Time For Change

///Update:
I never got around to finishing brainardphotography.com and it doesn't look like I will anytime soon. I'll continue to use this blog to share my photography as I learn and grow and will eventually use brainardphotography.com to host a gallery of my favorite images.
///End update

A few years ago, I wanted to create a blog and struggled to come up with an identity for myself. Everything I liked was taken, so I went with "Dorky". Well, the time has come to shed this identity and take on something more professional. After all, who wants to hire a "Dorky Photographer"? I'd be reluctant, that's for sure!

Over the last few weeks, I slowly put together a new website, coding all the fine details by hand. I even made sure to add an RSS feed so you could stay up to date with my latest photos and photo related musings.

Please bookmark my new site!
www.BrainardPhotography.com

And, if you're into the nerdier side of things, bookmark my personal site!
john.BrainardPhotography.com

Old Forge

We took the kids and my father and mother in law to Old Forge this weekend! The girls had a blast at Enchanted Forest.

Fire in the Sky

Download 1920x1080 Wallpaper

Macro Setup

I can't express how much fun I've been having with my 100mm f/2.8L Macro lens! I went to Walmart today and picked up a Gorilla Pod clone and some shooting bags. Here's how I'm using them.

I'm amazed at how small of an object I can capture with this lens. That little purple dot in front of my flash and camera is the flower in the picture above.

Labrador Hollow Unique Area

After Church, we stopped and picked up sandwiches at Bills' Bros and drove up to Labrador Hollow Unique Area. My girls waded in the pond for a while to cool off after eating and I spent a good part of the time shooting the small details of the area.

Ice Cycle

After a nice day with my family at Labrador Pond, we stopped at the ice cream stand. While being amused by my oldest daughter's inability to eat anything without making a huge mess, a couple pulled up on their motorcycles. This one begged to be shot.

Shooting my AR15

I learned a little bit this photo session. Black is hard to expose properly! The photos looked fine on my camera's display, but terrible on my computer. I also learned that it's important to clean stuff you're planning on shooting close in details of. A lot of my shots had too much dust in them to be useful. These are the only decent photos I was able to get.

I also learned that I might like Canon's eTTL system better than using remote triggers for my flashes. The battery in my transmitter died leaving me without wireless triggers and I really wanted to play with my new lens.... I wanted to shoot a gun tonight!

This is the only photo I really like out of all of them.

This turned out half-decent, though I'm sure you can find many things wrong with it.

Here's my setup. That's a reflector on the top right corner bouncing back the flash mounted on my camera.

Close Up Flowers

Playing With My New Lens

My kids are playing on their new swingset while I play with my new lens.

New 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro

My new macro lens arrived today! My lovely wife was generous enough to buy this for me for getting a new job.

St. Mary's Cemetery Pt. 2

Not everything has to be dark and gloomy on a grave site!

St. Mary's Cemetery

I love getting in close and capturing small details on something bigger. There was no shortage of small details to capture at St. Mary's Cemetery on Saturday. We went in the evening which meant the sun was to the back of almost all the statues.

I liked how this angel appeared to be looking over the grave sites in the cemetery.