Fun with a fisheye

Been a while since I last posted, no excuses, other than work, kids, grad school and copious trips to here and there.
So I picked up the Nikon 10.5 2.8 Fisheye, and going to try and publish it as a slide show here:

Washington DC

So I took this little trip to Washington DC as the event photographer for work, and spent the first day there just walking around.  While I didn't get anything spectacular, and to be honest I was running on fumes from waking up that morning from a family camping trip and rushing to catch my flight. To top that, I don't have my glasses, so my ability to do any post, color correction, or just plainly see how sharp the photo's are, is a bit limited, so bare with me here.   I really can't share much of what I took for work (like you would care), I did manage to get off a few shots to play with my new toy (more on that in a minute).

As always DC, is just a ton of walking, way more walking than a fat thirty something should be expected to do in a afternoon after 7 hours of traveling.  None-the-less, since I was staying at the Washington court hotel, I was within a 5 minute walk of the Capitol building. The first shot and second of the Washington Monument here is with my new, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S.  I have to say this lens is SHARP!!! Let's just say, if you weren't paying attention, which I normally don't do, it's hard to take a bad shot.  While the Washington Monument here seems to be a bit of a hazy shot, I am not sure if it was my skills or air quality, turn around and you get a clear shot of the capital building.  I'm going with air quality!

Now with this lens, look in the lower left hand corner of the monument, (click on the image to make it larger), just above the tree line on the right, you will see this spec.  trust me, when I first say that, I was like great, I have something on my lens, filter, sensor, or worst yet a bad pixel. So I cropped in on the spec and to my amazement it was a kite.  Not that the fact was a kite was exciting, its the fact I could tell it was a kite when I zoomed in that much.  To me, that was the coolest thing.   Ok so there is some graininess to the image, but still.

Anyway, pretty cool city to take some photo's if you have the chance.  Here are a few more that I thought were ok to share.  Take care!

It's my capital duck!  

I always take photo's pf ducks as they are great subjects for those who aren't two quick on the draw. Getting one here in front of the Capital, was just a treat for me.  It's the little things.  

For those of you who are wondering.  If you have a shot that you like, and you just totally messed up the exposure and the sky is just totally whack.  Go B&W play with the Exposure and make it artistic... Yeah that's it.  

So many flowers and landscapes to photograph, just wish I wasn't so lazy.

Headshots II

Took me a while to get back up here.  It's amazing how long the post process takes to get done.  Heck just trying to pick the images you want to keep is time consuming in itself.  


I spent some time the other day going through what I thought I would want to work on, but took another approach to it this time.  Instead of working on a ton of photo's I wouldn't know if anyone would like I put together a page for each model and posted the ones I thought had potential.  From there I gave the link to the model and let them choose the ones that worked for them.  It was amazing how fast I got the feedback.  Problem is now, when do I have the time to actually work on them?  
For this shoot I actually got a new battery grip the Nikon MB-D80.  It's ok and certainly extends your battery life, especially if you are shooting something like a D90 or 80, which seem to have a great battery life already.  Getting used to shooting in portrait mode in a comfortable stance is a bit weird and seeming unnatural, but after a while you grow to enjoy the more comfortable way of shooting portrait.  

Anyway, I am going to post a few here that I only played with the levels and White balance, so no touch-up's here folks.  Pure unadulterated models giving it their all and one mediocre photographer posting for all to see.  


Not sure if I like the shadow's on this one.

This one, was set-up by the workshop guy and is kind of cool if you ask me. 

OK so maybe not technically all Head shots.

My next shoot is next weekend and is in DC, will definitely change the tone from this posting I am sure.  

Disney Take 2

In this post I am going to put a few of my shots from various other parks of Disney that really caught my eye. Like I said in my previous post you could be here days with some creativity and create some real cool pictures.  Unfortunately due to the circumstances of my visit I didn't have a lot of time to really play with shots, so most of these were a snap an go type shot.

As you can see they have this full mock up of Mt Everest. Really would have like to take more time getting that totally breathtaking shot, but I think this one turned out OK.

This one to the right here is no PS work, just played a bit with the levels to bring out highlights and darks.  Really turned out to be a very cool looking texture shot.  They basically dumped a ton of water on this truck, where the other part (you can't see) was on fire.

This one to the right and the next few images were actually taken with a Nikon Coolpix L18 which is not a great point and shoot, but for the money it takes ok pictures.

These are from there safari ride, which I have to say is quite amazing for a "ride" After getting on this, I really wished I took my DSLR and could get out for a while.  Really save some money on that Africa trip that every photographer wants to take.  Very life like because it is real, well as real as you can get for being central Florida.

Real animals in a real setting, truly a must see and take for a photog interested in this type of stuff.

OK off to another studio work shop, hopefully have some stuff by mid-week to share.

Have a good weekend!

Disney - Magic Kingdom

Recently went on a family trip to Disney and really caught a few pictures that I liked the way they turned out.  Let me tell you as a person who is really into photography you could go there and spend a week at the various parks by yourself and get some really breathtaking images.

First day we started at the famous Magic Kingdom.  While I didn't take a lot of photo's that are worth sharing during the day I certainly changed that tone later that night.

The castle there is just amazing and really can keep you busy trying to get the lighting right.  I shot this with a Nikon D90 on my tripod with a Tamron 28-75 f2.8 shooting at 28mm ISO 200 1/30 at f2.8.  Which I must say, for the money is a great lens.  You may have to go through a few copies to get one that is sharp, but when you do, you can't beat it. I run that lens nearly all of the time hardly switching to the others in my bag.

Anyway we went there to see the fireworks and it was quite a show for something they do twice a week I think.  Yes, make sure you plan your visits correctly so that you can catch this show.

 It's always tough for me to take fireworks just due to all of the varying lighting situations that happen during the show.

The next few were all pretty much the same settings sitting on top of my Manfrotto 190XPROB Tripod with a 322RC2  head (great set-up for Macro work by the way)

By the way they change the color of the castle throughout the show.  Pretty cool show all in all, if you get the chance would definitely recommend it .

By the end of the show it was pretty smoky and hard to see.  This was probably the last one where you can tell what I am photographing.

Headshots

Over the past few years I have been dabbling in photography and really enjoy it overall.  While I post on many sites like Model Mayhem and Flickr I wanted to start something that feature one or two of my favorite shots per post.  I have thousands I can choose from and well that's more appropriate for places like Flickr, this I figured I would take a stab at getting some up that I particularly like or looking for feedback on.

For my first posting I chose a head shot that just wowed me when I took it.  I liked this one in the viewfinder as well as in post.  What do you think?

This one here just killed me when I saw this tattoo.  I couldn't believe someone would have this on their body permanently, but then I don't blame her.  She has a pretty good assortment of ink all over but this just topped it.


Portraiture is kind of fun, and I find myself doing it a lot more often than other kinds lately.  Probably because it's so darn cold here in Chicago, so hopefully I will get out soon and do some more other types of work.  I have a portraiture shoot coming up in a week, so will post some more then, but my next post will probably feature some shots I got in Disney on a family trip.

If you are reading this, drop me a line on what types of photo's you like and don't like, I'd be interested in hearing.  Take care and have a great rest of the week.