Instead of focusing on this blog, I’m going to put more attention into creating a better portfolio.  The blog will remain, but only as a means of sharing specific projects and other vital information about the work that I am doing.  Regularly scheduled posts, such as the weekly recaps, will no longer take place.

Other than the obvious appearance changes, some things that you will notice are that I have minimized the number of sections on the menu bar and changed the layout of the portfolio.  I have removed the links to the store page as well as the tutorial page that I was working on.  I have also consolidated the photos in my portfolio onto a single page rather than spread out amongst six or seven different subject pages.

If you’re still interested in seeing photos from some of the random things that I do, I recommend following me on Flickr or JPG.  There’s also my rarely updated Twitter page.

In other news, last week’s Chairman post was my 100th post on the site.  Certainly a milestone that I had been looking forward to, but it didn’t get the attention that it deserved.

My favorite of the set if being POTW didn't tell you.

I hate large crowds almost as much as I hate mushrooms, so going out somewhere to see fireworks on the Fourth of July isn’t exactly my idea of a good time, especially when I see people camping out for spots at 2:30 pm for a 9:30 pm fireworks display.  I can think of so many more things that I’d rather be doing with my time than that.  At the same time, however, I also have a five year old little girl that loves fireworks, so like many people end up doing for the holiday, we decided to purchase our own fireworks and have some fun at home, and, of course, I had to have my camera there.

What follows are some of my favorite photos from the set.  To do this, I set my camera at an aperture of f/10 and an ISO of 100.  For the shutter speed, I set my camera to bulb and tried my best to manually time each exposure based on what each particular firework was doing.  It didn’t always work out the way I liked, and there are several in my complete set that are almost completely whited out, but for the most part,  I was able to get some decent shots.

Check out a few of my faves after the jump.

My Canon T1i with DIY pinhole lens

I’ve written several times before about wanting to try my hand at both traditional pinhole photography, as well as digital, and this past weekend I came across probably the easiest and cheapest method of doing digital pinhole photography that you’ll probably ever find.  The method I used comes from Photocritic, and although I didn’t follow their instructions exactly, I’m completely ecstatic with my results, but that could just be because this was the first time that I’ve ever done any sort of pinhole photography at all.

The items I used to create my DIY digital pinhole lens were:

1. Camera Body Cap
2. Drill
3. Sandpaper
4. Tea light
5. Scissors
6. Sewing straight pin
7. Packing Tape

Each of these items I had lying around the house.  Since Photocritic does such a great job of explaining how to create the lens, I won’t get into those details myself here, although I’ve done so on my Flickr page.  The beauty of this project is how quickly you can go from creating the lens to shooting photos with it, and of course, the fact that if you’ve already got this stuff handy like I did, you don’t have to spend one dime to do it.

Check out some of my results after the jump.

Trees in my backyard

Broken Clay Pot

Ricard Liqueur Bottle

Mini Me

• Take a People-Free Photo in a Crowded Place – From one of my daily must-read sites, Lifehacker, comes this awesome tip on how you can take a serious of photos in a crowded location to make one glorious photo without the people clutter.  My only complaint is that this tip is for Photoshop proper, but with a little patience and practice this can be done with any photo editor.
• Quick Tips on Photographing Public Memorials and Statuary – Photographing statues is one of those things that I’ve done for years, but I have never given much thought to it.  This short post from The Photo Argus focuses on the subject and more than anything calls for greater attention to be paid to a photographic subject that is surely overlooked by more photographers than just myself.
• Six Tips for Shooting without a Tripod – I hate lugging my tripod around and I try to avoid bringing it when I’m out shooting unless I know for sure that I’ll need it.  Needless to say, camera shake can sometimes be a problem, so this post from Beyond Megapixels is great since it offers some tips that I’ve never heard before, such as using a screw and string to stabilize the camera.
• The Most Surprising Amateur Photography Success Stories – Photopreneur is probably one of my three favorite photography blogs and this post is a great example of why.  Sometimes success can come even when you’re not looking for it, so it helps to be prepared.  Probably my most popular photo set on Flickr is my set of circus photos, and it’s an event that I wasn’t even planning to go to at all.
• Bulkr Downloads Flickr Photos to Your Desktop – I download my photos from Flickr all the time, primarily because I can access them from anywhere, so this is a great tool to have available from every connected device that I use, and it’s yet another reason why Lifehacker is one of my must reads.