O.F.

O.F. = Ol' Foggie. Used in a sentence: This Ol' Foggie had no idea I was taking a picture of him. I shot this one from the hip, it would be better composed if I had his feet in it.

Back from Vacation

So I'm back fresh from a vacation in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I brought my camera along but I'll admit there weren't many photographic revelations made there. I chose relaxation on the beach over souvenir photos. For anyone who cares, the place was great, its called Majestic Colonial. If you want to know more: email me.

Some experimentation with exposure time:
4.3 second exposure taken at night. Camera sitting on the floor of a bridge walkway, overlooking the resort's pool.
This is the post-card shot. This one was actually taken with a point and shoot camera. I'm learning that the inconvenience of carrying a large camera and multiple lenses limits your photographic expeditions.

I'm taking a strong liking to my Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. The shot of the wooden lamp above was taken with it (some others on this site have been also). But I am constantly impressed by the crispness of portraits and general 'people pictures'. It was a very inexpensive and extremely versatile lens. I highly recommend it.

A lesson from vacationing ... having a nice camera and some decent photography skills is like being an excellent dentist or a world-class surgeon. No matter how good you or your equipment are - you can't use your skills on yourself. I handed over both of our cameras at least 20 times to strangers. The photos that were yielded were either 25 feet away, poorly composed, blurry, etc. I actually own a device that is a hand-held monopod made for taking photos of yourself - (maybe I'll write a review on it sometime) - in summary though, its of questionable value. Does anyone have any hints/tips on getting good photos of yourself taken by strangers?

How do you tuna fish?

Who photoblogs a picture of a tuna-fish sandwich? Uh, this guy. Taken at a great hour around 6-7pm, indoors but near the front door. Canon 50mm F/1.8 lens, tripod, (homemade) remote control, 1/3rd of a second shutter and F/1.8 aperture. I did some experimenting with exposure, and this one came out the best by far.

So why a tuna-fish sandwich? Firstly, because I'm hungry. Secondly, this one is unique. Its my sushi-inspired tuna sandwich. I got the initial idea from allrecipes.com, which was essentially a tuna salad with some wasabi and ginger. I made the same, added some soy sauce and a little relish (nothing asian about relish) but it helps the whole hot and sour concept (and relish is always good with tuna). But my own take on the recipe is the lettuce topping. I topped this with a chopped mixed field green tossed in a dressing identical to that which always comes on salad at a sushi restaurant. I only had mixed greens, but to be more 'sushi-inspired' it should use iceberg lettuce. All in all, its an excellent modification of the classic tuna salad.

Sunny day at Niagara

Should probably show you that big waterfall they have there also.

Da' Fallz @ Night

I just returned from a lil mini-vacation to Niagara Falls.  Here are a couple of photos from the sojourn.

I'm proud of this shot, its like a postcard. I was experimenting with shutter speeds and what not. This was actually taken with an 8-second exposure (at f/4, iso110). In my little viewfinder the pics I took prior at 2 and 4 seconds looked pretty good. This one was kind of a throw-away chance setting it that high. But it turned out to be the best of the bunch. I had no tripod, I actually just set the camera on top of the binoculars that they have there. This is my first experiment with shutter speed settings and night-time photography.


Some fireworks shots. Taken at a 1 second shutter speed. Thanks to some advice/links from Jeff it looks like I got my settings right. I pumped up the f-stop to around f/5.6 rather than keeping it wide open. From what I read, fireworks are actually pretty bright light, so you should close the aperture a bit to prevent over-exposure. Set the focus to manual and focused to infinity.
A random shot of the most high-tech ferris wheel you'll ever ride - with air-conditioned cars.

Bars on the corner

Taken at the Sept. 11th Memorial at Eisenhower park.

6 Years Old

My nephew on his birthday.
Some lens flare/glare or something has caused an angelic halo... not fooling me. (Just kidding, kinda) Can any photographic enthusiasts explain what happened? Pics taken with a a 50mm f/1.8 lens with a UV filter.

Ballin'

It looks like they were filming a gatorade commercial.

Quack and Crack

I dont think I need to explain the title of this post. Aside from the humor of it, I do like the composition of this photo.

No one's invited

Its my party, and no one is invited. Now suppose I was to get all artsy on you, the picture might end up looking like this:

But some might cringe at that.

Knurled Grass

Some curly grass. Much more interesting than the birds.

Knurled Iron

A curly iron bar. Thats all. Just ... it.