Nikon D90, F: 105mm, S: 1/200, A: f/5.6, ISO 200
The day was September second, and I had started my day like any other. I woke up bright and early like I do every morning, got ready for work and made my morning drive to the office. I had just sat down at my desk with a fresh, piping hot cup of coffee when, all of a sudden, my phone rang! I'm not talking about my work phone, as that would have been somewhat normal other than the fact that it was 7:58 in the morning, but this was my cell phone ringing. The first thing I think when my cell phone rings at odd hours...something must be wrong! "My dog had been hit by a car", "my wife was in trouble and needed help" or "someone I know was in a car accident" were all thoughts that raced through my brain before I actually looked at my phone to find that it was one of my good office buds ringing me. So now the victim had been pinpointed. I thought for sure my dear office friend was on the side of the road somewhere in desperate need of assistance. I answered my phone preparing for sour news, but it actually turned out to be a great photo opportunity. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Hello?!?"
Friend: "Do you have your camera with you today?"
Me: "Yes, I do. Where are you?" (note the concern)
Friend: "I'm in the parking lot and there's a praying mantis just waiting to have its picture taken!"
Me: (with a slight delay) "uhh, I'll be right down"
I was still a tad groggy as I hadn't even taken a sip of coffee yet, but I couldn't pass up a cool photo-op such as this! I grabbed my camera bag, hurried to the elevator and sprung onto the scene where the posing mantis was awaiting her photo shoot. It was a beautiful morning, and the sun was just beginning to peer over the downtown buildings providing a down home, rooster crowing sunrise. This light was a bit intense, and directly hitting the mantis, so a little jockeying of angles was in order. I danced around the insect snapping shots at different angles, and I was able to walk away with some cool images of the preying mantis in its very unnatural environment!
Nikon D90, F: 105mm, S: 1/160, A: f/18, ISO 200
Nikon D90, F: 75mm, S: 1/200, A: f/32, ISO 200
I have recently read some articles about black and white images, so I decided to convert one deserving image of the preying mantis to black and white to see if I could get the desired impact. The color and B&W images are below, so you be the judge!
Nikon D90, F: 105mm, S: 1/200, A: f/9, ISO 200
Black & White rendering of image above...which do you like better???
Sunday, September 25, 2011
The Parking Lot Predator
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Words to Live By
I found this photo on a blog I read (Garrett Grove's Blog), and it struck enough of a chord in me to share it here on my blog. I think it's an insightful phrase to live by and I'll try and use it whenever I get in one of my "I have to have it" moods. It's easy to forget how valuable the little things are and how simple it can be to make the best of nearly any situation. A recent example of this hit close to home, as my sis and brother-in-law had to make a double home move in less than 30 days. Kate and I were there for each move, and I'd say, all in all, everyone made the best of a somewhat shaky situation. While stresses did flare a few times, we were all laughs the majority of the time! Give me family, friends, a deck of cards and a beer or two, and I can make the best of any situation!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Transcending the Universe
Nikon D90, F: 98mm, S: 1/20, A: F/36, ISO: 200 |
Nikon D90, F: 105mm, S: 1/640, A: F/5.6, ISO: 200 |
Nikon D90, F: 105mm, S: 1/640, A: F/5.6, ISO 200 |
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Quack, Quack, Quack
S: 1/400th, A: F/5.6, ISO: 200, Focal Lenght: 105mm |
There is never a shortage of Canadian geese by the river during the warmer months, and typically they're mean, territorial and totally unsocial! We found this goose prancing around alone, and it didn't seem to mind posing for a few shots...I guess some aren't so bad. I wasn't sure how I felt about the composition of the original image (above), so I cropped it to give a different look (below).
cropped image for alternate compositional layout |
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sippin' Suds
Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/200, Aperture: F4.2, Focal Length: 34mm, ISO 200, external flash used |
Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale
A wonderful ale for all ale lovers!!! This beer is light and blond with a pleasantly strong kick...this is a smooth ale great for springtime sipping. Also interesting is the note on the bottle which reads, "tempered over burning witches."
Ratings:
Zach: Punchy meets smooth…would definitely buy again
Kate: Tasty yet a tad overwhelming…would buy again
Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/200, Aperture: F4.2, Focal Length: 34mm, ISO 200, external flash used |
Buffalo Bill’s Brewery Oatmeal Stout, Blueberry
This was a nice surprise for a fruit labeled beer. Being much darker than I had originally expected, it tasted like a firm stout with a mild hint of, you guessed it, blueberry! A nice touch for a hot, summer day.
Ratings:
Zach: Fruity, tootie and a nice surprise…probably would not buy again
Kate: Very tasty! A nice blend of dark and fruity…definitely buy again, but not all the time
Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/200, Aperture: F4.2, Focal Length: 34mm, ISO 200, external flash used |
BBC's Nut Brown Ale
This is a classic, heavy, dark ale. It has a surprising punch of an almost toffee like flavor, but this is not overdone. Nut Brown Ale, an interesting name to say the least, is a very enjoyable sipping ale and quite well rounded. This would go great with a medium-rare porter house steak with a side of potatoes.
Ratings:
Zach: Heavy, somewhat bold and interestingly delicious…would buy again
Kate: A little too "woodsy"…would not buy again
who's thirsty?
Cheers
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Spring Showers Bring...Flooding
The river in these photos is the White River, and typically in the Muncie area the water leve is below the small bank seen in the after pictures. You can notice the significant amount of lawn, and even a walkway, which were completely covered.
Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/125, Aperture: F16, Focal Length: 105mm, ISO 200 |
Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/250, Aperture: F11, Focal Length: 105mm, ISO 200 |
Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/125, Aperture: F18, Focal Length: 18mm, ISO 200 |
Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/250, Aperture: F11, Focal Length: 18mm, ISO 200 |
Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/125, Aperture: F18, Focal Length: 21mm, ISO 200 |
Nikon D90, Shutter Speed: 1/250, Aperture: F11, Focal Lenght: 31mm, ISO 200 |
Monday, March 7, 2011
To Spark or Detonate
Nikon D90, Shutter: 1/60, Aperture: F6.3, Focal Length: 105mm, ISO 2000 |
So recently my 2006 Ford Escape began making a fuss, and my initial thought was that one of my cylinder ignition coils had gone bad...turns out I was wrong. After spending $55.00 for a Ford mechanic to tell me my ignition coil on cylinder 4 was bad, $70.00 to replace the ignition coil on cylinder 4, another $70.00 to replace the coil on cylinder 2, for a total of $195.00, and a few check engine light resets and recurrences...I finally figured out that my standard ole spark plugs were the culprit the whole time! Two of the four spark plug electrodes had completely dissolved to nothing, in effect reducing my 4 cylinder to a haphazard 2 cylinder. I did recoup my money for the two ignition coils, and also found out that Autolite spark plugs have a bad history of performance issues...I've since switched to Denso's! I ran the Autolite's for about 6 months before they failed or, literally, detonated!
Nikon D90, Shutter: 1/60, Aperture: F9, Focal Length: 105mm, ISO 2000 |
In regards to photographic theory, I inappropriately had the ISO set at 2000 for the pictures above. I was still very new at tweaking settings on the D90 when I was taking these photos, and I didn't even realize I was shooting at a relatively high ISO setting...thus these pictures may seem a bit noisy...
Thursday, February 17, 2011
When New Meets Old...An Experiment
My D90 with late '70's 135mm "F" mount lens |
About a week ago or so I decided to try a little experiment with my old equipment I used with the old Nikon "F". I had read in an article a few weeks prior that most Nikon SLR cameras all share the same "F" style mount. I decided to put this claim to the test, and without a hitch it worked just as described! Obviously the camera had to be set to full manual mode, and I lost any lens functionality such as vibration reduction and auto focus, but the cool factor is what I was really going for here. I have two older lenses that I used with the Nikon "F"...a 35mm and a 135mm, both 52mm's in diameter. Both are relatively good lenses for their time, and 100% all prime!
Close up shot of the old 135mm lens |
Once I figured out how to get the camera all setup and shooting with the old equipment, I had to take the generational hybrid for a test spin. The sun had already gone down, but I decided to take the camera outside and give my manual skills a go. I pointed my camera down my street and was quite pleased with the results...the picture actually makes my street look pretty cool!
I also had some macro lens filters for these old lenses, so I popped a couple of them on to see what kind of long range effect they would produce. Knowing they were for macro, close, shooting, I was anxious to see what would happen...
135mm lens with 1x macro filter |
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135mm lens with 3x macro filter |
Monday, February 7, 2011
The D90 Saga Begins
Well it's been a while since I've tried my hand at the blogging world, but I've found new reason to give it another go.
I recently tapped in to my photography interests, and upgraded from my old Nikon "F" film SLR to a nice & shiny Nikon D90 DSLR. I purchased the camera around the middle of January, and I've been very pleased with it since. I'm still learning all the gadgets and gizmo's this puppy has to offer, but I thought this would be a good time to spruce up my blog, and share some of the photos I take along the way. I'm hoping to notice an improvement throughout my photos as time goes on...but only time will tell!!!
Here's a shot of some of my old gear which was donated to me from my dear ole' Dad several years ago. He's the one who sparked my interests in photography several years ago...and it's stuck with me ever since!