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?!

portrait

IMGP7853.DNG, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

We spent an overcast day talking and walking with my brother Adam, including this stop off inside a crowded dog park -- you can maybe detect the bright sandy ground giving his complexion a bit of glow amid otherwise gray scene.

chops

IMGP7743, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

Who'd have guessed that the Natural History Museum would let you take pictures in nearly every exhibit? This was also a highlight of our trip.

happy happenstance

IMGP7553, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

Just back from three wonderful celebratory days in New York City, and the wedding of dear Heather and Victor on their 10th Anniversary of their first date together. It was the most special event I've attended since, oh, about 6 or 7 years ago! Fantastic days.

The whole event was actually crawling with photographers because their professional photographer actually had two assistants in tow, and when he learned that I was a budding amateur, he welcomed me to keep my camera out of the bag and snap all I liked. It was great. I was gleaning tips from the other guys, comparing settings and generally watching their actions.

This shot seemed an appropriate one to share: because there were actually four of us with serious gear taking pictures, this was a happy coincidence where two flashes and two cameras enjoyed a symbiotic synchronization.

Yes, they make a beautiful couple!

undocumented pizza

IMGP7345, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

This one's the best of a not-so-great batch because it embraces the blur as motion as opposed to other exposures that were blurry for lack of focus on the right thing. Had my camera hoisted above my head and could not focus well, I guess. Also like the pizza boxes in the background.

day 29: bummed

IMGP7298, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

My trigger battery was dead! So no off camera flash could brighten this scene with the best sushi I have ever eaten. I post this picture out of regret for what it COULD have been... Teaches me to charge these elinchroms up more regularly.

day 28: bitter

IMGP7290, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

this subtle texture caught my eye during breakfast yesterday. Color balance is tricky in long morning light on a warm colored surface with warm colored subjects. this could probably use some adjustment.

day 26: suspended

DSCN2212, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

I caught this one with a point and shoot garbage camera while on a foggy job-site for work. It seems like all my hobby time has been consumed in legal/ procedural business related to the house. I'm sad on days when I neglect the blog, so I'll try to do my best to keep up. Don't want to lose momentum!

day 24: offer approved

P1040294, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

We placed our first offer on a condo last night which was accepted today. My mind has not been on photo making, except insofar that I documented every neat thing about the house. This photo shows the front; ours will be the 3rd and 4th floors with the big arched/bay windows.

day 23: fingers crossed

P1040279, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

day 22: my brown eyed girl

IMGP7243, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

This was fun. I read about this "heart shaped bokeh" technique on my friend's blog last year, and the opportunity to try it myself became available with the new fast 50 lens. The technique is simple and plain neat in its concept, but I found that the fixed lens made the execution of the actual shot to be quite a challenge: In order to really blur the background, you move your subject as far from the dangling christmas lights in the background as possible -- done -- and you use the closest focal range possible on the lens. Unfortunately the closest point in my fix lens would be less than a foot from the lens -- too tight for a portrait like this. Very frustrating, because I could see that if I had focused on something closer to my lens the hearts would be nearly double the size that you see here!

But alas, I had to fit in my brown eyed girl, so smaller hearts it is. Lesson learned: I think this would work easier with a fast and wide telephoto lens.

Works on street lamps and car headlights as well!

Here's a bonus picture from this afternoon.

IMGP7266, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

day 21: new religion?

IMGP7167b, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

Three weeks, and almost without fail -- I can't think of another hobby I've picked up with such regularity in recent past.

Today's photo was during a hard freeze after a few days of warm, sloshy thaw.  A lunchtime meander brought me to a fantastic old shingle-style Gothic revival chapel near my office, and the condition of the white-washed shingle courses was befitting of the day: weathered. 

Couldn't quite decide how to crop the photo, so I've posted an alternate on flickr.

I like really desaturated palates for winter, but they're hard to get right. This one still feels a little rose colored.

One more frustration: I don't think I can rely on Picasa anymore as a direct viewer for RAW files -- it's the reason so many pics turn out grainy, because it's stretching out the histograms to brighten the dark photos.  Still, the Pentax software for developing RAW files is asinine.  Any free software out there that does a better job?

day 20 (and day 3/3 of "norovirus")

IMGP7150, originally uploaded by elbowclarke.

Not a stretch of the imagination or talent, to be sure--I see how tabletop photos are becoming as much of a rut as was shooting things out of the window--but these were nevertheless photo-worthy and handy.

Still staying in, but finally feeling 100% again.  Thanks for the well-wishes.

day 19

Enough said.