244/365 - Jim - Storybook Cottage

(10.5mm HDR ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

We got our kids a playhouse on Friday from Craigslist. Jameson has been enjoying it thoroughly. I wanted to get some shots of the inside so I put the fisheye lens on. Then I bracketed 5 shots and turned this into an HDR image. Our house was behind the little house, so I very roughly edited it out with Photoshop. I didn't spend much time on it because the second Pens Stanley Cup game is on. I'm going to get back to the game now.

243/365 - Jim - Gerbera Daisy

( f/6.3 70mm 1/100 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Carol planted some gerbera daisies today, so after I watered them I got this shot. She really likes them, so they have been planted every year for the last few years or so. It was funny that when she planted the third flower, she ran into an ant home and they came out in full force. If you are wondering why I wrote gerbera instead of gerber, it's because they are both used and I don't know which one is correct...

242/365 - Jim - Striper

( f/5 18mm 1/60 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

If you have followed this blog from the beginning, you know who this is. I went night fishing with Matt on Lake Arthur to catch striper. There are tons of bait fishing swimming around and spinning on the surface of the water. I snagged one with a lure and Matt used it for bait. Within 2 minutes he pulled in this 20" striper. That's when we caught more bait fish to use. We didn't have the same luck though and decided to leave at around 2am.

241/365 - Jim - Wheel

( f/5 10.5mm 1/60 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I got home pretty late today, so I went out and took a photo of the wheel of my car. It was really dark, so I used the SB-800 flash remotely. Then using Lightroom I applied a preset to give it the blue tint. This is what happens when I have little time before midnight to take my photo of the day...

240/365 - Jim - Water

( f/16 70mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This was very difficult to photograph. I painted the formula with water and a paintbrush onto a piece of Plexiglas. Then put it about 8 inches above a blue foam sheet. I had to get at an angle that would produce the white edges otherwise it looked very flat. Getting it in focus well enough was hard for some reason. I finally got an image that worked, but the Plexiglas had all kinds of imperfections, so I edited them out with Photoshop. I don't know why it was difficult, but it was.

239/365 - Jim - Plans

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

This is one of the cross section drawings I did for the addition we are having built. I had to do this for the permit. Being that this is the first time I have every done something like this, I was somewhat clueless as to what needed to be done. I had to copy drawings I saw and have my contractor fill in the blanks. It wasn't an easy task...

238/365 - Jim - Memorial Day

( f/5.6 140mm 1/1000 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

It is Memorial Day today so I thought I would try to observe it on my blog. I went to a local cemetery and got some photos of all the flags for the veterans. It is easy to take for granted the freedom that all these people fought to keep.

237/365 - Jim - Chalk to the Hand

( f/5.6 24mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is another one of those late night photos where I just come up with something before the strike of midnight. For some reason when I saw some chalk laying around, I thought chalk to the hand. So I put it together and got my photo today...

236/365 - Jim - First Time Fishing

( f/7.1 18mm 1/200 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

We took Jameson fishing for the first time. He liked reeling in fish, but that was about it. His Papa helped him with everything while I filmed and took pictures. He caught a few bluegill and I caught this little bass. My dad held it for Jameson to touch, but he was really apprehensive until he finally gave it a quick touch. After that he was ready to leave...

235/365 - Jim - In Plane Site

( f/10 400mm 1/400 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

There are small airplanes that fly around my house a lot. As I sat out on the deck today while my son played in his sandbox, I was taking photos of clouds. This airplane flew by and I snapped away. I got a decent shot, but it just wasn't very interesting, so I jazzed it up with a Photoshop action.

234/365 - Jim - Jameson's First Fishing Pole

( f/6.3 24mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I went out tonight to watch the Penguin game. I took my camera, but forgot a memory card so I wasn't able to get a photo until 11:30pm. After lunch today I got this fishing pole for my son. He will be fishing for the first time on Saturday. It will be interesting... At 2 years old, his attention span is pretty low. I'll be surprised if he takes to the slow paced world of fishing. His Papa might have to take a lot of bluegill off the line if he gets too bored trying for bass...

233/365 - Jim - Finally!

( f/3.2 24mm 1/80 sec ISO 640 Nikon D300 )

I call this Finally because this is the third time I have been out fishing and the first time I got a line in the water. The other two times were bad luck... I caught two nice bass to make up for the first two times, so it was a good night. Then on the way back to the dock I was able to get this photo. It is pretty plain, but so vibrant that I just find myself staring at it. I have to thank Smochko for teaching me to fish :)

232/365 - Jim - Old Garage

( f/16 105mm 1/50 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I used the Argus Seventy-five camera again to get the borders. This is one of my neighbor's garage and the only thing around my house that looks old enough to look this way. I took this image with my Nikon, but pointed at the viewfinder of the Argus. Then used Lightroom to apply the Antique Light preset which gives it the sepia tone and low contrast. I was trying to somewhat match the vintage look of Tyler's photo. I may have gone about 20 - 30 years too far back...

232/365 - Tyler - 1950 Tour Bus

( f/2.8 17mm 1/160 sec ISO 200 Nikon D80 )

Tyler was my neighbor and I more recently found out he is way into photography. He took this photo at Brown's Country Kitchen in Portersville, PA. It's an old 1950 tour bus. He increased the vibrance to give it a cool vintage look. Nice photo and thanks for posting!

231/365 - Jim - Long Day

( f/11 24mm 1/80 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I walked out into the backyard today and noticed how long my shadow was, so I started taking some photos of it. The late day light was perfect for portraits. I did take some but thought this photo was the most interesting of the day. I look like one of those stilted men at the circus or a parade.

230/365 - Jim - Hostas

( f/11 24mm 1/40 sec ISO 640 Nikon D300 )

This hosta is in my back yard by my pool. I am going to need to transplant it if I want to keep it because it is right where my addition will be. This wasn't a very interesting photo, so I applied an effect using Photoshop to give it all the individual little photos. It was so easy. I've done this manually before with several close-up photos of the same scene. It takes a long time!

229/365 - Jim - Parking Lot Light

( f/22 48mm 1/160 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I took my camera with me shopping today. After we left Kohl's I parked in the end of the lot so Carol could feed Nolan. I got out and took some photos of the parking lot lines thinking that would be my photo today. Then I looked around to see what else I could photograph. Finally I looked up and took this shot. I did some major processing in Lightroom to bring out the details, especially in the sky. It looks almost like a painting to me. I wish I had taken a picture of just the clouds...

228/365 - Jim - Bucket Heads

( f/5.6 38mm 1/60 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

My sister came to visit for her 30th birthday today. We were all sitting around and I put the cat bucket on Nolan's head. Then Jameson put the dog bucket on his head, so we put them together for a photo. I was too busy the rest of the day, so this was the best of the few photos I took.

227/365 - Jim - Rejected Egg

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

I found this robin egg in my front yard landscaping. It must have been rejected from the nest, but I didn't see any nests around it. I moved it into the grass and got really low by laying on the grass and letting bugs crawl all over me to take this photo. Then I used Lightroom to give the grass more of a wheat field look. I also applied a softening effect with Picasa.

226/365 - Jim - Molecules At Rest

( f/11 105mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Can you guess what this is? After watching a two hour Lost I had to find something to photograph, so looked around the house until I found this. I'm thinking this one might be too easy, but who knows...

225/365 - Jim - Eight Is Enough

( f/11 60mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I didn't take much time tonight thinking up a photo, so I just pulled out the 8 ball and put it on white for an easy black and white shot. I can't wait until I get the addition built so I can take everything off my pool table and put it in my new photo studio.

224/365 - Jim - Carnation

( f/11 60mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

My wife was given this flower at Giant Eagle for Mother's Day when she went grocery shopping. And I couldn't let it go unphotographed... I put a flash with softbox behind my Translum background to blow out the background. Then I did some touch-ups with Photoshop to make it as clean as I could.

223/365 - Jim - Mother's Day

( f/8 40mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Here are the boys with their mother. I brought one of my studio flashes upstairs to the living room and staged the shot. This was actually the first shot of almost 50 that I took. After that first shot, it became much more difficult to get them all looking my general direction, so I wish I would have known I didn't have to keep bribing Jameson to sit nicely. Happy Mother's Day!

222/365 - Jim - Under My Favorite Tree with a Book

( f/8 50mm 1/250 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

It looks like I just came upon Jameson sitting there reading and took a snapshot. The reality is that I staged the whole thing and he sat there looking at his book for only a few minutes. He did enjoy sitting on his bench there and it does look like a nice place for it. Jameson and I went to Lowe's the other day and I thought this bench looked like a nice prop, so I got it. Plus Jameson loves to use it, which is a plus for trying to get his photo.

221/365 - Jim - Message in a Bottle

( f/4 55mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

It was getting pretty late and I hadn't taken any photos. That is when I just look around and pick something up to photograph... I grabbed two light bulbs and a cap and set them down, then my brain came up with this. Get it? If not, watch this.

221/365 - Heather - Keep your eye on the ball

( f/4.1 92mm 1/500 sec ISO 250 Olympus E-500 )

Heather said she took this photo at a t-ball game in Venango, PA on Tuesday. This is Hunter Spaid hitting what looks like a line drive to shortstop. I'm sure his dad will mold him into a good ball player! Great sports shot Heather.

220/365 - Jim - Callender's Colander

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

Yes, this is our colander. I saw an image like this on the Digital Photography School website and I thought this would be an easy photo tonight. I put a flash above and behind as far away as I could so the shadow would be more defined. Then in Lightroom I made it black and white with a preset because there were reflected colors that I didn't like.

219/365 - Jim - Old Stone House Outhouse

( f/11 70mm 1/160 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This outhouse is behind The Old Stone House on Route 8 in Butler County. I always thought that George Washington spent a night there, but I just read that isn't true. It did however give many travelers a place to stay between 1822 and 1885. Carol and I were out brick shopping and stopped here on our way back from a brick showroom in Harrisville. I took several photos of the actual Stone House, but they weren't as interesting as this one. I gave it a sepia tone in Lightroom to give it an old look.

218/365 - Jim - Nolanameson

( f/11 35mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I wondered what this would look like, so I bribed Jameson so he would get his photo taken. Then got Carol to hold Nolan so I could get his photo. Aside from their ears, they look pretty alike. It wasn't easy to match them up. I cut off their chins because Nolan has a much shorter face and Jameson's chin extended a bit lower. I think their chins are the only other thing that is different, so it's too bad I couldn't show that. I'm actually surprised at how well their faces matched up.

217/365 - Jim - Red Maple

( f/8 200mm 1/160 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I took a similar photo the other day, but I chose a different photo to post. I liked it enough to take another one today. The late day light behind the leaves illuminates the leaves to a very vibrant red. It's almost hard to tell whether this is a spring or fall photo.

216/365 - Jim - Oh My!

( 400mm ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

We went to the Pittsburgh Zoo today and I was armed with my 70-200mm lens and the 2x teleconverter. It started out rainy and I had some issues with slow shutter blur at ISO 200, but it eventually got nicer out and I had enough sun to shoot at decent speed. It's really hard to hold the lens still when zoomed to 400mm. Especially in lesser than ideal light. This is my Lions, Tigers, and Bears. Oh my! photo that I put together with Picasa. If you would like to view a collection of my zoo photos, click here.

215/365 - Jim - Cohabitant

( f/7.1 400mm 1/200 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This robin made itself a nest under my deck. Every year there is a nest there. I don't know if it is the same bird or just a great place for a nest. I'm sure there is probably eggs in it already. Every year we don't catch it in time, so I would feel bad knocking it out of there with eggs already in it. What the bird doesn't know, is that we plan on building an addition, so she better raise those little ones before demolition begins.

214/365 - Jim - Lake Storm

( f/5.6 200mm 1/10 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

This is my second attempt to go fishing. This time the boat engine worked, and we got out in the water. Then the storm clouds engulfed the lake and started pouring rain. We thought it might pass over, but cue the lightning. A few bolts and we were heading back to shore. Loaded up the boat and waited for a while, but it wasn't letting up. So that makes 2 times fishing and not one line in the water. I'll eventually get to fish... This photo was pretty lucky. At 1/10th of a second shutter, everything should be very blurry, but somehow I followed the movement of the boat zoomed in at 200mm while we were also racing back to shore. It was impressive enough to post as today's photo.