152/365 - Little Island

( f/18 18mm 1/13 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is called a polar panorama. To do this you have to take several photos 360 degrees on a tripod. Then stitch them together. I used Windows Live to do it. My stitching isn't the best though. I see a few spots that don't match up very well. Then you resize the photo to be square. Using Photoshop Elements I then chose the Polar Coordinates filter which gave me this photo. It's a pretty cool effect and I have been wanting to try it. It's a pretty boring location, but now I know how to do it.

151/365 - Jim - My Eye

( f/22 105mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Yep, that's my eye. I have no idea what those splotches are on the right side. I haven't had an eye exam since high school. You can clearly see the flash that was only about 8 inches away from my eye. The color of my eye is hazel. I like when it looks like more of a green, but haven't really figure out how to make that happen... If it looks like I'm tired, it's because I am :)

150/365 - Jim - Old Postcard

( f/32 105mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I tried to find something quick to take a photo of tonight. I saw my old stamp collection sitting there that I haven't looked at in probably 15 years. There was an old candy box full of loose stamps and this old postcard in there from 1965 addressed to my grandpa. Whoever sent it spelled our last name wrong and didn't write anything on it. The front says "So far today I made only one mistake ...I got out of bed!" My dad would have been only 12 years old at the time. If there was a story behind this card, it will remain a mystery unless my grandpa remembers getting it and can explain.

149/365 - Jim - Color Spiral

( f/14 24mm 30 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Many thanks to Kyle for sending me a guest post! He sent me some very cool motion blur shots. In an attempt to somewhat match his theme, I got the only thing I could think of with LED lights in it... A Glade Plug-in Light Display air freshener. It has 3 different colored LED lights that alternate and blend. I set the camera on a tripod and set it to take pictures every minute for 30 seconds. Then like a goofball I spun that thing around like crazy and let it slowly wrap around my finger to become a tighter spiral. I'm going to have to try the ferris wheel shots, but I'll have to wait for the Big Butler Fair or the Farm Show...

149/365 - Kyle - Motion Blur

( f/8 4 sec FujiFilm FinePix S700 )

Kyle is currently a senior at Warner University majoring in Church Ministry and minoring in Communications (photography and video). I've never met Kyle, but he was directed to my site by my dad. My dad suggested he get in touch and send me some of his work. Here is some of what Kyle emailed me:

When it comes to photography I am a motion-blur fanatic. It is just my thing. I did not have a tripod on me that night, so having the rides blur while everything else stay focused was hard. Just had to hold my breath!

148/365 - Jim - Preform

( f/22 56mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Because I work for Giant Eagle, I was able to go on a tour of their Chestnut Ridge Beverage Company. There they are able to form plastic bottles and fill them with a variety of beverages. On the right is a preform that later gets a blast of air and turns into the bottle on the left. They fill it with water, label, and package them up. That is the shortened version of the process... We joked quite a bit about being like Laverne and Shirley and putting a glove on a bottle as it goes down the line. I'm sure they wouldn't have thought it was too funny. I really enjoy watching How It's Made, so it was interesting to me and the whole time I kept thinking of how I would film it.

147/365 - Jim - Nolan in the Tub

( f/3.2 56mm 1/60 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

My mother was giving Nolan his bath tonight so I was able to take photos of him. I wish I could say his eyes are that blue, but they aren't. I painted them blue with Lightroom and then increased the exposure of the entire picture to make his eyes really pop. Nolan is 2 months and a week now and smiling occasionally which is fun.

146/365 - Jim - Bacon Wrapped Scallops

( f/8 24mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This was my dinner today. I wrapped scallops with bacon and seasoned with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. The scallops went into the broiler for about 20 minutes flipping them halfway through. The sauce was made without measuring from mayonnaise, chili powder, paprika, salt, pepper, and lime juice. Then I sliced some avocado and made some steamed broccoli in the microwave. The photograph was done quickly so I could eat it. I wish I had staged it better before cooking so it was all ready to go. My hope is to someday make a cookbook just for my family. So this was some practice. The plate was from Target, which I purchased today. I still need to get a variety of dinnerware before I start a cookbook, but it should be fun. If you have any good recipes, email them to me. And if I like it, you will see it on here.

145/365 - Jim - Natural Star

( f/22 70mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Does anyone know what this is? My wife suggested I photograph this tonight. It's probably not that difficult to figure out if you've ever cut it this way, but I'll bet a lot of people have not. So take a guess in the comments.

144/365 - Jim - 8mm

( f/11 36mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is a Kodak Brownie 8 Movie Camera from the 60's. It takes 8mm reels of film. My grandpa had this in the mix of old cameras he gave me. There was film in it that I pulled out for this photo. I wonder what was on it... There was also a sealed canister with film in it that says it should be processed before OCT 73, so I assume it's no good anymore. The way the camera works is you wind it up with the knob on the side, then you push the button under the lens to feed the film through. When I first looked at the camera I opened it up and noticed film in it already. I quickly thought oh no, I don't want to expose this to light and ruin it. But then I realized it's probably far gone. It would be fun to film with it now and get a real vintage look, but it would probably be a hassle to get film and get it processed. Oh well, I'll just use my new HD camcorder :)

143/365 - Jim - Stages of TP

( f/11 70mm 1/60 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

While trying to come up with something funny to say for this, I wondered if anyone had any good public restroom stories. The last time I absolutely had to use a public restroom, the one stall was locked and the other ... let's just say it was as bad as your imagination can take you. As I was "laying down the groundwork" I heard a knock at the door. Apparently someone that worked there knew about the murder scene in there and told my wife to let me use the women's room. So she stood guard at the door as I headed into Buckingham Palace. Though I dodged a huge bullet, I was still scarred by the whole thing.

142/365 - Jim - Which way is up?

( f/16 28mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I saw a similar photo a while back and thought I would give it a try. I looked at it right side up with my face upside down and it twisted my eyeballs in an uncomfortable manor. So I flipped the whole image and it makes it a little easier to look at even though it's still my mug...

141/365 - Jim - Dead Center

( f/22 32mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is another game that I love to play, but never do. About 11 years ago I was playing after work at least weekly with a guy I worked with. I miss those days. For practice I would just throw for bulls eye and get mad if I didn't hit at least 1 of 3. I also practiced playing 201 and would be mad if I went over so many rounds. I had so much time back then... I think I will challenge myself to get some people together and play over the next week or two. See if I've still "got it."

140/365 - Jim - Valentine Brownie

( f/4 38mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

My mother made some brownies for church yesterday. She cut them out in heart shapes and drizzled white chocolate on them, then added a heart on top with red chocolate. She brought us some to eat and there were only two left when my wife suggested I take pictures of them. I grabbed my copy of The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 by Scott Kelby and read the page where he describes how to do food photos. He suggests using a close-up lens, so I put the Canon 500D on my 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. Then used it at f/4 to blur everything but the brownie. Scott suggests sitting by a window to get natural light, but it was dark when I shot this, so I used a flash with softbox to the side and a little behind. There were quite a few shots that I liked, so I made them into a collage with Picasa. If you are an amateur photographer, I highly recommend the two Digital Photography books by Scott Kelby. You can get Vol 1 & 2 for just under $30. They are super easy to read and have an example photo on every page.

139/365 - Jim - Driptini

( f/22 40mm 1/320 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I didn't have any ideas for a photo today, so I just did something that I've done before. I put a flash behind the Translum background and set the camera to take a fast photo. Then I filled the martini glass and used a medicine dropper to drip the water. It's all about timing, so I took about 40 shots and then just picked the best one. There were a lot of bubbles that formed on the glass, so I removed most of them with Lightroom spot removal.

138/365 - Jim - Happy Valentine's Day

( f/13 29mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Today is Valentine's Day so Carol got the boys dressed up in their matching gear and I prepared the studio. I cut a bunch of hearts out of black paper and Carol had some pink she did at school. I taped them to the back of the Translum background and had a flash behind so they would appear as a shadow. The red foreground is just a piece of fleece I got from Jo-Ann Fabrics and the other material is some semi-translucent thing my mother got me. I was surprised to be able to get them both to smile as easily as we did.

137/365 - Jim - Cheesy Trap

( f/8 105mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is obviously only a toy mouse. I set the trap and quickly moved my hands away like a scaredy cat. I hate setting those things because I've had them go off unexpectedly. I built a fake hardwood floor and put it on my background. I didn't have a baseboard. The effect was done in Lightroom. Later I tossed the mouse in the trap for fun :)

136/365 - Jim - Groovy

( f/8 105mm 1/250 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

My downstairs bathroom is in need of some updating. This is the light over the sink. It's like something out of the 70's or the person that installed it liked Tron a lot. On the other hand, I kind of like it in an odd way. It is interesting to look at...

135/365 - Jim - Old Flashbulbs

( f/13 105mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is the result of little time and less creativity. I quickly pulled out something from the old camera collection to photograph. This is a full box of flashbulbs and I'm not sure how old they are. It's interesting to me thinking about why it is blue. Digital cameras can change the white balance, but film cameras white balance is all on the film used. The blue bulbs would produce a cooler more pure white look. I guess people had to use either colored flashbulbs or filters to change the white balance. I'm glad to be in the digital era.

134/365 - Jim - Accoustic Highlights

( f/22 105mm 1/50 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

There isn't much to this. I put my guitar on the black muslin backdrop and had a softbox flash on both sides. A third flash with gridspot was pointing at the head of the guitar. I enhanced the colors in Lightroom.

133/365 - Jim - Fringe Hand

( f/8 56mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is the second Fringe photo I have done. The first one was of an apple. This one is copied from this photo. To repeat myself, it's a great show and I recommend it. Now to tell you how I did it. I used a piece of Plexiglas in front of a black background. I put baby powder on my hand and made my print with an extra space between my pinky and ring finger, then added another ring finger in between. I used a flash from behind the plexi with a grid spot on it so the light did not leak onto the background. After I got the shot I processed it in Lightroom and gave it a cool blue look. Then in Paint Shop Pro I added the yellow lights. And yes, I have a crooked pinky...

132/365 - Jim - Property Line

( f/5.6 35mm 1/320 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is the property line pole in my back yard just into the woods. Not very exciting, but kind of interesting. I just took a walk around the yard today because the snow is melting and I rarely get outside shots. I hope it all melts and does not come back. I'm ready for warmer weather!

131/365 - Jim - Seven Weeks Old

( f/14 48mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Nolan will be eight weeks old on Monday. It kind of seems like much longer. He is starting to coo more and smile occasionally. My son Jameson got sick last week and now Nolan has it. He coughs like an adult which sounds pretty weird and worrisome. I got some flak for not taking as many pictures of Nolan as I did of Jameson, so this is to pacify those people.

130/365 - Jim - Willie Stargell

( f/14 78mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is a figurine that I got at a Pirates game. I put it in front of a large bin that is green to have a "green screen." Then I brought it into Adobe Photoshop Elements and painted on the green area and did a gaussian blur. After that I applied a watercolor painting effect. I thought I would do something a little different than the usual photos.

129/365 - Jim - Nautical Lantern

( f/11 35mm HDR ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is a lantern that goes on the starboard side of a boat. Starboard is the right side of the boat if you are on it facing toward the front. The starboard side of a boat is a green light and the port side is red. The reason for this is in a situation where 2 boats are crossing each other. The right-of-way is given to the boat that sees the green starboard light on the other boat. Reversely the other boat must give the right-of-way because they see the red port light of the boat crossing. Confused? Anyway, I don't remember where I got this exactly, but I thought it was cool at the time. The photo is an HDR that was rendered with 5 photos of varying exposure.

128/365 - Jim - Valentine Apple

( f/8 105mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

With Valentine's day coming up, I thought I would try to do something for it. There wasn't much to this photo. I just cut the apple and used one flash with a softbox positioned so that I would get a nice highlight. Then with Lightroom I adjusted the color and exposure.

127/365 - Jim - Monkey Around

( f/2.8 10.5mm 1/60 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is one of the decorations I have hanging up over Nolan's crib. We got these little frame boxes at a store for cheap and I tore out the decorations that were in there and replaced them with different stuffed animals. I shot this with my fisheye lens and built in flash. The flash coverage isn't enough for the fisheye, so it produced a very dark vignette.

126/365 - Tim - Deer Family Portrait

(Moultrie Game Spy 5MP Camera)

My uncle Tim got this camera for Christmas. He strapped it to a tree along a heavily traveled trail and checked on it a week later to find this photo. He says:

It looks like a Mama and two little ones. The other deer looks like a buck that already shed his horns. It looks like they had a family portrait taken.

126/365 - Jim - Deer Silhouette

( f/7.1 56mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Theme is silhouette. Since my uncle is guest posting today and he sent me a photo of deer, I tried to come up with something to match it and still adhere to the theme. It was tough, but I did it. This is a cut out from black paper that I did while watching the Office taped on my DVR (hour long show). The background is something I painted and used behind some miniatures that a friend of mine painted. I put the cutout about 3 feet in front of the background and took some pictures making sure that my exposure was low enough to make the cutout completely black. Typically you would be able to see the sky clearly, but my painting is a bit sloppy, so I made it blurred by using a wider aperture. I touched it up a little in Paint Shop Pro because I accidentally cut off the tip of the one antler.

125/365 - Jim - Terrible Towel Steelers Logo

( f/11 24mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Today is Superbowl XLIII. If you can't tell, I'm a big Steelers fan. I folded the Terrible Towel on a white background and took a photo. Then using Paint Shop Pro I pieced them together and added the text and circle. I think it's going to be a tough game if Ike can't keep the ball out of Fitzgerald's hands. Go Steelers!