It's Been a While

Yes, it has been a while since I posted here. That isn't to say I haven't been snapping anything, because I definitely have been taking pictures. It's just that I started to lose sight of the value of keeping a blog after I decided to check out Flickr.com. Flickr.com is a great site and offers a lot of cool features, but a blog is better for telling a story. I've also been busy as hell trying to balance the therapy business along with an anatomy and photography class. Both classes demand a great deal of time outside the classroom - anatomy due to the amount of information that needs to be processed and photography due to the work required with the camera.

In the time since my last post, I had to purchase a new scanner to scan some prints from our cruise this past summer. The scanner (Epson Perfection 4490 Photo) comes with a negative scanner. After figuring out how to use it, I found myself scanning every negative in our possession over the decade spanning my marriage up until our first digital camera purchase. So far I have scanned over 900 negatives and still have a whole lot to do. I have found some gems in there... more than likely taken by my wife, however, as before I really didn't like handling the camera (funny how things change). The other power of this is it gives me a chance to preview my class negatives so I can decide which ones to try and print without having to print a contact sheet. I have to do a contact sheet for each roll anyway as part of the course requirements, but if I continue to shoot film, I will save time and money in paper and chemicals since I won't have to create one.

So far, that pretty much sums things up in a nutshell. At this point I'll go ahead and show some pictures I have taken over the past month or so. I've decided to leave off the information on the digital pics as it takes up more room than necessary. If you want the information, you can email me for it. As for the film pics, I don't record the information, so I really have no idea. Some of the pictures are cut off due to layout limitations. You can view the whole picture in Flickr by clicking on the picture itself.

First, the film pics:








And the digital pictures:






Any comments are welcome as the feedback helps me grow. Enjoy.

South Carolina Part III

Nothing like home on a Saturday night...

I went through some more of my South Carolina pictures. As I go through them I'm finding the disappointments as well as the gems. In all of these I only had to adjust for color correctness... the exposures were good from the get go (I hope I'm getting better at this). I did find that one of my lenses is in need of a serious cleaning. Well, hopefully it's the lens and not the sensor. I don't want to pay to have the sensor cleaned and I don't have the confidence or tools to do it myself. What to do, what to do... anyway, enjoy!


Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 17mm

This is an alley just off main street in Greenville, SC. The US Bicycle festival was happening on a blocked off section of Main Street at the Greenville Hyatt Regency. I took this one just cuz I was bored walking toward the street. I liked this one because of the contrasting colors as well as the detail.


Aperture: f/32
Shutter Speed: 1/6
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 35mm

This was taken from an observation point at Caesar's Head State Park in South Carolina. We were pretty high up in the hills at this point and at the top of this particular hill. The view was definitely breathtaking. The downside to this was that it was cloudy that day. This is one of the few pictures from that observation point that came out good because the sun was able to peek through the cloud for a short time. I know the trees in the lower right distract from whole picture, I left them in because it gives a good perspective as to how high up I was when taking this picture.


Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/1000
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 50mm

Taken at Cowpens Battlefield National Park in South Carolina. I took this one just for the sake of taking a picture. Even though there isn't much going on here, the detail captured in the trees helps bring out the natural contrasts. That makes a great contrast against the relative evenness of the sky (at least I think so).


Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/2000
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 17mm

Taken at Cowpens Battlefield National Park in South Carolina. This is another shot of the monument in front of the Visitor's Center. In the photo are my wife and her sister. What makes it for me is that this shows 2 non-Americans appreciating an important piece of the history of our nation. They both showed great interest in it, and that seems to be lacking in a lot of Americans who have had families here for more than 2 generations.

Cruisin'

I'm still going through all of my South Carolina pictures. It's taking a while due to the fact that not only am I taking a photography course, but also I have a day job and an taking an anatomy course (which itself takes a lot of time outside the classroom). So today I decided to post some pictures from my cruise last July. Some of these were taken with my DSLR, others taken with my point and shoot. I will label each picture with the camera used along with the other information. Most of these were fixed in Aperture, mostly for exposure and color issues (I do get lucky every once in a while with a shot). I deleted the project, so I don't know the details of what I did to fix them. That's not a bad thing, though, now you can just enjoy them.


Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi
Aperture: f/10
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO100 with -1.0ev
Focal Length: 59mm


Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi
Aperture: f/25
Shutter Speed: 1/50
ISO100 with -1.0ev
Focal Length: 24mm


Camera: Olympus Stylus 770SW
Aperture: f/3.5
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO80 with 0ev
Focal Length: 7mm

The top picture is Montego Bay, Jamaica. The 2nd picture is the Jamaican countryside as seen from the deck of the Carnival Conquest. The third picture was taken on our shore excursion (helmet diving) by the guide using my Olympus. One of the great things about that Olympus is the fact that it is waterproof to 33 feet as well as weather proof, which is a great thing for shooting cloud formations.


Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi
Aperture: f/10
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO100 with -1.0ev
Focal Length: 21mm


Camera: Olypmus Stylus 770SW
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO80 with 0ev
Focal Length: 7mm

Taken at Grand Cayman Island. The top picture is where we entered the country. We had to anchor offshore and take a tender into the country as the water is too shallow for the cruise ships. That picture does it for me as it shows thunderstorm remnants in the distance (the anvil top from the cumulonimbus hasn't fully dissipated; neither has the altocumulus). The storm was well off the island. The second picture shows a stingray swimming by. We were on a sandbar (ocean water waist deep!!) feeding the stingrays.


Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi
Aperture: f/13
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO100 with 0ev
Focal Length: 72mm


Camera: Olympus Stylus 770SW
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO80 with 0ev
Focal Length: 7mm

The top picture shows the port of Cozumel, Mexico. What struck me about this port was how colorful the buildings are in appearance. It's definitely a nice departure from Galveston, TX, where the cruise ship moves past all the cargo terminals. Oh, and the blue water doesn't hurt either. The second picture is my idea of Heaven on Earth - Isla Pasion. This is where the Corona commercials are shot. I didn't want to leave.


Aperture: f/5
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO400 with -2.oev
Focal Length: 18mm


Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO800 with -2.oev
Focal Length: 18mm

Both of these were taken with the Canon DSLR. The top picture is the ceiling just below the vertical portion of the cathedral ceiling in front of the elevator bank in the ship's main lobby. The ship's architect said in an interview that his inspiration for the Carnival Conquest was the art and artists of the Impressionist Era. You can definitely see that here with the reproductions of various paintings all in a collage. The collage spreads all the way up the vertical portions up to the 8th deck where it becomes balcony. The second picture is a shot of the main lobby itself. The top floor (deck 5) held retail shops, casinos, lounges, and clubs... the middle floor (deck 4) held the photo area (photos taken by Carnival for sale) along with the main dining rooms, and the lowest floor (deck 3) held the lounge in the main lobby as well as some other lounges off to the side.

I hope you enjoyed these. I have almost 400 pictures from the cruise between the 2 cameras, but these are among my favorites. I invite and comment and criticisms.