Photo365-20100129 – Thanks To A Tip, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/320 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 100, 50mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)
I received a text message from a friend this morning suggesting that I take a look outside for a picture opportunity. Sure enough, when I peaked out the front door, I saw a beautifully lit sky. I grabbed the camera from inside and spent about five minutes shooting the sky in my pajamas. I love the color in this photograph, especially against the silhouetted houses.
Photo365-20100126 – A Lucky Lunch, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/3200 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 400, 185 mm (EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM)
I was on my way to Wegmans today to pick up some lunch to bring back to work when I spotted this hawk in a tree fifteen yards off the parking lot. Luckily I still had the DSLR in the trunk of my car, usually I bring it into work and lock it up during the day. I quickly parked the car and got to work getting my 70-200mm lens and flash put onto my camera. By the time I was ready to start shooting the hawk, she had flown about fifty yards away into another tree. I made the small trek and started shooting picture after picture when I could fill the frame with my new friend. I set the flash in a way to provide me a bit of catch light in the hawk’s eyes. Doing this gave life to the bird, without it, the hawk may have looked fake.
I spent about fifteen minutes taking different shots using both the wide-side, 70mm, and long-side, 200mm, focal lengths. In the process, I walked a complete circle around the tree where my friend stayed perched during the shoot. At one point I was about fifteen yards away from the the tree. The hawk did not seem to mind my presence and constant flashing. In fact, she was even kind enough to try several different head positions for me.
Photo365-20100123 – The Circle of Life, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/400 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 100, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)
Today I took a photo walk on one of the many trails Leesburg has to offer. This particular trail ran along Goose Creek all the way out to the Potomac river. I did not quite make it that far this afternoon, but I did have a nice hike. Towards the apex of my of walk, I found this downed tree covered in mold. The way the sun was hitting the log at a long angle made for some intriguing light.
I used another Matt Kloskowski Lightroom plugin in post-processing. The preset is called Matt’s Wedding Fantasy and can be found on Matt’s Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips blog.
Photo365-20100119 – Fairwell Flowers, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/250 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)
My fiancee was given some flowers on her last day of work by one of her coworkers. I decided to put the flowers in front of the portrait backdrop and snap some shots with the softbox and reflector. I am really impressed with how the shots came out. This photograph, in particular, has some great tones and sharp details. The purple flowers and the yellow rose are my favorite parts of the photograph. The gray background does appear in frame as it was off to camera right at this angle.
Photo365-20100111 – Present Plant, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/30 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 800, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)
My brother gave my us a bulb kit as one of our presents for Christmas. He told us to get it planted as soon as possible. I heeded his advice and planted it this afternoon. I figured I would take a picture of it to show a before and after. If it grows like he said it would, it will not be long before I post a picture with a towering stalk coming out of the bulb.
Can you spot something a little bit off in the photograph?
Photo365-20091220 – Time to Dig Out, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/500 sec @ f/7.1, ISO 100, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)
This was the scene in our neighborhood the day after the big snow storm hit us. The sun was out and the skies were clear creating a beautiful scene that I wanted to try and capture with my camera. Sure, the fence in the bottom of the picture is not ideal, but I was not yet ready to venture out of the house more than a few feet.
There was no “magic” photograph needed to create this image. I applied a slight crop to remove some of the unimportant details on the left and right side. Unlike most of my snow photographs from yesterday, the 7D got the white balance spot on for this scene. The majority of my time was spent tagging and titling the picture in Lightroom.
Photo365-20091219 – Winter Wonderland, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
0.6 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800, 18 mm (EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS)
This was the view tonight out our front door in Leesburg, VA. We got hit with the “Storm of the Century” today. By my last measurement, we had about sixteen inches on the ground. Believe it or not, this is the view of our street after the plows came by twice earlier in the day. It is going to be a lot of fun digging out of this tomorrow!
I used my tripod to take this “long” exposure. I wanted to avoid using an ISO higher than 800 so that I did not have a lot of noise in the picture. All the white snow caused havoc on the 7D’s white balance sensor. I would not say that the 7D auto white balanced turned all the snow gray like many professionals say a DSLR will. Instead, it turned the picture yellowish. This was quickly fixed in Lightroom using the eyedropper white balance tool. I used the mail boxes on the middle left of the frame as my gray point for the tool.
Easy and flexible white balance adjustments are just two more of the many reasons to always shoot in the RAW format on your DSLR. Sure, there is an extra step of converting the RAW format to a JPG to be shared, but it gives you so much more flexibility in post-processing. Many photos that I have shot would have been trash if I had shot them exclusively in JPG format.
1/250 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 1600, 200 mm (EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM)
I found these “guys” hanging around under our deck today. Just like yesterday’s photograph, I had to crop the image pretty heavily in order to remove some distractions. I left the camera on Auto ISO mode when I was shooting and the 7D chose an ISO of 1600. This is much higher than I normally choose for myself when outside in the middle of the day. I would have rather been at ISO 800 with a shutter speed of 1/125 sec to limit the amount of digital noise. Next time I will have to pay more attention to what ISO the camera is choosing for me. Or better yet, lock in my own ISO setting.
A self-proclaimed tech-geek, I enjoy anything powered by batteries or electricity. I'm not happy until I understand the full potential of any new gadget I get my hands on....
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