g33kart blog

Money

2008-06-01T10:22:00.001-05:00

There's not a lot to say here. My wife needed some photos of money for a client project she's working on. It must be nice to have a staff photographer in-house!

Of course, I wasn't complaining too much because it was a chance to take some stock photos with my new macro lens. :)

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

The Rays... are for REAL?!?!?

2008-05-31T22:58:00.001-05:00

I used to be a regular at Devil Rays games but became disenchanted over the last two seasons. Today was the first game I've been to since July 2006. My wife had a couple of seats to tonights game versus the visiting White Sox. Keller Williams, where she works, had 240 seats and I got to hang out with a crazy bunch of realtors for a few hours.

The Rays played small ball and got a run across in the third inning, and a smoking hot Cliff Floyd belted a home run into the right field bleachers in the fourth inning. That's all the run support an equally hot Scott Kazmir needed as he went 7 strong innings to take his fifth win a row. The bullpen by committee mopped up the last two innings with "AAA" callup Grant Balfour getting the last out and the save.

So here we are on the last day of May with the Rays having a 34-22 record and a 1 game lead over the defending world champion Red Sox. More importantly, the fans showed up tonight - over 36,000 baseball starved patrons were at the Trop. When June 1st rolls around the hometown Tampa Rays will not only be in first place in their division, but they will have the best record in the American League. What?!? The local boys are playing inspired ball and have a boatload of talent. There's a lot of the season left so we'll find out if the Rays have something for the Red Sox and Yankees, but for now - let's just enjoy our winning ball team!

Panorama of Tropicana Field
(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Fun with Food

2008-05-26T13:32:00.001-05:00

The wife had to work today so I took the afternoon off and spent some time working with the new camera and lenses. Specifically, today was macro day!

It was too windy to try to get some flower shots so I opted to stay indoors and try my luck with some food items. First, I tried some sliced orange, lemon and lime. While they came out OK I really need to get some club soda to make the shot work. I tried putting the lemon on the cutting board with the knife used to cut it and that turned out OK as well.

Finally, I ended up trying a couple of pieces of bread. I really wish we had some bacon in the house because I would have made a full blown breakfast for this shot - but the bread worked as a handy stand-in (and a good ham&swiss sandwich afterwords!)

Each of these shots was taken right next to our front window - all natural light. For the bread shot, I also used a reflector to help fill in some of the shadows. I'm fairly pleased with the results but with the summer months upon us (and the obligatory life-sapping heat and humidity), I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for me to work on my macro techniques over the next several months.

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Day at the Zoo

2008-05-25T17:19:00.001-05:00

After breakfast this morning we headed over to Lowry Park Zoo. I was excited because this was the first real chance I was going to have with the new Nikon D300. I stand by my original assessment - wow!

This also was my first time back since Lucy has been on exhibit. Lucy is a rescued Florida Panther. What a cutey! You can see photos of Lucy in the fourth row.

All-in-all a fun day with the family and about 400 shots to edit. :)

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

< ouch >

2008-05-24T13:48:00.001-05:00

No, that photo isn't a mistake. That's exactly what the photos looked like coming out of my D80 this morning... You can see the osprey on that nest can't you? Read on.

I woke up early to go out and try out a couple of new lenses I got this past week - the Nikon 12-24mm wide-angle and the Nikon 105m micro. I started off in Dunedin to shoot the pier - it would be a great opportunity to put the wide angle through it's paces. Because it was 6:30AM, it was relatively dark out and I was getting slow shutter speeds - about 2 seconds or so. Everything was working fine (and I got a nice HDR image of the pier - below).

Next, I headed down to Clearwater Beach to try to get some early morning beach shots with the wide-angle. Still early, still relatively dark out, I was getting shutter speeds in the 1/2 to 1 second range. Everything was still working fine.

Having got some fairly decent wide-angle shots on my memory card, I was itching to try out the new macro lens. I decided to put it through it's paces at the butterfly garden at Largo Park. This was about 8AM or so. It was getting brighter out. I started noticing problems but I was in the shade and still getting relatively low shutter speeds - around 1/8 to 1/30 second. But even at 1/30s shutter speed, the colors just didn't look right. I figured it was just me being an idiot with the new macro lens.

Since I was already there, Largo Nature Park also has a very accessible Osprey nest (the photo above - can't you tell? ). I decided to put my 300mm on and see if I could get some shots of the juvenile osprey learning to fly. All hell broke loose. Every shot out of my camera looked like the above. Now I can take a bad picture just like everyone else, but I'm usually not THAT far off. I wasn't sure what exactly was wrong, but I knew something wasn't right.

So, I head home and decide to test the camera out in the back yard with multiple lenses. I put it in shutter priority and started at 1/8s. Great. 1/15s. Great. 1/30s. OK, Hmm - something isn't right here. 1/60s. Whoa. What's going on? 1/125s. We don't have snow in Florida - why is the picture nearly completely white. 1/250s - complete whiteout! This happened with three separate lenses. I reset the camera to factory defaults. Tried all three lenses again. Same results. !@(*&$@*&.

About that time, my wife called me and I explained what was happening. I have a photo shoot next weekend and I'm freaking out because my camera isn't working. She told me to go to the store and buy a new one. Excuse me? What was that? Wow. OK... call around and find out that Ritz Camera has the D300 in stock. Off I go.

Let me just say, I've only fired off about 100 shots, but the D300 is an amazing piece of equipment. Focusing and Metering are spot on (the pictures of the puppies below are with the new D300). I'm going to need to buy a battery grip for this at some point, but this was a great investment. I'm still a little (ok, a LOT) miffed about the happenings of this morning because I suspect that I actually damaged something about a week ago when I was cleaning the sensor (kicking self in own ass thank you very much). But, this was a purchase I was planning to make in August or September so it's not the end of the world. I'll get some more photos up this weekend as I'm going to the zoo Sunday morning and I'm sure I'll be out taking photos over the next couple of days.

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

So long buddy...

2008-05-18T08:36:00.001-05:00

So, it's been a tough week in our house. Our brown dog (name Stanley) contracted cancer in his front right leg about 3 months ago. He had his good days and his bad days but by-in-large, he was still a pretty damn happy dog. Things took a turn for the worse last weekend and we had to put Stanny down Monday morning. Wow. Not a great way to start the week.

Tuesday, my wife and I started looking for a new puppy to compliment our beagle Sidney (age 8) and Maine coon cat Pepper (age 3). We stumbled across a wonderful no-kill pet rescue shelter in St Peteresburg called Pet Pal Animal Shelter. We particularly like that they are a no-kill shelter and they fill their kennels by going around to kill shelters and rescue dogs that are slated for euthanasia. Check out their site - really. They are doing excellent work.

Both my wife and I went to their site several times a day because they had a plethora of cute dogs and we were worried that there wouldn't be any left by Saturday. When Saturday arrived, it was hard to keep Tara from camping out in front of the shelter - she wanted to leave at 5AM to make sure we "got their first!". We arrived at a couple minutes before 10AM and luckily, we were the first as we both fell in love with a 4 month old Cocker Spaniel mix named Jayden. After letting Jayden and Sidney get acquainted, we decided to take the plunge. Special kudos to Scott, the nice volunteer at the shelter who helped us with all of our questions and needs.

On the way home from the shelter, we had to show off our new girl to my mom (since re-named Samantha - Sammy for short). Mom's cairn terriers didn't quite know what to expect when they saw this flying, flailing ball of fur. After a while, they just ignored Sammy (there were french fries that deserved their attention!)

The final step in the process was introducing Sammy to her new feline sister Pepper. That hasn't gone so well. Pepper has pretty much remained hidden the past two days. She'll come around, but she's used to two slow old dogs in the house, and now there is a maniacal bundle of energy and fur flying around the house - quite a change for her.

So, it's been a full week for us - very sad to see Stanley go, but happy to rescue a new puppy and everyone will end up getting along and loving each other once they get to know one another.

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Happy Mothers Day!

2008-05-11T11:33:00.001-05:00

Despite the spotty weather, I headed over to Honeymoon Island this morning and the camera gods were smiling on me... sort of. I was walking the nature trail, looking up in the tree tops trying to see what birds I could find and out of the corner of my eye, about eight feet off the ground, I noticed something that didn't look right. I looked over and there was a juvenile Great Horned Owl sleeping on a branch! I quietly walked past the owl to get to a location where I would have a clean background and the noise of my tripod awoke the owl. It didn't seem too worried however and it let me fire off several shots before taking off to a nearby tree. The hunt was on!

I followed the owl around the park for about 30 minutes. I actually had the high quality problem of being TOO close at times and had to back up a couple of feet to frame a decent composition. But, because of the uncooperative weather, I didn't get that National Geographic cover shot - but I'll take what I got all the same!

I figured that I had annoyed the juvenile enough so I continued walking the nature trail. The sun was starting to peak out from behind the clouds more often and it was starting to get hot. I was just about ready to pack it in for the morning and I happened upon a group of Osprey's frolicking in the high winds. Luckily, because of the high winds I was able to get several nice in-flight shots of Osprey as the wind was impeding their forward progress, making them slower, easier to track.

Overall, a great morning of capturing bird shots and now, time to start getting ready for mother's day dinner! Yummy!

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Fan Appreciation Day

2008-05-04T20:51:00.001-05:00

Today was the final live session for the 2007-2008 racing season at Tampa Bay Downs. To show their appreciation to the fans, the race track was offering free admission and $1 cokes, hot dogs and beers. Hrmm - let me think about this for a minute...

I cajoled my friends Fred and Daniel to meet me at the track and since my wife has a little gambling problem, I dragged her and my mom along as well. The gambling wasn't the greatest, I fought the harsh sun most of the day, but I was able to get some decent shots.

In a fitting tribute to the 2007-2008 season, a 35-1 long shot won the final race paying $77 on a $2 Win ticket - both my wife and mom cashed in on that lucky (er, I mean skillful) pick.

Panorama of Tampa Bay Downs

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Never a "dull" day

2008-05-03T22:44:00.001-05:00

I headed over to Ybor City to meet my friends Amy and Damir. Damir needed some photos taken for a project he's working on. As is always the case with me and my Speedlights... it took me a little while to get into the groove - it's always a challenge to try to overpower the sun with a couple of battery powered lights.

In the end, I think I did *ok*. Hopefully they like the pics - it definitely was a fun time. Even a bit comical as Damir tried to look like a real bad ass (knife and all). Let me tell you in all sincerity, in a knife fight, the only person who Damir would inflict damage on would be himself! ;)

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Weekend at Ft Lauderdale

2008-04-27T22:44:00.001-05:00

I had to go to Fort Lauderdale this weekend so I got up early Saturday morning and grabbed my gear and headed out to A1A to see what I could find. Since I didn't have a lot of time, I didn't end up with many shots but I did manage to try my luck with a couple of HDR (High Dynamic Range) images before the sun got too high (and bright!).

Needless to say, I hope to go back sometime when I have more time to stumble around - the area from Miami Beach to Boca Raton is rich with photo opportunities!

Boys of Summer

2008-04-20T20:11:00.001-05:00

I wasn't too happy with the photos I got from the St Patricks Day spring training game so I circled today on the Clearwater Threshers schedule as an opportunity for me to go back and try again. I was able to convince my wife as well as my friend Robert to come along.

We got to the park about an hour before the game and got some excellent seats right behind the first base dugout for $6. There probably wasn't more than 500 people in attendance of this Class A Minor League game so we were able to pretty much sit where ever we wanted.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day out and the first pitch was at 1:00PM. The first inning was challenging as it was so bright out it was difficult to get a good exposure. Robert suggest switching to manual and purposely overexposing the photos by a stop to help eliminate some of the contrast. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with the results.... well, all but the outcome of the game. The hometown Threshers got shut out by the Tampa Yankees 3-0.

Complete gallery of all of the shots

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Gatorland

2008-04-13T00:14:00.001-05:00

My mom wanted to go to Gatorland after she saw my friend Robert's photos of the park from a few weeks ago. We packed up the car and took the whole family (wife and father-in-law included).

We got to the park about 2:30 and were immediately impressed with the abundance and variety of animals. After making our way through the park, we got to the main attraction - the rookery.

It's breeding season and we saw plenty of eggs, but only one nest with newborns - judging by the size of them, they couldn't have been more than a day or two old.

The park normally closes at 5PM but if you pay an extra $10, you can stay 'after hours' and get to photograph the birds in the rookery. We got a treat when the park owner Bob selectively fed many of the numerous Alligators. He explained that he does this about once every 7 to 10 days to make sure that the smaller female alligators get enough to eat - who aren't part of the normal shows at the park because they are too small. Bob had three five gallon buckets full of meat and for fifteen minutes, it was absolute mayhem as the gators got their special treat. It was quite an impressive site!

(Click on the photos to see the full sized image on Flickr)

Rainy day - terrorize the cat!

2008-04-06T14:44:00.001-05:00

It's been a relatively junky weekend weather-wise. Since I hadn't picked up my camera in almost two weeks, I thought it was time to try some lighting shots indoors. Luckily, we have the family coming over for dinner this afternoon so the dining room table was clean and I was able to use the glass surface to get some great reflections.

After shooting the standard still life shots, I wondered if I could lure the cat onto the table. A couple of treats did the trick and Pepper ended up being a model for about 15 or 20 shots. Of course, it also meant that it took me quite a bit longer in photoshop to clean up the crumbs as girlfriend isn't known for her eating decorum.

All of these shots I was shooting through an umbrella camera right, and had a bare flash at low power under the glass table shooting pretty much straight up. The shots of Pepper actually turned out pretty good - she's going to be extremely difficult to live with the next few weeks now that she's a fashion model! ;)

(Ckick on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Beautiful day for a ball game

2008-03-17T18:24:00.001-05:00

I went to the Philadelphia Phillies vs Cleveland Indians spring training ball game today with my wife and friends Robert and Rafael. We were supposed to have a fifth but Chris came down with a nasty sinus infection and couldn't make it (these pics are for you buddy!)

First pitch was at 1:05PM and the weather was perfect - 81 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. I wasn't expecting such a large crowd for a Monday afternoon ball game - this is the last time I underestimate the power of the Irish! The Phillies were decked out in their St Patrick's Day green uniforms and there was green as far as the eye could see. We even had a guest appearance by the Phillie Phanatic! In the eight inning they announced that it was the second largest crown in BrightHouse Field history!

In the end, the hometown (sort of) Phillies prevailed 6-4. I may gripe about some of the 'nuances' of living in Florida, but spring training certainly isn't one of them!

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

And now for something completely different

2008-03-13T20:18:00.001-05:00

I'm the Director of Information Technology at Sunbelt Software, a technology company in Florida. We have some pretty cool toys. I wanted to try to utilize some of them with multiple off-camera strobes to see what kind of shots I could get. I managed to convince another IT'er (and fellow camera buff) to be a model for the shoot - thanks Fred!

Before we started, fellow co-workers Daniel and his girlfriend Alanna stopped by and pitched in. Daniel is also an off-camera lighting goof so he was a great help with lighting ideas. Everything was falling in place except for one thing....

I was at the ballgame last night and as such, I had to crank up my ISO to 1600 in order to keep up with the action. Yeah, you guessed it. I forgot to change my ISO back to a reasonable 200 or 400 for this shoot. ARGH!!!!!! Thankfully I was able to save a few of the shots - you can still tell there's a little noise, but for the most part, they look ok. Let that be a lesson - ALWAYS CHECK YOUR CAMERA SETTINGS BEFORE YOU SHOOT!

[UPDATE: I should note that both Daniel and Fred snapped some of the shots tonight as well - I can't take credit for all of these beauts!] ;)

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

Take me out to the ballgame...

2008-03-13T00:22:00.001-05:00

After work tonight, my friend Robert and I headed over to Brighthouse Field to watch a spring training game between the hometown (sort of) Philadelphia Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds.

The weather was great - maybe a bit chilly - and the game was a blowout (Reds won 6-1), but it was still a blast. I got several hundred shots of the action on and off the field. Because it was a night game, I really had to crank up the ISO to be able to stop the action, as a result, some of the photos had more noise than I care for.

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

Safety Harbor cottage

2008-03-08T17:44:00.002-05:00

I got the opportunity to photograph a wonderful home in Safety Harbor this morning for Rick Tennant, a realtor that works with my wife. What a great house this is! The weather was perfect and the exterior photos turned out really nice. I was a little concerned about the interior photos for it was extremely bright out - a condition that normally leads to blown out windows in interior photos.

Knowing this, I packed my flashes and spent a lot more time in each room to make sure that I got the proper balance between outside and inside. The homeowner was extremely patient as it took over two hours to get all of these shots.

The end result is I think I got a nice set of photo's for Rick to use to help promote this house. Now I need to try to keep my wife away from this particular home as she would be first in line to buy it!

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

A perfect Sunday

2008-03-02T23:05:00.002-05:00

What a beatiful day today. I started off with some much needed yardwork but had the itch to take some pictures. I called my friend Robert up as I knew he was doing a workshop today and met up with him and George at the Clearwater Aquarium.

I have never been to the aquarium before so I didn't know what to expect. The Dolphin show was a lot of fun and Nicholas (one of the dolphins) is quite the ham - he was all to eager to pose for us in the windows of the dolphin tank. After about two hours of this, we headed out to lunch and then across to Tampa.

There was an art festival in downtown Tampa this weekend - I couldn't believe how many people were there! I bumped into a co-worker (Hi Nancy!) and my father-in-law and his partner. The highlight of the art show was a Santana tribute band called "Supernatural". These guys rocked the house. I spent an hour taking shots from every possible angle. As the day was drawing to a close, I knew we had one more stop left - Tampa General (to take the Tampa skyline photo).

I arrived about 5PM and got some of the best skyline shots I've gotten to date. Seriously - doesn't the above photo need to be included in any Tampa Chamber of Commerce literature?!? We stuck around until 7PM to try to get some night shots. I managed to get a pretty decent panorama of the city at dusk:

It was a long day (over 600 shots!) but it was worth it - the weather was great, I got out and took some photos and managed to get a couple of winners in the bunch. What more could one ask for?

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

Everglades: Day 2

2008-02-24T21:35:00.003-05:00

We woke up this morning and headed back to the Anhinga Trail to get a couple of hours in before heading back home. The Anhinga's were photogenic as always and I ended up getting several nice shots. After we got our fill of the half-mile boardwalk, we started back home.

First stop, Shark Valley. We got there a little later than we should have and it was quite warm. We didn't see a lot of wildlife to photograph but I did happen across a butterfly that was floating among the rag weeds and got several nice shots.

Last stop - the 26 mile long Loop Road. Loop Road is a single lane gravel road that goes through the Big Cypress National Preserve. We really weren't sure what to expect. We didn't see as much wildlife as expected, but the landscape opportunities were spectacular. All-in-all it was a fun trip and I have lots of photos to process!

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

Everglades: Day 1

2008-02-23T21:14:00.003-05:00

My mom and I made the five plus hour trek to the Everglades this weekend in an attempt to get some good bird action. We awoke early this morning and headed over to the Anhinga Trail. There was a plethora of Anhingas, Cormorants, Great Blue Herrons and Alligators to shoot and we spent several hours walking the 1/2 mile boardwalk.

We also headed down to Flamingo, Mahogoney Hammock, and several other stopping points on the 41 mile road that winds through the Everglades. The weather was better than expected - thunderstorms were predicted and I was kind of looking forward to that thinking I could get some good black and white landscapes. The weather held and we had blue skies all day long. I still managed to get some nice landscape shots however. After 10 hours of traipsing around the park, we called it a day and will rise early tomorrow for one last shot before making the trip home.

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

What to do at 4AM

2008-02-10T06:55:00.001-05:00

My wife had to get up really early this morning for a flight to Atlanta for her company's annual convention. Lucky me! I got to wake up at 3:45 to take her to the airport!

Not one to miss an opportunity, I took my camera with me and after dropping the little woman off at Tampa International, I drove over the Tampa General and tried to get a couple of shots of the Tampa skyline when it was all lit up. I've been there several times before and have always tried to get a panorama of the scene and have never gotten one that I liked - until this morning!

(Click image to see full size photo on Flickr)

Saturday morning at the park

2008-02-03T10:16:00.001-05:00

It was a beautiful morning Saturday so I decided to head up to Honeymoon Island and renew my annual pass for I hadn't been there in several months. I thoroughly enjoy walking the nature trail and taking photo's of the abundant wildlife so it was a perfect recipe for me to forget about the cold that I'm starting to come down with.

Since I hadn't taken a photo of a bird in months, I had to remember some of my old tricks to get the good picture. It's nice to get a photo of a majestic osprey sitting on a branch, but it's truly rewarding to catch the same osprey in flight (as you will notice, there are no "in-flight" photo's posted so I didn't remember my old tricks fast enough!)

After walking the trail for about two hours, I decided to try out a new trick with the Bogen superclamp I had received as a Christmas present (thanks mom!). I attached the clamp to my left fender, put my D80 and 10-20mm wide angle lens on (w/polarizer of course) and drove around Honeymoon Island with my remote shutter release taking pictures. Upon hearing of this, my wife promptly called me a moron but it is a different perspective to take a photo from and I'm sure I'll be doing more of this in the future.

Now, time to settle in and watch the umpteen hours of pre-game shows leading up to the Super Bowl. My prediction? Giants 24, Patriots 21.

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

Jenny "Take my picture"

2008-01-28T21:06:00.001-05:00

My friend Jenny decided that she wanted some more pictures and this time she wanted to get a little more risque than the normal photo's we've taken until now - must be the new hair! So, I met Jenny on Sunday afternoon at the building that we work at as there were a couple of interesting shot ideas we wanted to try in the stairwell.

As always, my faithfull art director Amy was there. I convinced my wife Tara to come along and be my lighting vixen. Things started off slow, the lighting was bad. The clothes selection was off. As Amy said, there were "no tunes". We were stuck. Tara suggested that Jenny use the red fire extinguisher pipes as a prop so Jenny changed into a denim outfit that was about 3 sizes too small for her and we finally started getting somewhere.

After exhausting the shot opportunities with the pipe (this is still a PG rated blog!), we moved to the stairs with Jenny attired in a beautiful formal gown. I still wasn't terribly excited about any of the photos we were getting on the stairs so I asked "Are we done yet?". Jenny, Amy and Tara all sheepishly said "yeaaaaaah". Perfect! I had Jenny mess up her hair and strike a pose that is anything but feminine and got the best shots of the day (including the completely over-processed but still somewhat cool shot above).

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Attracting plenty of stares...

2008-01-26T23:32:00.001-05:00

My friend Robert was going to shoot some models in Tarpon Springs this weekend and asked me if I would tag along and assist him. Never one to pass up an opportunity, I met him at the Tarpon Springs Aquarium at 1PM.

Once the models arrived, we proceeded to receive several stares from the onlookers as we made our way up and down the sponge docks, seizing several different opportunities to get shots of the models. It was overcast and gloomy so this was a perfect opportunity to break out the flash and try some new techniques. There were several misses but I think my favorite shots are the black & white 'spotlight' shots. After about 3 1/2 hours of shooting, it was time to call it a day for it was getting dark and we were all tired and hungry!

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)

Compelling Photographs - "Must Know" Fundamentals of Composition

2008-01-12T07:50:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago, my friend and photography mentor Robert LaFollette asked me if I would be interested in assisting him with a new photography course he was desiging for The Perfect Picture School of Photograph. Needless to say, I was flattered and jumped at the opportunity!

The course is called Compelling Photographs - "Must Know" Fundamentals of Composition. The goal of the course is to give individuals the tools they need to be able to capture that image they see in their minds eye with their camera.

Classes just started and it's not too late to sign up! If you're interested in learning how to turn those snapshots into true works of art, I strongly suggest checking out this class or others offered by The Perfect Picture School of Photography.

For more information on this course and how to sign up, go to this website:

Compelling Photographs - "Must Know" Fundamentals of Composition