a photography blog

Chess pieces and a home made lightbox

July 24th, 2008 Posted in Things, Equipment | No Comments »

I recently constructed a light box using foam board and a glue-gun. Nobody was harmed during construction, amazingly. For about $12, it works pretty good but I need to get one more thing…a piece of poster-board so that there is no seam that shows up in the background. In the below pics I was able to avoid it but I’d rather not worry about a dark line through the background.

Chess in a lightbox

Chess in a lightbox

Chess in a lightbox

Chess in a lightbox

Grandfather Mountain and Blowing Rock

June 16th, 2008 Posted in Places, Nature, Animals | 1 Comment »

I’ve been in North Carolina for over 11 years now and have made my first trips to Blowing Rock in the past few weeks. The first was to visit Tweetsie with the family. This time was to go to Grandfather Mountain and stay in Blowing Rock at a beautiful little resort called Chetola.

Here’s a gallery of a few of the photos I took while there. These were probably my two favorite:

Black Bear

Grandfather Mountain

Sigma 50mm 1.4 coming soon

June 9th, 2008 Posted in Equipment | No Comments »

According to Adorama and other sites, the new Sigma 50mm 1.4 is due out this month at a price tag of $499. That’s a bit steep as you can get the Nikon for less than $300…even if it doesn’t have AF-S.

My prediction: a bit faster focusing, but some issues with sample variation. Some good, some bad. The 30mm 1.4 is looked at in the same way. Nobody hates it but there are a few that love it. I just can’t see people flocking to buy the 50mm 1.4 at that price. Sure there are D40 and D60 owners that would love another prime that will auto-focus on their non-screwdrive cameras, but is someone that only paid $500-$600 for a camera the same for one lens? Probably not.

The litte guy visits Thomas

May 31st, 2008 Posted in Places | No Comments »

Any parent of a toddler knows about Thomas the Train. Our toddler reminds us of him every day. We had a chance to visit a life-size Thomas up in Boone at Tweetsie. With all the Thomas material, you would have sworn it was a Thomas the Train park.

Here are some pictures of the visit. Oh, and yes, he had a great time.

Newton Aycliffe UK pictures

May 25th, 2008 Posted in Places | No Comments »

I’ve been back for a while now but have been busy catching up with some stuff at work and around the house. The trip to the UK went well and I had some opportunities to take some photos while I was there. I didn’t get to travel much outside of where I was, but still, the place I stayed (the Redworth Hotel) provided some pretty good opportunities. Here is a gallery with the pictures.

Off to the UK

April 25th, 2008 Posted in Site News | No Comments »

I’ll be in the UK for work over the next 5 days. I’m taking the 28-70/2.8 and a friends 50/1.8 with me. I’m hoping to get to see Hadrian’s wall during the trip, but only if time permits.

I’ve been to France a few times. Other than a touch-and-go at Heathrow, this will be my first time in the UK. Should be interesting.

Spring has sprung

April 13th, 2008 Posted in Nature, Macro | 1 Comment »

It took a while, but spring is officially here. The dogwoods have bloomed along with the azaleas. I spent a few minutes outside with the 28-70/2.8 and an extension ring. The last shot in the gallery was without the extension ring though.

They turned out well for my first, more serious, outdoors macro attempt.