29-MAY-2008
Hanging On
This kind of reminds me of kids, hanging on.
Though ours aren't old enough to let go yet. . .
I went back to the Urban Forestry Center again today. I actually googled Blue Jays (not the baseball team) and learned that they gestation period is about 17 days. It was about 2 weeks ago that I took the photo of the eggs, so I figured it was worth a try. The eggs are still there, mom jay is still hovering over them. Perhaps this weekend, though it will be raining all weekend.
I like the area because there are a lot of things to photograph and few people (so far).
This shot was actually in front of the tree with the nest. Someone was walking by while I was taking a second peek (from a distance) of the nest. I didn't want to draw attention to it so I bent over and started shooting the weeds. I'm glad I did, it worked!
Here are a couple that didn't make today's PaD:
28-MAY-2008
Leaf lamp
This wound up being a much better crop than my original intent. I had originally planned the shot to fill the frame with a bunch of leaves that were well lit from the sun. It is not a 100% crop, but it is pretty close to it. I really liked this one leave and I preferred Black and White too (I'd originally wanted to keep the greens).
This was taken along a path in the Great Bay Wildlife Refuge. There is now some wildlife, though none of it present for photos today.
Here's the shot that didn't make my PaD:
27-MAY-2008
Rough Floral
I went back to the urban tree farm to check on my Blue Jay. The eggs are still there (I really need to check the Blue Jay Wiki...).
This patch of greens (no idea what kind of plant/weed this is) was growing out of hole in a live tree. I took a number of different shots trying to get this, I even switched lenses. The 100mm Macro, close[r] in seemed to do the trick. A couple of guys (I think they were construction or landscaping) walked by while I was assaulting the tree. I've gotten to not care about people surrounding me when I am in the "zone". . .
Here are a few that didn't make today's PaD:
26-MAY-2008
Basketball Boy
My son was outside practicing basketball today after coming home from the pool. Usually his sisters hog the net, raise it, and he's out of luck. I decided to get a few shots from his perspective of his Basketball practice. He was counting by 10's for all the shots that made it in the net. He claimed that he stopped at 1000 and that I made him continue to get a good photo. Somehow I don't think he really had 100 baskets. . .
For this, I put the 580EX-2 on, in Hi Speed Sync mode. I probably could have used the 420EX on the ball itself, but it was a bit scary out there, the basketball had its own mind from time to time.
25-MAY-2008
Camping Kayak
Sunday was just plain beautiful. It felt like summer, sunny and dry all day. Hardly any wind or clouds. We spent most of the day on the beach (in front of the campsite). The night before, I got conned into heading back home and bringing the Kayak back with me. It was a good thing I did, it was a hit. Both my girls were taking it out, I actually got to spend about an hour fishing from it (caught a 12" Pickerel & a 50' Maple).
We were so busy that I never got a chance to run to the camp store to get 24 more hours of WIFI. That was a good thing as we had more time to spend relaxing. So this is my first PaD of the year posted a day late (but still a PaD since I took this photo on the 25th of May. I will have a few more vacations this year where this will happen again (might go for a longer stretch too).
(And yes, I did go for the crazy color effect you see here.)
24-MAY-2008
Summer Scene
Technically it isn't Summer. Technically today's weather is NOT summer-like. But this scene reminds me of a summer scene (thus the clever title).
This willow is just outside our campsite (a little to the right of the canoes from yesterday's PaD).
Last night, my son & I caught 8 horn pout between the two of us off the dock (would be to the left of this tree), four a piece. This morning my daughter (Kala) and I each caught another horn pout, they were not really biting so it was luck that we caught what we did. I wish I had taken a photo of Kala's fish, it was at least a pound and put up a bit of a fight (it kind of freaked her out). Best part was that it spit out the hook once we got it up on the dock (usually they swallow the hooks). My son, daughter, & I plan on catching a lot more this evening (my oldest is actually babysitting right now and will be into the evening).
23-MAY-2008
Gritty Canoes
OK, so we are camping and I have brought the digital armata with me. Complete DSLR lineup and Mac Book Pro to boot. The campground has Wifi (I think is "B", so technically I am roughing it). We are in our camper and my wife is complaining that she has to use the gas stove to cook her meal instead of the microwave (which isn't working, apparently I need to check on the power).
These canoes are right off the beach about 25' from our camper. They really are gritty, although they have not been used this year yet as today was the opening day for the campground.
I'm heading out to go fishing with my son, I think it might be too cold right now (a cold front moved in this afternoon) but it will be fun nonetheless. We might catch some horn pout, they seem to be biting.
22-MAY-2008
Puddle Flower
Found this in a now deserted parking lot (apparently not for long) around the corner from where I work.
Call it a puddle flower.
Making this short as I have to zip off to a kid's school event.
21-MAY-2008
Grass
Today I wanted to get down with nature. Literally, I got down with nature. I removed the extension to my center column on my tripod and splayed the legs out so that the camera was about 3" off the ground. It was sunny as hell so I brought my fleece jacket with me. I've found that I can drape that over my head and cover the LCD so that I can see well enough to focus (via Liveview, of course). I must look a tad bit odd out there, in the sun, on the ground, in a field, with a jacket covering my head. I actually picked up a couple of ticks too. One came off me at work (again, this has happened before) and the other I just found camping out on my camera bag. Whenever I find a tick, I tape it to a 3x5 index card and write the date and whether it was on me or not. I now have a little catalog going between work and home for this year alone. They are pretty bad this year.
So, I got my grass shot. I've actually cropped this (a virtual copy), exported it at 1600x1200 and have set one of my monitor's desktops to it (on the Mac Book Pro). It makes for a nice background (without the ticks in it).
20-MAY-2008
Watchful Eye
So I went back to the Urban Forest center today to check on the status of the Bluejay nest. I'd thought that the eggs might be hatched by now, I was wrong. I'm not surprised, seeing how I have no clue about birds.
I found the tree and the nest easy enough, on my first pass, I scared the mom off. I was able to check the nest and saw that all the eggs were still in place. So far the squirrels have behaved.
I kept walking along the path and was able to get a shot of some red flowers (posted in my Not a PaD gallery) and a macro of a couple of bugs getting it on (in my macro gallery).
When I came back around, I noticed that the Bluejay mom had returned to her nest. I set up my 70-200 & my monopod from a safe distance, took a few shots. I would move the base of the monopod forward about a foot or so, then slowly lean forward, following the monopod. I was making a god-awful racket moving through the leaves and sticks. Somehow, I was able to get within a few feet of her before she startled. This shot wasn't the closest, I actually got too close and cropped out her beak in some of the later shots. I wanted to get the nest in frame, to give it context, otherwise it would be a closeup of a Bluejay's head.
I will try to pop back again sometime this week as we are coming up on a long weekend. Again, I have no clue about birds (though I do know this is a Bluejay). I really want to get a shot of the little guys in the nest though.
Here are the shots that didn't make today's PaD:
Here's the macro shot:
19-MAY-2008
New Approach
So today marks my cut over day. A bit ahead of schedule, but things are going a little too easy in this PC to Mac switch thing. Copying over all my iTunes stuff (40+GB) went too easy, I even kept all my metadata (play counts, etc) which was very important.
Last night, I imported all my 2008 LR photos. It went well due to my new and improved Workflow. Each month I have been archiving all the photos for that month as a catalog and burning them to DVD. Since I had a pretty empty Harddrive on my PC, I left the catalogs (folders) on the image. I was able to import images from catalog on the Mac through a shared folder on the PC.
My import, backup, and export for pBase workflow are identical on the Mac, the only difference is the file locations. Since I was able to copy over all my presets, all I needed to do was change the folder locations and update each preset as I ran them. Very nice.
I plan to mess around with LR 2.0 Beta a lot more now that I have a system that can actually run it. The LR 2.0 Beta has support for dual monitors. Since I have the laptop screen and my original monitor connected to the MBP, I can (and have) make use of this neat feature.
Next big thing to do is to get a large (1TB) external HD to setup Time Machine AND to copy over my 200GB of photos. There is no way I can fit all the photos on this laptop (320GB harddrive).
18-MAY-2008
My Girls
My wife & daughters went to a baby shower today, before they left, I forced them to pose for some photos. It was brutal torture to them, out of the 50+ shots, I got about 3 with decent facial expressions. . .
One of those odd New England days. It was bright, sunny, & dry this morning, temps in the 70's. My son & I got back from The Home Depot with a new lawn mower to be greeted by high winds and rain (just as I opened the mower's box).