Edwards Images

Aug 3: Heavy Hauler

2010-08-03T21:08:00.000-05:00

Just got back from the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, WI. They call this the family reunion for aviation, and it really packs in the people and the airplanes. I only shot ~1,200 frames in 2 days.

This one is of the C17 Globemaster that flew demonstrations both days we were there. We had perfect photo weather the first day: blue skies, beautiful sun angles, and enough clouds to make it interesting. I'll be posting a few of my favorites over the next few days, so come back for more later. . . .

July 31 - Blazing Sunset

2010-07-31T23:29:00.000-05:00

I took a little break from making this blog "daily" this month while I was over at facebook working on that project. If you haven't been there, please go to www.facebook.com/edwardsimages and click "like". These pictures and more will be over there.

For today's picture, we were driving home after a long 10 day vacation and shortly after getting back to Indiana, we saw this view. Of course I had to pull over and make this picture! Within a minute or two, the clouds were gone and the sky was back to "normal", so here is one occasion where procrastination did not rule the day!

July 6 - Wheels Through Time

2010-07-06T21:56:00.001-05:00

I happened upon this scene earlier this week. Wagon wheel leaning against an aging post in the fading sunlight; gone are the days of hurrying from place to place. Now content to be decoration.

July 4 - A Celebration

2010-07-04T15:24:00.000-05:00

This one was an obvious choice for today. I love fireworks. And taking pictures of them is as close as you come to pure photography: "Painting with Light". Only you just hold the canvas, and someone with a lighter takes care of the brush.

How to make this painting? Start with a blank canvas: ISO ~200 to kill any ambient light that might be left and set your exposure mode to manual. You don't want the camera to do the thinking for you as it will try to expose the night sky to 18% gray. Also, use a good sturdy tripod and manual focus. You can get close by focusing at infiniti or a little short of it, depending on your lens.

Next, pick a mid-range aperture. I think I used f/8 for this shot. Too small, and you have no light to work with. Too big, and your colors get washed out.

Shoot in Bulb mode if you have a remote control. Then wait until something interesting hits the sky, and open the shutter for as long as you like. Using my D700 for this shot, and I don't have a remote yet. So I shot this with a timed 3 second exposure. From looking at my pictures from last year, most of my shots were around 3 sec, so that was a good place to start.

Finally, try a little variety. Shoot at f/5.6, then f/11 or 16 and chimp a little to see what you're getting.

If you're using a Point & Shoot, read your manual to see if you have "bulb" setting. Try to get everything as manual as possible, then practice before you go to the 'big show' so you know what to do when the big "boom-booms" startup.

Happy 4th of July, and happy shooting!

July 2 - One-light portrait

2010-07-02T23:10:00.000-05:00

I took this picture tonight while trying to keep our in-house model entertained (keep her from eating stuff she finds on the floor). Shot this using just 1 light, standing in our living room. No fancy backdrops or props.

The setup is pretty straightfoward. I used one strobe mounted in a softbox. I didn't even pull out a light stand (but I'll keep that secret to myself). I made our light tan carpet look like a classic brown muslin background by killing all ambient light (underexpose the carpet). Using the softbox puts light on the subject, but then falls off quickly and doesn't put a bright spot on the ground.

Simple, elegant portraits like this are great for "on-location" shoots. No need to haul your kids to the mall; contact us to schedule your portrait session where your family is most comfortable.

See more of our stuff at www.facebook.com/EdwardsImages

July 1 - Spraying Corn

2010-07-01T21:32:00.002-05:00

We were road tripping recently when I noticed a one-plane air show up ahead. Being airplane buffs that we are, we pulled over so I could grab a camera.

We watched this guy spray and shot quite a few pictures while trying to stay out of his way! It was a beautiful day to watch some flying and a great way to break up the trip. Probably ticked-off the pilot a little by chasing him around the fields, but he didn't let it get to him.

June 29 - Lake Sunrise

2010-06-29T20:00:00.000-05:00

As promised. . . . here's your lake sunrise. Nice bookend to yeseterday's lake sunset. . . We were camping last weekend as a family-of-four for the first time. Our newest future photographer started screaming at 3 am, probably due to teething, but it kept me and the Mrs. up for a while. Her more than me.

After little one was finally asleep, my Better Half stepped outside the tent and saw the beginning of a beautiful sunrise. Being the loving wife that she is, she kicked me out of bed (sleeping bag) and suggested I go make some art.

Shot this with my D700 & 80-200 f/2.8. Underexposed 1 stop to make the colors really burn in.

As always, you can see more great shots at www.edwardsimages.com, but you can also now visit me on Facebook! Just check it out here: (Shortened link for your convenience) http://bit.ly/cCQWy4

June 28 - Lake Sunset

2010-06-28T19:01:00.000-05:00

Had a fantastic time camping this weekend at Summit Lake State Park in central Indiana. I got a chance to play with some new lenses and some different lighting techniques, so I'll be posting a few images throughout this week.

I shot this one close to sunset. I was facing northeast, leaning out over the water almost. I love the way the golden light is hitting the trees and the richness of the green colors. I shot this with my D700 & a (new-to-me) 18-35 mm lens. Just started playing with this wide-angle zoom, and I like what I see so far.

Next time: Lake Sunrise.

June 23 - Calla Lily

2010-06-23T19:32:00.000-05:00

We have two pink & white Calla Lily's in the backyard this year, and I've been wanting to take this picutre for a few days. Never a good idea to procrastinate on a flower picture, by the way.

Finally got the right inspiration the other day. Shot this looking down with my (new) 85mm 1.8, set at max aperture to minimize depth of field. As a result, the vertical leaves move in and out of focus in a hypnotic pattern. Shot in evening shade using "vivid" setting to boost a little saturation.

June 21 - Courthouse

2010-06-21T21:28:00.001-05:00

Had a beatiful day on Saturday walking around downtown. I was packing my new lens and trying to put it through its paces. On our way back to the car, I saw the courthouse sticking out of the skyline clutter and shot this at 200 mm.

More shots of hometown scenes can be found at www.edwardsimages.com/portfolio/around-town

June 17 - Power to the People, pt 2

2010-06-17T20:13:00.001-05:00

It was finally cool and calm enough to take an evening walk with the family, around about Golden Hour. I took a few low-sun-angle shots, but was really struck by the clean lines and stark contrast in the top of this power line. This (sort of) continues my (occasional) series of power shots. Took this one back in March, and I still think it's kind of neat: Prairie Power

It's easy to spend life looking around your feet for a neat picture, but always remember to look up and see what the sun is choosing to light today.

July 15 - After the Storm

2010-06-15T21:25:00.001-05:00

Had another wild weather night with severe storms moving in around 5:00 pm. If you follow me on Twitter (highly recommended, by the way) you saw some nice shelf clouds that were racing me across two counties as I drove home from The Day Job. After the winds, lightning, and power outages, the sky turned a fascinating orange close to sunset.

Since the junior photographers of the house need baths and stories at sunset time these days, I haven't had the opportunity to take any of these for a while. But I couldn't resist sneaking out and at least shooting this from my backyard.

June 14 - Storm Front Coming

2010-06-14T20:00:00.001-05:00

Ran out into the yard and took several exposures of this front coming through the neighborhood, then stiched them together in Photoshop. Not a perfect job, but the cloud was moving so fast I only had two chances. By the time I repositioned to try again, it was over the top of me.

Fortunately, was able to take this picture and then turn around and run before anyone got wet or fried. That's a good thing.

June 13 - Summertime & the grillin' is easy

2010-06-13T21:54:00.000-05:00

Celebrated the end of a long hot weekend with a frosty Purple Haze and two amazing tenderloins. This was my view after the beer was opened and before the coals were ready. Lots of important time spent sitting there watching the fire and drinking beer.

If you've never had an Abita Springs beer, you need to go find some. Great stuff. We haven't done much grilling yet this year, so I wanted to make sure I captured the moment for all to see.

Happy Summer, everyone!

June 9 - Sourwood Blossom

2010-06-09T21:49:00.000-05:00

Made this portrait of a sourwood the other day. Using a macro lens makes your depth of field insanely narrow, and completely obliterates your background clutter. I could have gotten away with having a John Deere tractor 50 feet away, and you'd have probably never seen it.

This was shot in fading afternoon light, and I'm shooting towards the sun. The water droplets are a neat effect that give you a lot more texture and definition to the shot, I think.

More cool shots like this can be found at www.edwardsimages.com/art Enjoy!

June 8 - First Fruits

2010-06-08T21:48:00.000-05:00

Ok, actually "vegetables". Our garden is coming along nicely. A fairly wet spring has helped these 'mato's take off. First few greens ones are showing up now. I promise not to turn this into a garden blog, but I'll post a few more pics over the summer as things progress.

The color in this one is fairly muted; the light was almost gone for the day. I shot this while playing around with "live view", composing the picture using the LCD display. Commonn for point-and-shoot cameras, but still new to me in my new DSLR. So this was just a bit of a practice shot. Let me put the camera down almost in the dirt without laying down beside it.

June 3 - After the Storm

2010-06-03T22:59:00.000-05:00

Another shot from my recent vacation. This is a SOOC (straight out of camera), the lighting was all natural.

A storm had just passed through, and while it wasn't much of a rain, it left dark clouds in the distance. The afternoon sun was free to shine on our subject. That created the vibrant colors in stark contrast against the clouds.

With lighting, timing is everything. If you're looking for some eye-popping light, keep your camera handy and don't let a little rain keep you inside.

June 2 - Boy in the Bubble

2010-06-02T22:38:00.000-05:00

Just got back from a 1,700 mile road trip with the family. Took time away from work & this blog, but not from shooting. So while I continue my streak of everyday pictures, I've got some neat shots to post from my trip.

This was one of the last and probably the coolest picture I took all week. The setup couldn't have been easier. Bright sunny afternoon (~5 pm). One regulation bubble wand, one standard fan. Hold the wand in front of the fan, and suddenly you've got a neat bubble machine.

This one floated out of the air stream and just hung there while I shot. If you look close, it catches my reflection along with the house we were visiting. If you can pull yourself away from looking at the cool irredescent patterns of the soap, there's a whole world of reflections to study.

By the way, if you want to replicate this, you better have fast auto-focus, or be extremely lucky. I shot several, but this one was the best since it just hung ~4' off the ground for so long.

May 22: Honeysuckle

2010-05-22T15:21:00.000-05:00

Was up early this morning to do some yard work. After the work was done, I still had some time to play while the sun was pretty low in the sky. We have a honeysuckle bush that is out 0f control and needs to be hacked into submission, but today its in full bloom, so I figured I might as well get a picture before I try to kill it.

Made this picture by framing the flower in profile; that allows the whole thing to be in the same plane of focus. When you're shooting macro, that is incredibly important. Then I stood on the "dark side", so I could take advantage of the backlighting. That gives a neat look to the leaves, and also accentuates the texture of the bloom. Finally, the background is my privacy fence, which is underexposed to the point where it just looks black. Perfect for making the subject stand out.

May 21 - Cloudy Sunset

2010-05-21T20:39:00.001-05:00

We had a cold front move through today and left a dark, cloudy evening sky in its wake. Didn't think I would get much of a sunset picture, but as I stopped to shoot something else, a cloud moved and I felt light hit my face. I had about 2 minutes to shoot before it was gone again. See more shots like this at www.edwardsimages.com/art.

May 19 - Good excuse for a Cake

2010-05-19T22:03:00.000-05:00

Special day around here as someone in the family completed another trip around the sun. As is customary, the pre-schooler helped make the cake by dumping 4 cans of sprinkles on top, and the photographer was shooting pictures while folks where singing! Hey, that's the only time the candle's are lit, right?

This was shot in Auto white balance, auto exposure. There are three different light temperatures at play: ambient outdoor light coming from the window, tungsten incandescent bulb overhead, and the warm candle light. The meter really keyed in on the candles and under-exposed the rest of the scene, which made for kind of a neat effect. The white balance turned out ok because those other sources contributed less to the exposure. The table clothe looks a little blue due to the outside light, but it's not too noticeable.

Oh, and the cake was delicious!

May 18 - Catawba Bloom

2010-05-18T22:37:00.000-05:00

My neighbor's Catawba tree is in bloom now. It sits right between our houses, and in the spring time, it drops these 12 - 16" long seed pods in my grass. Shot this with my 300 F/4, ISO 800 hand held. Light was fading, but wasn't really "crisp" due to heavy cloud cover.

May 17 - Web on Grass

2010-05-17T22:40:00.000-05:00

I took a few days off from the blog to catch up on several projects that were all half-done. I made up a lot of ground, so hopefully I'll get back to this habit now.

Shot this picture a few days ago on an early, dewey morning. We had a half-dozen spider webs like this clinging to the grass in the front yard, so I headed back into the house to grab the camera, of course. You don't see these that often, so I couldn't pass up the shot.

May 13 - Left Over Chives

2010-05-13T22:01:00.000-05:00

We gave our little garden patch the year off in 2009. We were too busy growing girls to worry about growing tomatoes. So we let nature take its course and the thing was an overgrown mess all summer.

Now we're back in the plant business. Once the mess was removed, we found that the herbs we had planted early 2008 were still kicking and were, in fact, huge. Of course we left them in, and now they are the biggest characters in the garden. The 'mato's, squash & cuc's will catch them soon, but they rule the roost right now.

May 10 - Flowers by the Stream

2010-05-10T18:38:00.000-05:00

Another shot from my morning hike this weekend. This flower (well, weed really) was growing by a stream. The trees across the stream partially blocked the rising sun, but I was able to frame this with the flowers in the light and an otherwise darker background. Shot with my 300 mm f/4. Any light reflecing off the water turned in the big circles of bookeh you see in the background.

May 9 - Plantin' Time

2010-05-09T20:10:00.000-05:00

We're probably late getting the garden in again this year. Judging by how picked-over the greenhouse was. But that's ok. The pre-schooler had a gret time squishing the roots and "snuggling in the little guys". Hopefully small hands make for tasty tomatoes!

I love the hunter-orange gardening gloves. Had to make these the key to this portrait.

May 8 - Morning Walk

2010-05-08T23:56:00.000-05:00

I was up and shooting in the first hour of sun today. Caught this scene walking along a boardwalk as the sun peaked out over the trees. Great morning for shooting. I'll put some other pictures up over the next few days.

Meanwhile, check out this panorama I shot a few minutes later on this walk. Link takes you to my EdwardsImages.com: bit.ly/9xO7Fw

May 6 - Macro Clematis

2010-05-06T22:59:00.000-05:00

We have a beautiful clematis in our backyard that has "dinner plate" sized flowers this time of year. I caught this one today in the fading afternoon light. Used my Pentax K10D with a macro lens, ISO 400, +2 Saturation. (I shot this Raw, too, but this is straight-from-the-camera Jpg).

Look for some of these soon on www.edwardsimages.com/art. My springtime gallery is coming along nicely, and I'll be adding some of these shots soon.

May 4: Skyscape

2010-05-04T22:02:00.001-05:00

Was driving home and caught this view. Had to hang up, pull over and start shooting. (Sounds like yesterday's post? Maybe. See a theme here?)

Can't really call this a sunset since we were just shy of "golden hour". Probably still 1:15 away from sunset. So, I call this one a Skyscape. I cranked saturation up in-camera, then played with a few exposure compensation settings & framing. Done right, you'll have the sun "blown out" and enough detail in the clouds to give some nice contrast. That should also make your sky that gorgeous blue.

See more shots like this over at www.edwardsimages.com/art.

May 3 - Tree Burst

2010-05-03T21:05:00.000-05:00

On the way to work this morning, I caught this view behind me and had to turn around and start shooting. We had some very dense fog in the area, and as the sun came up, I caught this burst of light beams coming through the tree. Shot with my Car Camera. The sepia tone was "natural". No fancy settings, sunrise through a fog just turns that color.

May 1: Rainy Saturday

2010-05-01T19:08:00.000-05:00

Was kind of a rainy day around here, but I had a few minutes to kill this afternoon (and of course, a camera neary) and made this great shot.

Overcast skies give you a very soft light (hint: no shadows). This can lead to some very flat looking pictures, so you have to work a little harder to find something that really stands out. My normal trick is to use a flash (good idea anytime you're outside, actually), but this was with just ambient light. The water droplets are the real feature I'm trying to emphasize in this picture.

April 30 - Bad Moon Risin'

2010-04-30T18:53:00.000-05:00

Wonderful full moon rise late last night. Probably the last one for a while as major storms roll through this weekend. Shot this with my D700, 300 mm f.4 lens, shot at f5.6 1/125 sec on a tripod.

"Shooting the Moon" is a good shot to fool your light meter. Set this on "auto", and all you get is a bright white light on a black background. To get the lunar surface detail, you need to WAY underexpose the shot. For this one, I did it mostly with ISO, since I still had f5.6 for a pretty wide aperture. Could have done it with aperture as well. Just keep the shutter speed high enough to avoid any movement, especially with this long lens. Adding to this challenge, the wind was kicking up and starting to blow my camera on the tripod. Still, I think it turned out ok.

April 29 - Still Life, still alive

2010-04-29T21:54:00.000-05:00

ok, so compared to shooting dragonflies (in manual focus, handheld, barefoot in the snow, uphill bothways. . .), these critters were decidedly easier to shoot. Went to a local wetlands area recently looking for some birds to shoot, but ended up just finding a lot of turtles. I really like this area, so I'll probably start loading some of these up on www.edwardsimages.com/art pretty soon.

Will definitely do some more shooting here. Need to wait on better weekend weather to get here first though.

April 27 - Planting Time

2010-04-27T21:39:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy few days here at the "house o' photo". Been out playing with my new 300 mm f/4 and hunting down another lens that is lost in the USPS universe somewhere. Have also been playing around with other lighting and portrait techniques.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Photographer has been working on her green thumb. Shot these pictures late last night after she got several flowers potted.

Shot at ISO 1600, f 2.2. Crappy ambient garage lighting.

April 23 - Dragonflies down at the pond

2010-04-23T21:20:00.000-05:00

My new toy showed up today! Picked up a 300 mm f/4 AF ED on ebay. It finally arrived today and I took it down to the pond at the end of the neighborhood to run it through its paces.

The lens is tack sharp, and feels great on the camera. Light was kind of dim and flat, but here are some of the shots I got in a few minutes of playing.

By the way, dragonflies are REALLY, REALLY hard to shoot while on-the-wing. Especially with long glass.

See more shots like this at www.edwardsimages.com/art.

April 22 - Helicopter Invasion

2010-04-22T20:49:00.000-05:00

Our maple tree has been very busy in the last 48 hours, making and then dropping seeds. These little "helicopters" have carpeted the lawn now. I thought the contrasting colors and textures in the setting sunlight was pretty interesting.

April 21 - Surprise for Dad

2010-04-21T22:09:00.000-05:00

I was met at the door tonight with a shout of "Don't come in yet! You can't come in!" There was no real sound of panic, so I just assumed the girls were up to something fun.

Sure enough, the preschooler thought they should do something nice for me today, and it was her idea to make me a cake! We love cake. . . I couldn't even get the camera out before she had taken a big piece out of it.

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the nice treat for dad was a ruse for the preschooler to get a sugar-high before bed.

April 19 - Burning Bush Sunset

2010-04-19T21:17:00.000-05:00

I saw this sunset develop as I drove east, so it's a wonder I didn't hit anyone as I was driving along, staring into the rear-view mirror. I pulled over onto a side street to get a better look and saw this tree I thought would make a nice element.

Shot at 200 mm, out my car window. I was stopped safely, of course, and the window was rolled down!

April 18 - Old Glory

2010-04-18T21:55:00.001-05:00

I went back to the scene of the Greek Navy invasion this evening to get some "golden-hour" shots of the big boat. After the sun was about gone, I passed this row of flags on my way to the car. This was another last-minute-inspiration shots.

Light was fading fast, so I slowed down the shutter speed to induce some blur into the flags. This is "Straight out of the camera", but as I have time, I'll "pop" the colors a little and then try to paint over the bulldozer I was stuck with in the background. *sigh*. There's always a bulldozer lurking around somewhere.

April 17 - LST 325

2010-04-17T20:30:00.000-05:00

Local town invaded by Greek Navy! Film at 11. . ..

Ok, not really. This is the LST 325, a restored WW 2 ship that has been restored and is now docked as a floating museum at Evansville, IN on the Ohio River. It "invaded" Mount Vernon yesterday and is open for tours in this shot.

The Greek writing is a hold-over from an earlier duty life. After it's time in the US Navy came to an end, it was sold to Greece. A local foundation found it and saved it from being scrapped several years ago. They sailed it back across the Atlantic and restored it in Mobile, AL. Then brought it up river to Evansville.

For more info: www.LSTmemorial.org

April 16 - Night Creatures

2010-04-16T21:15:00.000-05:00

We had a visitor tonight trying to spy on all my latest & greatest photo tricks. Really, he could just read this blog and get all the same info. . . but for some reason he wanted to do it the hard way.

Jokes on him. . . I shot this snap at 200 mm focal length, hand-held, 1/60 sec. Only light was from my office shining through the blinds, while my subject just hung there on the blinds oblivious to my photographic endeavor. ISO 25,600.

April 14 - Walk in the Woods

2010-04-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

We are fortunate to live next to some woods with a really great cross-country trail system. Fun for bikes, runners or just the casual walk-about.

Late afternoon sun on a walk with the family. When rushing through the woods of life, remember to stop, look up or look down, and snap a few shots before continuing on your way.

April 13 - Blocks

2010-04-13T22:40:00.000-05:00

I find that I spend a lot of time laying on the floor, chasing small people around with a camera. As a result, I get to see some toys from a baby-eye-view. I love this one just for the vivid colors. Shot at f/1.8 for very shallow depth of field (all but about 3 blocks are out of focus). Lighting was ambient, with the late afternoon sun coming through our patio door.

April 11 - Dogwood Canopy

2010-04-11T21:15:00.000-05:00

So my Friday dogwood adventure gave way to a beautiful weekend where these trees blossomed like crazy. I spent some time this afternoon looking for a unique angle on a tree in full bloom. Check out more spring-time pictures at my gallery: www.edwardsimages.com.

April 9 - Dogwoods

2010-04-09T20:04:00.000-05:00

Made it home tonight in time to grab two cameras and head out to the woods to find the Dogwoods! Hit some great lighting and just had a ball shooting. Unfortunately, I chose to wear shorts, and the briars got the better of me. But I'll heal. It was worth it.

See more shots like this (and purchase prints) at www.edwardsimages.com.

April 8 - Pin Oak Leafing Out

2010-04-08T21:22:00.000-05:00

We have a small Pin Oak in our backyard that will one day make a superb climbing tree for the little photographers that live here. It finally decided to start "leafing out" this week. I went out to take some macro shots of the leaves, but grabbed this one as well.

Dogwoods are finally blooming here; hope to get some shots of them this weekend!

April 7 - The Boys of Summer

2010-04-07T22:31:00.002-05:00

I spent tonight working on a new project with a friend. I'll blog & post some pictures and links from that later after we get everything squared away. Lots of fun macro work.

As I mentioned last week, recently had the chance to shoot some NCAA Baseball. A few samples below:

See more of these at www.edwardsimages.com/sports.

Like what you see? If you live around Southwestern Indiana, and would like photos of your team or your son or daughter in action, e-mail me! I'd love to help capture those special memories for years to come.

April 6 - Daffodils with OCF

2010-04-06T21:53:00.000-05:00

That's "Off Camera Flash", if you're wondering. Was playing around tonight with my radio triggers, and decided to shoot these daffodils on our kitchen table.

This looks like I shot it on a black background, but it was just sitting there on the table, minding it's own business. So, the first step here is to get rid of all the ambient light. You need to go manual for this (don't be scared, it's easy). I shot iso 200, F14, 1/200 sec. This rended a completely black image without the flash.

Once you ditch the light you don't want, you start adding in the good light. I set a strobe on ~1/4 power, about a foot to the left of the flowers, aiming up and back towards the camera slightly. This ensured no light would fall on the table (and show our lovely green table cloth). Also, by aiming it back towards me, I induced a little bit of lens flare you see to the left of the vase.

This was a fun, quick experiment. You can get fancy and start adding gels to the light, or pop it into photoshop and do funky things with the color, but I kind of like the pure image.

April 4 - Easter Sunday - A good day to Dye.

2010-04-04T21:22:00.000-05:00

We had a bit of a non-traditional Easter around here. The Bunny came this afternoon, bringing plastic eggs. And we didn't get around to dyeing the real eggs until after dinner. I guess we'll have plenty of time to admire our handiwork over the next few days as we eat these pieces of art.

We had quite the egg artist at work today. She ripped through 2 dozen eggs in no time at all.

April 2 - Good Friday Sunset

2010-04-02T23:18:00.000-05:00

Attended a Good Friday service tonight, and was treated to a spectacular sunset.

Shot this with my iPhone, then added a little bit of saturation afterwards. Remember, the best camera in the world is the one you have with you at the time. I couldn't have really dragged my big D700 out tonight, so I had to be sneaky and use the iPhone.

April 1 - Spring Budding

2010-04-01T21:25:00.000-05:00

A few shots from my yard this evening. Spring time is already trying to yield to summer here already (84 F tomorrow. . . .), and I finally got my mower through the foot-tall grass. Longer days mean more time to shoot!

Mar 30 - It's that time again. . ..

2010-03-30T22:00:00.000-05:00

Of all the springtime traditions, this one is probably the most tedious. I enjoy cutting grass, I just don't enjoy HAVING to cut the grass. But until our neighbors agree to let us just plant corn and wheat in the yard, I'll keep the little Honda running. Time to change the oil, sharpen the blades, and get ready for the busy season.

I shot this a few minutes after sunset. Used Auto white balance, so it tried to accommodate the tungsten lights in my garage, but this let the ambient light outside turn blue. Shooting ambient light after sunset is better done using the "cloudy" white balance setting, if your camera has one (it probably does). Whenever you're mixing light colors like this (daylight with tungsten, fluorescent with flash, etc.) things can get pretty tricky. Odd color shifts like this can be a neat special effect, or can ruin an otherwise good picture. Some editing later can help, but it's always preferred to make the picture right the first time.

More of the technical stuff later. Right now I have a lawn mower blade to sharpen.

Mar 29 - Heaven on Earth

2010-03-29T22:38:00.000-05:00

Finally! Back home again. Miss me?

While I couldn't post while on the road due to time & hardware constraints, I put some fun stuff out there on my Twitter feed. Now home, trying to unpack and catch up on pictures and work. So while I'm still shooting everyday, I'll post some catch-up pics for some of my entries this week.

Starting with baseball! Last week's journey was to my alma mater, Mississippi State University. Had some "official business", but enough play-time to make it worthwhile. Spring in this town means Baseball.

Outside view of the stadium, looking at the back of the pressbox.

If this isn't heaven on a warm spring day, I just don't know what is. To top it off, MSU takes the series from UGA 2 games to 1. I'll post some action shots later this week.

Mar 23 - Three planes crossing

2010-03-23T23:17:00.000-05:00

Spring has arrived and so has the travel bug! I'm on the road for a while, so I'll be taking a break from this posting. To keep up with my pictures in the meantime, Follow Me on Twitter! I'll be putting up some shots on TwitPic with the best camera ever made.

Meanwhile, here's a shot, keeping on the travel theme:

We live near a major ground-based navigation aid that airlines still use for cross-country navigation. (That's right, it's not all about GPS up there.) Consequently, it's not unusual to see 3 or 4 contrails like these streaking across the evening sky. But, you might ask, where's the third one? He's the small dot there in the sky not leaving a trail. A single engine guy cruising around 6,000' or so.

So to all the spring travelers, wander lust sufferers, gypsies and nomads, I wish safe travels now and always. See you on Twitter, and back here soon. And if you're wondering, the best camera ever made is the one you have with you at the time!

Mar 21 - Daffodils

2010-03-21T22:37:00.000-05:00

This was the scene outside our church yesterday. I helped plant these (and many more) bulbs 6 or 7 years ago, and my legs still ache thinking about it!

Mar 18 - Bird Silhouette

2010-03-18T22:47:00.000-05:00

Been another busy week around here; not much lens time unfortunately. Took this silhouette shot just before sunset while just walking around with no particular subject in mind. Shot at 200 mm, straight up into the evening sky. Nothing fancy. But I kind of liked the way it turned out.

Mar 16 - Prairie Power

2010-03-16T19:47:00.003-05:00

I drove home tonight during the "Golden Hour", that window before sunset when lighting gets dynamic and the world takes on new shapes & colors you don't see any other time. Making tonight more interesting yet was a nice cloud layer in the eastern half of the sky. Resulting contrast between well lit features on the ground and dark foreboding background makes for a wonderful time shooting.

I drove around for a while looking for the right subject, came on this powerline about a quarter-mile off the highway.

The corn stubble and early spring growth along with the poles really "popped" against the dark clouds. Some more shots from tonight can be seen at www.edwardsimages.com.

Mar 15 - Lunch in Paradise

2010-03-15T20:00:00.000-05:00

Took a quick roadtrip with some friends this weekend to Columbus, OH. On the way back, stopped at a great little restaurant called "Lynn's Paradise Cafe". Funky little dive with good burgers and crazy decorations. Couldn't help but take a couple of shots inside.

Nice selection. But we were just eating lunch & breakfast at the same time at 2:00 pm. Thankfully no one opted for some "Hair of the Dog".

Fresh fake flowers outside offset the gray dreary day.

And this crazy dude playing on some pipes with a flip-flop.

Next time you're passing through Louisville, you owe it to yourself to check these guys out.

Mar 12 - New Blue Crocus

2010-03-12T18:04:00.000-06:00

The flower bed is coming along nicely now, and got a nice drink from mother nature today. Arriving home, I saw the blue ones have joined their yellow brethren. And so of course I grabbed the camera. . .

Because it is still gray and overcast, I had to get a little creative. Used my K10d with a macro lens, and then used an old army blanket lay down on the wet sidewalk. I used a flash radio triggered and bounced into a gold-reflector. Piece of cake, right?

This is the second version. Had to reshoot because I was too fascinated by the colors and water drops to notice the twigs and dead leaves in the foreground. Thought this one turned out much better. You can see this shot and others like and even purchase prints at www.Edwardsimages.com. All proceeds go straight into my camera bag and help make these pictures "awesomer". (Is that a word? Didn't think so. . .. )

Mar 11 - Flatland Sunset

2010-03-11T21:07:00.000-06:00

My wife says, "Oh great, another sunset. . . . that's nice, dear." So maybe I need to branch out a little. But given the weather forecast, this is the last one we'll see for a while anyway.

Saw this on my way home tonight. Sun setting over Marrs School, for those of you who know where that is. Straight-out-of-camera shot.

After snapping this one, I turned around and saw it again, only upside down this time. "Sunset in a car hood."

Never know where you'll see the next cool reflection or glimpse of light, so don't turn your camera off or reach for the lens cap until you are a) out of battery or memory b) out of film {remember that?}, or c) back in your car driving away.

Mar 10 - Morning Moonshot

2010-03-10T19:47:00.000-06:00

Snapped this picture on my way out to get the paper this morning. (Pro Tip: Remember to always carry a camera!)

This one took a little editing. Was hard to get the limbs and moon in focus while shooting at wide aperture to let in enough light. Took one picture with the limbs in focus, and a second with the moon in focus, then it was "hocus-pocus" to make this pic.

I'm a big believer in making it right as soon as you release the shutter, but it's fun to do some post-editing once in a while to stay in practice.

Mar 9 - C is for Cookie

2010-03-09T22:11:00.000-06:00

. . . . And that's good enough for me. The preschooler of the house decided we needed to make cookies tonight. She gets her smarts from me, clearly. Snapped this one after the treats cooled and before she (and her dad) began to gobble them up. Yum.

Mar 8 - Bands of Steel

2010-03-08T21:53:00.000-06:00

Early morning shot of a the main rail line leading east into town.

Shot this on a recent weekend, out in the county chasing bicyclists. This shot appeals to me because of the strong lines, accented by the sun highlighting the top of the rails, and the fact that no train was coming at the time I shot it.

Mar 7 - Spring Sunset

2010-03-07T20:07:00.000-06:00

More great spring weather today. We took a family walk around the subdivision about an hour before sunset, and on the way we saw storm clouds moving in. The first thunderstorm of March hit almost as soon as we got back home.

The rain only lasted about 10 minutes, and as soon as the western sky cleared, we were treated to this wonderful sunset.

More of tonight's fireworks and other great pics at www.edwardsimages.com/art.

Mar 6 - Formation Flying

2010-03-06T21:47:00.000-06:00

Finally had a Saturday of beautiful spring-like weather. Spent the morning shooting some friends who like to torture themselves with a 50 mile bike ride every Saturday. Then later while working around the yard, I was treated to the most amazing airshow by 5 redtail hawks. So today's theme is "formation flying".

I'm not much of a "birder" when it comes to photography, but I did the best I could. The "new camera" gives me a big leg-up over my old system, but I don't have the right lens to do this really good yet. Still, I was happy with a few of these. All shots are with my Nikon D700 shot & 28 - 200 mm lens.

Gail, if you're reading this, these are for you:

All this fun, and I never had to leave my front yard.

As I said earlier, I started my day out taking pictures of a bicycle "gang". Here's another take on formation flying.

Had a great time chasing these guys around the county this morning. See more of this adventure at www.edwardsimages.com/sports.

Mar 4 - Baby vs Wild Animal

2010-03-04T22:22:00.000-06:00

Spent tonight just goofin' around with the kids, the cat and the camera. As seen here, the wild animal didn't take kindly to sharing her play toy with the baby.

Looks like little-girl has the advantage, but never underestimate "The PAW"! Don't worry folks, she's declawed. And the cat doesn't have claws either.

Just for fun, here's one of the photographer getting attacked. Very impressed with Nikon's AF system, but it's not quite up to "cat-like" speed.

Mar 3 - Sunset on the River

2010-03-03T19:18:00.000-06:00

Literally got my feet wet to get this one. The sunset was shaping up to be lovely as I started driving home, so I headed down to the riverfront. By the time I got there, the sun was behind this grain elevator, and I had to walk along the rocky edge of the river to get this angle. I did get too wet: was able to stand on the rocks and not fall in. This time. I remembered to use the neck strap this time, just in case. Unlike last time.

Shot with my "car camera" (Pentax K10d, 31 mm 1.8), 1/15 sec F/22 ISO 200. See more shots like this at my website.

Mar 2 - What's for Dinner?

2010-03-02T22:33:00.000-06:00

Another picture in my "stuff around the kitchen" series. Tonight was chicken & dumplings. Fantastic comfort food for all southerners. Made this shot at f/11, 1/8 sec to blur the boiling motion of the broth.

Delicious. I'm so proud of my "Yankee" wife for mastering this art form.

Feb 28 - Meeting a Legend

2010-02-28T17:18:00.002-06:00

Taking a break from the normal POTD rhythm today. . .. We went to presentation this afternoon by Dr. Story Musgrave, veteran of NASA and 6 shuttle missions. Fabulous presentation by an incredibly accomplished and humble American hero. The man does not have a high school diploma, but he has 7 graduate degrees and 20 honorary doctorates.

Me & Dr. Musgrave. (photo by Karen, my lovely photo assistant)

We got there early and I got to meet the him. Back in the 90's, I worked at Stennis Space Center and happen to have the mission patch sticker from his trip to repair Hubble. This mission, and life lessons from the years of work he put into design of the Hubble systems, was the subject of his speech.

Here's the patch I asked him to sign:

Along with being an expert in medicine, aeronautics, and shuttle flights, he is an accomplished photographer. His photos of the T-38 jets Nasa flies were as breathtaking as the shots of his shuttle missions.

When I told him that I had worked at SSC, he asked what I did there. Told him about my internships and getting to watch a lot of shuttle engine tests. He replied, "Those are pretty cool, when they work." Priceless.

Thanks to the Buffalo Trace Council of the Boy Scouts from bringing this Legend to town.

Feb 27 - A few rays of sun

2010-02-27T22:41:00.000-06:00

I checked back in on the flower bed's progress this morning before the clouds set in. It was a great morning for walking around enjoying the stillness and putting the new camera through it's paces.

Looks like the flowers survived the last snow fall; more in the forecast this week, but spring feels like it's on the way.

Shot with Nikon D700, 200 mm f/5.6 1/500 sec.

Feb 26 - Evertson Sunrise

2010-02-26T22:30:00.000-06:00

Caught this sunrise reflection on my morning drive today. I left for work late, which meant I got to see a beautiful sunrise in my rear view mirror. When I got the the town square and stopped at the redlight, I pulled my camera out and shot this one through my open window & in between traffic.

Pentax K10d with 31 mm lens (aka, my car camera) ISO 200 f/4.5.

Feb 25 - Dessert

2010-02-25T23:37:00.000-06:00

Had a great evening out catching up with some friends & colleagues tonight. Finished up with a stop for coffee and hot fudge sundae. Couldn't help but make it's aftermath the subject for today's photo.

Not much in terms of technical details here. Shot with my iPhone under crappy Applebees (crapplebees?) lighting. Adjusted levels and reduced noise in photoshop. Yes, it was as delicious as it looks.

Feb 24 - Sisters

2010-02-24T22:38:00.000-06:00

We try not to dress our kids alike, except on rare occasions when the cuteness just get overwhelming. Such was the case today when "big sister" and "little sister" both were wearing their team uniforms. The pink sunglasses were a favorite of the big sister; good thing we have two of them now.

Shot with off-camera flash on radio trigger. Flash was aimed into 42" gold-tint reflector, held by my voice-activated light stand, to create the harsh shadows we try to usually avoid. Thought they would look cool for this shot to prove they needed the sunglasses!

Feb 23 - Discarded

2010-02-23T21:42:00.000-06:00

Saw this on our walk the other day. Begs the question: Where do telephone poles go to die? Guess the work crews just dropped this one where it stood, left to decay on the same hill where it proudly stood for so long.

Nah, some redneck will probably cut it up for firewood & sell the insulators at a flea market. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Feb 22 - Battleship Chains

2010-02-22T20:13:00.001-06:00

It was another foggy day in the Ohio Valley, and I got hung up inside this afternoon. Just after sunset, I was down at the river seeing what I could find to shoot before driving home. I saw this long-forgotten chain on the ground over in an out-of-the-way area.

Shot with my Pentax K10d, 31 mm at f2.8. It was foggy & dim, so the picture was almost B&W as shot. I finished it off with Picasa and then added a little film grain.

For the record, I realize it's not actually a battleship chain. But when I saw it, the lyrics to that song by Warren Zevon / Georgia Satelites / Hindu Love Gods when through my head.

Feb 20 - Sunset Repeat

2010-02-20T21:59:00.000-06:00

Three years ago to the month I shot a sunset picture very similar to this one. That was 2 cameras & several lenses ago, and I still love how this tree line lights up at the end of the day.

This is a "straight from the camera" shot. 170 mm 1/1000 f 5.6 "vivid" picture mode to kick up the saturation just a little.

Feb 19 - Stairs to Nowhere

2010-02-19T21:35:00.000-06:00

Near our house, there is a old trail and playground area that fell into disrepair well over 10 years ago. The stairs down the hill to the old footbridge still stand, but nature is slowly trying to reclaim the hillside.

I finally made it home before dark today. First day all week I think. I've been dying to take my new "clicky box" outside in the daylight. Shot for 20 minutes or so while the sky darkened. Hopefully can do more of that this weekend if the weather stays away.

Feb 18 - Monorail Cat

2010-02-18T23:04:00.000-06:00

Just because the internet doesn't have enough pictures of cats, I humbly submit my gray fuzzy model for consideration. Been playing with my new "toy". Lots of settings & tweaks to explore. Goofed around with a new flash tonight until the cat was my only model left in the room.

Feb 17 - Tea Kettle

2010-02-17T23:14:00.000-06:00

Have been playing around with some new toys last couple of days. I'll be intentionally vague for now, but if I don't post anything for a few days, it's because I have several new manuals to read!

Here's a quick one I took tonight, playing around with shallow depth of field.

Shot at f/2.2, with the "business end" of the tea kettle in focus, blurring out the rest. Might try to shoot this with steam whistling out if I can figure out how to not be in the line of fire.

Feb 15 - Snow returns

2010-02-15T06:43:00.000-06:00

And the great gray hunter stalks for pray in the snow from the comfort of her warm perch. . . .

Feb 14 - Valentine's Day Cards

2010-02-14T22:45:00.000-06:00

These two cards made our little Valentines very happy today. Thanks to the best grandparents two girls every had (you know who you are)!

While I was tempted to shoot this macro, I was too lazy to change lenses. Got the shallow depth of field by opening up to f2.8 and zooming to 50 mm. Used natural light source of our ginormous kitchen bay window.

Feb 13 - Oil Slick

2010-02-14T22:36:00.000-06:00

Saturday afternoon saw most of the ice and snow melting away outside, before the next round of snow Sunday night. On a trip out to the mailbox, I noticed the ice melting along the curb was giving off this iridescent "oil slick" appearance. Thanks to all my neighbors who moved over and didn't run me down while i was standing in the road taking this picture!

Feb 12 - A Chance Encounter

2010-02-12T20:39:00.000-06:00

Driving home tonight, I saw 7 deer grazing just off the road. They were too busy eating to notice the cars, so I turned the car around and pulled right up to them. I was doing great until I spun my tires in the mud. Still got off this pictures through the open passenger window.

I did get out of the car and shot one picture before they all split. So the photographer saves the day by scaring away the deer and preventing some Friday night roadkill action.

Feb 11 - River Sunrise

2010-02-11T20:09:00.000-06:00

This morning featured another beautiful sunrise. And lucky for me, I was awake and on the road in time to catch this view on the Ohio River. Attentive readers will recognize the structure out in the river from my post 2 days ago. (While out there, I found my footprints still fozen in the mud from that frigid night!)

Snow is in the forecast again; this might be the last good sunset for a while. This picture and more like it can be found at www.edwardsimages.com/art.

Feb 10 - Lost and Found Rings

2010-02-10T22:07:00.000-06:00

I almost lost my second wedding band today. I lost my first one several years ago and bought a replacement, only to find out our cat had just borrowed it. So now I have two wedding bands. The new one fits better but gets pretty loose on cold days like today. After coming inside today, I looked down and realized I had no ring! Thankfully, I found it in the glove I just took off.

The "original" ring was always a little too tight, so I'll be wearing it again for a while until things warm up. But this gave me a great idea for tonight's picture. I've been wanting to create a DIY lightbox for some macro photography, so I decided to give it a whirl tonight and take some pictures of the ring that almost left me today.

The setup is pretty simple. I found a toybox that was just a wire-frame with a canvas covering. I pulled the canvas off and put a white sheer cloth over the skeleton. Used a neutral color foam for a background, then triggered two flashes with radio remote. Here's the basics:

Easy-cheezy simple.

Feb 9 - Remnants of Industry's Past

2010-02-09T19:58:00.000-06:00

Went out today near sunset and literally took pictures till my fingers went numb. Even with gloves on, this only took ~10 minutes. Once again had a great sunset smudged out by low clouds in the western sky. By the time I made it back to my car, I could see the snow front moving up the Ohio River.

Since the light went flat, I took some pictures around an old grain silo. This monstrosity is soon to meet the wrecking ball, so I need to take some good shots of it before it goes. But today I found this remnant of a dock or barge facility. Couldn't really tell what it was.

The river was quite turbulent, so I stopped way down and shot it at 1/8 sec to blur the water movement. I applied a solarize effect in photoshop to give it the odd colors. I don't often edit the pictures I post here, but I felt like this one could use something unusual.

Feb 5- 7 - Blog Catch-up

2010-02-08T22:21:00.000-06:00

. . . give us this day, our daily blog, but forgive me when I don't blog daily 'cause I'm too busy. . . .

Was a busy weekend in the Casa de Edwards. Didn't have time to keep this updated; spent too much time shooting, editing & watching football! All good excuses, if you ask me. So here's the weekend re-cap.

Feb 5: HOCKEY!

Thanks to my new friends in Muskegon, MI, I got to shoot my first hockey game Friday night! The visitors almost didn't make it due to bad weather (ironic for team named "Blizzard"). Shot somewhere north of 600 frames over 3 periods of hockey. Wore out two batteries in the process. Great fun. Here's one of my favorite shots:

See more at www.Edwardsimages.com/sports

Feb 6: Time for Art.

Saturday was just plain lazy while we are all getting over colds and I stayed up too late shooting hockey. Our artist-in-residence decided it was time for art. For the child who would never touch anything to make her hands dirty a year ago, she is definitely stretching her boundaries. Hope this doesn't lead to a career in body painting later. . .

Feb 7: Day of Rest.

Sort of. Sunday was church & football, with a nap in between. That's about all we had time to squeeze in. While running around to get out of the house to go watch the game, someone set the baby down in the beautiful light of our patio door. The sun was going down, and this always gives beautiful lighting for an impromptu portrait.

That catches us up, at least to Monday. Snow's falling now, so maybe more winter shots this week. Till then, stay warm and watch out for flying pucks, especially if you're looking through a camera!

Feb 4 - Drink Up!

2010-02-04T21:43:00.000-06:00

After all, it's good for you. . . . We've been playing "pass the cold" in our house the last couple of weeks. Knock-on-wood, we might be past the worst of it. So I decided to dedicate today's photo study to the almighty cough syrup.

Shot this with a 2-light setup on a piece of glass. (Scavenged an old window from recent home improvement project. Score one for the pack-rats.) Used a shoot-thru umbrella underneath the glass as key and a snooted light for fill.

To do this "right", you would start with a new medicine cup that wasn't scratched up from use, but then that wouldn't be very authentic, would it? Until next time, take your medicine & get lots of sleep.

Feb 3 - It's a Family Affair

2010-02-03T22:05:00.000-06:00

For a while now, my little photo assistant has been trying to move in on my territory. Lately, she's given up on "pretending" to take pictures with her toy cameras, and now just carries around Mom's point & shoot. I figure a normal 3 year old would have had the thing in 1,000 pieces by now, but she's surprisingly gentle with it.

Tonight she insisted that I pose with the baby. She takes decent pictures; maybe I'll subcontract some of this blog work to her soon, and we'll see if you, the well-informed audience, can tell a difference!

Here's a shot of her "in action"!

Watch out, world. There's going to be another Edwards Shutterbug on the loose soon. . . .

Feb 2 - Perfect Angel

2010-02-02T21:23:00.000-06:00

Since the snow is melting away quickly, I thought I would use one last shot from this weekend's snow-play. My perfect little angel making a perfect little (snow) angel.

Don't you just love the enthusiasm? Wore a hole all the way down to the grass!

Feb 1 - Half-a-House

2010-02-01T19:40:00.000-06:00

For today's picture, I revisited a spot I found earlier in January during the first big snowstorm of the year. While there was more recent snow on the ground now, it was not nearly as cold today!

I was going after a sunset picture, but the western sky contained no fireworks tonight. However, I decided to shoot this old house again and take a different angle. Then I applied some photoshop "magic".

Post processing: converted to B&W, increased contrast and added cross-hatch texture. Then burned the corners for a vignette appearance. Shot with Pentax K100d with 31 / 1.8.

Jan 31 - Snowy Sunset

2010-01-31T15:49:00.000-06:00

Ended up downtown yesterday close to sunset. Of course, I had to stop and take some pictures. My family patiently sat in the van while I trudged through snow and tried not to fall into the Ohio.

Pro Tip: when walking down a snowy embankment, keep your camera around your neck; do not hold your camera in the hand you are most likely to use to catch yourself when you inevitably fall. If you do fall and drive your camera lens-first into a snow bank, hope and pray you were carrying your weather sealed camera body & lens. It works, people. Just sayin'.

Anyway, as you guessed by now, I walked down to the Ohio River to take this picture just a few minutes before sunset. Camera was ok, I wasn't too bruised, and no one fell in the river.

See more photos from this expedition at http://www.edwardsimages.com. Sorry, no pictures of my sliding down the hill camera-first towards the water. Thankfully, there were no witnesses!

Jan 30 - Winter's Return!

2010-01-30T10:17:00.000-06:00

More Snow! Last last night the snow finally started falling. Have about 6 - 8" on the ground outside. Snapped this one as the sun was coming into our valley, but before it got obscured by clouds. Again, timing is everything.

When the lighting got nice and flat, I finished shoveling the driveway; now it's time for breakfast, blogging, and waiting for good light to come back again.

Jan 29 - Attack of Robot Bugs

2010-01-29T20:37:00.000-06:00

Weather here is still dreary & cold. Speaking of colds, I was under the weather yesterday, so didn't have the energy to post anything up here. You all can have your money back from yesterday's admission.

Feeling better today. The snow we were all promised decided to stay south of here, so instead of more winter pics, I decided to play with some indoor macro photography. First shot is a super-cool robotic bug I got for Christmas. Shot at 80 mm macro, f-5.6 with off-camera flash using a beauty dish.

Terrifying creature, eh? Shooting macro gives you a crazy-small plane of focus. Just look at the cloth: you can see how little of it is actually clear and you can see the weave. Just like about the only thing in focus on the bug is his "eye"

Second attempt was a snow globe. Played around with how to shoot this without getting glare from the light source. Ideally, you should shoot this in a light tent to give even lighting on all sides without the glare. But since I was feeling daring, I tried to see how good I could get it with just one light. First, I had turn off the overhead light, as that would reflect on the glass. Then I had to make sure the 3 year old with pink pants wasn't nearby, as those would glare as well. Ended up having to move the flash away a bit and diffuse it with a flat piece of opaque plastic, faking a soft-box.

Hardest part is keeping it in focus, since I was shooting in the dark I had to resort to manual focus and a lot of guessing.

Jan 27 - Asleep at the wheel

2010-01-27T19:18:00.000-06:00

I had a front-row-view of a stop light for long enough tonight to grab my camera. I suppose the AF aimed at my windshield or something inside the car, and the result is below.

Before trashing it as a crappy out-of-focus pic, I realized that this is kind of like the last thing you see before you take a restful snooze, hopefully from the right-seat with a competent driver at work beside you.

Don't stare too long, or you'll either go cross-eyed or start falling asleep yourself.

Shot using Aperture priority autoexposure, so it tried to expose the sky and ended up blowing out the highlights, in this case the stoplights. If the light had stayed red, I would have tried to underexpose ~1 stop and actually focus, but then it would have just been a picture of a stoplight, instead of a study in nocturnal driving patterns.

I also like the way all the headlights and taillights turned into little circles of bokeh.

Jan 26 - New Toys

2010-01-26T20:26:00.001-06:00

This time, I'm actually talking about toys. You know, for kids. Not new camera equipment. Sorry to disappoint. If you're a parent in southwest Indiana, you need to check out 4C. They're toy lending library rocks. New "loaner" toys dropped off at your doorstep every few weeks. Today we got this bug that plays some kind of "Simon-Says" type game with you. Cool part is that it spins around, which fits right in with my theme of funky inside pictures. Here's what we came up with:

3 second exposure with a multi-strobe radio-triggered flash.

Another 3 second exposure, this time with the flash firing once manually at the end of the rotations.

Check out 4C at www.child-care.org

Jan 25 - Moonshot

2010-01-25T22:19:00.001-06:00

Another dreary winter day here, and I was inside too much to get any real camera-time. Shot this picture this weekend in my front yard. Jacked the saturation up in-camera & then dialed-in 1 stop underexposure to make the sky look blue. Was kind of a cloudy dull-gray otherwise.

Winter returns to the area this week. Chance of rain or snow for the next several days. Time to get creative with some more indoor shooting for a while. . ..

Jan 24 - Getting a headstart on Spring

2010-01-24T17:46:00.002-06:00

Our flower bed is not interested in sitting around waiting on spring to show up. The bulbs are up and at 'em. Good luck next week when winter comes back, little fellas.

Jan 22 - Goin' for a ride

2010-01-22T19:17:00.000-06:00

As a fun diversion to laundry work, we thought it was fun to give New Girl her first laundry basket ride. She seemed to be having fun, don't ya think?

Crudely & quickly shot under ambient tungsten light. Converted into a decent picture by some more crude photoshop work.

But the look on her face makes the shot, I think.

Jan 21 - . . . and The Sun Came Out!

2010-01-21T18:06:00.000-06:00

Its been almost a week of rain, fog, and clouds around here. About 3:30 today, the sun finally won the battle and peaked through the pea soup. I celebrated by racing outside and tearing down a few backroads to find this scene.

With sunsets, as with sunrises, timing is everything. If you have to speed, just don't get caught. And try not to bend any metal on your way there.

See more sunsets & other shots at www.edwardsimages.com