Archive for photography

Stella Updated

July 22, 2008 planet3rry 4 comments

After cleaning up the carcass of the lens filter, I think that Stella is okay. I can see something in the view finder, but it does not come up on the pictures. I’ve tested most of her features and she seems to be okay. It’s just that right now, she is lens naked and so I better get my lens covers (from Amazon) before we leave for Dallas next week or I will have to shell out an emergency $20 to get a cover for the lens.

I had wanted to have a new all-purpose lens for her this trip to Dallas, but not this year… however, I probably will still be the unoffical photographer for our National Area again. This year was supposed to be the lens and next year was supposed to be the SpeedLite.

Well, at least Stella is okay.

Life In General, photography ,

Stella, STELLLLLAAAA

July 21, 2008 planet3rry 8 comments

See what My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Father did to Stella last week?

stella go boom

On a side note: Do you like my Mouse Pad?

photography

Rolling

July 12, 2008 planet3rry 3 comments

It may not be much, but Stella just rolled her counter back to 0001 on the continous setting. That means in the 1.5 years that I have had her, I have taken over 10,000 pictures… let’s not try to count which ones are decent.

photography

Some Promises

May 21, 2008 planet3rry 4 comments

Here are a few things that I promised that I would blog about:

Picture of the Snake:

Snake

(okay, maybe I didn’t promise that one)

My Trip to Utah was very productive, I was there at the Investools Site for an interactive Stocks and Options 3 Day Workshop. It was a really intensive but educational workshop. We did some live example, plus went over some very important things such as money management and trader psychology. I found that I didn’t quite have my Trading Rules as set as I wanted, I was managing my Risk very well nor position sizing… and I had a bad horrible April to show for it. Now that I am back, I back on track. I have my confidence back and have been profitable since returning home. I created a blog for my trading that I plan to try to update that once a day, either in the morning or late at night… I doubt that I will have readers for some time, but that blog is more of a journal rather than a soap box/media tool. It’s at zsgtrading.wordpress.com.

I also thought that I did fairly well in the class as a participant. I knew the core of the material and actually volunteered in class. It did take me a day and a half to approach the instructors on a one-on-one basis, but I was monitoring my actions and trying to catch myself being Aspergian… I did fall into a routine for dinner though, instead of asking the very eager and social Shuttle Driver to take me somewhere, I ate at the Ruby Tuesday adjacent to the parking lot each night. Now, it was pretty dead when I went but I did try to sit at different places at the bar, just to mix things up.

Here are the pictures from Utah.

I am going to do some post production on a few of the pictures and send them to my Flickr site.

photography

Christmas Photo Safari

March 12, 2008 planet3rry 3 comments

The rest of the story…

as part of our Christmas visit last year, I asked my Brother in Law if his daughter (my neice) would be privvy to hanging out and going on a photo safari with me. Now, I had delusions of going to cool country places such as dilapidated barns and broken farm vehicles or even some people shots. Despite not getting to go to these places, we did get to go around the In-Laws house which provided a great amount of subjects to photograph.

I have her the choice of using the 35mm camera which was much older (although same century and decade) than she OR, she could use Stella my sleek Canon XT digital SLR. Of course, the hip chick choose Stella (wouldn’t you?) and so she burned through 200+ pictures in about an hour or so. In our most recent trip to SC, I asked her if I had permission to post her pictures. She’s very good and has “The Eye” for pictures.

So you can see the Hip and Trendy Niece’s Pictures as well as mine in the Web Albums below. I don’t think she reads my blog, but I know she’ll get word if you leave any comments. I’m now in the works on how to get a decent DSLR into her hands… whether she uses the talent as a monetary gain or not… she has the talent and the sooner you can start the better.

Hip and Trendy Neice’s Pictures (221) using Canon XT 18-55mm lens

My pictures (49) using Canon AV-1 with 50mm lens and 70-210mm lens

I do have a few more pictures inside the AV-1, but I need to finish the film and have them developed. If I waited on this post until then, it would be Christmas.

photography , ,

Some Pictures

March 6, 2008 planet3rry 3 comments

This the view from the top of my subdivision. The subdivision is 20 years old, but one of the last lots was cleared out recently at the top of the hill. I wanted to get some pictures from the pinnacle before they start building. The day that I took these, it was clearer than normal, so you could see the mountains in the background. My next goal is to get some sunrises over the mountains before construction. Any thoughts on how to make the pictures a little more vibrant. I can always potatoshop them post production, but my equipment is bottom of the barrell (i.e. kit equipment)

This was another OHH-OHH moments. Had to run and get Stella. This is an early morning shot of the crescent moon. I didn’t do too bad without the tripod…

photography ,

South Carolina Trash

February 26, 2008 planet3rry 5 comments

Trash

Found on the Downtown Street of Loris, South Carolina.

photography ,

I always feel like

December 20, 2007 planet3rry 3 comments

Somebody’s watching me and I have no privacy…

Cats

And I don’t feel safe anymore
Oh, what a mess
I wonder who’s watching me now
(Who)
The [Kitty Cats]

Cats

I have Stella with me and took a couple of pictures of the wild cats that the guy next door feeds. They now don’t run off when you walk past them, but they are very cautious.

photography ,

Astrophotography

December 6, 2007 planet3rry 7 comments

When I just getting my Science Geek on in Elementary school, I became interested in Space. It could have been the fact that I insisted on being called Luke for quite a while after Star Wars came out or that I wanted to become an astronaut (still do). The Christmas of 1985 (i’m pretty sure), my love of all things extraterrestial and Christmas came together as I got a telescope for Christmas. It’s a Jason brand Reflector telescope and I have it in my workshop… somewhere. One of the accessories that you could purchase was a camera adaptor, such that you could take pictures of what you saw in the telescope. And with that telescope and even in the light polluted sky of Petersburg, I was able to see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. I could also see the surface of the moon with some clarity. I made out the 4 large moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn were also at a great angle. Once I was in college, the telescope was put away and my attention was diverted by things like classes, beer, women, more beer and more women. I did stay in the science field as my bachelors degree is in Physics with a Mathematics minor… damn, my “cool” factor just went down 10 points.

Now, I have tried to take pictures with my Canon AV-1 (35mm), since it has a larger lens. I tried to take a picture of Mars when it was closest to the Earth a few years back, but I just was not able to get a good, focused shot of it.

This morning, when leaving to take The Elder to school and me to work, the moon looked awesome on the predawn sky and I noticed a planet hanging out directly above it. STELLLLLLAAAAA!!!! I went and grabbed my camera and took a few shots.


Moon
(give the pic-y clickie to make biggie ~1MB)

You notice the crescent moon in the tree limbs, if you look directly above the moon, you a dot. This is the planet Venus. You can click on the picture to see the picture in large format. You can scroll around to see the Moon and Venus. This would be my first clear astrophotograph. Now, I don’t think that I’ll be on APOD anytime soon, but you never know (and Knowing is Half the Battle)

photography ,

Random Wednesday

December 5, 2007 planet3rry 6 comments

I think that my lack of wanting to run this week has been directly proportional to the wind we have had here. Seems that even though it was cold on Tuesday (36F), that because there was no wind, I had an easy 3 miler. However, both Monday and Today (Wednesday) have been moderately windy and thus when I have thought about running, I’ve opted for my desk. Today, I should have gone to the indoor pool, but I have to chalk that one up to sheer laziness.

I’ve been pondering about what running events that I want to participate in during 2008. I think that I may focus on my shorter races and triathlons with just one marathon. I think I can create a schedule that will will catapult me through the year building on the different events. I’m sure once that I map it out on a calendar it will make more sense that in my brain.

More reasons why I just need to relax during December besides the normal downtime/ cyclic depression is that I will be have a minor medical procedure next Thursday that will keep me down and out for 2 days. It’ll be a nice day to play hooky from work but I won’t be able to much of anything.

Also, I want to (and need to) give blood this month before the new year so that I can maintain my Super Donor status. Given the fact that for about 7 days after giving blood, my speed running sucks and I’m having this medical excursion, that I will give blood on the 27th or 28th. This way, I can be fully recovered for Calhoun’s 10 miler at the end of January

*****

I have not done any of my Christmas Baking yet. So, I need to get on the ball with that. Oh, I found out the there is Hazelnut Milk… I didn’t know they had udders either. My Truffle recipe calls for heavy cream, so I am not sure that I can get the same effect with just a “regular” milk consistency.

*****

I took a few shots when I was in Maryville for the Reindeer Run. Here is the slideshow and link to the picture album.

 

Life In General, photography , ,
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