Photo365-20100226 – I Shouldn’t, But I Will, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
iPhone @ f/2.8
I snapped this picture tonight using my iPhone in a very dimly lit Italian restaurant. After indulging in some appetizers, a great main dish of white fish, and two bottles of wine (shared with my fiancee and two friends, of course), I topped the meal off with a scotch and a few bites of my fiancee’s dessert captured here. Maybe I should think about hitting the gym tomorrow to work some of it off!
Photo365-20100221 – No Better Dip, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/50 sec @ f/2.3, ISO 320, 7.4mm
I was in a rush tonight to get over to my friend’s house to watch the UFC fight from Saturday night on his DVR. I made some onion dip to bring over to the small gathering of guys. I have yet to find an onion dip which tastes better than plain old Campbell’s onion soup mix combined with sour cream.
Photo365-20100220 – Shaggy Mela, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/125 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 320, 12.1mm
I took a quick shot of our schnorkie dog, Mela, tonight. I need to find the stamina to push through the end of this project. I will prevail!
Photo365-20100217 – Abstract Photography, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/13 sec @ f/2.0, ISO 400, 5.1mm
This photograph is another shot from the balcony on my hotel room this week. The fogged glass partitions between the rooms on the shared balcony often create these intriguing abstract light art at night. I made sure to get nice and close with the Leica point and shoot so that the textures of the light and glass would show. I finished the picture with a panoramic-type crop and a slight boost to the colors during post processing.
Photo365-20100106 – Jim’s, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/4 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 400, 5.1 mm
Tonight I headed into Philadelphia with a few coworkers to do a cheesesteak challenge. The plan was to two hit up two cheesesteak joints in close proximity and eat a cheesesteak from each place in order to compare them. Luckily, I had someone willing to split a sandwich at each place with me. The two joints we went to were Jim’s Steaks and Ishkabibble’s.
Today’s photograph is of the steak we ordered at Jim’s Steaks. The Cheese Wiz is spread with a butter knife directly onto the bun before it is loaded with your meat and vegetables of choice. In this sandwich, we ordered onions and mushrooms. I have to be honest though, this steak was very dry compared to the one at Ishkabibble’s. And even though I have not had Pat’s or Gino’s in a few years, I am almost certain that a cheesesteak at either one of their establishments would be better than the two I sampled tonight.
The photograph is a no thrills snapshot. I did not want my sub-sharing partner to have to wait while I took tons of pictures of our rapidly cooling sandwich. I at least tried to spice up the picture with a couple of “creative” edits in post-processing.
Photo365-20100105 – Viva La CI Nation, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/20 sec @ f/2.0, ISO 400, 5.1 mm
My cigar-loving new boss asked if I wanted to take a ride with him tonight out to one of the best cigar warehouses that he knows. I jumped on the opportunity to spend some quality time with him to discuss work, career, and technology. The trip took us an hour and a half to reach Bethlehem, Pennsylvania from Mount Laurel, New Jersey. The store was quite impressive. From the outside, it certainly did not look like much. But the inside was a different story. I am not a regular cigar smoker, but I can imagine the feeling of coming to a store such as this one to a cigar-lover like my boss. He was like a kid on Christmas morning seeing all the presents and not knowing exactly where to start.
While my boss walked around the store trying to figure out what to buy, I circled taking pictures with the Leica point and shoot. Cigars International logo of a cigar-smoking, stubble-ridden smiley face caught my attention several places on the selves. However, it was the logo on the shrunken hand baskets that got my primary attention. With this photograph, I wanted to have the basket, with logo, as my subject. However, I wanted to include the environment these baskets were in. The endless selves of cigars in the background was my way of sharing the atmosphere.
Photo365-20091228 – Please, No More Needles, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/80 sec @ f/2.0, ISO 160, 5.1 mm
Leila had an appointment with the vet today. She was not pleased when her “sister”, Mela, did not get to come along for the car ride. Leila was even more unhappy with the three shots she received to bring her current on her vaccinations. You can see the displeasure in her eyes.
This shot was captured with the Leica D-Lux 4 point and shoot camera. For Christmas, I received a nice leather case with a shoulder strap for it. I have found it a lot easier to always be carrying a camera now. It was a breeze for me to whip out the camera for a few pictures while Leila and I were waiting inside the exam room for the doctor to see her.
When I took the photograph, I saw the distracting cat poster in the background. I thought that by using the smallest aperture possible, I could make the poster go out of focus. Unfortunately, it was not the case. Instead, I relied on a white vignette to bring the viewer’s attention back to the middle of the photo where Leila, my subject, is positioned.
Photo365-20091227 – Wasabi Merry-Go-Round, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/125 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 250, 12.8 mm
My fiancee and I were out and about today with a few missions in mind. One of them was to find the last few remaining presents we need for my family’s late Christamas celebration in a few weeks. The other mission was to find our wedding bands for our wedding coming up in September. We know the date is going to be here before we know it, so we are trying to take care of as many of the details as we can right now. We lucked out big time at Bailey, Banks, and Biddle. They are going out of business and we caught them with only nine days left to go. Almost all of their jewelry was discounted by sixty to seventy percent!
After checking off one of the two to-do items from our list, we decided to grab a bite to eat. As we were walking towards the end of the Tyson’s Corner mall where all the restaurants are located, we stumbled upon this fancy restaurant smack dab in the middle of all the stores. The restaurant is called Wasabi, “Modern Japenese Cuisine”. We did not eat at Wasabi today because both of us were in the mood for food that is more hardy then sushi. However, that did not stop me from whipping out the Leica point and shoot camera and grabbing some pictures from the second story of the mall and down below at restaurant level. We are looking forward to returning to the mall to try out Wasabi in the near future. When we do, I will update this post with a mini review.
Photo365-20091215 – Going Down, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/6 sec @ f/2.6, ISO 400, 10.2 mm
Tonight I had to work much later than I usually do. I decided to try and take care of the picture for today on my way out of the building. This picture did not look like much when it was first downloaded from the memory card and into Lightroom. However, with a little help from Topaz Adjust in Photoshop, I was able to liven it up a bit. The preset in Topaz Adjust that I used was called Spicify. After applying the preset, I teaked the settings a bit to try and bring out a bit more detail.
I do not think I have figured out how to get quality pictures with the Leica D-Lux 4 point and shoot. It seems that every picture that I take with it is noisy. I have the maximum ISO configured to be ISO 800. I am thinking that I may have to decrease the maximum ISO to 400. I am confused though. I thought the Leica was known for its high quality pictures in low light.
1/5 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 400, 5.1 mm
You may notice that the project blog layout looks a bit different starting today. I have recently switched over from using Squarespace.com as my hosting provider to running my own, fully customizable, WordPress installation on a shared server. The major reason for the change was to unlock the door for all kinds of plugins and limitless templates. The plugin I am most excited about is the Flickr comment importer. This plugin grabs any comments left on Flickr, where all my images are hosted, and posts them to the article here on the blog. Comments imported from Flickr are prefixed with “Flickr” to differentiate them from comments left here on the blog.
Now onto the photography. Today’s picture was a quick snap of our two dogs, Leila and Mela, laying together on the couch. I had to carefully get off the couch and grab the nearest camera, the Leica point and shoot, in order to capture this scene before they moved. In the picture, you can see that Leila is actually laying on Mela’s back and neck. My fiancee and I have never seen them do this before. In fact, Mela will usually move immediately when Leila starts to climb on her.
Because the picture came out noisy and out of focus around Leila’s face, I decided to process it heavily. I feel the black and white coloring, coupled with the heavy vignette around the edges, really draws the eye into the important part of the scene.
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....
