Happy Fourth (No fingers lost)

At the Eisenhower Park fireworks show 2010. I've never seen so many people at the park...I suppose, its a recession and a free show (how can you go wrong). Great show and had a great view. Taken with my fisheye converter on top of the kit 18-55 lens at 18mm. Defished with a nice little free program called Panoram Deformation FisheEyeWarp. and a little bit of tint adjustment in Picasa. 4 second exposure held on a monopod (so the full size is admittedly a bit blurry)

Not a Life Saving Device

Something tells me the life preserver was not necessary. Kids and their father playing in a very shallow lake under a bridge in Mexico. In my opinion, the best shot of the trip. Taken with Lensbaby.

One Needle

Just one needle could bankrupt this vendor. Taken on the Boardwalk, Malecon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. When you see a scene like this, nothing but the Lensbaby will do.

Pickup Sticks

On the boardwalk, Puerto Vallarta. Lensbaby.

The Red Flag Means Don't Swim

The beach of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. @10mm

Focus is so Over-Rated

The hilllside of Puerto Vallarta + Lensbaby = ?

Breaking News: Area Man Murdered (or sleeping)

I'm pretty sure he was sleeping. Lakeside under the bridge. Taken with Lensbaby.

I Always Thought it was a Bad Word

I always thought Malecon was a dirty word in Spanish. Taken at Malecon, the boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta. I waited for hours for a cab and a woman in a yellow shirt to pass by to help balance the photo. @10mm

Apparently the L's are silent

The more humble part of Puerto Vallarta from 5 stories up @10mm.
Update June 2011:
I took a shot at applying some HDR type effects to this image:

I Picked a Wishing Weed

A coworker of mine found a poster that she was going to buy. It was a kinda cool image and I figured I'd take it as an inspirational challenge to try to recreate it. I thought it would be a good opportunity to test out my new flash (el cheapo, workhorse of a flash).

Here was my setup: I got a black sheet for the background and turned off all the lights to help keep the background very black. Set up the flash on a tripod off to the front-right about 3 feet away and tuned down the flash to the lowest power (its a manual flash). I autofocused the camera then locked in the focus by switching it to manual focus. Slapped the camera into Manual mode and set to 1/200sec and f/3.2. I used my homemade remote control and shot with with my Canon f/1.8 50mm. This Vivitar flash aint bad for the cheap price (about $80). It was cycling in fractions of a second, and had no problem keeping up with some really rapid-fire shots.

I won't link to the original photo, but 133 shots later... I thought it was a noble effort.

Return of the Mack-Aroons

I made some chocolate-covered macaroons (a very good recipe) for my parent's 35th anniversary. @50mm

The Bread Winner

Apparently, my Sundays include baking homemade bread and photographing it. This was my first time making bread, I used a 'one-minute prep' recipe I found here. Came out decent. @50mm (f 2.something)