Silver City NV

Took this while chasing a train with my inlaws during our family reunion. I like the contrast between the crisp wires and the rough and delapidated wood structure.

cheap macro 28-80mm

cheap macro, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

I caught a store liquidation sale in passing, and happily nabbed a 28-80 aspherical macro lens by Sigma for only $13! It's got a greater zoom than my kit lens (which is 18-55) and the macro feature is a new asset for me, but otherwise it's very slow, somewhat noisy, and made of cheap plastic. Worth about $13.

Laundry, part II

We decided to open things up a little more and get rid of the enclosure around the landing at the top of the stair. Now it's all part of one nice open room we'll call our mudroom/laundry.

Not a careful photo, per se, but still used the lightstand/umbrella/skyports, which is what's lent that soft delicious light.

easy subject, tricky lighting

So all of the studying I do about how to set up lighting correctly was not entirely helpful, because as it turns out, when you have people waiting to have their picture taken and the room is small and warm -- well, I lost a bit of technique to to plain nerves.

But it was a satisfying first event. I won't post more pics here for the privacy of my friends, but this little girl was a sweetie who slept right through our time together. Her parents (good friends of ours who live nearby) are totally laid back and fun, and they three make for a beautiful family. Can't wait to come back when she's older for more pictures.

practice

Replace sneaker with baby? New light and newest lens make for delightful combination.

This was a fantastic Saturday. We worked at the farm for several hours, went on a long walk and generally soaked in some beautiful weather when it was supposed to have rained. I used the camera -- a lot. Tomorrow I get to photograph a newborn using my new flash stand and diffuser.

Demo's done -- now what?!?

Not that this is photo worthy, but its at least some explanation of where my Saturday's been spent...

We're enlarging our laundry room to capture some much needed eave space. The horizontal boards you see just beyond the stud wall are actually the underside of a steeply sloped roof, and there's about 2.5' of space there to be had if we take out the studwall and nail a sloped ceiling/wall to the back of the roof rafters. I will confess I didn't realize this wall would be bearing, but indeed it appears to be, so progress has been brought to a halt while we figure out what to do.

Can this be a photo/construction blog?!