exposing life

Chess pieces and a home made lightbox

Dave — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:07:12 +0000

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.

Grandfather Mountain and Blowing Rock

Dave — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 02:55:34 +0000

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:

Sigma 50mm 1.4 coming soon

Dave — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:07:33 +0000

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

Dave — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:51:16 +0000

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

Dave — Mon, 26 May 2008 00:54:22 +0000

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

Dave — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:56:16 +0000

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

Dave — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:38:05 +0000

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.

Strobing and the little one

Dave — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:38:10 +0000

Well, the little guy was busy watching Go Diego Go so I took the liberty of using him as a subject for some strobing. I placed the SB-600 on the ground (camera right) about 6 feet away to balance out the sunlight coming from the windows left. I angled it at about 45 degrees to get some bounce off the ceiling to fill in the top of his hair. I thought it turned out good and looked even better in B&W.

Adobe Lightroom 2.0 Beta

Dave — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:50:33 +0000

Adobe has released a beta version of Lightroom - version 2.0. There’s a decent video over at Scott Kelby’s site that details the new features. You’re better off learning from him than listening to me talk about them.

The best “new” feature will be the addition of a dodge and burn to the development panel. Very cool. I’m sure there will be some other nice features but that one was the first that jumped out at me.

More to come. This doesn’t look like it will hit shelves until the fall so there’s a lot of time for Adobe to add even more cool features.

Another attempt at strobing

Dave — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:37:53 +0000

This one had a bit more thought and a better execution. Still, it’s not perfect but I’m starting to think more like a strobist. I had the poor guy sit for a bit in an area where the window filled light from the left. I placed the SB-600 on the floor and shot into his right side to fill some of the shadows. At first the light was a bit strong, but it’s easy enough to just bump the power down a bit through the camera.