Milkweed at Sunset

Car

My dad took us to look at some cars at a place where he is restoring his Morgan.  Very cool cars there.  It was relatively dark, and there were a ton of people, so I didn't take too many pictures.  This is probably one of the better ones.

A Vision of Winter

I think that this is one of the best pictures that I took this year.  It is very rare that you actually catch snow in the trees so clearly as this.  I really like that the snow is deep in the lower part of the trees and almost non-existent in the upper parts.  Also, the sky is so blue that it really gives a nice contrast.  It was a spontaneous picture on the way to work, again.

Pond at Dawn

Sorry that I have been gone for so long.  I have been a wee bit on the busy side.  Actually, I have been taking lots of pictures, but just haven't had time to process and upload them.  So, over the next many days, I will try to catch up with some pictures.

Here are some pictures that I took in early November on my way to work, just after dawn.

Alumni Band

Here is a picture of my Step Mom at the University of Michigan Homecoming game.  The top image is a full image taken at 53mm, so a tiny bit zoomed. The middle is a full image, but at 135mm, and the bottom is the same image but cropped.  This is taken from almost all the way across the stadium.  I really like my camera.  It is probably best to actually click on the images and look at the "full sized".

Tree at Sunrise

Yesterday I took my camera to work with me and got this on the way to work.  I walked out in the middle of a field to take this picture.  It is the first sunrise picture I have taken in a long time.  It is a rare occurrence.  Once again, I was searching for the elusive lone tree in a field with nothing in the background.  It seems to be quite hard to find this type of tree in Michigan.  I very much notice sight lines now, and the sight lines around here are quite short due to all of the trees.  I need to find some places in which there are large fields.

Fall Set I

On the way to work the other day (on my bike!), I took my camera and took some pictures.  Nice fall colors, some fog, a tractor and water.  Uber-cool!

Washington DC

We were in Washington DC about a month ago or so.  I took a few pictures and have processed them and such, but have never posted them.  I have been just a bit too busy.  Here are some of them.  I really like taking pictures of people, but I am extremely hesitant to do so.  I decided to take some pictures of people anyways (fight the fears!)  I feel like some of these turned out pretty nice.

Yet Another Flower Picture

I spent an hour last night playing with my light box and some flowers. I took a LOT of pictures.  What I find truly amazing is that you can have a flower in front of you and never see the spider webs until you take a macro shot and look at it on the computer.  Then, all of the flaws come out.

One thing that I have noticed is that it is very hard to get rid of pollen.  It is everywhere!  So, I guess I chose to embrace it this time.  With these pictures, I am just trying to get good composition, focus and such.  I could not really find "perfect" flowers in the garden.  I really do like some of these shots, though.  Here are four of them.

Matthaei Botanical Gardens

We went to the Botanical Gardens for a Meetup Event.  It was nice to be around other people who are interested in taking pictures.  The big problem is that I had both kids with me.  One is very interested in photography now, and the other was bored, bored, bored.  So, instead of being able to take my time and try to get perfect pictures, I had to move from place to place trying to get pictures as fast as possible.  Oh well.  Here are a few that I sort of like.

Portrait at 10mm

One of the posts on digital photography said to never take portraits at less than something like 50mm or 85mm or something like that.  Very good advice.  Here is why.

More Flowers

I took this on a whim as I walked into the house after taking a lot of other pictures (of the kids).  Maybe some of the pictures of the kids will come later in the week.....

Summer Flowers

I went out into the yard today, braving the mosquitoes, and took a few pictures.  I got a few pretty nice ones, which I will trickle out over the next few days.  Here is my favorite of the day.

Goat & Chicken

I took a few pictures of some goats and chickens and a barn and other stuff this last weekend.  Here are two of the better pictures that I took.

Solar

A few weeks ago we got solar panels.  Our electric meter runs backwards sometimes!

Five Pictures of Australia

I have finished going through my pictures from Australia, and have narrowed the 800 or so pictures down to 200 that are somewhat interesting or nice.  From these, I shall now try to convey the entire trip in five pictures (at this exact moment, I don't know which five - this is going to be exciting!)

I have to put a picture of Melbourne in here, since we were in Melbourne for many days.  I am not sure that many are very artistic though.  I am really a sucker for bridges.  I love them.  I don't feel like I do justice when I take pictures of bridges at all.  But, here is a bridge that I walked over many times:

I figure that I should have at least two pictures from the Great Ocean Road.  This was the nicest part of the entire trip and really deserves more than two pictures.  This first one is from one of the places that you could stop and walk down to the beach. I won't really say that anything more about it.

This is another picture of the 12 Apostles. There aren't 12.  It was unbelievable fabulous.

Moving on down the road....

Here a picture from the Taronga Zoo.  I took a good 350+ pictures here.  There are quite a few good ones, but this is one of the best.  This should be called "Juxtaposition".

And the last picture..... This is probably very typical for a picture of Sydney, but how can you resist?  Well, I will throw a slightly different spin on it.

And that is Australia.

The Best Picture That I Have Ever Taken

I love this picture.  I put it as my desktop on my computer at work.  And, at 27 inches wide, it is fantastic.  I wish that more of my pictures could be like this.  Really.  I do.

My wife says that the scene helped.  Whatever.  This is the 12 Apostles, just off the Great Ocean Road in Australia.  It is truly a Great Road.

A Tiny Bit of Australia

I have a huge number of pictures of my Australia trip, but haven't had the time to finish processing them all.  Here is one of them.... More later....

Its been a while

I have been massively busy for the last month or so.  So much so that I have not had time to post pictures.  Very sad.  I am actually in an airport right now, using the free wireless.  Since I am in the airport for a couple of hours, and have just finished my conference (off to the next conference), I have a few minutes to actually upload pictures.

One of the reasons that I have not posted much lately is because I have become much more critical of my pictures.  I see "flaws" in all of them.  I don't like most of them after I take them - even as I am taking them I am thinking that this is not going to be a very good picture.  Or, how is this picture original at all?  I get very frustrated with this, and don't really enjoy it much.  I know that if I had more time and more patience, I could look around for better opportunities, but I just don't have the time.  So, I take pictures that are not very good (in my opinion).

Maybe I can find some interesting things to take pictures of in Australia.

Here are a few of the best of my latest not so great pictures....

This one looks like a nice cloud with a sunset, but it is actually smoke from the fire that is going on right now near Los Alamos.  I didn't have a car while in Sante Fe, so I walked about a mile to get a semi-clean line of sight to the sunset.  I really couldn't find a very good vantage point.  This is the best of the pictures that I got.

I should also note that I am not very good at playing with colors in photoshop.  You seem to have infinite control of colors, but I can't figure it out.  In picasa, there is a simple slider going from more blue to more red.  There doesn't appear to be something that trivial in Photoshop.  I will have to investigate more.  So, the above photo has very little done to it.

Oh, another thing that is bugging me is that my camera is relatively cheap, and it has a lot of noise in the CCD.  My pictures end up with a lot of grain, and I feel like I am constantly trying to fix this in Photoshop.  I have no idea if a better body would improve this.  Oh well.  Yet another thing to complain about.

This picture was taken just a few minute after the above picture.  It is someone's fence.  I like this picture a bit more, since it has a lot of texture.

Lastly, I took a very long walk (4 miles) in very hot temperatures (>100F) in Albuquerque and took my camera along.  I found some interesting things to take pictures of, but I am not really happy with many of them.  Here is one that I am semi-happy with, although I think that it is quite boring.

PS.  Here is another picture that I took on the same walk that is a tab bit more interesting that I may use as a banner for something.

Cow

I really like the right side of this picture, but I wish the other cow was much more blurry.  Oh well.

Church Near Estes Park

I would image that many people take pictures of this church - it is really majestic.

Besides a Really Big Rock

The last picture of Crab Boy is better than this one, but I like this one too.  I like the massiveness of the rock with the smallness of the family next to it.  I have some more zoomed in pictures, but I like how much you can see here.  Not a family picture, but I think that it is good for other reasons....

Crab Boy on the Rocks

Tree in California

On a morning a few weeks ago, while in California, I had about 20 minutes of free time before the meeting started, so I found a trail and hiked up the side of a hill.  I was hoping to get some nice mountain pictures with fog around them, but I just couldn't get a very good angle on anything, and I was very rushed.  So, I took a few pictures of different things, and this is probably the best of the lot.

Reflected Tree

I am not actually at home, but I have a back log of pictures.  I thought that I would put them out there one at a time, to make it seem like I am actually doing something.  I did do something a while ago.  Actually, we just took a trip to Colorado and I have some ~ok~ pictures from there, which I will eventually post.  These will be catching up from a few weeks ago.

So, besides the cow, here is a picture of a tree that I really like.  It is somewhat sad.

269

 

I've been away for a little while, and unable to post.  It has been a little crazy for a bit.  #269 represents the stress in my life right now - in my face.  But, it will get better.

Alex and Jamie

We launched three balloons today.  This was taken at the second one we recovered.  When I sent around the pictures, people thought that it was very Beetles-like.

Vine Barn #18