A GREAT Photo of Adrian, Others

A GREAT Photo of Adrian, Others

11-29-2011
Well I haven't done a new post in quite sometime (nearly 2 months), I'm WAY overdue to show off some new photos.

This is a GREAT one I took of Adrian recently. We had been at a yard sale & I got this one "hillbilly-looking" hat, meanwhile my wife had dressed Adrian in some overalls. Now, I've often-times hated overalls on our kids, because of the difficulty in getting them off when needing to change diapers. But as our son now is potty-trained, it's not an issue, so overalls can be cute for me as well.

Anyway, my wife had put these overalls on him, and I put that hat on him, and it was SO cute, and so naturally I took some photos. I managed to come up with this absolute WINNER of a shot. (Used the "beater" Nikon D5000, 50mm 1.8 G, RAW, 1/400 second f/2.5, processed with the {Oh So Posh} presets in LR3, I forget which one):

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Now you tell ME that isn't just the cutest, most adorable thing you've ever seen? That absolutely belongs on our wall as an 11x14 or maybe even a 16x20.

New Landscapes

For a short while, I experimented with a "micro 4/3rds" camera, a new-emerging type of camera which gives you quality images in a small package. The idea was its smaller size would mean I would ALWAYS have something with me, but not something like a camera phone, and thus get more images--especially of landscapes, or of children as well. In the end, I sold it because of struggles I had in using it for children shots--a shame, as it did well for me in landscape shots. It is the PERFECT sort of thing to have for always having something with you that nonetheless does well on top of not being as bulky as the SLRs we always use. I don't doubt I will try one of these again when I'm more ready for it--for now, I still have to lug the d-SLRs everywhere.

Here are some shots I got with it:

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I was able to get SOME of the shots I took of children to come out well. Here are some which did, featuring our niece Madison:

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More Recent

Our nephew Dylan (age 5½), is very photogenic as well. All 3 of them, actually, stayed overnight with us Fri-Sat (Nov 25-26 2011) and did well sleeping in their own room the ENTIRE night (an absolute CARDINAL rule around here--kids sleep in their OWN room, PERIOD). The next day, we went exploring in the woods & got all muddy (and we also broke glass in "The Pit," ha ha). Once we returned them, Dylan climbed onto this pile of brush in gran-gran's backyard and posed for photos, I got this nice one:

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Here is a cute one of Adrian taken Sunday before church:

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Helen is less cooperative with photos, enough that she has even been disciplined for it, but I did get this one of her wearing a new nice outfit my mother bought for her:

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We were at WalMart's and my wife had them sit in Santa's lap. They took a free 5x7 photo which we still haven't claimed. I took one myself with my own camera:

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And then these last 2 while we had the spot to ourselves during a lull in the activities:

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New Shot of Adrian From Sunday

Yesterday, 10-02-2011, was Fenton Isaac Harrison's 10th birthday. (He's our 1st born son we are not able to see, haven't in 8 years when I'm writing this.) However, we made a positive day of it, enjoying our 2 children we have, and I got some good shots of Adrian in it. Again I used the "good" Nikon D5000 in RAW mode, Zeikos portrait grip, and 50mm 1.8 G lens.

Here is (arguably) the best one:

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I edited it in Adobe Lightroom 3 again, this time I used the "moonlight lighten" preset, then in Adobe Photoshop CS used the "healing brush" to touch up small facial blemishes, then applied unsharp mask for sharpening.

What a cutie! This could be an 11x14 easily. And man, the way I'm cranking these winners out, it's almost TOO easy (ha ha).

New Shots Using New Software & Lens

Since I received the 50mm 1.8 G lens and the portrait grip (from the D5000 upgrade) last week & since I more recently added Adobe Lightroom 3 software to my computer recently (at a HUGE discount), I've been eager to really get to rolling with my new tools of the trade. Today, I did so.

Using the "fine China" D5000, 50mm G lens and the portrait grip, I got some good shots of Adrian this morning, and I got some "presets" for Lightroom for "jazzing up" portrait shots but without them looking "gimmicky" in doing so. I also went back to shots of my nieces-nephews taken in July (taken with the "beater" D3000 at the time) and have been re-working them a bit. I've REALLY been at it the past 12-18 hours or so.

Here is a shot of our niece Madison from 07-16-2011, jazzed up with the "Love Couture" preset:

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A shot of Adrian taken today (09-30-2011) (also Love Couture preset):

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Another shot of Adrian taken today (Love Couture "light-up" preset):

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I like them quite a bit. I really like what the new tools are allowing me to do, and look forward SO much to really taking off with these extras.

Unexpected Killer Shot From Aug 13th 2011

As with the fog shot shown earlier, this is an example of why I always take a camera with me almost everywhere I go, and a GOOD one (for us, it has to be an SLR).

This was something that happened August 13th 2011 when we were visiting Lindale Cliffs, a newly-discovered (by my brother-in-law) spring-fed swimming-diving place in Lindale, about 40 minutes from where we live. I took my "carry everywhere" Nikon D3000 with me, figuring to just simply take "silly snapshots" of our fun times there.

Near the very end, this appeared, making me delighted that I now always carry an SLR with me, even on such "everyday" occasions, as only an SLR could do justice to this sort of shot. I was on the "flat-end" (a beach-like access point) of the "higher cliffs" looking across where my brother-in-law was doing his jumping antics. We were packing to leave after having been there 3-odd hours or so, and taking any more photos of anything was the LAST thing on my mind. But when I saw this, I paused, un-packed my camera, and snapped several attempts. Here is the best one:

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The sky really was that color, I did very little retouching to this photograph.

This was nice for me, as I consider landscape shots my main forte in photo taking, but I haven't done as much of it in the past year or so. Also I didn't go there expecting anything like this, and thankfully did have a camera--a nice one (the D3000)--with me to capture it. I have driven raves for this photograph, it's one of my best landscape shots in sometime. So glad it appeared, and I was armed/ready for it when it did.
 

Adrian: Shots with (New) D5000 & 50mm 1.8 G

This week I underwent some equipment changes/additions. First, on Wednesday, my "carry everywhere/beater" Nikon D3000 was sold & replaced with another Nikon D5000, one with more usage & some body imperfections not present on the "fine China" one. So now I have two D5000`s--one that's sort of a "beater" that my wife & I carry everywhere, and the one in totally mint condition which I've had for sometime and only I use, for more serious occasions.

Today, though, the biggie--my Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF-S G lens arrived (link). This is a lens which I've owned before, in older incarnations. This is the latest one, unlike the older ones it works fully properly with my D5000 (the other versions would require manual focusing with it). This lens was just announced about 3 months ago--I've been waiting for such a lens for sometime, and was glad to get one.

It's a lens that is ideal for portraits, among other reasons because you can make a really blurry background to make your subject stand out. I don't see the wife using it, since it has no zoom at all, but me--I'm apt to be using the snot out of this thing.

So today I tried the combo out, and got these 2 cute snaps of Adrian. Notice the very very blurry background--that was deliberate, and is a hallmark of what this lens can do. It is capable of outstanding results, and these 2 shots are sort of a "dry run" at that, practice shots if you will.

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I'm REALLY looking forward to getting down with this lens--with the right opportunities & the right application of techniques on my part, it can produce some outstanding portraits. More to come--these 2 were just sort of a "dry run" more practice-type of shots. Much better ones are very much possible, and I look forward to sharing them.

Lake Hawkins Outing

My first post done in true "timeline" fashion, done as life happens. (The others have been "looking back" or "catching up" type of posts.)

Summer is winding down, and while I'm glad to be leaving the 100's behind from what was a TERRIBLY hot year, I still hate for summer to end. The #1 reason--the end of swimming season. Thus, even more than normal, come September, I try & cram in lake visits as much as I can while I still can.

Today we went to Lake Hawkins with Dylan & Madison, 2 of our 3 nieces-nephews whom live nearby. Part of my adventure: these teenagers who saw me jumping off the plastic floating gate they have which outlines the swimming area, they came over & started jumping too, and laughing at my antics. Besides that, though, the kids & we had a blast.

Prior to that, as usual, we went to a few garage sales. At the first one, Adrian was sitting in the rocking chair on the porch and made a cute pose. I ran to the car & got the "beater" Nikon D3000 we almost always carry with us, and grabbed this adorable shot (I retouched it slightly):

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Some family-friends close to me on occasion get irritated at me always having the camera with me & whipping it out all the time, but phooey on them--this spontaneous shot shows you why I do this. I think that shot is just adorable, & I find that such shots like this tend to happen "in the flow of life," not at a specific time-place when you're trying necessarily, and I just grab them as I see them. (We tried to get good shots of him & Helen in the same chair, but none of those shots were any good in my opinion.)

Back to Lake Hawkins: none of the photos from that were anywhere near as good as that one, just "everyday snaps" that look like any old body took them, but oh well. Here they are:

Here is a view of the lake overall (the yellow thingies are what designates the swimming area, people like to use them as jumping platforms too, although they are VERY wobbly):

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Not sure whose kid this is, but I saw him jaunting along the shoreline having fun, & I thought it was a cute shot:

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Another view of the lake:

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Adrian in water over his head

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Our nephew, Dylan 

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Adrian

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Adrian again

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Some kid jumping off the plastic floatie thingies used to mark off the swimming area (near where I & the teens were doing the same thing)

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Lastly, one more of Adrian

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A final note for those who care (probably only me, ha ha): I made a deal to upgrade the "beater" D3000 we always have with us, got a D5000, the same model as the "fine China" one reserved for me. It was low-priced and a little bit in "beater" shape itself (the LCD has some scratches and it has higher "mileage"--that is, shutter clicks, than the "fine China" one) so it slides into the "beater" role itself very well. Hopefully I won't be jittery about it being used that way since it is the same camera as my "fine China" one exactly, just not in as "mint" condition. (The D3000 was slightly older technology & also slightly fewer features.)

So, nice knowing you D3000, you have really served us well.

More Shots of Kids

Right now, in case you can't tell, many of the posts are "catching up" posts--that is, me going back & posting articles about photographs which I've taken sometime back. This is only because I just created this blog after a LONG time of taking MANY photographs. Eventually, it will be mostly about new entries of the day, a more "current events" type of thing.

For now, more catching up.

Here are 3 photographs of the kids taken earlier this year (2011).

I had just upgraded my Nikon D60 to a D3000 (link) so that I'd still have 11 autofocus points when using my "beater" camera. Adrian is cute riding his tricycle he got for his birthday 2 weeks earlier, but boy does he need a haircut in the WORST way!

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One of Helen on the same day:

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And one of Adrian a couple of months later, May 2011. He is starting to "blow raspberries" on command, ha ha (as you can tell):

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As I like to call them: "my cute little turds," ha ha.