Love Ya Willie!

A little tune to play while you're enjoying the rather crappy photo below.

Jay'me went to the Dells. I was supposed to join her (and the other 2.9million people there this weekend) but instead was diverted to my hometown in Iowa.
Jay'me snapped her photo from the car window. It inspired me to do the same.

My trusty driver (Hi Mom!) was less than excited at the prospect of me motioning to an over the road trucker and getting his permission to take a photo of his front tire in motion. Sigh. Parents...
So I snapped this as we flew past the oil truck doing 72 (in a 70mph speed zone).


Nikon D300s
Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/2500sec
Aperture f/2.8

I really had intended to change my aperture. I wanted to get as large of a focal point as possible. But, when shooting on the fly you sometimes forget the most basic of principles.

To not make this post totally suck I'm going to include my personal opinion on JPEG vs RAW photos.
As I said, this is just my opinion. As we all know opinions are like.. well.. you know. I'll keep it rated G.

Way back in the day (circa 2007) when I got my first DSLR, I shot in RAW and JPEG format. My computer quickly filled up and I ran out of hard drive space. I switched to JPEG only (circa 2008). Until my recent purchase of the D300s I stayed that way and never really thought much about it.
Right before I got the new camera I also got an huge external hard drive (thanks Mom and Dad). I backed up my 4.2million photos and cleared off most of my internal hard drive. So when the D300s showed up I chose to shoot in RAW and JPEG once again.
Immediately upon downloading the first pictures I noticed a real difference in the quality of the photos between the RAW and JPEG formats. I was impressed. The RAW really did seem to make a difference.
Fast forward to my first major round of edits. I LOVE editing a RAW photo. It's so quick and easy to make any small corrections that might be necessary. Shooting in RAW has absolutely changed how much time I spend editing. I didn't spend much time before but now I spend next to nothing. It's absolutely worth it to me to me to take up a little more drive space to get the better, faster photo.

All that said, get the photo right in camera and you really won't have any editing time. And you might also be living in an alternate universe that I would like to live in with you.

RAW or JPEG? What do you shoot in?

A Little Spot of Color

I had an awfully hard time trying to figure out how to connect to yesterday's post for some reason. It's winter and snowy out here in the midwest and as such I have lots of winter, snowy type pictures that I have taken this week. Not much to connect with on those. I thought about doing friendship, but really who wants to see a picture of me.

I LOVE the flower in Jay'me's hair, a little spot of color during a cold winter. It made me think of this picture that I had taken a few days ago. One with a little spot of color in it as well.


Olympus Stylus Tough 3000
ISO-200
Aperture F/4.3
Shutter 1/5 sec.
Focal Length of 15mm
SOOC

This picture was taken through the windshield of my husband's truck while I was waiting for him to get out of Lowe's. I was bored and playing around with the camera when I spotted this blue car next to all these white, black, and gray cars. It just totally stuck out.

Photography is not just about getting a technically good picture (of which this would NOT be a good example of) even though that is important. It is also about being able to spot things in the world around you that stand out and capturing them.

Jay'me is up next. Let's find out what she sees in the world around her.
Sere

Fathers

No I'm not confused (well.. nevermind). It is not Fathers Day nor is it my fathers birthday. They are separated by a few short days in June.
My very loose, connection to Scott's post is fatherhood.
Scott was a father taking a picture of his son and I am a daughter taking a picture of my fathers hands on the steering wheel of the family truckster.
Headed down 218 in Iowa last night, my dad kept us all safe contending with some whipping winds and periods of white out conditions.

Thanks Dad.



Nikon d40 kit lens
ISO 400
shutter speed 1/4sec.
f/3.8

Here's a question to all my fellow photographers out there. What could I have done differently to get better focus? The car is moving, I'm moving, the outside is moving and we're all moving differently. I tried a couple different things but in the end this was a sharp as I could get. Thoughts, ideas???

Hoping you're having a fun weekend. Maybe you're spending some time with your dad too.

xoxo,
Brandi

The Unusual

Brandi again... sorry. Our poor Jay'me has a technology black cloud following her around. I received this a short time ago.

Alright we have no Internet. I thought for sure my darling husband would come home and fix EVERYTHING. Sob... it didn't happen.
I took this today thinking it was a welcome yet strange sight like the decked out Santa.
This is the first bio diesel I have seen and it's at a BP. It was a good .50 more expensive then reg gas.



iPhone 3
1/40sec
F/2.8
ISO 100

Good thing through the magic of cell phones I was able to get her picture.
Jay'me you are a SUPER TROOPER!

Another photo from the urban correspondant

Hey kids, Brandi here! BigDan won last weeks Wordless Wednesday and he'll be tonight's photographer.
BigDan first visited us here. He came back for more. Silly, silly boy.

Dan always says it best himself so I'll turn things over to him....

Sere's picture made me immediately think of finding a place where Kath and I could have 5, 10, maybe 15 dogs. We absolutely love them. Both of our dogs are special needs dogs and when we went on her web site and found out she had retired breeders, we almost called the realtor. But, as cute as the puppy is, I also thought Christmas.

After mass, I took a couple or twenty beautiful shots of the Nativity Window in our historical landmark Church. It was back lit by the morning light and the central birth scene is gloriously surrounded by hundreds of pieces of glass, all picking up bits of light. The window is two stories high and was originally made in the 1880s. It is truly irreplaceable. On the drive home, I was beginning to compose a paragraph about the progression of various ethnic groups that have made up the congregation in its 150 year history and how the art of the church reflects those changes when we were stopped at Western and Roosevelt by a couple of cops and and a private van blocking the intersection. We pulled into the White Castle parking lot, got out of the car and watched motorcycle after motorcycle after motorcycle parade by in their journey from 83rd Street to Belmont. I was shooting like mad, but pretty soon slowed down and started waving. Within minutes I had tears streaming down my face as Kath and I waved and they honked back. The sound was incredible, almost moving your soul... and then, every once in a while people would laugh as some scooter would putt by. It seems we had run into the annual Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade.

I am a sucker for acts of kindness. Whether it is God's Son coming to us to teach us about Peace or several hundred motorcyclists riding down Western Avenue to bring toys for kids in need, to me, it is all Christmas.


Nikon D3000
VR 18-200 mm F/3.5-5.6
Focal Length 170 mm
F/10
1/200s
ISO 400

Thank you Dan. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for being a wonderful, kind, human being. Thank you for hanging out with us here at 3C1D.
Go check out Dan's blog here. While you're there (or here if you like) wish Dan a Happy Birthday, for today is his special day.

Thanks again, Dan. Come back anytime, we love having you.