New Lens Test

I recently purchased a new lens; when it arrived I was so busy with work I couldn't go home early to take a look at it and try it out. I had two work meetings downtown near each other, and in between the two was 20 minutes to spare. The new toy sat in the shipping box for almost a week before I was able to open it. But this morning was different: I opened the lens and threw it in my camera bag and left for work. After the first meeting I headed over to Liberty Park and while taking a lunch break, attached the new lens and fired a few test shots.

Above is my favorite from the set, 300 mm, f/5.6.
I also want to mention today is the second shoot with the Utah Highway Patrol. The first went really well. Images will be posted soon.

Trees (and Good News)

I like trees. During the weekend I just planted a second apple tree in the yard, right next to the white nectarine tree and the new raspberry bushes placed over the weekend too. I was busy digging holes, so I wasn't able to photograph the moment, so I'll show some other trees I've enjoyed.

The good news (and main reason for this post) is I was asked to do a photo shoot for the Highway Patrol today. It's not every day someone gets asked to shoot police officers! It all goes down Monday, the first of two shoots. I'll probably post the pictures here once the project is done.

This tree was photographed only a few months ago, the others were taken some time ago.
This next one was taken as a thunder storm was passing by. I love the colors and the twisted tree trunk.

Idaho (Part 3)

This is the third and final post of the Idaho pictures (until my next trip). The first part contained photos of people, part 2 had vehicles and finally, this one will show images of buildings (and a couple landscapes because they had no where else to go).
I now see what Katharine Lee Bates meant when she wrote America the Beautiful and included the line "for purple mountain majesties" when I took this and a few other sunset photos:

Idaho (Part 2)

The last post had images of people, so in part two of my Idaho trip I'll put up photos of cars and trains. Check back for part three, the last of the series, for one more category of photos.
My little girl kept asking me if she could sit in the old cars as we rode by them on the 4-wheeler. She also told me she was sad because the cars were broken and didn't work anymore. Instead of allowing her to sit in the dirty cars I told her she could climb on a few of the old tractors instead (as I pulled out my camera). There are two pictures of her on a tractor in my last post.

Idaho (Part 1)

During Memorial Day weekend our family went to Idaho to camp near Bear Lake. I had been looking forward to this for some time, as I figured this would be a great opportunity to get some photographs (and I was excited about riding the 4-wheelers, shooting guns and having some pretty serious paintball wars).
Here are a few with one of my favorite models: my little girl.
We took a few 4-wheelers to the nearby train tracks to smash some pennies, which my little girl was thrilled to see. While we were waiting for the train I took a few pictures.

In the Spotlight

Here's what I came up with last night. I've been a little busy with projects around the house and work, so it's been a while since I've taken any photos. I'll try to make more time for photos this summer.

This concept isn't my own. I read about the idea and thought it would be fun to try. I have a light low in front of the ball to soften the shadow created by my wireless flash above the ball. I also have two reflectors on the sides of the ball to reflect some more light on the bottom so it didn't make the bottom half of ball black. The ball was placed on my coffee table in the dark and the shot was taken.

(Click on the photo for a better view.)

Campfire

The recent warm weather (although it's snowing outside right now) urged the family to get together for dinner over the fire, dutch oven desert and a night under the stars. Adjusting my camera to a large aperture and a fairly rapid shutter speed, I was able to hand-hold my camera and get fairly crisp flames with no blur. Here they are.

Keeping the shutter open for a fraction of a second longer for this second shot showed trails of glowing ashes after poking the fire with a stick.

On the Playground at the Park

My little 2-year-old has been excited to go to the park to play. We told her she would have to wait until the snow melted and the weather was a little warmer. But as I considered photo opportunities, my little girl was about to get her way (as usual).

It was a cold evening so our visit to the park was short. I didn't even stick around long enough to pull out proper lighting equipment to use while shooting, so I grabbed my camera, two lenses and a tripod and set up my gear on the playground. My wife was a great sport standing at one end of the merry-go-round while I was on the other end. I mounted the camera to a tripod and selected a smaller aperture than I typically shoot with to increase the exposure time. We got the merry-go-round spinning at a good speed, and I fired away until my fingers were too cold and numb to press the shutter release button anymore (which didn't take long). We were dizzy and a little sick for a couple hours after this because of the spinning, but here's two photos that made it worth it:

I typically don't use color filters to make adjustments to my photos, but I wanted to try a warming filter for this one, as well as a few other adjustments such as the vignetting and blur around the edges.