Sunday, August 31, 2008

Dorchester Park on Whitney Point Reservoir

I took my family to Dorchester Park tonight so the girls could play on the playground. I have wanted to take pictures of the sunset there for a while now too. It was a good time. I got to spend some quality time with my family and do something fun outside the house.

The last set of sunset photos I took, I left the white balance on the camera's automatic setting and liked it. In fact, it resulted in a second place photo in a competition. This time, I slid the temperature slider to the left some to bring back the real colors of the scene and I really like it that way. The blues and greens turned out nice.

Whitney Point Reservoir (by john_brainard)

Whitney Point Reservoir (by john_brainard)

Whitney Point Reservoir (by john_brainard)

Whitney Point Reservoir (by john_brainard)

And, of course, the best photo of the evening!

Winnie (by john_brainard)

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Playing With My New Flash

Due to some generous family members, I was able to buy my 580ex II for my birthday this year. It arrived Friday afternoon and I've been playing with it quite a bit since. In fact, my primary test subjects are asking me to stop! Poor kids. You'll see further down this post, my fall-back subject got bored and nearly fell asleep on me. I had to resort to using the kid's toys!


Little People Band (by john_brainard)

Little People Family (by john_brainard)

Off To Work (by john_brainard)

Playing With My Flash (by john_brainard)

Playing With My Flash (by john_brainard)


Actually, the photos of the little people turned out to be some fun family time. I asked my wife to model the little people for me and the kids had a lot of fun getting in front of the camera! It was a good time.

Here's one more to show off what happens when you bounce the flash off the floor. The background blacks out and the subject looks as if it's sitting around a camp fire!

Hmm Hmm (by john_brainard)

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Backyard Cleanup

I started going through photos from the last week or two to see if there was anything I missed. Sure enough, I found the following two photos. They were taken on separate days with my Sigma 10-20mm, the reason I started my "Nifty Fifty" project.

Back Yard After Dark (by john_brainard)

Back Yard Sunset (by john_brainard)

As always, your comments and criticisms are very welcome!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Nifty Fifty: Clump of Red Leaves

As I was driving to work this morning, I passed by a tree with a clump of red leaves climbing up it as if they were on a vine. They turned out to be a few small branches and a lot of fun to shoot.

NiftyFifty: Red Leaves (by john_brainard)

NiftyFifty: Red Leaves (by john_brainard)

NiftyFifty: Red Leaves (by john_brainard)

This NiftyFifty project has really been getting me to think about different angles to shoot my subjects from and playing with depth of field. I have learned quite a bit from this experience and hope to keep learning. This clump of leaves was almost as much fun to shoot as my sunflowers.

I have more photos from this morning and last night that I'll be posting over the next couple of days. As always, your comments and criticisms are welcome and appreciated.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

New Family Member

Meet our newest family member, Winnie (short for Winchester). She's Buffy's sister.

Winnie (by john_brainard)

Winnie (by john_brainard)

This is her brother. He's not our newest family member, though I think my wife was considering it. She's been trying to get someone close to her to adopt him since we picked up Winnie on Sunday!

Winnie's Brother (by john_brainard)

Winnie's Brother (by john_brainard)

There will be more, though she's not an easy target. I had to put her on the couch to get a picture of her this morning. She's afraid to jump off.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Enemy Opposition

Sunday, August 17th, the Youth Pastor at the Church we're attending organized a skate & bike demo by a Christian group called Enemy Opposition. Thinking my nephew might like it and wanting to show support to the youth pastor at our Church, we decided to go. I wasn't planning on taking pictures as I didn't really think I had the equipment to do it. My telephoto lens and my wide-angle lens aren't exactly the fastest lenses there are.

I'm glad I took out my camera. I was very surprised at the results. The sky exposed nicely on most of the photos and the skaters and BMX riders came out exposed decently. It would have been great if I had a flash, but you make do with what you have.

I quickly switched my camera to manual after taking the first few shots as I wanted the exposures to come out consistently and I wanted the skaters & riders to be properly exposed. I metered off my hand. It seemed to have worked fairly well as I didn't have to make too many adjustments after that. The biggest adjustment I made was setting the ISO to 200 about half way through. That allowed me to use a faster shutter speed, freezing the action and produce sharp images.

Enemy Opposition (by john_brainard)

Enemy Opposition (by john_brainard)

Enemy Opposition (by john_brainard)

Enemy Opposition (by john_brainard)

Enemy Opposition (by john_brainard)

It was a great time and I won't pass up the opportunity to do this again. Enemy Opposition's demos were a blast to watch and their testimony was great.

If you have a favorite photo from the group, let me know which one it is and why. Don't be afraid to critique my photos too! This is my first experience in event photography. It would be nice to know what I did wrong.

By the way. I was told the last person standing where I was standing and taking photos was taken out by a biker! Oops! Hopefully he's not hurt too badly. I heard he was more concerned about his camera then the blood pouring out of his body!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Nightime in Downtown Cortland

I went downtown with a friend from Church to take some photos of the city of Cortland. I had been meaning to do this for quite a while and decided now was good as the college students would be back soon. I prefer to shoot when there aren't as many people around.

We made the mistake of shooting in front of a bank. A lady came out to check on us and make sure we weren't doing anything wrong. We figured all was fine after she walked away. We crossed the street to shoot the Chinese restaurant and as soon as I had selected my composition, a police officer came up to us and said "hello." He told us a lady from the bank called. He was nice about it and just wanted to check on us. He mentioned that he was into photography as well.

It turned out to be a decent evening. It was cut a little short because my friend's wife called, concerned about a bat in their house.

Downtown Cortland (by john_brainard)

Downtown Cortland (by john_brainard)

Downtown Cortland (by john_brainard)

Downtown Cortland (by john_brainard)

Downtown Cortland (by john_brainard)


Enjoy!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Nifty Fifty: Party On Otisco Lake and Other Photos

This installment of my "Nifty Fifty" project is taken from several days worth of photos. The project seems to be working, though. When I'm out, I think about possibilities for using my 50mm lens.

I drove by Otisco Lake the other morning to get to work. I wanted to stop in Marcellus to take some photos that I couldn't get on my way home because the sun was in the wrong part of the sky. Fortunately, I was able to get one photo worth keeping. I saw the boats on the lake that foggy morning and couldn't resist pulling over to snap some pictures.

Party on Otisco Lake (by john_brainard)

Here are a couple photos that took throughout the past week.

John Deere (by john_brainard)

Robo Raptor (by john_brainard)

Enjoy and God Bless!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Marcellus, NY

I enjoy taking new routes home from work. It's relaxing and I enjoy the scenery. Once in a while, I even get a nice landscape to shoot. This time, I decided to drive home on the west side of Syracuse because of a field of sunflowers I wanted to drive by.

As I approached Marcellus, I found the scenery below.

Marcellus, NY (by john_brainard)

Marcellus, NY (by john_brainard)

It was overcast that day, so I decided I'd try going back again the next day.

Marcellus, NY (by john_brainard)

I think I'm going to have to go back again and see what I can come up with. I like the way the exposure turned out on the first one, but the composition of the second one.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Nifty Fifty: Around the Church

Last year, our Church bought the adjacent, abandoned property. It has taken quite a lot of work to get the house on it inhabitable, but not impossible. They are nearly complete and the new pastor and his wife will hopefully move in soon.

Along with the house came several outbuildings. There is a garage and a couple sheds. This property has quite a bit of character and I had fun taking pictures around it this past Saturday. I took most of my photos with my 10-20mm lens, but I managed to get my 50mm lens attached to my camera to take some for my "Nifty Fifty" project. Here are a couple that I think turned out decent.

Around the Church

Around the Church

Here are couple that aren't a part of my "Nifty Fifty" project, but taken around the Church.

Around the Church

Around the Church

Please feel free to comment and critique my photos. I'm encouraged by, but don't learn from "Great shot!" I would love to know what it is you like and dislike about my photos.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Rainbow in Tully

I shot this photo on my way home from work recently. It had just rained and the sun started coming out. I looked out the window to the east and saw this rainbow forming. I knew I had to shoot it. I wasn't sure where though... It took a few moments before I thought to go to the railroad tracks in Tully near the mobile home park. I had been in that area to take photos before, so this seemed like the perfect location. I shot a handful of photos and started walking toward the corn field in the photo below. This is the one that turned out the best, in my opinion.

Rainbow in Tully

You might have noticed that there's no way my camera was going to pick up deep, rich colors like that. If it can, I haven't figured out how to get it to! If I was shooting JPEGs, the photo below is what would have come from my camera.

IMG_013080 - SOC

Fortunately, I decided to shoot RAW before I even had my camera. So, just about all my photos have a RAW file to go with them. This is what UFRaw produced, with a little tweaking.

IMG_013080 - Post RAW

I like it, but it needed a little tweaking. I learned of a technique called tone mapping. I don't fully understand what exactly it does, but I understand how it works. Here's the tutorial I started out with.

After applying those steps, I played with the curves. I brought in the end points of the 'Values' curve so they touched the edges of the histogram. After that, I brought up the center of the blue and green channels to boost those and left the red channel alone. I didn't want to warm up the photo any.

After the curves adjustment, I felt the sky was just a touch too green. I wanted it to be bluer... so, I duplicated the background layer and adjusted the curves on that. I boosted the blue channel and left the rest alone here. I then created a layer mask to mask out the corn field and the hills in the background as I wanted them to stay green.

I hope this is useful to someone. I know the photo doesn't look very realistic. I like the look.... now, anyways. I may look back at this as I mature in my hobby and see that it's grossly overdone. I hope not. I think I'll try making this into a 16x24 print from Mpix.com.

Beaver Lake 5th Annual Photo Contest

The letter from Beaver Lake Nature Center came today to inform me that the photo below came in 2nd place in the 5th annual photo contest!

Silhouette of Contentment

I'm excited! I just might have to get up there for the Golden Harvest Festival.

Hooya!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Nifty Fifty: Sunflowers & Robo Raptor

This morning I woke up, made coffee, fed the birds then went to check my e-mail. I sat in front of my computer for several minutes then thought I'd be more productive if I went out and took some photos. So, I went upstairs, grabbed my camera and 50mm f/1.8 lens and went outside. My first stop was the sunflowers.

Nifty Fifty: Sunflower

Nifty Fifty: Sunflower

Nifty Fifty: Sunflower

I made several other stops throughout the yard, but, the sunflowers are the only photos that I like from this morning's batch. After I went inside, I didn't feel like I was done taking pictures. So, I grabbed my Robo Raptor from the shelf and brought it to the living room where the sun shines in perfectly every morning.

Nifty Fifty: Robo Raptor

I'll probably try for some more photos of my Robo Raptor. I'm disappointed that I wasn't paying attention to his hands. They really should be in the shot, as well as the top of his head. I love what the bright sun did for the background. I really need to get a shoe-mount flash for my camera!

All things considered, I'm rather excited about this "Nifty Fifty" project I've started. I have learned a lot, such as exposing to the right, experimenting with perspective and shooting from different angles and paying attention to what's in the background. I have a lot to learn still, but I think I'm progressing.

One last thing... I've had several encouraging comments from several people in my blog comments, on Flickr, via e-mail and face to face. Thank you all for your encouragement! I'm having fun.

Monday, August 4, 2008

6th Anniversary

My wife and I have been married for six years as of Sunday, August 3rd. In that time, God gave us two wonderful daughters. We've had our ups and downs, but we are happy. I couldn't be happier with the woman God gave to me to be my wife.

To celebrate our six years together, we dropped our girls off at their grandparents house and we went out to eat. After lunch, we came home and watched a movie, then went out by the pond and took some pictures. I thought it would be fun to take some photos of us on our anniversary. I think we have one or two that we'll print out to hang on the wall.

6th Anniversary

6th Anniversary

6th Anniversary

If you couldn't tell, I had to bend over quite a bit to put my arms around Lynn. I'm 6' 2" tall. She's 4' 9" tall. There's quite a significant difference in height there. We had to toss out a bunch of photos because they looked goofy. Toward the end, I ran up to the house to get a stool for her to stand on. Before that, though, I thought it would be fun to take a picture of us standing side by side. You can see below that it was very difficult!

6th Anniversary