Week 48, Day 335, March 30, 2010, Hand Ping Pong

My son and his girl friend were playing ping pong.  I didn't have my photo for the day, so I asked if I could photograph them.  They said sure.  While they were playing, my son accidentally dropped the paddle, and started using his hand for the paddle.  We all began laughing as he was doing this.  

Lessons Learned (or at least attempted)

• Lighting: I began with the normal lighting in the room, but it was too dark.  I think brought my reading light from the bed room to add some side light.  It was still too dark.  I think grabbed my son's shop lights and tried them. (I need to invest in some better lighting.)  They were probably to bright, but it made for an interesting contrasts.
• I think that people who are occupied with something other then the camera look more natural in the photos.  I prefer to photo people in action then attempting to take still portraits.

 Photo details: Exposure time 1/1000 sec, Aperture f/2.0, ISO 3200, Focal Length 50 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 82mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, handheld.

Week 46, Day 319, March 13, 2010, Lollipops

My children are all here for the weekend, so it's been very busy.  Today was a very cold windy rainy day.  I chose to take today's photo inside.  I decided to work on the food theme for a third time.  This is my son and his girl friend.  They were eating lollipops, so I asked if I could take their photo.  They were great models, and allowed me to take several photos.

Lessons Learned:

• I played with Photoshop to modify this photo. I first selected the lollipops by a color range.  Then I copied and pasted the lollipops into a new layer.  I then converted the main layer to black and white, and adjusted the brightness, and contrast. 

Photo details: Exposure time 1/50 sec, Aperture f/1.8, ISO 1600, Focal Length 50 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 82mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, handheld.

Week 24, Day 171, October 11, 2009, Art Trail

It's been a great weekend.  We wandered out on the Greater Ithaca Art Trail, and found ourselves in Gary Rith's Studio, the locally famous potter with a huge web presence.

Gary is an excellent host.  If you're in the area next weekend, I highly recommend visiting his studio.  He has great pottery for sale, and gives incredible demonstrations of the creation of his work.

Here our children with their significant others display some of their great newly acquired pottery.  (Aren't they all beautiful?)

Another place that we visited is Nancy Boyce at the Thou Art Gallery in Groton, NY.  If you like bright colorful functional art, this is the place for you.  There's great wall switches, bowls, jewelry, and many other pieces of work.  In addition to her own work, Nancy also sells items from many other artist.  All of it is interesting, and you'll see new things every time you return.  I could spend hours there just looking at all the wonderful pieces of work.

Both of these artist have been great at encouraging me to pursue my interests in photograph.  They are great artist and great people.  Thank you Nancy and Gary for all your help.

Lessons Learned:

• Your own children make beautiful models.  

Photo details: Exposure time 1/80 sec, Aperture f/4, ISO 1600, Focal Length 22 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 35mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, handheld.

Week 12, Day 80, July 19, 2009, "Bodlt Castle, Alexandria Bay" Bench of the Week

This is the second "Bench of the Week" at Bodlt Castle in Alexandria Bay, NY. Alexandria Bay is in the Thousand Islands.

When I was a child my Grandparents had a camp near Alexandria Bay. We would spend a lot of vacations at "The River" as we called it. The first time I went to Bodlt Castle, the place was a mess. There was graffiti all over the inside of the building. They've made a great effort to restore the Castle, or finish it. (The Castle was never finished originally.)

There's a nice park in Alexandria Bay that overlooks the island, and is a great place to sit.

Today we traveled to the Thousand Islands to see some family friends. I haven't seen any of them for about 10 years. We had a lot of memories to share. The oldest friend is who I call Uncle Stanley. He's 97 years old, and is sharp as a tack. He recounted the story of how my Grandfather and he first met. Uncle Stanley was looking for a good camping spot at Kring Point State Park. The site that he normally had was occupied. The caretaker told him of another spot that was very good. It was currently occupied, but the people were leaving that day. Those people were my grandparents. Uncle Stanley asked my Grandfather if they were going to leave. My Grandfather's response was, "We'll leave when were damn good and ready to leave." With a statement like that, it's hard to imagine how a friendship would begin, and be with us over 50 years later. They are a great group of people, and I miss them, and miss our summers of years ago.

Lessons Learned:

• You can't go home again, but you can share a lot of great memories
• I was asked by my wife why I didn't photograph our friends today. I find that when I get involved with photography, I have to step back from the situation. I become lost in trying to make a great photo, and no longer participate with those around me. I didn't want to loose the moment with these great people, so I didn't photograph. I need to somehow learn to do both, or some way around this.

Photo Details: Exposure time 1/60 sec, Aperture f/16.0, ISO 100 , Focal Length 70 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 113mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

Week 3 - Day 16, May 16, 2009, "Prom Night"

Prom season means Portraits

The biggest challenge I had today was two teenagers that did not want to have their photographs taken by their parents. I think the trick was to take a lot of photographs and hope one of them would turn out. This seemed to have worked, and I like this photo. The back wall was about 6 foot behind my son and his girl friend. We also moved the ferns off the floor to add a little green to the background. I used a small fstop to blur the background, and I just happen to catch a very nice smile on both of them.

Lessons Learned:

• Take a lot of photos
• Use a tripod for portraits
• Flash did not work well for me. I think if I had more time, and some of the bounce methods it might have worked well, but my time was very limited.
• I used an Aperture Priority and allowed the exposure time to select itself.
  

Photo Details: Exposure time 1/50, Aperture f/1.8, ISO 800, Focal Length 50 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 81mm, Lens Canon 50mm f1.8 II, used a tripod.