Just had an exhausting but FUN X-Mass

Huge bash at the GF's last night...I'm still recovering. And then X-mass festivities with family today. Some snaps are up in the attached gallery.

Our 1st good snow of the season...

We had nearly 1 foot of snow Saturday evening. Made for some beautiful scenery the next day. Gallery is up for your enjoyment.

Another from my visit Sanibel Island...

I have some really good photographs from the trip. This one however I just can't stop looking at. Technically it's a mess. But something about the blurred bird in the foreground and our in-focus friend in the background just works. It gives the image a depth and some personality...or perhaps life and a bit of wonder about the little guy in the background swooping in. Something that a technically superior shot of two birds wouldn't convey.

This is why I love photography...the occasional surprises and discovery of how a subject and situation can evolve into an amazing image.

Elation & Excitement

I finally managed to upload my bank of photos from the trip to Florida and holy frijoles! I managed to get some fantastic photos that will only require some horizon adjustment. Several of which I will take directly to print in large format for that empty space over my loveseat in the living room. Here's one of the mediocre snaps.

Some photos...

...from Sanibel island...rather unremarkable. I'm using my work PC and the colors are way off and I can't do any decent post processing. More at my Facebook page.

Holy Crap...Sanibel Island is boring!

I feel like I've died and I'm stuck in a doctor's office waiting room with nothing but old people.

Yes the weather is great.

Yes the beach is really nice.

And yes, the shells on the beach are spectacular (which is why I came here).

But the place is dead, dead ,dead!

Hoping to find life tomorrow...going to rent a Kayak and snap photos in the mangroves.

Spent Sunday trail building with my local group

of Mountain Bikers. Snapped many pics. This one I just love and is worth sharing.

I love to browse through my archives.

Because I occasionally find a few gems that I overlooked. These are from a trip to Austria back in March of 2006. They were JPG but I managed to clean them up nicely in LR2.

Utilities

Was browsing through some of my images from several years ago and came across these three gems. All shot with my 50mm f/1.4 and a very low ISO.

These are JPG...long before I was shooting RAW. What is a bit surprising or disappointing depending on your perspective, is that these are straight out of the camera, no post processing accept for resizing. And they are shot with a 10MPixel Canon XT body. In other words they look freakin' fantastic! And I didn't need anything but the camera, lens, light and to share them with you.

Behind in my work...

I've yet to parse through and process most of the photos from our visit to Cape May in September. Here's a small sample though. Straight out of the camera. Remember what it was like to be a kid and not care what kind of weather was at the beach? That'd be Sophia. It was rainy and cold this particular day and she still was having a great time.

Noank, Stonington & Mystic

This week I had business in Groton CT and I took some extra time to see some of the local nautical attractions. The point at Stonington was beautiful. Some of the boats and masted ships in Noank and Mystic made for some great photographs as the sun was setting.

A full gallery HERE

The irresistible pull of the water

The irresistible pull of the water...yes you might be familiar with this phenomenon. But I will admit not everyone has it.

I travel all over the world but there is one absolute in my personal experience. Being close to the ocean, any ocean, invokes an unavoidable change in my mental being and a powerful need to continue to remain on the water. Doesn't matter what the weather is or the temperature of the air...the pull is so strong it invokes emotions and nostalgia I find very surprising. Perhaps it's old age and I'm just getting emotionally soft. Perhaps it's an appreciation of the earth. I don't really know.

This month I find myself in Mystic Seaport on business. As usual I brought the camera and snapped many good shots...to be posted later once business is done this week. I hope you'll check back to see the eye candy.

Summer has passed...

Here's to the lazy days of summer 2009!

When August passes I always feel like Summer is over.

And even though I welcome Fall I will miss the long days and abundant sunshine.

Did some portraits for the X wife yesterday of my daughter and her half-brother Noah. An example.

Self portraits...

...are sometimes quite difficult. I bought a new suit at Banana Republic and decided to do my best "James Bond". I really need a good photographer to be behind the camera. Fun to experiment however...always learning.

Flowers at Jacobsburg

The mountain bike trails aren't all trees, weeds and mud. Some open up into fields with scenic landscapes of wildflowers. Here's a few to enjoy...

It's 4th of July!!!

Well, it's not actually. ;)

But I managed to work through another set of photos. I'm posting up two galleries from early in July. These are of my 1st real attempts at capturing fireworks. Essentially I think the other non-firework shots are better. Fireworks are tough and you really don't get to many opportunities to practice.

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Enjoy. Find them here --->>> The Galleries

A few random shots from the last several weeks

No theme...they just appealed to me.

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I'm going to miss this big black cuddly mush

The girlfriend's cat. Sadly she is taking him with her. Can't blame her...I wouldn't part with him either. He's the perfect lap cat.

In honor of my birthday I have a gift for you (eyecandy)

I did some creative work on an amazing capture of the mist over the river at a site I sometimes pass on the way to work. These were shot with my Leica D-Lux 3 in Manual Mode. Then post processed in LightRoom 2. Gallery HERE.

Hiked the 4 mile River of Rocks trail at Hawk Mountain

Yesterday afternoon. Did the trek in 2.5 hours and I was soaking wet after the hike.

A Gallery is now up also at my website.

These pictures don't do the scene justice...

It was quite beautiful. I snapped these along Black River Road in North Jersey on my way into work the other morning.

I think my nephew could be modeling...

What say you? He's got a fantastic personality in front of the lens, bright eyes and good features. Not to mention eye lashes a supermodel would die for...

Captured my 1st Green Heron....

I was actually shooting some turtles sunning themselves on logs in a canal and heard a rustle in the grass and up popped this little guy. For once I had the right lens (100-400 IS) but didn't have exposure set properly. Most of my shots are blurred even though he wasn't moving that much.

Fireworks...and a foiled plan

Well I managed to sneak into my super secret location about an hour before the fireworks were to start. Only to be discovered by a security guard. He nicely told me to park my butt across the fence on the public side.

I still got some decent shots. However I was forced to have several parking lot lights in the shots (as you can see from this example). The shots with the Bethlehem Steel Blast Furnace Towers, lit up in red from the Sands Casino, look really good however. You almost forget there's a parking lot in the foreground.

Happy Independence Day America!

Yesterday I shot a familiar location with the new Rebel T1i. Very impressed with this camera so far.

Tonight I've scoped out a great location to snap the local fireworks display. Sshhh! It's a secret location.

Tow Path Gallery HERE.

And another from my favorite little super model

I seriously need to get her into modeling professionally.

My daughter is such a ham

After taking note of a some nice warm morning sun coming through my home office window I got the itch to snap some photos. My rambunctious 7 year old was happy to oblige...as long as she gets to make silly faces between the normal looking shots. The result:

A nice little article on AOV and Crop Factor...

...on the B&H website. I think this article explains very well what crop factor is and why Angle of view might make more sense for specifying lenses in the digital age.

ENJOY

fun with food...

...or rather drinks. I was mixing a drink on Sunday for part of a nice relaxing afternoon of no TV. As the GF and my daughter snoozed on the couch I got the urge to snap a few since it looked good and the afternoon light was perfect.

The drink in the event you're curious I call the Marsh Summer Spritzer. It's 1 part Cranberry-Pomegranate, 1 part San Pellegrino and 1 part Shiraz (dry red wine) in that order. With a few ice cubes on top. The distinct difference in color is provided by the liquid and the order in which you mix them. Change it up and you just get a deep red color throughout the glass.

processed a ton of pictures...

from the last several weekends on the South shore of Long Island. ENJOY!

Processed a few from the hundreds I took

on Long Island over the last 2 weeks. Enjoy!

This is what it's all about...

A quiet beach. Sunshine and a cool breeze. Treasure (shells, pebbles...) and a kid happy to just live in the moment with her Daddy!

On the water again...

This time really out there. More pics to come after this weekend.

Another fantastic weekend at the shore...

Southern shore of Long Island to be specific. I was fortunate to have the munchkin with me and we/she got to see some cool animals in the wild; Osprey catching fish, giant snapping turtle, a pair of Swans and their cygnets.