Rainy Day

Just out wandering the neighborhood to see if any rain drops were left behind...

7D & 70-200 at 148mm, f2.8, 1/100, ISO 250

Eye to Eye

I'm still geeking out over the Mavic - this little bugger is an amazing piece of tech.

Shot with a 7D, ISO 200, 50mm on a 25mm extension tube, f3.2, 1/5th

Boulevard Park Shoreline

A quick jaunt out to share the new Mavic with my youngest where we captured a look at the shoreline along Bellingham's Boulevard Park.

f2.2, 1/100th, ISO 100

Curious Messaging

My sweetie and I took a quick detour, on our way home tonight, to inspect a possible (future) campground. There's beach access from this park with some, interesting, messaging.

Perhaps the sign is facing the wrong way?

Shot with an iPhone 6

Renew

Time for another go at a photo-a-day.

Starting with the last day of 2017 and a new DJI Mavic - to resurrect the combined interest in flying things and cameras.

Here's photo #17 on only the third flight of the new (to me) gadget:

Shot at f2.2, 1/5th, ISO 800

Happy New Year!

A New Years stroll with my sweetie and our youngest. Oh, and Sheba the dog (spelled PITA)

Shot with an iPhone (The best camera is the one with you)

Light Painting

As part of Photo Lush, we attendees got to try our hands at Light Painting an AT-6 Texan! Here's a brief time lapse of the 3 or 4 attempts by the crowd.

780 images shot with a 7D @ 12-24 at 14mm, f4, 1/2 sec each, iso 2500.

Sunshine at f2

A friend of mine is going to teach on the subject of high-speed sync flash photography this weekend.

When the subject came up I opened my mouth and inserted my foot (again - I do that a lot it seems). This time it was something like: "you can do the same thing with neutral density filters". Here's my attempt at demonstrating the technique with my least favorite always-available model.

The idea goes something like this: You want to use a large aperture, say f2. You want to do that in the sunshine. The sunny-16 rule would say you need your shutter set 1/8000th. But, you want to use your flash to fill in the foreground and your very fine camera only syncs up to 1/250th.

Now what?

High-speed-sync OR use a neutral density filter to cut down on the light levels entering the camera. In this case I used a 1.8 ND - that'll hold back six stops.

Shot with a 7D, 30mm Sigma 1.4 at f2, 1/250th, iso100, B+W 1.8 ND filter, with my Alien Bee 800 at 1/2 power.

The original boast on my part was to use speed lights. What I discovered in this experiment is that a single 430EX has to be so close to the subject that it's in the frame - better take Nicole's class after all.

One more thing: Framing and focusing the camera with a 6-stop filter on the front is hard to do. One would need to learn braille...

Mom & Pop, 'Yakking

I got out on Cranberry Lake in Anacortes last week with Mom & Dad. What a great place to spend time on the water. I think they were born to do this kind of stuff. The only thing they're missing is webbed feet.

Both shot with a 7D & 85mm f1.8, Dad at 1/250th f3.5 iso200 and Mom at 1/500th f2.5 iso100

Whatcom Falls

With a few minutes to spare, I wandered into Whatcom Falls Park to see what I could do with the wonderful old stone bridge and a long exposure.

Shot with a 7D & 12-24 at 13mm, f20, 30 seconds with a 1.2 ND filter.

Lights!

We toured the "Lights of Christmas" just south of Stanwood WA and had to snap a pic of our fellow tourists while there.

Sixty!

My Mom & Pop celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on August 30th.
Then, yesterday, we brought them a treasure box full of letters and cards from friends & family from all over the country.

The treasure had a catch though...*

(These are SO fun! Here's the one I built for my sweetie last year)

Shot with an iPad and a 7D with 12-24mm lens and a 2-stop polarizer.

*They had to get to the right place for it to open. Original idea by Mikal Hart

In the Picture

Picture lake, that is.

I went up to Artist Point to watch the stars. Slept up there in the pickup bed wrapped up cozy in a sleeping bag. The next morning I poked around Picture Lake and, it just so happens I had a kayak on the roof, so naturally I had to see what the lake looked like from the middle.

Shot with a 7D & 12-24mm at the wide end, iso 100, f5.6, 1/1600

Senior in the House

Time for my youngest to get some senior pics.

Aluminum Whittling

I've got another project on the bench - whittled out of aluminum & plastic. I have the machine tools, but I'm no machinist. If I made that claim, I could say I'm a house contractor because I have a hammer. Or a photographer, 'cause I have a camera. Wait.

Anyway, I've got a video project on the way, that needs a bunch of footage shot from a boat. A moving boat. Where there might be waves. And I don't want to make the viewer seasick.

So, this gadget is a 3-axis gyro stabilized camera mount. Based on a design I did 2 decades ago when filming from RC helicopters. (It was film back then - 35mm Eyemo with 100ft film loads)

Watch this space for more to come...

Original Ma

Here's the photo that inspired the previous.

Shot somewhere in Wisconsin, around 1939. I don't have access to the camera settings...

Ma

She still has a photo of herself, taken by her dad, when she was about 8 years old. We tried to re-create it today, now that she's 10 times that age.

I'll have to get Dad to scan the original so I can upload it here another day.

Shot with a 7D & 24-105 @80mm, 1/250th, f4, iso 400, with a little fill from an on-board 430EX.

Ewing Sunrise

During the calm before the storm, I rose early and got in some rowing as the sky brightened in the east.

It was an absolutely still day for an entire Saturday with gulls along the shore preening like mad.

Wait, isn't that a sign that something is about to change?*

Shot with a 7D & 12-24 @20mm, f8, 1/100th, iso 100

*We were in the middle of Sunday morning's blow, clocking a few gusts over 65 and taking green water over the bow a few times on the way home.

Theater Man

Heading out for an education in Drama (once he's graduated from high school) this young man has plans for the stage.

Shot with a 7D & 24-105 @ 40mm, f5.6, 1/250th, iso 100 on the outdoor stage at Boulevard Park.

Stairway to Heaven

Little stone/concrete steps that you never see if you only go to the ski area in the winter.

Shot with a 7D & 12-24 @ 13mm, f7.1, 1/200th, is0 400