Good for the Gander

@209mm @ Eisenhower Park @ a safe distance from the geese

What a Crack Pot

Taken at 'Planting Fields', the Coe Estate in Oyster Bay.

Beauty and the Beach

Long Beach, Long Island, New York around sunset time. 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Motown Philly and back again

I ventured off to Philly to see a concert this past weekend. The concert was actually just across the river, but I took in some sights while near Philadephia.



(The above all photographed from the Duck Tour Boat/Bus)

(Above photo is submission for shutterday.com 'kitsch')

Absolutely Gorges.

After the 2008 Fingerlakes Wine Festival, I stopped by at Watkins Glen State Park. If you're ever in upstate New York, particularly in the middle-of-nowhere stop by and check out the gorges. And if you're ever up there in July, you definitely must check out the Fingerlakes Wine Festival.

Here are some photos from the gorges.

Gorgeous (gorges) Shutter Speed

I took some photos at Watkins Glen Gorges in upstate New York. The area was beautiful, but it was an overcast day and kinda dim in the gorges. I'm still learning about exposure, and camera-shake, and all that. Thus... I did not get many photos that were crisp or blogworthy - but I wanted to post up some experimental photos to show what shutter-speed adjustments can do.
Camera's auto settings of 1/60sec at F/5.6

Shutter priority mode (tV) set at 1/4 sec and f/20.

I had an ND filter on standby, but this was a shady area and was unnecessary. I didn't have a tripod so this was just loosely propped on a wall. The second photo isnt as crisp but its not bad. I definitely like the whispy look of the water streaming, over the 'frozen-in-action' shot above it.

Auto-settings: 1/80sec F/7.1

Shutter priority: 1/5sec F/25

The difference is much more dramatic in the second set of photos.

Getting Fired and Worked up.

A rather impressive fireworks show outside of Nassau Coliseum. Most of these photos were taken with around 3 second exposure, on a tripod.




View these full screen and save one as your desktop background. After that, don't say I never gave you anything. (They look much better at full resolution, for real, try it out)

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.