January 13, 2012 - Dessert at Proof

January 13, 2012 - Dessert at Proof. Ran downtown and met folks for happy hour and some eats at Proof. Good Fun, good friends and ya, the wine and food excellent too.

Photo Notes - ya, you guessed it, iPro Fish-Eye lens on the iPhone. ISO 800, 1/15th, f/2.4. Had the camera resting on the table to keep it steady while I took the shot. Lit with available light - of which there wasn't a whole lot.

January 12, 2012 - Some nights even the cat doesn't want to cooperate

January 12, 2012 - Some nights even the cat doesn't want to cooperate.
Tonight is one of those nights. Creativity is at an ebb, I'm tired, even the cat didn't really want his picture taken. Or - Sorry for the cat picture, next time I'll take a shot of my feet.
 
Canon 5dII, 50mm f/1.4 lens. ISO 1600, 1/60th @f/3.5. Lit with two halogen bulbs, both back behind the camera and to the right.

January 11, 2012 - Washington Monument

January 11, 2012 - Washington Monument. Snapped this on the way home from a Caps game. The weather was pretty much awful - only saving grace was the temperature was above freezing, so it wasn't snowing. Saw the monument in the fog and the rain as we stopped at a stoplight. Rolled down the window and grabbed a quick shot with my phone. CKB didn't even notice I'd done so, until she saw the picture online later.

Photo Notes: ISO 800, 1/15th, f/2.4, handheld iPhone - no extra lenses.

Critique: Basically a snapshot here. If I'd been carrying the big camera I might have stopped and gotten out to walk around to get a few more shots. Will have to keep this in mind for future rainy, murky nights with low hanging fog.

January 10, 2012 - Clamp mount gadget

January 10, 2012 - DIY Clamp mount gadget. This is the clamp with 1/4-20 screw mount that I used on Commuting Fun shot a few days ago. It really is about as simple as it looks. One 1/4-20 pan head screw, a 1/4-20 nut to hold that onto the clamp, a washer and a square-ish flat bit of metal with a 1/4-20 tap on it. The bit of metal was a left-over from a computer rack-mount kit from several years ago. The clamp is a ~$1 item from the local big-box hardware store. I can't/won't claim to have had an original idea here - have seen lots of implementations of this on other blogs, such as Strobist.com.

Taken with Canon 5dII, Zeiss 28mm f/2.0lens. ISO400, 1/30th at f/2.0. Everything was hand-held and lit with overhead incandescent lights.

January 9, 2012 - Snowmageddon 2012

 
January 9, 2012 - Snowmageddon 2012

January 9, 2012 - Snowmageddon 2012. Or "Omighad it snowed - lets all drive like we're insane."

Image was pretty simple - 5dII on a tripod. with a Zeiss Distagon T* 28mm f/2.8 lens. Exposure 4/10th of a second, f/8.0, ISO 400. Lit with a 2 AA-Cell Maglite, with the LED bulb. Used a Canon RS-80n3 wired remote trigger to fire the shutter.

The Good: quick and easy here. Found a bit of snow on the hydrangeas, parked the tripod and fired a few shots off. Was using "P" program mode, so let the camera do most of the thinking. Played the light around a bit, which if you want, you could call it light painting. I'm not thinking it was fancy enough for all that. The LED light is a good bright bluish white - there's a lot of power in a small "spot-light" kind of package. Who needs a "gridded spot"??

The Bad: Another Quick and Easy shot with "ya get what you pay for" results. Could have done some more composing. Here we have another big ball of stuff, basically in the middle of the frame. 

January 8, 2012 - Wine and Cheese at Screwtop

 
January 8, 2012 - Wine and Cheese at Screwtop

Tonight was the monthly pick-up for Wine Club at Screwtop. We met friends, did the tasting, and then grabbed a table for a bit more wine and some food. We started with a Cheese and Charcuterie Sampler - some of which is pictured above.

Photo was shot on the Canon 5DmkII, using the 50mm f/1.4, handheld. Exposure: 1/160th @ f/1.8 - ISO 100. Lit by available light - which in this case was a window camera left plus a bit of overhead halogen or incandescent lights. You can see a bit of the competing color balance - warm sparkles from the lights, plus the cooler sky colors. Minor retouching was done in Lightroom. Working the short Depth of Field again - the 50 is good for that.

What do I like about this frame? I like the overall warmish, inviting colors. I'm a big fan of wine and cheese, so for me, the subject matter is appealing. The contrasting shapes are fun, as well. Yes, that one cheese really is that orange. And delicious too! As was the Blue.

What could I have done better? I think my composition needs work. I tend to do most of my shooting with spot metering turned on, and the focus locked at the center point. I think this leads to everything being right smack in the middle of the frame. My bad habit is to just fire the frame, without recomposing to add a bit of interest. I had some of that going on here. I did do a bit of cropping, which is helped things a bit, but still, I have a lot of 'look right here in the middle' going on.

January 7, 2012 - Goose Egg

January 7, 2012 - Goose Egg.

Did actually manage to get one photo made today, but, it was a crappy phone picture, which, for a variety of reasons, I'm not going to share. I owe a picture.