Day #105 - I See You

Today I played with my camera during soccer practice. As a continuation of my Filter project, I found a filter that has little cut out shapes you put over the lens. Some are heart shapes, some are key-holes and a few are binocular shaped. I decided to play with the binocular shaped one today. After a few boring shots I noticed that it was getting dark and I needed more exposure time. I decided it would be fun to do the "long-exposure-twist-the-zoom-lens" trick. I didn't know I caught a soccer ball in the right corner. I think it was not moving but the trick applied makes it look like it's moving. I thought it was a fun shot.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 55mm, f22, 0.7sec., no flash. Cokin Binocular Cut Out Filter used.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always) a little, and adjusted Brightness (a lot to the negative side) and Contrast (a lot to the positive side). Desaturated a bit.

Tunes listened to while editing: Webb Wilder - Doo Dad. Tracks 2 - 8. Good ol' rockabilly/rock n' roll.

Day #104 - Seeing Green

The Filter for the day is the "Green Spot" filter. Talk about a hard filter to find a use for. This effect can of course be done in PhotoShop, but I rarely (never) use the color green for it. This was kind of a lackluster shot, but it some small way it is growing on me.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 24mm, f4.0, 1/45 sec., flash aimed at ceiling. Cokin Cokin Green Spot Filter used.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always) a little, and adjusted Brightness (a lot to the negative side) and Contrast (a lot to the positive side). Cropped a little bit.

Tunes listened to while editing: Snow Patrol - Open Eyes. The first 5 songs. I wonder if their new album is any good. Anyone know?

Day #103 - Super Star

I decided to start my filter project with the "8 Point Star" Filter. I used my prime 50mm lens and lit some candles to use as the light source. I like how this turned out. I was going for something really subtle and think I pulled it off.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 400, 50mm, f2.0, 1/125 sec., no flash, tripod used. Cokin 8 Point Star Filter used.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always) a little, and adjusted Brightness/Contrast. I decided I liked this better as a sepia tone image so I applied that filter in PS.

Tunes listened to while editing: Weezer - The Red Album. The first 6 songs. Just felt like some Weezer today, what can I say?

Day #102 - Cameron and Chewey Post Op

Today our little dog Chewey had a little procedure done. As Gary Larsen from the Far Side once said in a cartoon of his, "Chewey went to the vet to get tutored". The ol' Snip and Clip!

Anyway, as a result he has to wear the cone which of course meant a picture. Cameron has been trying to be really gentle with him and it's cute to see him that way.

I know I planned to do the filter project starting today, but I just had to get this shot first.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 400, 130mm, f11, 1/90 sec., flash on Stroboframe, aimed straight at the subject (I tried to bounce off the ceiling but I was too far away).

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always) a little, and adjusted Brightness/Contrast. I then used the Golden Eye technique (on both Cameron and Chewey). I think I'm starting to get this little trick down.

Tunes listened to while editing: Eric Hurst - Goodbye, Welcome, Thank You. The first 6 songs. Track #6 (Kathleen) is really cool. I remember getting to see my buddy Donovan playing at Davey's Uptown with Eric Hurst years ago. It was awesome and Dono (who is an awesome guitarist) was playing the Keyboard parts on the guitar and it sounded freaking awesome! Then we played The Lord Of The Rings Trading Card Game over in the bar for a while. We got all kinds of people coming over asking what game we were playing. We've always been very confident in our geekiness!

Day #101 - Back In The Saddle Again - New Directions

What a week! Sorry for the hiatus, but I spent the last week coming down with the Flu and then getting over the Flu. I am not quite 100% yet (probably more like 90%) but I'm ready to get back in the saddle.

This picture is not exactly creative, but it is showing my plans for the next month or so on this project. Many years ago I bought a Pentax Super Program SLR from someone in Blue Springs and part of the package was a decent collection of Cokin Creative Filters. I got to thinking that it might be fun to try using these filters to see if any of them have uses beyond cluttering up a shelf in my closet. So for the most part I plan to use these filters in shots posted here for a while. This will force me to do some lens swapping. I have the smaller filters so they won't work with my 18-200mm Super Zoom. I will be using the lenses in the picture which are my 18-55mm Zoom and 50mm Prime lens. I think it will make for some good experiences and hopefully some interesting shots.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 400, 40mm, f11, 1/60 sec., flash on Stroboframe, extended all the way up and aimed almost straight down at the subject.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always) a lot, and adjusted Brightness/Contrast. Then I Posterized the image and liked what I saw so I stopped there. Well I didn't really stop there - I kept trying other things but nothing else really looked good to me!

Tunes listened to while editing: Jughead - Jughead. The first 7 songs. Another band I had forgot about till a couple of days ago. Their 1st track is called Halfway Home To Elvis and it is a fun song. The rest of the album is really good too.

Day #100 - Happy Anniversary and Happy Grandparents Day!

Hopefully you knew it was Grandparents Day today and did something special for the Grandparents in your life! We spent all day running around, but took a few minutes to visit with our parents and I took that opportunity to shoot a picture of the day. These are my parents, Ron and Vicki Morse and they are Super Grandparents to my son Cameron. Additionally they just celebrated their 43rd Wedding Anniversary this past Friday so I really wanted to honor them with a picture on my pic-a-day blog.

They are very happily married and have been great role models to my wife and I (as well as many others they interact with I'm sure). We are very blessed to have them in our lives! Here is to many more years together. Congratulations Mom and Dad! You deserve it!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 40mm, f11, 1/60 sec., flash aimed at ceiling with Catch-Light Card out.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always) a lot, adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Used the Golden Eye Technique as well as some other trickery in the eye area. Adjusted Saturation just a tad and applied a Warming Filter.

Tunes listened to while editing: Prime STH - Beautiful Awakening. The first 5 songs. I forget about these guys but they are a great band!

Day #99 - You Spin Me Round

Sorry for the hiatus. I actually had some Internet difficulties Thursday and then I was just worn out so I took a little break.

Well, today I'm back and we spent the day at several locations that lended themselves to photographic opportunity. We went to Cameron's soccer game (they won! - yeah!!) and then we ended up at Old Settlers Day in Olathe.

I wanted to shoot something that conveyed motion, but that is hard to do when it is bright and sunny out as you can't slow down the shutter speed very easily. I had to crank down the ISO and really zoom in to the subject in order to get a very small aperture to allow for a longer shutter speed. Then there was the problem of a very boring white sky. So a little Replace Color work in PhotoShop and I changed the day to night. I bumped up the Hue to give the picture a more artistic look/feel too.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 100, 68mm, f38, 1/4 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always) a lot, adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Replaced Color in sky areas, adjusted Hue/Saturation.

Tunes listened to while editing: Owl City - Ocean Eyes. The whole album. A new one I discovered from 96.5 The Buzz and actually purchased via iTunes. Pretty good album! Makes me feel artistic for some reason.

Day #98 - Breaking Bubbles

So my wife was the lucky recipient of a Palm Pre recently. I say lucky because the Palm Pre is a pretty nice phone, but she hasn't been exactly thrilled about it. Apparently her Palm Treo Centro was the "Bee's Knee's" and could do everything she ever wanted it to do. I was browsing the Application Store and found something that definitely helped improve her opinion of the Pre. She always loved Bubble Breaker back when she had a Motorola Q9c. Well, now there is a game available for the Pre called "Bubbles!" and it is basically the same game as Bubble Breaker! I overheard Dionne lovingly say "$#%& You for putting this game on my Pre!". I think she might finally like her Pre now!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 400, 68mm, f6.7, 1/30 sec., flash aimed at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always) a lot, adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast.

Tunes listened to while editing: Nothing tonight but the moaning and groaning of Cameron as he begged repeatedly for help building a new Pokemon deck. I win just ONE TIME and he decides his deck in no good anymore!

Day #97 - This Thread Is Useless Without Pictures!

I don't know how many times I've been browsing an ad on Craigslist or one of the many Jeep Forums I frequent only to find something I really want to buy, but there aren't any pictures! I HATE THAT!!! If you want to sell something, take the time to post a few pictures.

I have a few items to sell, and got to thinking that I could kill two birds with one stone (sorry for the pun - it just slipped right out). A camera is certainly many things to many people. I use one for the obvious creative outlet, but I also use one frequently as a tool. I shoot many pictures of cell phone parts and defects at work. I shoot pictures of the various things I want to sell and post up on eBay and Craigslist. And of course I capture family moments with my camera.

By the way, the Birdcage is up for sale on Craigslist. The curious cat however is not for sale. She was just drawn to the smell of the birdcage. Hmm, I wonder why?

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 18mm, f11, 1/30 sec., flash aimed at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Cropped to remove useless background data.

Tunes listened to while editing: Anberlin - Cities. Truly one of the best albums ever!! If you've never listened to Anberlin you really owe it to yourself to try them out. If you want I'd be glad to give you a free listen.

Day #96 - Monkey Bizness

When you have 3 kids all revved up and rearin' to go and need to let them burn off some energy, I suggest Monkey Bizness at the Olathe Great Mall. We had a couple of boys spending the day with us along with Cameron and decided a trip to Monkey Bizness is what they (and we) needed.

Shooting in there can be a real challenge. The ceilings are about 30 feet high and the lighting is all fluorescent. So using available light means high ISO's and a green tint to everything. To use flash means you have to use direct flash as bouncing off of such high ceilings is not gonna work. But then you want to tone down your flash so as to avoid blowing out detail.

So in the end I used direct flash, and finally got something I liked!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 200mm, f11, 1/90 sec., flash aimed at subject but dialed to -1.0.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Then I applied the Golden Eye Sharpening Technique.

Tunes listened to while editing: The Ramones - Ramones Mania. A little trip down memory lane. The Ramones for me go back about 25 years. What a great band! They had some great tunes!

Day #95 - Breakfast...errr... Dinner of Champions

Today we are watching a friends kids while she is out of town. I was trying to find a picture of the day (especially since I missed yesterday) and thankfully Rick here agreed to let me shoot some pictures of him. The first shot I took got him to giggling (not a good thing with a mouth full of milk and Lucky Charms!). Once he settled down I got a few nice shots of the little guy.

Shot spex (Top Shot): RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 400, 33mm, f8, 1/45 sec., flash aimed up at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex (Top Shot): Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Cropped. Had to work some layer adjustment magic to get rid of my reflection in the window behind Rick, d'oh! Then I applied the Golden Eye Sharpening Technique.

Shot spex (Bottom Shot): RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 400, 78mm, f8, 1/90 sec., flash aimed up at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex (Bottom Shot): Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Cropped. Then I applied the Golden Eye Sharpening Technique.

Tunes listened to while editing: Ivory Line - There Came A Lion. The first 8 tracks. I saw these guys live at Main Street Cafe last year. I'm thinking I need to go see them again the next time they are in town. They have a pretty good sound.

Day #94 - Would You Like Heartburn WIth Your Order?

Taco Bell after Midnight is a whole different place from the daytime hours. First of all there is the clientele - mostly teenagers and college students, some drunk, others just hyper, all looking to find some cheap food to round out the evening. I found myself there this evening when I was driving home from work (went up to pick up my laptop and wrap up a few loose ends). My wife texted me with the words, "I'm thinking Taco Bell". I called her to get her order and then waited in line for quite a while to receive our order. Upon getting home we realized they messed it up (of course). Anyway, as I had procrastinated yet again on my pic-a-day project I proceeded to set up camera gear. My wife thinks I am totally wacko for shooting a picture of my Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco, but in reality we are both nut-jobs for eating this stuff this late. I better wrap this up and go take an antacid pill before bed!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 400, 200mm, f6.3, 1/90 sec., flash aimed up at ceiling.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Added a warming filter to make the food look slightly more attractive.

Tunes listened to while editing: Seven Glory - Atmosphere. The first 6 tracks. I didn't even know I had this group. I was talking to Donovan about the fact that I have music I've never even heard of on my iPod that he gave me. I'm assuming this is one of those bands. It's was actually pretty good. I'll have to give the rest of the album a listen.

Day #93 - This Old Tree

Today was crazy! After leaving work at 5pm I had to race and pick up Cameron from school. Then we had to run home and grab his soccer gear and then race to practice, grabbing a quick dinner at Arby's on the way. In the meantime my wife had a bag full of errands to run and then she had to get to Cameron's school for "Meet the Teacher" night. Thankfully I remembered to grab my camera (and the memory card). Once we got to practice I was able to snarf down my food and then I managed to find some time to wander around shooting pictures. I came across this odd tree and shot it from mostly this perspective. At the base was a clump of mushrooms, and I shot several pictures of that as well, but those images turned out pretty bland (and I HATE mushrooms anyways!!).

I got to playing with this one and ended up with this "duo-tone" image (part BW, part color).

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 1600, 18mm, f4.5, 1/45 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. I then added a dupe layer and desaturated it. I erased out the leaves (making the color show back up) and then applied the Fresco Filter to the layer with the trunk.

Tunes listened to while editing: Waltham - Waltham. The first 10 tracks. I forgot about this band and just re-discovered them today. These guys really get your toe tapping! They are kinda like Rick Springfield on steroids. You gotta give them a shot sometime!

Day #92 - Old Toys And New Toys

My friend Jeff gave me some new toys to play with today. They are are wireless flash triggers. I've not yet played with them and before I can put them to use I am going to have to either spend some money on expensive batteries (CR2-3V) or I have to spend less money but more time doing a mod that allows me to use AA batteries. So Donovan - if you are reading this keep an eye out for cheap CR2-3V batteries at the Largo! Otherwise I'll pull the solder gun out of Mothballs and get to it!

The old toys in the image are a couple of flashes I have had around for some time. I'm hoping to give them new life by using these triggers.

I kind of got off the reservation creatively speaking as a picture of equipment is pretty boring. So I decided to experiment. I used the Neon Filter in PhotoShop and also toned down the Saturation to almost BW.

Now I got to get to watching the Strobist DVD's Jeff loaned me too!

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 28mm, f11, 1/45 sec., built-in flash (I know - sad!).

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Cropped and tried to adjust color a bit. Then employed the Neon Filter as described above.

Tunes listened to while editing: Weezer - The Blue Album. The first 7 tracks. What the heck is the Sweater Song really about?!?!?!? Is there a deeper meaning that just some guys sweater coming apart? I'm usually pretty good at figuring out this stuff but this song baffles me.

Day #91 - Reflections

I did something today that I've never done before. I went to a professional football stadium. I was in Dallas and my coworker really wanted to go tour the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. I've never yet even been to a professional football game much less been to a professional stadium. Not that I haven't wanted to go, but tickets for free are hard to come by!

Anyway, we had a little time before we had to catch our flight back to Kansas City so we headed to the stadium to catch a tour. Let me tell you, this place is massive and incredible! The tour guide said that the stadium would hold 110,000 fans as full capacity and had 800 concession stands! I believe there were something like 6,000 toilets too.

This shot was taken in an area where you could stand and watch the game. I liked the concrete as it was smooth and looked like the surface of water. The reflections it cast intrigued me and I knew I could get a silhouette effect with the right settings on the camera.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 18mm, f11, 1/1500 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened (as always), adjusted Levels and Brightness/Contrast. Cropped and tried to adjust color a bit.

Tunes listened to while editing: Bleu - Redhead. The first 7 tracks.