automatically does the JPEG look.

Day 31 - Tuesday, May 22, 2012

A few days ago, I stumbled upon reddit/r/battlestations, which basically is a bunch of male nerds taking pictures of their computer setups in their varying homes and workplaces, (and sometimes, disturbingly, in their bathrooms.)


I'm used to my students I deal with commenting on what technology I have in my office.  It comes with the job.  Today, I had a teacher ask me, "got enough computers there?"  This time, I think there was actual merit in the question.

To be honest, I really don't need the monitor on the right.  I had been using it before when our computer system was down and no one knew any better to use the laptops.  While our virtual system is pretty much dead for the remainder of the year, you can access your data on the laptops, and that is very important for me to get my reporting done.

Regardless, I don't think it is too excessive.

Day 30 - Monday, May 21, 2012

Starting to pack.  This is the first of soon to be a few boxes of my personal items coming back with me from my office at the Middle School.

3 more days left until I am done at BDMS forever.  I'll probably miss it, but you won't hear me actually admit that anytime in the near future.


No original copy--only minimal edits done today.

Day 29 - Sunday, March 20, 2012

So sue me.  I got political.  Again.

Today, I was fortunate enough to meet Lori Compas, the Democratic challenger to Scott Fitzgerald in my state senate district.  Lori was doing a "Vote your Values" tour through our district.  Lori stopped in Beaver Dam at 5 PM on Sunday.

To me, Lori seems like the type of person you would want to have as a neighbor.  She has an ongoing commitment to her community and has values, which is a lot more than can be said about Fitzgerald.

I was asked to take the group shot for submission into our local paper.  I was more than thrilled to oblige.

The original file can be found here.

Day 28 - Saturday, May 19, 2012

Pool Day.  It's not quite the pool day you may be thinking; but for me, it's the official beginning of summer.  This time, I managed to remember to put on sunscreen before I got fried.

Anyways, I chose this picture because there were none that didn't have my mother directly in the picture.  This time, it's a reflection!

Day 27 - Friday, May 18, 2012

To start off--this is not a picture from Friday, May 18.  I didn't take a picture, and in a way, I'm pretty glad I didn't, because I've got a bone I'd like to pick.

Warning:  If you're a Republican, just exit this page now.

One of the tips I had when I started my blog, was to be not political.  Keep politics off it; obviously this a great dividing point in our state currently.  But I can't.

There has been a combination of things leading me up to this point--but I'll keep it limited to the three main things that have really just been pissing me off to no end.

1. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin GOP's job creation numbers.
2. Scott Fitzgerald's recent radio advertisement.
3. Scott Fitzgerald's comments to the Wisconsin State Journal regarding Lori Compas.

Scott Walker's Job Creation Numbers:

Let us start with Scott Walker's job creation numbers.  Just this week, Walker went on the offensive touting how his reforms have lead to job creation in Wisconsin.  His touted information came from a methodology NOT USED IN ANY OF THE OTHER 49 STATES IN THE NATION.

I mean, really?  We have a standardized method for measuring job growth, but Scott uses a different method for reporting his "job creation?"  The Department of Labor has been measuring job growth in the economy for years, but apparently that's not good enough.

What's the bigger problem here?  The DOL's initial report for Walker's first year in showed Wisconsin losing jobs. The finalized version of this report will happen towards the end of June.  Walker is attempting to use these job numbers to help boost his recall election chances.

BE HONEST SCOTTIE, WE ALREADY HAVE VIDEO OF YOUR DIVIDE AND CONQUER IDEA.

Forbes.com article on Walker's job creation numbers can be found here.


Scott Fitzgerald's Radio Advertisement

I was in the car getting lunch for the family when I heard Scott Fitzgerald's political advertisement on 101.5. This has also erk'd me to no end.  There's just one thing that really gets me; his comment on "...Wisconsin facing an unprecedented recall election attack by special interests and career protesters."  

Really? Really?!?!?! This is where my photograph came from today.  I took it when I had JUST gotten my old D3100. It's a panoramic stitched together in CS5.  Do those 85,000 people look like career protestors?  #)% off Scott.

Perhaps there is a reason why this an unprecedented.  Just think Scott.  Now go have your seat by Judas, Benedict Arnold, and Scott Walker.


Continuing with Scott Fitzgerald:  His comments on his recall opponent Lori Campas

To add the cherry on top of everything else for me, I was shocked to actually see these comments (well, not so much as shocked as in surprised, more so disgusted.)

Fitzgerald commented about Compas, stating "I don't for one minute believe she is the organizing force behind this whole thing."  He went on to say that he believed that her husband and unions were the driving force behind her campaign.

There is this thing, with old white men in power that is sweeping the nation.  They have no respect for women, at all.  I got pissed off earlier this week when I read that birth control was going to become more difficult to get for women in Kansas.

I do, however, have to say I enjoy Lori Compas' response to Fitzgerald's comments in the paper.  Please watch the video below.

That's it.  I'm done.  For now.  Back to picture taking, and lack of politics on this blog.

Day 26 - Thursday, May 17, 2012

Tony Plush


Short story is, I took this with my phone, as my camera battery was charging at home. :(

Day 25 - Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A different type of sunset, as compared to what I normally shoot.


Will add more information later


Original can be found here.

Day 24 - Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Somewhere, a nightcap.

So tonight when I got home, I was welcomed with the smell of burning metal and the sight of a nice cherry color around my car's disk brakes.  Here goes another 200 dollar brake caliper repair.

8 more days.

Exposure Information:
1/60 sec, f/4.8, 140mm, ISO 100

Original can be found here.

Day 23 - Monday, May 14, 2012

So... I don't really have a lot to say about this photograph.  Guss is pretty much infinitely interested with what I'm doing with the camera.  I realized that waiting for the lens to focus is just useless.  I set it to manual focus of 1 foot, and using the wide angle, was able to capture some pretty fun shots.  I used an SB-600 bounced off the ceiling to help illuminate the scene.

Exposure Information
1/60 sec, f/4, 16mm, ISO 100

Original file may be found here.

Day 22 - Sunday, May 13, 2012

Today's photograph came while I was taking a walk with Elissa after dinner.  I'm starting to realize that lugging around all of my stuff might not be the best idea ever.  We went for about a 45 minute walk.  It was nice.  This photograph was shot from on the dam in Beaver Dam.

It took a bit of work to push out the colors--it's a pain sometimes to get it to work in Lightroom.  I don't have a really good "JPEG" look with my photographs.  I started in Lightroom, migrated to Color Efex 3 to add some detail to the colors, then exported to Picasa.

Exposure Information
1/50 sec, f/1.8, ISO 100, 35mm

Original file can be found here.

Day 21 - Saturday, May 12, 2012

Dirty.  I do on, very rare occasion, do manual labor.  Basically, the short on this one is, I was dirty.  6 stumps were dug out, plus a whole bunch of other things done today.

Exposure Information
1/125 sec, f/4.0, 35mm, ISO 100.  I used a voice activated shutter release (a.k.a. my sister) for the shot.  No flash was used.

Original file can be found here.

Day 20 - Friday, May 11, 2012

Day 20 was an exceptional day.  I'm not talking for photography, although this shot turned out better than expected.  Day 20 will now forever be the day that I was offered a new position at a new company.  I am very excited for it.  To top it all off, I was also able to go down to Madison, miniature golf, and then have dinner with Elissa.  As I said, it was an exceptional day.

From a photography standpoint--I was sort of scrambling to get a photograph for the day.  I had been taking pictures of Elissa's numerous books and bookshelves when her cat tried to catch my neck strap that was hanging below the camera.  Guss (the cat) then decided he would be as silly as possible.  I had a wide angle lens on, so I got down on the floor, got about a foot away from Guss' face, and took the shot.

Anyways, I liked this photograph as a personal photograph--it will forever remind me of Guss' behavior.  It might not make for such an interesting photograph for other--but I like it.

Exposure Information
1/60 sec, f/4, 11mm, ISO 100.  SB-600 bounced off the vaulted ceilings.

Original exposure can be found here.

Day 19 - Thursday, May 10, 2012

Cleaning with alcohol is way more fun than just regular cleaning.  As it turns out, shooting with alcohol is a bit more fun as well.  We'll get to that in a second.  First, we will start out with yesterday's little fun shot.

Day 18's shot was a type of self portrait shot.  My old roommate Pat told me to, and I am quoting here, "you should do one of those emo mirror self portraits and photoshop yourself out of the mirror so you could be like a vampire."  It was an interesting idea.  As I realized however, I didn't quite effectively pull off the shot.  Perhaps I should have kept the razor in the mirror, but it just didn't seem quite right, (regardless, the way the razor was shown in the mirror was not great.)

That being said, some of the feedback was wondering why I was shooting background in the mirror--so I sort of feel like I was doing something correct.  Then again, it isn't super apparent that the camera angle would have to shoot through me.  Oh well.

Back to today's photograph, today I decided to play with light while drinking.  Everything's better while drinking, right?  Yes and No.  I have decided that I am in a huge need of an actual light stand with a boom.  I made this shot, by setting up my camera on a tripod, setting it to wireless shutter release, and redirecting my flash to trigger my slaved unit.

Speaking of the slaved unit, can you guess where it was for this shot?  If you guess above the bottles, you would be 100% correct.  In order to do this, I took my monopod out, used some hook and loop cable ties to tie my flash onto there.  As it turns out, after holding onto the monopod with flash on, and firing an external wireless shutter release, is sort of a pain in the behind.

Oh well.  Of the 50 something pictures I took, this was the one I enjoyed the most.  Did some minor editing in Lightroom and Nik Software.

Exposure Information
1/60 sec, f/2.8, 35mm, ISO 100.

Original file can be found here.

Day 18 - Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Day 18 - Find what is wrong.

Comment section is open at the bottom of this page--anyone should be able to type in their ideas.  Patrick Zeman, you are not allowed to participate in today's activity.

Details about the picture can be found at Day 19's post (tomorrow.)

Day 17 - Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Today I decided to cheat, once again, with HDR.  I took a bunch of shots tonight of the lake.  I originally thought that I would use one that had the sun glowing through the island, but I ended up deciding against that.  This shot, with the glow of the sun off the clouds, I felt was a stronger pictures.  Using a tripod, I shot a 9 exposure shot in 1 stop steps.  Used Nik Software's HDR to make this.

I liked it, a lot.

Day 16 - Monday, May 7, 2012

Impromptu product photography.  Today's picture is of a knitting project my friend Elissa did.  This was a bit interesting to photograph, because naturally, the knitting designs are very important for the photograph.

I set it up outside, with the sun coming from behind camera left.  When I used on camera flash, it really washed out the colors, even when I stopped it down as far as I could.  Then I decided that I was going to use the sunlight for fill (even though it created the lines from her deck) and have my SB-600 set on slave mode to fire down on /thru the shawl from behind.  Obviously I got some ghosting/glare from the flash firing, but it wasn't excessive.  The thing I liked was that it seem to make all of the knitting a lot more clear, even in the tightly knit parts of the shawl.

I didn't really have an idea setup for this.  Obviously it would have been better if the sun would have been higher in the sky so  the deck railings weren't causing issues.  Also, if I didn't have to use chairs as stands for the shawl.  Nonetheless, I was rather pleased with what I got out of this picture.  I think that part of the photography process is how to make the best out of the available equipment you have.  I think I did moderately well for what I had to work with.

Exposure Information:
1/60 sec, f/6.3, 35mm, ISO 100

Original photograph can be seen here.

Day 15 - Sunday, May 6, 2012

Day 15 isn't going to be a whole lot.  I was busy all day today, and for the most part--it poured outside the entire time as well.  So what do you get?  A picture of a cracked phone.  And some light.  There's light there.

What did I learn today?  I need a lightstand, an actual snoot, and maybe an umbrella.

Original can be found here.

Typical shooting information:  1/60, f/4.0, ISO 100, 265mm.

Day 14 - Saturday, May 5, 2012

This Saturday we had a little bowling party for Christian and Caden's upcoming birthdays.  There was good fun to be had by all.  I lost both the bowling game, and the bowling card game.  Stupid turkeys.  Anyways,  had quite a bit of fun snapping photos while I was there.  In this photograph are my cousin's soon to be stepchildren, Caden and Brody.

This photograph is one of the reasons why I like shooting in RAW.  It was underexposed a good bit.  Was able to make some adjustments in Lightroom, and turned out with a half way decent picture.


Exposure information
1/60, f/4.0, ISO 100.  35mm.  SB-600 flashed off the high ceiling.


Original photograph can be found here.

Day 13 - Friday, May 4, 2012

Little kids might be some of those most difficult subjects to get posed, but I do say that they make great subjects when you get them at the right time.

Exposure Information:
1/60 sec, f/4.0, ISO 100, 35mm, SB-600 bounced off of somewhere, gel'd with 1/4 CTO

Original can be seen here.

Day 12 - Thursday, May 3, 2012

It's a bit crazy to me to think that about 2 hours before this photograph--we were having torrential rain and pea sized hail.  It's getting to be that time of year again.  We had another truly lovely day.  Temps in the low 70's.  Yes we did get some rain, but it was pretty beautiful out nonetheless.

Once again, I was drawn into the temptation of a lake photograph.  I took this shot at about 6:45--so it wasn't quite to that glory hour of sun, but it was getting there.  The lake was extremely calm.  It turned out quite well in this picture--you can see the casual ripples of the lake.  The mirroring was pretty good as well.

I did do a fair bit in post processing, fixing some spots (more on that later) as well as toning down the sky a bit to make it look a little bit more blue and not quite so white.

Exposure Information
1/30 sec, f/11, ISO 100, 11mm  (shot hand held)

This is a bit of an aside--when I was out on vacation, I noticed in my HDR pictures of the Grand Canyon, that I was having some very spotty issues.  When I went back through my individual photographs--I noticed.  I use a Hoya Pro1 Digital UV Filter on my camera.  I'm painstakingly careful with my lenses--there really should never be a reason why my lenses get dirty--perhaps the filter.  As it turns out, this Hoya filter is a real pain in the ass to get clean.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.  Anyways--I had these spots showing up again on my screen.  This time I used Lightroom's spot cure tool to blend in over the spots.  Obviously it worries me, because I'm partially wondering if it's something on my sensor (needing cleaning,) but my shots I took with the telephoto were fine.  I'm going to have to do some testing on this.


Original can be found here.

Day 11 - Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Today is a two for the price of one day.  I could not decide on which picture to use.  Unfortunately, I already had broken my "wild animal" theme this week.  Part of the problem for today comes from the fact that I wasn't thinking.  I took the second picture (the ducks) during my lunch break today.  I had my flash on my camera, so I set my shooting mode to program--it handles the flash the best out of any of the advanced modes.  The mistake I made, was that I should have dialed down my aperture to 9 or 11.  The male mallard is slightly out of focus, and it bothers me.  That being said, I still really like the picture, as I was able to get within about 15 feet of the ducks prior to shooting.

The flower picture I took later on this evening--around 6 or so.  I decided to go into town and go for a walk (it was a glorious 79 degrees today.)  There laying out in the open is this glorious flower, with the light striking it beautifully.  For some reason, I felt like it auto focused closer, than the 5 feet distance I needed.  That part doesn't really matter.  The zoom was so far in, that even with the lens limiting the aperture, the entire head of the flower wasn't in focus.  For some reason, this doesn't bother me much.  (I had a tripod on me, but shooting at 1/160 of a second with a VR equipped camera seemed a little overkill.  But I suppose I could have closed the camera up to f/22 and been able to take a fairly flat picture.)

Both shots today come from my Nikon AF-S 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G lens.  This lens is designed for a full frame body, but works greatly with my DX D7000.  When I had my D3100 last year, I had purchased the 55-200 during the protests.  It was a 250 dollar lens--but I just feel like it has absolutely nothing on this 70-300.  The 70-300 can be classified as a "pro-sumer" type lens.  It focuses quickly and accurately--it doesn't spend much time wandering around trying to find its focus point.  I swear I'm not plugging Nikon--but the difference between the two telephoto lenses is large.

That's it for tonight.  Enjoy =)


Originals can be seen here and here.

Day 10 - Tuesday, May 1, 2012

I have come to the realization that the less you work on getting a good picture, the more work you have to put into it during post processing.  Yesterday I didn't really try too much when it came to taking pictures.  Well, that's not necessarily true.  I wanted to stick with my wildlife theme this week, and these bulging white sacks are very easy bait for getting pretty birds.  Problem?  Finches are very very skittish birds.  I wanted to get closer, but as soon as I started to creep around the house they took to the pine trees.  This picture was taken at full zoom with my 70-300mm lens from inside of my house.  The original picture can be seen here. 

As you can see, I needed to do a significant amount of changes in post-processing.  I ended up brushing over the bird, raising shadow detail, exposure, and saturation.  I also did the iris enhancement as well, which added a little extra detail to the eye.  I may have exposed it to much, but it made the bird pop, which I liked.  The only thing about the photograph that I do not care for is the fact that in the background, the way the grass was growing makes it look like there's a halo around the bird due to editing, which wasn't the case.

Exposure Information:
1/80 sec, f/5.6, 300mm (450 effective 35mm), ISO 100.  Post processing done via Lightroom.

Day 9 - Monday, April 30, 2012

An acquaintance of mine had a tip for my photoblog this week:  "have a weekly theme."  So yesterday, being the start of my week, was a picture of a very angry robin.  I thought I would go with wildlife photographs--which can be difficult.  In order to get a good picture, you need to have decent light, and get close enough to to the subject so you don't have to crop the heck out of it.  I did manage to take a picture, you can find it here.  I had to crop quite a bit on this picture.  Light wasn't ideal, so there wasn't a lot of dynamic of light.  I had to use Lightroom to enhance the ducks head, to get more color out of it.  Not to mention, that I've got a water grey background and nothing really interesting in the picture besides the boring duck.  Short story:  I thought the picture stunk.  I'm still going to try for wildlife photographs for the remainder of this week--just I couldn't use it as todays.

This leads me back to my photograph.  As I was driving down to the lake, I drove past this and I thought that it was interesting.  Perhaps it is because I have a certain affinity to trees that are canopied over the road.  It just makes me think not in the city sort of feeling.  I still had the same problems with lighting, however.  An overcast day does not leave you a lot to work with, (which isn't to say that light at noon leaves you much either.)  So what to do in this situation?  I cheated.  I liked the image that was in my head, so I bracketed my photo, taking 3 shots quickly with a 2 stop exposure value difference (0, +2, -2).  I then dumped them into Nik Softwares HDR (High Dynamic Range) program, fiddled with it a bit, and then cranked this image out.  I liked how it looked for screen.  If I were to print this on large format, I would definitely have to fix some of the issues there are (purple lines around the trees where it merges, etc.)

I was reluctant to put this up, for todays photograph mostly because I feel like shooting images for HDR isn't as helpful for my photography skills.  It is sort of cheating.  You usually cannot get this level of detail from a regular photograph taken digitally.  (Shooting 4x5" format, you might.)  I used three photographs, that by themselves, didn't do much for me.  But when combining them into one photograph--it was pretty good.  Still, I'm going to try to not shoot for HDR unless I absolutely need to.

Exposure Information:

1/30, 1/125, 1/500 sec, ISO 100. f/9.0, 11mm.

No original, as this was a HDR shot.