Nothing major to report. My sons first week of kindergarten went smashingly well. They have a red/yellow/green light system there, and the kids that stay on the green light all week get a prize at the end of the week. He managed to stay on green light and got a nifty flashlight. A couple of the kids ended up on yellow light and I thought “woah buddy, those kids are in for a rough year”.
On another note, here are a random sampling of photos that I took today. I like all of these for one reason or another, but if you see anything YOU like, then drop me a line. (As always, push the FS button to get the fullscreen “higher rez” version.)
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Just wanted to say Happy 4th of July to all U.S citizens (wherever you currently are) that are reading this. Take a moment to think of all the patriots past, present and future that make this the best country in the world.
We actually dropped some money on some decent fireworks this year, and it was worth it. They were awesome! The kids loved them and so did my wife and I. I took these just an hour or so ago and I hope you like them, because I sure do.
These were all taken in full manual mode, on a tripod with a remote shutter release. Aperture of 8, and exposure varied between 1 and 3 seconds. ISO 100. My favorite of the bunch is actually the least fancy. It’s the firework with the straight line coming out of it. It’s actually a rocket taking off, and I managed to open the shutter as it flew out. Pretty cool and I was very proud of myself. 
Anyway, on with the pics!
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These are some quick and dirty photos I took this weekend at the White River Gardens in Indy. Each year they have hundreds (maybe thousands) of butterflies flying around the enclosed garden area. It’s very cool, and if you have the chance, I highly recommend checking it out. Anyway, if you like any of these, please drop a comment. According to google, this site gets a fair amount of unique visitors each day, but no one ever leaves a comment. Yes, I realize that this last sentence was full of self pity, but I love attention, so there you go. Anywho, these were all taken with my D60, Sigma 70-300mm lens, mostly in aperture priority, though some in manual, and ISO 100, 200, or 400.
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I haven’t posted in quite a while because I’ve been busy and haven’t had anything worth talking about. All that has changed!!!! Just kidding, although I am doing some cool stuff. Right now I am teaching myself PHP for a project that a guy from work and I are working on. He had a pretty cool idea, and as neither he nor I knew PHP, we thought it would be a good opportunity to learn it.
I’m using PHP 5, with Netbeans as my IDE. So far, I have to say as a die hard Microsoft .NET coder, PHP is pretty freaking sweet. Seems very easy to jump into and learn. I normally do a lot of java coding for work, and for the past 7 years I had done Microsoft .NET, so it’s pretty neat to learn something new.
Right now the project is pretty hush hush, but hopefully I’ll be able to share some info in the near future. As for pics, the last couple of days I haven’t taken any photos, but today I was able to pull out my camera and snap a few. These were taken in my backyard with my sigma 70-300mm lens.
So…on with the pics!
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I went to the Zoo today with my twin daughters and my mother. We all had a really good time. I took these photos while I was there, and to do something a bit different, I added the name of each animal to the photo. So, have a gander, and let me know what you think.
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We had a brand new Rainbow Play Systems Play Set installed today for the kids. Why didn’t I build it? I’m not mechanically inclined, so I would rather pay the money to have it done right. Anyway, here are some photos of the newly installed playset along with the kids enjoying it.
Also, I added a couple of pics I took today. One of a dandelion that had changed into a parachute ball (I’m not making that up, check wiki). The others are photos of an old baseball mitt I had lying around. I threw out in the backyard and snapped these photos. I really, really like them because of how they make the mitt and ball look old and worn. Anyway, as always, if you see anything you like, drop me a line or follow me on twitter.
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Here is a small collection of photos I took over the last few days. Nothing special about them really (well, except for most of them are of my kids and I consider them special). They are really just some snapshots of life around our house.
My favorite is the twins in their tutus, fairy wings, dress up shoes, and holding pompoms. Those girls are something else. The plane photo was taken on Thursday, when they were spraying for gypsy moths near our house. That thing was super low, and my son would run to the window each time it made a pass.
These photos were taken with both my 50mm prime and my 70-300mm Sigma lens. I shot these in aperture priority and full manual mode. Other than some color balancing, these are pretty much straight out of the camera. I plan on building a home macro studio in the next few days, so I should have something interesting to share.
Anyway, let me know what you think.
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So…I decided to try my hand at entering the world of microstock photography. In case you don’t know, microstock photography is selling you photos on a website, through stock photo agencies, for use as stock photos in ads, etc. I ended up signing up with a site called ShutterStock. It’s supposed to be one of the best, and hardest, to get into.
To get in, you have to submit 10 photos. 7 out of 10 need to be accepted before they let you start uploading your photos. So, I submitted the 10 photos seen in the “Not Commercially Viable” gallery. And, as you might guessed, they weren’t accepted. Well..one was actually, the shot of the Chicago skyline at night. The others were marked as not having enough of a commercial potential.
Was I bummed? A bit. However, in all honesty it has pushed me to become a better photographer and to start taking photos that are commercially viable. Anyway, I wanted to share these photos because, although they weren’t accepted, I happen to like each one for one reason or another.
Also, the 2nd gallery is just one photo of a bottle. I took this the other day, and I don’t know why, but I REALLY like it. In fact, it’s the kind of photo I would probably have printed and framed. So…on to the photos!
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Today was beautiful, so after a long day of yard work we grabbed the kids and headed to the park. I snapped these photos while we were there and thought I would share them. My favorite is the silhouette shot of my son on the swings. It is already a favorite of mine out of all the pictures I’ve taken. So…to the photos!
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I had a little free time today so I pulled out the trusty Nikon and snapped these shots of my daughter, and the sunset. I thought they turned out quite nice. Also, I had my first “photoshoot” with a friend, and I’ll be posting some of those pics later in the week. I think it went really well, and I was pleased to see that most of the photos turned out really nice. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll be doing that sort of thing full time…you never know.
Anyway, on with the pics.
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