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!