Sunday Afternoon Flowers

I had a wonderful chance to relax and take a few shots at my Brother and Sister-In-Law's neighbors flower garden on Sunday. It was overcast and headed towards rain, but not while I was outside. This always seems to give me the best chance to get nice vivid colors without harsh shadows from sunlight (Which = more keepers, something I really like!). I enjoyed it greatly and got a few pretty good shots. I really think that one day I will need to get a dedicated Macro lens. (Sigma 105 f2.8 or Pentax D-FA 100 f2.8 are currently my two favorites.)


I LOVE the colors of this flower.

Not sure what this is but it is kinda cool looking!

I'm iffy about including this one but there is just a delicate luminance to it that I really like.

The color combo on this one works for me.

This one too!

I really wish I would have put the camera on a tripod for this one for increased depth of field without blurriness from too slow of a shutter speed. Do still like what I got though!

I thought the Table and chairs in the garden were a nice touch.

This has a nice abstract shape to it.

Food Interlude

Though pretty much everything on my blog is geared towards photography I wanted to include this little side trip we took to the Stepping Stone Cafe in NW Portland. At times my wife and I have been watchers of a TV show called Man vs. Food, where the host takes on some eating challenges and reviews interesting places to eat. We saw this place included in the show one night and decided to include it in our ininerary for our trip.

This particular restauraunt serves an interesting meal, a 3 pancake stack called "Mancakes" which you will see is quite...... LARGE!!! I had hopes of eating 2 of the 3 and not being totally ashamed of my unamerican inability to gobble superlarge amounts of food. Alas I could only eat one. Again these things are huge. Anyway, had a nice visit and a little fun.

Whoa!

Where is the plate?? Notice the French Toast next to the pancake stack for comparison.

The wall of Shame

Wait For Me!!!!

Back in the day I used to commute through downtown Portland, OR and catch the light rail train (MAX) I loved to see this guy, don't know why but I did.

While we were back there on vacation and riding MAX to the ZOO, I had a minute to try and capture my old friend. Hopefully there are one or two that you like!

One of these is the same as the one at the top, but more edited per the feedback from some on-line friends on DPReview.com

Cosmicar MC 70-200 f1:4 does the Portland, OR ZOO!

I was really quite excited to take my newest lens to the Zoo. I have been finding that it is a sharp and contrasty lens and a heck of a lot of fun! See?

The only drawbacks to this lens are that it is Manual Focus, and it has a bit of a green cast especially in the shadows or in lower light. But that can be fixed fairly easily.

Obligatory Photo Stop at Multnomah Falls

As is our usual we stopped at Multnomah Falls as we exited Portland. This was the only time on the trip that I missed having access to my Friends Sigma 10-20 ultra wide angle lens. I had trouble getting wide enough at times.

Now these are not the most absolutely best shots ever, I was dumb enough to leave the Tripod in the Van... sigh... when will I learn... Hand Holding/bracing at anything longer than 1/3 sec is asking for blurry shots, which I got a lot of. I do like what I got though.

Hopefully some of them will tickle your fancy, I am afraid I have posted more than I should but I just couldn't weed them out more. Maybe you can help, leave a comment and let me know which ones you like!

And now an angle you see less often!

Now with a slower shutter speed.

Duck Hunting With Some Borrowed Lenses

Had the chance to meet up with a fellow DPReview Forum member (brandrx) and play with some of his fantastic (and out of my price range) Telephoto lenses. The Sigma 50-500, and the 500mm Prime (or non-Zoom) lens.

I had a BALL, and just wished I had had more time before it was time to pick up my youngest from my sisters. These are my 5 favorites.

Oh What a Morning!!

Some more shots of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple from last Friday morning. We had been experiencing a few mornings with partly cloudy skies and impressive sunrises. Seizing the day I sallied forth to try to capture the best images I have yet. I think I got close.

This first image is similar to one I shot in the evening of Valentines Day 2009, but with completely different lighting. I am eager to try this in the winter with fresh snowfall. I am curious how that much reflective material will alter the lighting. I really like this one and my wife more than really likes it. I haven't decided which way to crop it, I think I will most likely crop off the left edge but I am not totally sure that having it that off center is a good thing.

This is the only HDR shot that really looked OK, the others I tried had WAY too much cloud movement, I liked the overall look of the sky quite a bit.

I felt that the symbolism of this shot with The statue of the Angel Moroni on the top amid the storm clouds and looking toward the clearing of light and blue sky was worth the effort of making this shot. I spent a lot of time lightening the steeple and the statue.

This is a shot where HDR failed me due to cloud movement. I ended up copying the temple from one shot and superimposing it on top of the too dark one from a shot that had the best sky. There are a few small cloning oopsies, but I really like the overall impression.