Jester

When we get Zephyr groomed, the groomer always adds something to her collar like a little artificial flower.  On one of her recent grooming's, she returned with the fashion accessory around her neck.  It fits her personality perfectly.  While shopping in Target this past weekend, we were looking over the cat and dog costumes and saw the jester ears, which are made for cats.  Since Zephyr is small for her breed, I suggested we go for it.  You can see the results. 

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens

90mm Focal Length

Exposure 1/60 sec @ f4.0

ISO 400

curves adjusted for contrast 

Here's another shot with birthday present bows stuck to her head.  She's a really sweet dog.  Not the sharpest tool in the shed, but makes up for it with unconditional love. 

 

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
45mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/60 sec @ f4.0
ISO 400
curves adjusted for contrast 

Halloween

For many years, I used a manual film SLR for all my photos.  Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the purchase of my first DSLR.  I've taken ~2,600 shots in that time, although it's hardly been linear, more like exponential growth.  I'm an Electrical Engineer by vocation and have never been 'artistic'.  I can't draw, I can't paint, I can try to take interesting photographs.  My wife and youngest sons both possess great artistic talent, but it's never worn off on me.  I'll stick with the camera.   

In the spirit of Halloween, I thought I'd post the following shots.  I shot this at the 2009 Lansdale Bike Night.  Pretty creepy, but amazing detail in the paint work.  I only took two shots that evening as it was rainy and rather nasty. 

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
105mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/60 sec @ f4.0
ISO 400
Flash used, white balance corrected


Here's my wife's 2009 painted pumpkin collection.  She does an amazing job!  She's done the Flintstones and the Jetson's in past years.  This year was the M&M's. 

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.4-3.5 USM lens
20mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/10 sec @ f4.5 (pretty good for no tripod!)
ISO 800
white balance corrected, exposure increased 1/3 stop.

Cold, Dark, Windy

I shot this at Peace Valley Park after the second of two Nor'easters passed by.  The second storm was not particularly bad, but between the two storms, we had several days of rain totaling ~2 inches.  After these storms leave, we typically get clear, blue, beautiful skies.  While waiting for the skies to clear, I took this shot.  It was unusually cold for October, but at least the rain had stopped!

I really like the effect of the wide angle and it just seemed right to go B&W with this. 

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.4-3.5 USM lens
22mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/400 sec @ f13
ISO 200
Curves adjusted, converted to B&W

I was roaming around the yard looking at the plants preparing for Fall.  I came across this plant getting ready to spread its seeds. 

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens
Exposure 1/200 sec @ f5.0 (Aperture Priority)
ISO 200
Curves adjusted


Here's a different angle showing the seeds just peeking out. 

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens

Exposure 1/100 sec @ f5.0 (Aperture Priority)

ISO 320

Curves adjusted

Here's a shot inside one of the pods. 

 

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens
Exposure 1/200 sec @ f5.0 (Aperture Priority)
ISO 200
Curves adjusted

Lavender

Among the variety of flowers we have in the yard, we have a lavender plant.  I thought this was an interesting shot.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens

Exposure 1/100 sec @ f10 (Aperture Priority)

ISO 640

Curves adjusted

I took a shot of one of the single stems of the plant, attempting to 'compose' a shot and not have the object dead-center with a lot of empty space above the subject. 

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens
Exposure 1/640 sec @ f4.5 (Aperture Priority)
ISO 200
Curves adjusted

Industrial 1.2

This is a close-up of the headlight from my motorcycle.  You can clearly see the water spots from the last ride.  I have a Lexan protector over the headlight to prevent potential stone damage and you can see the scratches in the Lexan as well.

This is the last of these for a while. 

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens
Exposure 1/800 sec @ f2.8 (Aperture Priority)
ISO 200
curves adjusted

Industrial 1.1

This is the right turn signal from the front of my motorcycle.  I turned the ignition on, which runs the turn signals at 60% intensity to allow them to serve as running lights.  I happen to believe conspicuity is the most pervasive problem facing motorcyclists, so improving one's conspicuity is a *good* thing.

I think the conversion to B&W improved the photo.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens
Exposure 1/250 sec @ f2.8 (Aperture Priority)
ISO 200
Other than conversion to B&W, the only post processing was to knock the exposure down by a half.

Pansy pod

My wife showed me how pansy's go to seed this past Sunday.  This is a shot of their 'technique'.

I took a boatload of other shots that I'll be sharing soon.  

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens
Exposure 1/100 sec @ f5.0 (Aperture Priority)
ISO 250
Curves adjusted

Tall tree

Certain shots lend themselves to the distorted perspective given by a wide angle lens.  I think this is one.  Yes, this is a very tall tree, but the wide angle extends the tree even further. 

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 USM lens
10mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/20 sec @ f4.0
ISO 200
Curves adjusted.

Who did it? Katydid

This katydid was handing around the back door near the bug light, munchin' on small bugs.  I guess that  indicates that the bug light is not really effective, eh?  Since it was 9:30PM, I was too lazy/tired to get the tripod, so I used the flash instead.  It's like it's (she's?) staring directly at you. 

Canon EF 100mm f4 Macro USM lens
100mm Focal Length (no kidding!)
Exposure 1/60 sec @ f2.8
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast
flash used

Butterfly bush

A shot of a dew drops on the butterfly bush. This is a bizarre image.  Between the DOF and the dew drops, it's very difficult for the eye to focus on a single area.  Next time, I'll play with the aperture to see if I can open this up a bit

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens
Exposure 1/500 sec @ f2.8 (Aperture Priority)
ISO 200
Curves adjusted

Bowling Alley

This is the front entrance of the old bowling alley in the middle of Chalfont.  What I find interesting about the photos is the old clock.  It's really, really retro. 

Canon EF 24-105mm L f4 IS USM lens
58mm Focal Length
Exposure 1/160 sec @ f6.3
ISO 200
Curves adjusted for contrast, converted to B&W

Moon and clouds

I shot this last evening at ~9PM.  There were lots of clouds blowing through and the long exposure coupled with the wide angle does neat stuff with the cloud movement.

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 USM lens
10mm Focal Length
Exposure 30sec @ f11
ISO 800

Settings change

Marilla made me aware that she was unable to post comments, so I changed the setting to allow anyone to comment (actually, I was not aware there were any restrictions).  I also enabled comment moderation to try to keep the spammers at bay.  Thanks Marilla!  I highly suggest your visit her blog!