Back in Tennessee again.

I'm back in Tennessee again. Arrived on December 20 at midnight and then attended three appointments starting at 8:30 the next morning. I'm glad that everything is finally settling down. My brother in San Diego had his heart surgery and everything turned out great. Christmas is past and I'm ready to start getting some pictures around here again. I'm looking forward to meeting some other photographers in a meet up group I was introduced to this week. I'll let you check out some pics last taken in SD.

Don't forget that I always add more photos to the Flickr site. Please check it out. Happy New Year to all.

San Diego in the winter

One of the things I like about San Diego is that the weather is always good enough to be outside. Don't get me wrong, it does get cold here from time to time and if you are inland in the summer it gets pretty hot. overall the weather is great. I got out and got some photos by the bay so I'll share a couple with you here. I hope you enjoy and have a very Merry Christmas.

Don't forget to visit my Flickr site to see more of my work.

Seasons Greetings

This is the season to celebrate and be thankful. My brothers heart surgery went well and we have him back home now. This is a wonderful thing for our family to be thankful. I'll be back to Tennessee in a couple weeks to see my loved ones out there. Here are a couple of the decorated homes I shot here in San Diego. There is a neighborhood here that is a festival of lights. I've been told that they add more every year. Once I get those taken I'll have them on the Flickr and post just a couple here. So Happy Holidays to you all.

Back in San Diego.

Well I'm back in San Diego after just leaving 6 weeks ago. My younger brother wound up back in the hospital with heart problems. They did the surgery on him yesterday and he is recovering quite well. It's the day after his surgery and they already have him sitting and walking some. I hope to get some photos of the Christmas lights while out here because there are some places done up real well. If I get some I will post them on my flickr site as well as dropping a few here on the blog. I have been working with more night photography and really getting off on it. There is something about the mood of night time photography that is so rewarding. I recently did some in Pigeon Forge TN. and got a few that were worth holding onto. I'll be back on here soon and hope to have more beautiful night photos. Enjoy the season and enjoy those you share them with.

Happy Holidays

I wish you all the happiest of holidays. This is the season to be with family and friends and I hope that you all have a chance to do this. I'm off normal topic but wanted everyone that visits this sight to know that no mater what the past year has dealt out to you. There is still people out there that love you and care about you. Enjoy the holidays and don't forget those in need at this time of year. Always remember that giving to others is the best thing you can do to make yourself a better person.

Happy Holidays to you all.

Great time

It was a great time in the Smoky Mountains the past couple weeks. I was able to get some wonderful photos while out there, and you can see them on my flickr site. You will enjoy them as much as I did taking them. We also went to Dollywood while there and I recommend that you go there if you are in the east Tennessee area. They currently have their place covered with Christmas lights. This is my favorite time of year to visit there even though it is very cold (Just dress for the weather). They are also currently having a light parade each evening. It last about 20 minutes and goes through about half of the park. As usual I'll show you a couple of the photos and you can see more on flickr.

Good old Tennessee

Yes! I said it, I'm back in good old Tennessee and already started getting some great photos. Been to the Smoky mountains national park twice now. So I have some shots from the little pigeon river, Gatlinburg and Pigeon forge. All great places to visit if you ever get out this way. I already have some of the pic's on my flickr page and will soon share some here on the blog. but for now here are two for you all to see on this page.

Almost back to the volunteer state.

Well, the time has come and timing is good. John is doing much better. His energy level is still very low and he can only walk a short distance before he is winded and needs to rest. Other then that he is managing as best as a person can. So I will head back home and get some rest myself, so to speak. There is a job that has been waiting for me for a while back home. This will keep me busy on a regular basis. The only downfall to the return is that someone has moved back into the house and he causes a lot of conflict that neither of us need. I am not one to stress easily, but this person can do it if anyone can. Hopefully the work, my sweetheart and my dog will keep me from noticing him around and there will be peace in the house. Will stop writing till I'm back to Tennessee. I will also start giving more photo tips for those who have enjoyed this site.  

Laughlin Nevada trip

What a sight! The Colorado river and mountains across the river in Arizona were absolutely beautiful. I had the opportunity to go to Laughlin NV the other day with the San Diego Elks club and I must say from a landscape perspective it was worth the trip. I will give everyone this warning. DO NOT GAMBLE AT THE COLORADO BELLE!! This was the worst casino I have ever been to in my life. I should have known better the first ten minutes I was there. The first give away that it was not the right casino to be in was the sound or should I say the lack of sound. That should have told me right away that this casino is not making any pay outs. For those of you that have never been to a casino here is what you listen for. Loud yelling from the guest and lots of bells and sirens. When you walk in and it is very quiet (for a casino) you should turn around and leave. I just learned that the hard way. So if you manage to get to Laughlin, Enjoy the beauty and even take a short trip to Kingman AZ or the Grand canyon, But whatever you do. Don't gamble in the Colorado Belle.
The trip there was great. kind of wish I wasn't in a but though. It would have been nice to stop and walk in the lava fields and some of the desert. I'm not going to complain about that because I still got some nice pic's from the bus. Over all I had a great time and learned a lesson as well. So if you get out that way enjoy the view and enjoy yourself. I will have some new photos on my Flickr page soon so swing by there and see some of the sites.

Mishap

I'm back in San Diego. This time it's do to a bad mishap. Before I left here on the 22nd. My younger brother had a heart attack so I had to make a turn around trip. The good news is that he is back out of the hospital and holding his own for now. Will try to take some more photos while I am here. Will check back soon with updates and new pic's on flickr.

Las Vegas Bellagio casino

I had time to make a short trip to Nevada a week ago. If you have not been there in awhile I recommend that you make the trip. The traffic there is some of the worst I have seen. But if you have a friend that lives there like I do, You can get around pretty easy. I'm back in San Diego and still taking photographs. So go to my photos and check them out. Here are a couple from Las Vegas that I enjoyed.

Photographing San Diego.

Well folk's I made it home to SD, California. Have had a chance to get some great photo's out here. I have a few of theme already posted on my flickr site. Here is one of them that I think you will enjoy. Please go to my photos to see some more. I will be adding a lot of new ones in the next couple of weeks so get over there and see what this little piece of heaven has to offer . be back with you all real soon so stay tuned for some beautiful things.

Just a taste of what is out here.

San Diego finally here.

It's been over two years but I am finally back in San Diego. S far we have spent tim at the cliffs, beach, prayer quilt day, casino and got in some kayaking with two brother's in the San Diego harbor. plan to get some pic's on the flickr page as some as I can got to a fast cable unit. Everyone hang in there. will take some firework photo's from sea world this week.

Time to travel

Well the time is here to fly off to San Diego. Planning to get plenty of awesome photos while there. Once I get back I will be starting a new client that sells jewelry. I'm contracted to do her entire inventory for a new web site. So I guess I better make the best of this trip since we'll be very busy with these stills. Doing produce shots is not the most glamorous work, but it pays quite well and you get to set your own hours. Heres a little look at what will be done. Just remember guys and girls any work with a camera in your hand is great. And as for me, I don't even look at it as work. Hoping that all of you have as great of a September as I will.

Still life photography

Still life photography is mainly used for product promotion. Some examples are restaurant dishes and individual items. A lot of still life shots are now done for internet purposes. Web sites, ebay, and pretty much any business site selling good via the internet. But still life photography can also be fun to play with as a way to hone in your photography skills. Here are a couple of my resent pieces.

Aircraft and tracks

I have added some new photos of aircraft and train tracks too my collection on flickr. so if you are one of the folks that follow this site please go and check it out. The time of day was not perfect for shooting photos but they ase worth sharing and getting comments on. So go on over to flickr and see what people have to share. By the way, I never got any feedback on what you are interested in and wanted to see more of on this site so I am going to keep giving a variety of topics and information.
Get out there and take some pictures and have a blast doing it. As always this site welcomes any and all comments and suggestions.

Five weeks

Well there is only five more weeks left before I leave for San Diego. I'm looking forward to this trip. There has been a lot that I have learned about photography that I didn't know before. While I am in San Diego I will be posting the photos on my flickr page. So keep your eyes out for some really good stuff in September to show up on that page. If you've not been here before and would like to see some of my old work, just click on my photos on the right under (Sites worth looking at.). I hope that you like the work posted there and promise some great new photos to come. If you have the time and a passion for photography, visit the other sites I have listed and get some great information as well as seeing some wonderful works of art. Enjoy and have a great day.

Strip light cheat sheet card

If you shoot a lot indoors with strip lights, Here is a great and easy to make reference tool.

What's In The Card?

The card shows three positions of two strip lights. The first raw shows the angle of the light strips. The black shape (yea, those are 'V' and 'H') shows the angle of the strip light and the gray circle (yes, it is a dot) shows the position of the model.
In the first position, the two strip lights are positioned right and left, 45 degrees off axis.
The second position shows the light when the two lights are positioned right and left of the subject.
The third and last position is from when the strip lights are positioned 135 degrees to camera axis - that is slightly behind the subject.
Those three settings should give a pretty good idea on how strip lights work when positioned vertically (I can't promise there will not be a follow up with a horizontal position ;)

bigger version here

Using The Cheat Sheet Card

Well, you would need some strip lights to make it relevant :).
If you love the idea of strip lights, you can get a pair of photoflex half domes or  create your own using a box or an electric rail.
For each lighting setting that you consider, the card shows you what will be the added light effect when adding strip lights into the mix.
I would assume it is best used with the portrait lighting cheat sheet card.

Making The Card

The setup is pretty simple, two strip lights one from each side of the model, about a meter away. The head of the model is at the middle of the strip. (This is crucial, get to much under light and your model will turn out looking like Franken-strip).
We kept the position of the model, and the relative distance of the strips and moved them along an imaginary circle.

The last picture that we took was the back light one. I did not feel too good about it so I added a snooted strobe on the front for a more pleasing look, just so we won't leave of with a scary picture.

This is free information that you can share with your friends or fellow bloggers. You can find other great ideas at DIY photography.

Links on this page.

If you have not explored this whole site yet, I highly advise that you visit the links I have posted to the right. You came see a mixed variety of my photos that are posted on Flickr (which is a site I highly recommend if you want to share some of your work.). Also you will find a site that has awsome works of art at American pride and passion. (He calls it painting with light) I call it amazing.  If you are looking to purchace additional equipment look at dpreview before you do. They have a staff that resource all the new things out there as will as products that have been out there for a few years. They don't tell you what to buy, they just give you the facts on the products. Well I could go on about each one of them and what they do for you. But I'll just leave it to you to explore for yourself. Enjoy those sites and happy shooting.

Reviewing the Nikon D90

It is only fair that I review the Nikon D90 since I have done one on the Canon T3i. As with the T3i the D90 is designed for the passionate photographer. And they are both in the same price range. The D90 offer a 12.3 megapixel Dk-format CMOS imaging. Which still gives you exceptional picture quality. The D90 does 24fps in a HD movie mode with a jpeg format so you have great versitility so you can pull a single shot from your movie with expected quality. The Nikon sene recognition system delivers razer sharp images in a wide variety on conditions. Nikon's 3D color matrix metering II with scene recognition system offering unmatched exposure accuracy. And the auto active D-lighting optimizesdetails within shadows and highlights improving contrast situations.
So you need to weigh out what type of photography you really want to do. The Nikon D90 and the Canon T3i are both exceptionl cameras for the active photo enthusiest or even the simi-pro. Just remember that the camera business is changing almost daily. so if you are not quite ready to start shooting. just wait til you are. you'll be glad you did in the long run.

Accessories may differ by country or area.

San Diego I'm on my way.

It's almost time for me to go back home. It has been two years since my last visit, and that has been a long two years. I wanted to be there for the fourth of July fireworks, but it just wasn't in the cards. (And you have to play the cards you are dealt in life.). Well it won't be much longer now. I plan to be there the last week of August and will stay til the end of September. I love it every time I get back home to visit my mom and two of my four brothers. We spend time together fishing, kayaking and enjoy catching up on years past. One thing that I also love about it is that I have so many photo opportunities there. The city, beach, desert and mountains (yes I have mountains here in Tennessee but their not the same.). I will still keep up on this blog while I'm there. I am hoping to get some unique photos there and have time to share them and some tips on how they were accomplished. I love sharing information with you all as you can tell by my past post. So keep coming back and I will keep sharing my work with you. "San Diego I'll see you soon.

Saving money on camera pack

I don't know about the rest of you that read this blog, But I love to save money any way I can. Here is my newest money saving project. First I took my old backpack I used in college. Then I cut up a old pair of kaki pants and bought a $7 package of foam padding. (You can find this at most any fabric or craft store.). Next I opened the largest compartment of the backpack and measure the inside of it. Then I cut a piece of the material to fit the back of the compartment. Now sewing the materiel into tubes that match the depth of the compartment then slide a strip of the foam into the tube and sew the ends shut. Once that was done I attached these padded sides to the back piece. (Tip) cut the foam large enough that it has to be forced into the clothe tube. My 3/4" foam ended up about 1/2" thick when done. All that was left to do now was make more of the fabric tubes at various lengths. This way I can configure the inside compartment to meet my needs as shown in the photos below.

 

My pack already had a padded back

section for a laptop. That made this the

perfect pack for this project. 

As you can see, the pack can now be configured to fit your equipment needs. If you happen to have any open space at the beginning, you simply place the extra dividers in the dead space as shown. The only other part that I do not have shown is a large pad that goes over the top of the equipment to protect it if your pack should happen to fall on its front side. When placing the dividers around your equipment always make sure that it is a snug fit for the best protection.

If you liked this project or any of my other ones. Let me know by leaving a comment.

What do you want?

I was getting ready to work on another product review when it struck me. What do you want? Would you reather I give out some tips and tricks to photography, would you like more information on new equipment, or would you like to have a mix of the two. I'm looking to make this blog a place that you want to visit for information regarding photography and the only way to do that is to get your imput. My goal is to give you what you need to make photography your favorite passion. Send your comments and I'll get back to researching great things that fit your wants and needs.

Our team is ready to take out the kayaks for a couple days while we await your responce. From rt to lt, John would reather stay out on the river. Alan's wondering if you even care. Walt, well he's just always happy to get away from the desk. And I your always caring publisher, wanting to keep you interested in photography and beautiful things.
I will write again soon (hopefully with what you want to know)..

P.S.
July is just a week away and you need to get ready for those 4th of July picnic and fireworks photos.

My review of the Canon T3i

The Canon T3i is the newest of the Canon Rebel line up. The T3i follows the very popular T2i. Both of these fit into the category of hobbiest to semi-pro. they both also have a lot of great features in common such as:
Canon's newest DIGIC 4 processor, 18.0 megapixel CMOS image sensor, full HD video recording, live view shooting and wireless flash photography.
The biggest change from the T2i to the T3i is the new vari-angle 3.0-inch LCD monitor. This is a great move for the photographers that like to take shoots from overhead and knee level. Now you can take out the guesswork when taking shoots while holding the camera over your head. It also helps people from the constant kneeling and getting back up. Another change that I noticed while holding this camera is that the buttons are a little larger and very convenient.
The T3i also comes with the 18x55mm IS EF kit lens which is great for all general use photography. If you want to get into a specific type of photography, You're in luck because the T3i handles the full line of Canon EF and EF-S lenses.
I see this as a great camera and a good investment. I recommend this for anyone that's looking for a new camera.

What's in the Box

<><> <> <><> EOS Rebel T3i Body EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Type II Lens Eyecup Ef (not shown) Wide Strap EW-100DBIII USB Interface Cable IFC-130U AV Cable AVC-DC400ST Battery Pack LP-E8 Battery Charger LC-E8E EOS Digital Solution Disk and Instruction Manuals "Great Photography is Easy" Booklet and "Do More with Macro" Booklet (not shown)

Look at the sky

When you take your photos outside are you finding that the sky is pail or even looks a little greyish. then you go and look at other people's photos with deep blue beautiful sky in their photos. To get those shots with a blue sky make sure that the sun is low and behind you. the higher the sun gets the more the sky will look washed out. Always remember the best times to get good shots are just before sunrise and just after sunset. This is when you'll capture the best deep colors in the sky. Another thing that adds to a picture is having clouds in the shot. Now to get the most out of those shots try to have the sun behind the cloud.. this will create some very light areas and some darker grey areas to add interest to the photo. I hope this helps you on your next photo shoot or even you next vacation. So get out there and take some pictures and have a great time doing it.
Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions about this site and the blogs posted here. Thank you and happy shooting.

Where was the sun located in this shoot?

Free photo editing software

Okay, I've finally got the time and information that I promised you. I guess it really wasn't that long since nobody has complained about it. We all like taking great pictures don't we? Well I assume you do. The problem is that once we take the shot it just doesn't look like we wanted it too look. All the pro''s use some kind of edit software. The standard in the industrie is "LightRoom" and "photoshop". But we all can't afford those programs right off the bat. So I've done some research for you and found some free software programs out there that do a decent job. Here are the sites and a example.

Picasa http://www.picasa.google.com/      

Gimp http://www.gimp.org/

Gimp2 http://www.paint.net/

Photoscape http://www.photoscape.org/

Picnik http://www.picnik.com/
Photo Shop www.gofree.com/freephotoshopdownload

I am currently using Picasa. It is a little limited on what you can do. But it's great at what it does do. All I did to this photo was adjust the saturation and shadow, It's that easy.

Make your images snap in the eye's of your viewers. Get the tool's and go have some fun with your photo's.

Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions about this site and the blogs posted here. Thank you and happy shooting.

Photo editing programs coming soon

Coming up in the next few days I'll have some information on photo editing. I'll give you some simple tips and examples. alone with that I will supply you with the names of some free software out there that you can use to enhance your photo's.
Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions about this site and the blogs posted here. Thank you and happy shooting.

Abstract Photo's

This is another way to improve your photography skills. Abstract photography is challenging, Yet the things that make up abstract photo's are as close as your yard. If you are in or near a large city try going into the heart of the city and see all kinds of new opportunities. The Key to this is no different than shooting a portrait, nature or landscape. look at the background the object you are shooting and the lighting. This is a good exercise for any level of photographer. Along with improving your skills, It makes you think about things in a whole new way.

Above is some house siding in the late evening. the shadows cast from the tree made this come out unique and beautiful. It doesn't have to be unrecognizable to be abstract. (I did change the color on the siding.) To the left is a plastic wicker chair that is coming apart. as you can see it is common things around us. we just look at them from a different point of view. So go out there and take some pictures and have fun. By the way can you see the mistake I made on the chair shot, it could have been avoided if I only took a seacond. If you would like to see more, go to sites worth looking at on the right of this page and click on my photos. from there you can pick any of the sets on the right of that page. So Happy Shooting.

Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions about this site and the blogs posted here. Thank you and happy shooting.