My Sony SD Card Came apart

Now this is a first. A couple of minutes ago my 16 GB Sony SD card came apart in my hands while I was packing my kit for a shoot.  I have never had this happen before.  Oh well, this gave me a chance to show you what makes up these tiny cards...simply just packaging to fit the camera slot and a memory card. I wonder if the remaining small memory card is what is used for a Micro SD card?  I really think that my compact flash cards are really a lot sturdier than these SD cards. Oh well it looks like this card will be just a memory. 

Shooting Under Difficult Conditions

On Friday Lynn and I visited with friends in Sarasota .  Our adventure in addition to having a couple of great meals was to spend a few hours at the Big Cat Habitat.  The shelter houses a number of large cats in addition to some large bears, turtles, primates and common petting zoo animals.  Shooting through the double screen enclosures on the cages is near impossible. There is a daily show featuring lions, apes and dogs at Big Cat Habitat and I did labor to take a few photos through the heavy fencing.

I took along my new Olympus 45mm 1.8 lens (90mm 35mm equivalent) and shot all of these photos with that lens on my Olympus OMD-EM5.  Exposure, Manual, ISO 1600, 45mm, Aperture f1.8, 1/500 sec.

In this photo my focus was on the eye of the tiger.  I was amazed at the minor bokeh of the crowd that I got with this lens...in spite of the fact that I was approximately 30 feet away...again shooting through heavy fencing.  Incidentally, the only thing that I did to this photo was crop and add the vignette.

The only modification to this photo was the cropping.  What do you think?

Florida West Coast Sunrise

Photographing sunrises and sunsets is mostly the luck of the draw.  The important thing is to be in the right place at the right time.  I primarily shoot sunrises since I can coordinate my daily morning walks with the rising sun.  To get the sun rising over the water on Florida's West Coast I take my shots as the sun rises over Tampa Bay. Most of my sunrise photos are taken not with my big heavy DSLR, but rather with a compact camera or in the following case...an iPhone.

You will also notice that I always have something in the foreground on my sunrise shots...a tree, a boulder or another complimentary object.  The sun by itself is seldom interesting. It is fun to tinker with sunrise photos. Sunrises offer a good opportunity to use enhancement software like Nik (Google) Color Efex Pro, On One's Perfect photo or the iPhone app Snapseed.  The above photo is the original untouched photo.  The following 2 pictures are enhancements of this same photo. 

Have fun.  Get some exercise and get your sunrise photos.  Your thoughts?

Civil War Reenactment Photos-Williston, Florida

I enjoy photographing Civil War reenactors as well as the post processing that goes along with the activity.  I think that unique black and white treatments really add a sense of period and place to these events.  These photos were taken at The Nature Coast Civil War Reenactment that took place in March at The Kirby Family Farm in Williston, Florida.  I thought that I would share a few of the original color photos as well as my post processed black & white images.

These partners get my vote for the best dressed couples at the event.

These images were processed in both Nik (Google) Silver Efex Pro 2 and in On One Software's Perfect B&W 8.  I found both systems equally useful.  I have now built presets for both Black and White programs.

All photos were taken with my Olympus OMD-EM5 with the 17mm 1.8 lens and the Olympus 40-150mm lens. This was the first time that I used the 40-150mm for the battleground scenes.  I was generally pleased with this lens.  The sun light was quite bright so I didn't feel like I had a lot of control with the auto-focus, but when I reviewed them I was not unhappy.    Your thoughts?

Our week in the snow in Breckenridge, CO

This is one of 5 hot tubs at Grand Timber Lodge in Breckenridge.  After the ski lifts close all of these hot tubs will be filled with folks sharing stories about their daily adventures.

This is one of the more intimate hot tubs at the Lodge.  These are in the courtyard at the original Buildings 1-4.  They were pretty much a secret until now.  They are Lynn's favorite.  

Lynn and I walked along the frozen Blue River behind the shops on Breckenridge's Main Street...a great place for a few environmental photos.

This is The Dredge...an old dredge that is in the middle of the Blue River..now dressed up as a restaurant.

(right) I am in front of a one acre Ice Palace...a new attraction in Breckenridge.  We were cold enough outside, but for the hearty, you could purchase tickets to go inside.

My tip for this edition of the blog: Carry a camera wherever you go.  And, it doesn't have to be a DSLR either.  Most of these photos were taken with a Panasonic DMC-LF1 camera that is smaller than my iPhone.  If you aren't carrying a camera, you won't get the shot!

Taking advantage if the Big Snow!

When it gets cold up north as Florida residents we go skiing. This is a view from our place at Grand Timber Lodge in Breckenridge that I took yesterday with my iPhone and edited in Nik Snapseed.  This is an annual vacation for us, but I can't resist taking a few photos.

My Switch to Digital Magazines

 Recently in the interest of saving trees I decided to let all of my paper photography magazines lapse. Additionally, I got tired of looking at that mountain of unread magazines on my nightstand.  Slowly, I am replacing my subscriptions with the digital editions. In this feature I am reviewing my first 2 digital photo subscriptions...Popular Photography and Shutterbug.   I like the easy reading style of Popular Photography. It's short content is ideal for reading while traveling. I am reading the February issue right now while flying. It is also easy to navigate around. It is interesting the way you are able to show the photos full screen.  The color resolution of the Pop Photo images on my iPad 2 is wonderful. Though Shutterbug has always been my favorite magazine for in depth photography articles I find the digital edition to be somewhat clunky...pretty much just a copy of the paper magazine. I really do like the Personal Projects and the feed back articles from David Brooks that are a staple in Shutterbug. I like the fact that you can copy and e-mail articles from the digital Shutterbug. That seems to be missing from Popular photography.  You can access the articles from a drop down contents page in Shutterbug. Incidentally, the ad pages really pop in both magazines digital reads. So far, I am happy to have made the switch.