The Book is COMPLETE

Foto Every Day by Jim Callender | Make Your Own Book

369 - Jim - Happy Halloween

( f/8 48mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I wanted to get some Halloween photos of the kids today. I set everything up, which is pretty difficult with the limited amount of space I have, and then Carol brought Nolan down. I didn't get a chance to balance all the lights, so I wasn't real happy with the results. This shot was one of the best of the bunch. I did some Photoshop work to white out the white muslin backdrop and then added the text on the pumpkin. This is Nolan's first Halloween, so we'll see how he likes to be dressed up like a dragon.

368 - Jim - Ready for Bed

( f/5.6 56mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

My whole family has been sick this week and I finally got to try out my ring flash. You can tell by the light spots in Jameson's eyes. I had a shoot through umbrella modifier on the flash which produced the larger white dot. The little black dot in the center is where my camera was. Jameson was actually up for pictures tonight and posed this way for me. Then he wanted to see the picture. He usually doesn't cooperate for pictures.

367 - Jim - Smochko Wedding

( Nikon D300 )

If you followed this blog from the beginning, you will remember Matt. He didn't make it quite as far as I did with FotoEveryDay. If he had, it would have ended only 4 days before his wedding, which probably would have been rough. Anyways, I was able to attend his wedding on the Gateway Clipper and practice photography on him and his new wife Kelly. Here are the other shots I got from the wedding. Congratulations Matt and Kelly!

366 - Jim - Fake Rain

( f/11 70mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I wonder if anyone still looks at this blog to see if I post anymore... Anyways, I got Carol to let me take a photo of her hands with a light above and behind. I used a beauty dish to give a soft light, but also have the light fall off quickly. There was a Photoshop tutorial I watched and it inspired me to try it out. I had a blue monochromatic version of this, but liked the color version better. These Photoshop tutorials are awesome and I would really like to learn Photoshop better, so I will be watching more of them and maybe you will see some results here.

365/365 - Jim - The End

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

Well, this is the last photo of my 365 day project. I didn't miss even 1 day, so it was a big success. Over the year I took over 30,200 photos which averages to about 82 photos per day. Over the past few days I have been trying to figure out what my last photo would be. I finally came up with this idea and didn't see any similar ones on flickr, so I was assured that it was somewhat original. I used my 105mm macro lens to photograph the dice. Then used my 24-70mm lens to photograph myself attempting to fake lean. I merged the two with Photoshop and cropped it down a little bit.

I would like to thank everyone that followed my blog and left comments. Without that support, I might not have followed through. There were many times that I had a hard time coming up with an idea for a photo, but somehow did. Even if it was just before midnight. Some of those were actually some of my best work. I feel like I learned a lot over the year and a lot has happened. We added my little boy Nolan to my family who is 9 months old already. We also have an addition that is coming soon. Complete with a photography studio/office where I will continue to take photos and try to turn this hobby into something more.

What is next? Well, with the studio coming, I will be blogging about that and my possible start up photography business called GrayRox Studios. Maybe I will do some instructional videos on photography and show you how I do what I do. Maybe I will start a new project like this, but just not as intense. Like 52 photowalks or 12 photo expeditions. In the meantime, I will still post photos here. It just won't be as often.

Thanks again everyone! I hope you enjoyed viewing my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.

364/365 - Jim - Autumn Bouquet

( f/11 50mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

We went out shopping tonight for a little while and Jameson and I decided to get mommy some flowers. Carol isn't into the regular flowers and has liked these Autumn type flowers in the past, so I was sure she would like these. I asked Jameson what he thought mommy would say. He said "Oh those are some nice flowers there Jameson and then I would say yes, they are." That made me laugh. He was very talkative today.

363/365 - Ethan - Heinz Field Sunset

( HTC Google Ion )

Ethan showed me this photo he took with his phone from the Pitt game a while back. I told him to send it to me so I could post it here as a guest post, so he sent it right then. He got this phone from Google for free when he attended a conference. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

363/365 - Jim - Drive in the Rain

( f/4 50mm 1/1250 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I was heading down to Pittsburgh to watch the Steelers game and the rain was coming down really hard. The windshield is curved, so getting focus on all the raindrops was not possible if I wanted the background all blurred. The weather eventually cleared, but then the Steelers lost, so it was a pretty dreary day.

362/365 - Jim - Jeans

( f/11 28mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I have been wanting to take a photo like this for a while, but just never set up it up until now. Carol held him which was no easy task. He kept bouncing and staring at his feet, so it was difficult to get him looking at the camera. I would have liked to have the background totally white, but I would have needed a lot more space and probably another flash. That is something I can perfect once my studio is finished.

361/365 - Jim - Reflection

( f/11 40mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I bribed Jameson with the show Caillou to get him to work with me on this photo. I had to make sure I could get a shot of him with his eyes open and closed without any other movement. That isn't an easy task with a 2 year old. I wanted to just make the eyes opposite, but I tried taking out the saturation on the one Jameson and liked that. It adds another element to make your head turn just a bit more to figure out what is going on in this photo.

360/365 - Jim - Presto

( f/8 62mm 1/15 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I had plans today for a photo that didn't work out, so I had to think of something else. I went downstairs and magically found my magic wand. So I wondered what I could do with it to portray magic. Then I thought about the little sparkles you see in the movies and knew I could use Christmas lights for bokeh to accomplish this. The hardest part of it was holding the wand in the right place and focusing while taking the picture. Because I had to be in front of the camera, I couldn't look through the viewfinder. It turned out just as I imagined, so I'm happy with it.

359/365 - Jim - Butler County Courthouse

( f/22 18mm HDR ISO 100 Nikon D300 )

This is the Butler County Courthouse in downtown Butler. It was a very gloomy and overcast day, which results in pretty blah photos. So what do you do? Bracket a bunch of photos and turn them into an HDR. It really takes a nothing shot and turns it into something. I think this looks like one of those old postcards that were shot in black and white and then colorized.

358/365 - Jim - Fresh Banana Bread

( f/4 24mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I know what you are thinking. Please please please give me the recipe to this delicious looking banana bread. To do that would give away the secrets that have been passed down for generations. The best way to eat the bread is with a tall glass of water with homemade ice. That is another family recipe that my dad perfected back in the early 70's with just water, a freezer, and a dream. Maybe someday I will make a Callender Family Cookbook and sell it on Amazon. Please don't flood my comments with pre-order requests.

357/365 - Jim - Mad Men

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

I was having some trouble thinking of something to photograph today. It was raining outside, so that wasn't an option. I've done other TV shows, so I just did an Amazon search for TV shows. This is one of the very few that didn't have the characters on the front, so I grabbed my white shirt and a tie and did my best to stage it. I haven't ever watched a whole episode of Mad Men, but I think Courtney said it was good. Here is what I copied it from.