Happiness

If you're a parent you know there is nothing better than seeing your child enjoying life. Seeing the sheer excitement on their faces just seems to take away all the naughty things they do. If only it could take away the gray hairs too.


Nikon D300s Nikkor 24-70 F/2.8 VSII @ 55mm
ISO 200
Shutter Speed 1/2000sec
Aperture f/2.8

This picture was taken around 1pm. The heat of the day being eased by the cool, pool waters. As a photographer I just wished there was a better way to ease the sun's powerful rays. Taking photos at that time of day is awful. What isn't shadowed is blown from the super bright sun.
But happiness can't wait for the sun to settle and I'm not going to miss an opportunity to capture a moment that really matters.


****
Melissa, one of our fantastic followers asked us for a recommendation to an entry level DSLR camera. Melissa being the proud mommy of a 8month old and a 17year old is finding her standard point and shoot just isn't giving her what she needs.

Here's my personal response to Melissa's request for help.
Nikon, Cannon and Sony have great entry level DSLR cameras. Any DSLR will give you the option to continue to grow in photography. Allowing you to change lenses, shoot (and edit) in RAW format, turn the camera on manual and make decisions for yourself, allowing you to decide what type of "mood" your photo should have instead of the camera deciding how to take the best photo.
DSLR cameras also shoot better in low light conditions, have better shutter speeds, memory storage and pixalization. All that said, in the entry level DSLR family I don't think there is too much difference between the larger, name brands that are on the mass market today. Every company has it's strength and weakness. It becomes more about personal preference than anything.
When I moved from a point and shoot to a DSLR, I went with the Nikon D40 (no longer in production). I chose the Nikon over Sony and Cannon for a few reasons. At the time I got a great deal on the D40. We all know finances matter. Another factor in my decision is the way the camera felt in my hands. I had experience with Nikon film cameras and was more adjusted to the grip. Additionally, the menu driven functions just made more sense to me on the Nikon. It seemed like I just knew where everything was.
My advice, go out and play. Hit up the local Best Buy, Costco, Wolf Camera or anywhere else that has display models and try them out. Get them in your hands and see what feels the best to you.
If I were just venturing into the market right now I would most likely get the Nikon D90 or the Nikon D3000. There are lots (LOTS) of great resources on the web for comparisons that are far more intelligent than mine. Do a little research and by all means, if you find yourself struggling between a few, drop us a line. Maybe one of us has used that camera before, or maybe we've heard or read reviews that might sway your decision. We're happy to help.
My comrades might add their own two cents. Listen to them, they're wicked smart.


xoxo,
Brandi

Water, Water, Everywhere....

My current photography obsession is water and water droplets. I was having fun with our sprinkler system and a fast shutter speed the other day, experimenting a little. Here is one result of that.

Nikon D2X
ISO-200
Aperture F/3.5
Shutter Speed 1/2500 sec.
Nikon 18-70mm at 45mm
Natural Lighting, Manual

I, unfortunately, do not have any city pictures from Chicago or really any kind of a city. That is kind of sad. I just hardly ever visit a city. I am probably one of the few people from Chicagoland that does not have a picture from "The Bean." I don't even know where it is located in the city. Sorry Scott I am a deprived person. So my only connection to Scott's picture is the black and white part.

School is almost out for my kiddo, so summer break here we come....

Sere

Vinegar and Baking Soda Are Fun!!!

Be forewarned inner science geek is coming out with this post!! I'm sure you all have heard about, or in my case tried the baking soda volcano. If you haven't, you need to, especially with your kids or just by yourself if you're a science geek like I am haha. There's a cool, chemical reaction that happens when the two ingredients meet, something to do with carbon dioxide. Bubbles and foam are produced which is what I attempted to capture with my camera here.

Nikon D2x
ISO-800(oops left over from my fast shutter speed practice the other day)
18mm-200mm f/3.5-6.3
Aperture F/10
Shutter Speed 1/60 sec.
Nikon Speedlight, contrast filter

We've been having trouble with our tub not draining properly. It's been a real pain in the rear to take care of. I tried Liquid Plumber and all that good stuff. My husband was online researching how to fix drains and came across an article talking about using vinegar and baking soda. Ready to try anything, I attempted it. Within the first couple of drops I was in LOVE with the reaction. I immediately had to get my camera to try and capture it.

So there I am bending over the tub with my vinegar in one hand(the baking soda had already been poured down the drain) and my camera in the other. I'd pour a little vinegar in, then try and get my camera up to my face to capture the bubbles. I only had a few seconds to capture them and I knew immediately I was going to have to use a flash. The entire time I was wishing I had a macro lens, yet again, to be able to get closer up.

So there you have my abstract attempt to make something fairly ordinary look kinda cool. Try it! Get that camera out and play around with what you have just laying around your house or yard. See what you come up with.

Enjoy!
Sere

Blogger stinks

Well Kids, the title says it all. Blogger stinks. All the chicks and the dude tried in vein to post a picture yesterday but alas, Blogger had some type of epic meltdown and wouldn't let us on. Boo hiss.

I'm glad it's back up and running. I've got so much to share both here and on my other blog. My best girl and I (along with my super fab parents) just spent four wonderful, really, REALLY hot days in the glorious Walt Disney World. I'm proud to say that I took just shy of 500 pictures in those four days. My ten pound baby (my camera) was attached to my wrist almost non-stop. It was terrific. I'm happy to share one of them with you tonight.


Nikon D300s Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 @62mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/640
Aperture f/2.8
natural light

Scott's picture is incredibly abstract. Even I can't figure out what it is and usually Scott and I share similar brain patterns, especially as it relates to photography. Well, except he's a Cannon guy and I'm a Nikon girl. I forgive him for his misstep. He went to the dark side long before I knew him.
Anyways, here is my most abstract picture from the "Disney motherload". It's a fountain that was sitting just outside the Crystal Palace restaraunt. I got a few moments to wander around and look at Disney though the viewfinder, while we waited for Winnie the Pooh and his friends to join us for breakfast.

Who's been to Disney World and have you eaten at the Crystal Palace? I would love to know. It sure seemed like the entire universe was there while we were.

Sere is up tomorrow and then Jay'me will be wrapping up the week.

Have a wonderful, magical, weekend.

Chaos

If you're not living in the midwest, Texas, most of the east coast then you're pretty lucky.
In these places (and others I'm sure) we've had some wild weather. Jay'me's snow picture is a great example.
In this part of the world (Chicagoland) we've moved from snow to rain. Lots and lots of rain and to top off this super fabulous drowning, we've got 36 degree temps and whipping winds. Yep, it's February. Oh wait, not it's not.

Anywho....
I had to play in the rain today. Rain and mud. I love it.
Except when it's raining inside. Then it's not so awesome.


Nikon D300s
Nikkor 24-70 f2.8
ISO 2500
Shutter Speed 1/20
Focal length 58mm
Aperture f/2.8

I was really trying to get out of the f/2.8 range with this picture but I was inside shooting in a the center of a partially complete brick building. I pretty much needed every bit of light that I could get. So f/2.8 it is.
A girls got to do what a girls go to do.

Lets see what a boy can do. You're up tomorrow Scott.

xoxo,
Brandi

Water Droplets!

I loved how both Scott and Brandi used lighting to really make their pictures work. My tie in was supposed to be using lighting as well to create a certain effect in my post today. It didn't go so well and I ran out of experimentation time. I didn't really like any of the pictures I took, but since I had run out of time I had to choose one, so I did.

Nikon D2X

ISO-100

Aperture F/8

Shutter Speed 1/25 sec.

18-200mm at 200mm

Natural Lighting

Without having a macro lens I find it hard to capture water droplets which I so want to practice learning how to do. This is why I use my telephoto and zoom in, but it just doesn't work very well and as you can see the picture gets so soft looking. I love that I was able to capture the droplets on the leaf, but it just didn't quite turn out the way I had envisioned it in my head.

On the plus side I did learn a new way to sharpen an image in Photoshop that I hope to play around with some more.

Off to bed I go, I am beat! Tomorrow is another day!

All That Glitters

is Gold!



Nikon D300s
Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 @ 62mm
ISO 500
Shutter speed 1/500sec.
Aperture f/2.8


I think my tie in is pretty easy to figure out.
This was an idea that I got from a fellow amateur photographer on a message board that I frequent. It's a glass bottomed dish (think Pyrex) balanced on two boxes so it hangs between them. Then I placed my daughters puzzle under the glass to get some colors to shine through. Using a desk lamp to light the entire dish from underneath (hence the need to raise the dish) I filled the dish with water and drops of olive oil.
Stand back, relax and SHABAM! Let the water and oil do what they do naturally and snap away.

Pretty fun! I wish I had more time to play with different objects underneath but I put this together in about 10 minutes at my parents house before we headed out for dinner.

Did you find some inspiration today? I did. Strangely it came from dropping my little girl off for a playdate with Grandma and seeing my dish that I had brought over last week.
I hope you had a great Thursday. Be watching for that inspiration tomorrow. You might find it in a box of cereal.

xoxo,
Brandi

Centered

First things first. Amanda, you're our winner from the last WW. I put your name (and only your name) into the randomizer and you came up! Congrats! Let us know when you want to post and we'll accommodate.

Moving on, aside from asking myself what is was that Jay'me photographed, I noticed immediately the centered framing. I had several ideas but when lunch came around, I was washing some blueberries and low and behold, the sun was putting on a show once more.


Canon 30D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8
Aperture f/16.0
Shutter 1/6, 1/15, 1/40
ISO 100
Processed with Photomatix
Sunlight

I'm back in the saddle with HDR! WooHoo!!! Let me tell you, those with good computers (I count myself among them now), you can run Photomatix without fear of crashing or taking too long. What a joy! It's an entirely new experience for me!

I chose to do HDR because there really was a lack of contract and this is one thing HDR can improve. The tie-in is simply the centered "dot" if you will.

Okay, gotta take care of some kiddos. Have a great weekend everyone!

Scott

SuperStar!

Happy Sunday folks! I hope everyone is enjoying the last bits of their weekend. Finding time to refresh, recharge and refocus for the week ahead.
Maybe you should take a nice, long, hot, bubble bath.

Nikon D40 kit lens @ 38mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/80
Aperture f/5.0
natural light

This is one of my daughters bath tub toys. Once upon a time he would spit water like a fountain. The batteries have long since died so my dear sweet child refuses to let him in the tub anymore. I feel kind of bad for the little guy so I gave him some tub time before turning the girl child loose.
There isn't anything extravagant about this photos. I will tell you that I intentionally underexposed the shot in camera so that I wouldn't blow the white highlights. I knew I was going to have to brighten things up manually using Photoshop Elements 8. Making decisions on what post processing you're going to do before shooting is always helpful.
I took a few at proper exposure in camera and sure enough, the highlights were all blown. Glad, I thought things through before hand.

My tie to Jay'me's fantastic gumballs is two fold. One the vibrant colors of Mr. Star. Two, the childlike quality that both photos possess.

Enjoy your beautiful Sunday everyone.
Our fantastic repeat guest poster Amanda will be charming us with something fantastic tomorrow.

xoxox,
Brandi

Troubled Waters

Cannon Rebel XT

1/60

f 5.6

ISO 500

This shot is straight off the the old camera and only cropped.

I found an enchanted place that is apparently FORBIDDEN as well... Someone got in trouble and freaked out a home owner today. See, little miss me thought I was still on the conservation. So there I was on my belly taking this shot when Maddie says "Mommy someone is here". Someone was there & boy was he pissed! He saw Maddie standing there (exactly like I told her) seemingly all by herself while I was down at the waters edge out of sight. He came racing down to "save" her before she took a swim. I guess his adrenalin rush made him a little cranky... As he stood there yelling "What the hell are you doing?" I thought Smile and make nice nice. As soon as said I thought this beautiful land was conservation and I was a photo blogger in the area. He yelled "That's on the other side of the street!" I apologized profusely for scaring him. I quickly made small talk and he softened right up. (Thank you Mr, Angry Guy for not calling the cops).

I have no real tie in with yesterday. I was going to go black and white, but like the photo as is.

Have a great day you all, & remember be sneakier while shooting that perfect shot or you may end up in a mug shot.

Jay'me

Drops of Water

Jay'me's painting/Brandi's photo gave me a chance to shoot flowers, something I really enjoy doing. Normally this time of year I would scoff at the idea. After all, it's a bit more authentic when you can actually get outside and shoot flowers as they grow. Here's the thing. Round these parts it's winter. Furthermore, the sun has been completely MIA. I mean, has it taken a liking to a different planet? WHAT THE HELL!!! So I thought maybe shooting a flower might give me a little jolt of synthetic sunshine and turn my frown upside down. I still miss the sun, but it did help staring through the lens at this extraordinary flower.


Canon 30d
EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
ISO 200
Shutter Speed 1/4
Aperture f/9.0
A single hot light

I tried about 7 different set-ups with different ideas each time. The truth of the matter is that it is devilishly difficult to balance the light with the water and the flower and maintain focus throughout the shot. You can see that the water droplet loses sharpness at the edge. It seemed necessary to achieve a sharp refraction through the water droplet. I couldn't get both.

To be fair, I chose not to completely close up my aperture because the Sahara Desert rears it's ugly head in the form of a dusty sensor when I do that. Perhaps if I'd just get it cleaned I could have achieved both a sharp refraction and water droplet edge. Or then again, maybe it's not possible. Do any of you know?

Lastly, I wanted to make something of an announcement. I was thinking the other day (dangerous, even on the good days) and I thought it would be a great idea to have a 3C1D outing for us four and any of our small but faithful followers. I checked it out with B and J and they are excited by the idea. Sere I'm confident with be all in as well. What I'm thinking at this point is spring time, and I'm hoping to sort of center it where as many people as possible can join in. So what I want from you readers is a thumbs up or thumbs down on the idea and a general idea of where you be! I can't speak for all of us but I would be willing to travel a bit for the sake of the group. I think it could be a total blast and a great way to strengthen our little community and learn a bunch. So what'd'ya think gang? Are you in?

See y'all later

Scott

Reflection

Reflection has many definitions.

Scott's version of reflection is defined as
Something, such as light, radiant heat, sound, or an image, that is reflected

Here's my version of reflection
Mental concentration; careful consideration


Nikon D40 kit lens
Shutter speed 1/320sec
Aperture f/4.0
Focal length 24.00mm
ISO 200

Whenever I'm near the water it seems to take me over. Giving me peace, quieting the noise in my head and giving me a moment of reflection. The fact that water also reflects like a mirror is not lost on me. Perhaps standing near the edge and seeing myself in the clear water is what allows for that quiet moment.

Capturing water right as it's forming into ice is harder than one would think. Light, as with all photos, is crucial. Harsh sun and you'll lose the details. Cloudy sky and you'll lose the reflection. So I knew I needed to head out today at the "prime time". "Prime time" or "the golden hour" the last hour of daylight, which sadly around these parts is 4pm.
Also posing a problem is the need for depth, structure if you will. Something to ground the photo. Just a picture of an ice edge is rather blah, as I found out.
As I stood at the waters edge, reflecting and thinking of what I could do to "make" a photo happen, a soft, tiny, whisper of a feather floated down and landed just beside me.



"The day is done, and the darkness, Falls from the wings of Night, As a feather is wafted downward, From an eagle in his flight”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Enjoy the moment of reflection.
xoxo,
Brandi

Run Brandi Run

This is not the shot I planned on getting today. Mother Nature gave me something better to work with.



Nikon d40
kit lens @22mm
f4.0
1/25sec
ISO 400
natural light
spot metered

Right as I got home tonight a storm began to rev up. I quickly got the child and the husband eating dinner and ran outside to capture the amazing sky.
You can see from the golden hue that the sun was still warming the sky behind me, casting it's beautiful warm glow all over the leaves of our huge cotton wood tree.

I did minimal post processing. I tend to agree with Scott in most cases less is more, in the processing department. I needed to brighten things up a bit, which, I knew I was going to have to do when I took the picture. I didn't have quite enough time to make all the necessary adjustment, I barely made it inside before the skies unleashed and raindrops the size of my head fell from the sky.

After the rain calmed the girl child and I went out to play in the puddles. I was pretty sure that I would post a picture of the girl splashing but there was just something about the glow of anticipation in this photo I had to post it. Luckily for me I'll just take my 'rejects' and put them on my other blog.

Thanks Mother Nature, for once it paid to procrastinate.

xoxo,
Brandi

Water...But Different

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L
Shutter Speed 1/3200
Aperture f/2.8
ISO 100
Aperture Priority
Natural Light

I knew when I saw Jay'me's post that I wanted to do something with water. I've had a lot of fun shooting water and I figured it would be easy to lean on what I've learned so far. For this shot I decided on my way out of work to shoot a friend of mine's car (Isn't it great that I can talk about shooting stuff and be completely serious?). It had all these water droplets and it's a sexy sports car so no problem, piece of cake. Well, it's not easy getting a shot with interest of a parked car, I don't care how sexy it is.

I ended up looking for close up details that might photograph well and this is what I came up with. I though it gave a sense of power and sleekness, and that's something that's difficult to capture without motion. The water adds depth and the headlight added a lot of interest and focus. I tried several without the headlight on but the shots were just flat.

In post process I added a ton of contrast, blew out the highlights and accentuated the shadows. I like the edgy feel it gives. Normally, I'm not a big "radical edit" fan but every once in a while I do a bit more. With this shot I really think it adds without completely destroying the original image.

That's it from me tonight. I just spent several hours getting punished at a bowling alley and this kid's ready for bed. Stick a fork in me. Till next time,

Scott

Where there's smoke...

there is WATER???



Nikon d40
1/20 @ 38mm
f5.0
ISO 400

Every 3rd day I start to panic. Filling with a wonderful nervous apprehension mixed with a giddy excitement waiting to see what Scott is going to do next. I'm not going to lie, I see Scott enough that I have, on numerous occasions, attempted to thwart his lofty plans. I thought about tripping him down the stairs yesterday but decided that was a bad idea. I don't need any bad karma coming at me.
So, I get by and attempt to prepare as best as I can. I keep my camera by me at all times and I look around taking notice of all the little details. Trying to see things for what they could be instead of what they are.
Today, as I was strolling through Target (I know, I know...it's a problem I don't really wish to solve) I saw this box, perched in the clearance aisle with all the pool stuff. The box had all these cool colors and lights on it and a sticker that said $5.69. Like a child I was drawn to it. I don't have a pool so I'm not quite sure what exactly I was doing in this aisle but I had a coffee and no child so I cannot be held responsible for my actions.
Turns out this beautiful box was a lighted, sprinkler for a pool or hot tub.

Hmmm...
water - puts out fire
bright red and shocking blue - colors of fire
spinning wildly out of control - just like fire

I was in business. Home I went. Decided the big bathtub would work best. Filled it up, turned on the light sprinkler and dropped it in. Took a couple test shots and it didn't take a genius to see that I was going to need to darken the room to really get the colors to pop.
Close the blinds in the big bathroom window, closed the door and turned out all the lights.
At first I slowed the shutter speed way down but found that the shocking brightness of the lights just got blown out. Upped the shutter speed until I found the right balance between seeing the colors and the edges and not blinding the photo with the center points.
I took 90 pictures. Some of just the water next to the sprinkler. A few of the few from the top looking down on the sprinkler from about 2 feet up (straddling a wet bathtub is not advisable). Pulled the card from my camera and threw the pictures onto the computer. I needed to see what I had to work with.
Ended up liking the photos shot from above best. But was still a little to slow on the shutter speed and I wasn't close enough to the sprinkler.
Back to the bathroom I went. This time placing my camera as close to the sprinkler as I could without risking water damage, focusing on centering the orb in the frame.
Another 90 or so photos and I declared enough. Time to make a decision and keep one. (Who came up with this one photo only rule anyways??? Oh, wait that was me...)It was pretty hard to pick from 4 of them. Each having their own unique qualities that spoke to me. In the end a rousing game of "Eeenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe" proved this photo the winner.
My point is... and I do have a point... keep trying, keep learning because maybe in the end you'll have too many too chose from.

Let's keep it rolling, Jay'me.

All the colors of the rainbow....

First before I post my picture today I would like to say that before this blog I would never have attempted this photo. I would have continued down my figurative road in life, looking around to FIND my next picture. I would not have tried to push myself into making my own picture. Having to blog every few days you can't always wait to find your next picture. You are forced(in a good way) into thinking creatively with what is around you. That can be a challenge for me because I don't necessarily think of myself as overly creative. So here you go, my post for the day....




Nikon D2x
Lens 70-210mm
Focal length 210mm
Aperture f4
Shutter 1/2000sec.
No Flash

This photo came about yesterday really. I knew that I would not have a lot of time to play today: I have two rowdy, rambunctious, sleep deprived 8 year olds to contend with. I also have a young family coming by to see my dogs and experience tells me they will want to chit chat, which I really do enjoy doing, it just takes up extra time.
Anyway back to my photo. I was mopping my kitchen floor, isn't that a fun job? When I noticed the morning light streaming through my living room window. At about the same time I happened to turn and spy a vase sitting on a counter. I immediately thought "sunlight, vase, water, rainbow." I knew that you could get that prism of color effect, especially since the vase had a floral design on it which could break up the light spectrum. My geeky science teacher training was rearing its head. Yep in another life I would have enjoyed being a middle school science teacher. I knew I only had a limited amount of time before the angle of the sun changed. So I left my floor half mopped and rushed to set up. I filled the vase with water, grabbed my tri-pod and lens. I moved the vase around several different places before BINGO my colors showed up. But I was still on my carpet, rough ground, so I ran to get a piece of white paper thinking it might help the colors to show up better, leaving my camera and very heavy lens dangling on my tri-pod. I also grabbed several different pieces of colored paper, just to experiment with. The white paper did help with my colors. I also noticed that when I put the colored paper behind the vase the extra color helped with the picture somehow. Off I went taking numerous shots before the light left.

My connection to Jay'me's photo is the vase and floral pattern, kind of loose I know. Also the pink colored paper worked the best like on her flower, with yellow being next.

My photo, I know is not quite as technically good as Scott's water droplet photo, or some of the other photos on this blog, but it goes to the spirit of what we're trying to do here. Both Scott and I used water, light and color to create our effects. This type of a picture also uses a different perspective for me, which actually kind of goes with Brandi's photo. How cool is it that I could make a connection to all three of our last posts?

So my final thought on this post is Go and Challenge yourself in life, see something from a different perspective, try something new that you aren't sure how to do. Even if it doesn't work out perfectly, you will be a better person for it.

You're up next Scott!

A Rose By Any Other Name...

Canon 30d
Canon EF 100mm Macro f/2.8
Shutter Speed 1/250
Aperture f/11.0
Focal Length 100mm
ISO 100
2 external Alien Bees flash heads and a softbox/tent

I really enjoyed Jay'me and Sere's last posts. I was tempted to go out and get some macro shots of flowers around me. I've done it in the past and I really enjoy looking at flowers through the lens. It's one of my favorite styles of photography. I decided however that the spirit of 3chicks1dude is to push our knowledge and comfort zone and try new things for the sake of learning. With that in mind, I decided it was time to try my hand at capturing water droplets. It's nothing new - it's practically cliche. But I've never tried it!

The story starts with me trying to capture water droplets using hot lights. For those learning, hot lights are essentially really bright lamps that are on continuously. They are called hot lights because they get freaking hot! The advantage of hot lights is that you see exactly what the light looks like before you start shooting. It can make things a lot easier. Additionally, they are relatively cheap, another big plus when you are trying to learn and not go broke.

I set-up my hot lights and threw a bunch of stuff into plates and glasses and had limited success. I couldn't get the motion to freeze. What I needed were my strobes. So I fired off a text to Brandi (she was borrowing my gear for a bit) and next thing I knew, I'm in my kitchen setting up one heck of an obstacle course. My wife was a sweetheart, knowing I can get a little laser focused when camera gear abounds! Off she went to read while I literally fired off over 300 shots! What a blast!!! You can't believe how much fun this is.

The reason you need strobes (or speedlights) is to stop the motion. The duration of a flash is so short the exposure only gets the merest fraction of a second to capture the scene. For those crying about a lack of strobes or speedlights, use your pop-up flash. It is somewhat limiting but I was able to capture several good shots with just the pop-up. Just remember to keep the ambient light as low as possible to eliminate spillover.

As for the set-up, it is a glass vase filled with water. Then I dropped a few drops of green water into the vase (I took pictures of that). I wasn't satisfied with the intensity of the green so I decided to start dropping pure food coloring into the vase. And that's when it hit me! I had just added green. If I drop some red next, I might get a "rose" with the green water being the stem and the red dye being the bloom! Imagine my excitement when it actually worked! I was going to use the water droplets from Sere's flower as my inspiration. But now I was able to use the water and the flower! I told you it was fun.

When I decided this is what I wanted to try, I warned Brandi I might go neurotic and post as late as 11:30. Alas, I may just beat that time...barely. Thanks to all reading this. I hope you're enjoying this as much as we are. Stay tuned for some fun news coming down the pipeline. We (all 4 of us) can't stop thinking of ways to play and improve this blog. Keep the comments coming and be sure to tell your friends about us! Tag Brandi, you're it!

Scott

Summer's Last Hurrah.....

Last day before school begins so we decided to head out to check out some surrounding parks and prayed we didn't get rained on. I packed up my tri-pod and a few lens, flash and diffuser figured it couldn't hurt. So we're walking around on some trails and I've got my camera out just kind of shooting some snapshots. Trying to figure out what I was going to take a picture of for this blog. Sounds like a nice day all around so far.....

Until I went to set my tri-pod up to get a shot of us together using my timer and realized that I didn't have the thingie that connected my camera to the tri-pod. Drat!!! There goes that idea. Then I went to turn my camera back on and CRAP nothing! Absolutely nothing would turn on. So I'm freaking out wondering if I somehow broke my camera, beginning to hyper-ventilate. I'm sure you guys understand this. On top of the fact that now I'm getting upset because I am without camera to use, which is like losing an appendange you get my drift? And then it started to rain. Off we went running to the car. Taking deep breathes I decided that we would go and get ice cream. I WILL not let this ruin our last hurrah of summer before school begins. So we went to get ice cream and then proceeded to head back out to play in the rain and in the stream, sans camera and had a blast. All that to say that I did not get many pictures today, but this is one that I thought might work for today's blog.



Nikon D2x
Lens 50mm fixed
Aperture F5.6
Shutter 1/125 second
ISO 400
I played with this picture in raw format, zoomed in a ton and put a midnight filter on it to enhance the water droplets on the flower.

Oh and by the way it was my battery, camera is alright. The battery which had enough life in it most have been bad because it just died out of the blue. New battery and my baby is like new. Takes deep breath and thanks God.

I'm kind of a portrait photographer by nature so when I saw this picture I wanted to share it with you all as well.



Apeture F1.8
Shutter 1/160 sec.
ISO 400
Did nothing, straight out of the camera.

Water, water everywhere!

Nikon D2X

ISO 400

F13

Shutter 1/15s

Lens 18-70mm at 29mm

Speedlight SB800 with Gary Fong Diffuser on it

I started thinking about what photo I was going to take today, not having seen Scott's post from Sunday so I was going off of the post from Saturday. In any event, crazy enough we both went for waterfalls. Course I went a different direction but still waterfalls.

So my mind was on showing motion and immediately I thought about water and trying to show the motion of water. Of course this idea came to me while I was driving my two hours to Iowa City to return some stuff and check out Eddie Bauer's new fall line. Alas my OCD kicked in and I had to keep pushing it to the back of my mind. Heading home I realized that I still had to go grocery shopping and of course feed my child. The feeding of my child went quick, we pulled into good ole Mickey D's. I hate it but I wanted quick so yes I fed my child junk so I could go and play with my camera. Is that so wrong? By the time all that was done I was running out of light so I packed up my junk and drove to David's Chamber outside of Nauvoo Illinois which is a small, cute waterfall so I could get shots of moving water. Took several shots quickly and didn't really get any shots that I liked. So I chose one of the okay shots to post. I need to get more practice in. Not as beautiful as Scott's picture but hopefully you get the sense of motion, which is what I was going for.

Not sure who is going next Brandi or Jay'me. Looking forward to seeing what either one of them post next.

-Sere-