Bonfire Memorial Photoshoot

Monday I got this wild idea to wake up before the crack of dawn and shoot the Bonfire Memorial as the sun came up. Wow, it was not a wild idea, it was a great idea! Only problem was my brain doesn’t work so well at 5 AM. It was one of those “I can’t brain today i have the dumb” moments. I took some great shots that looked awesome on the LCD screen but I didn’t realize until later that I had three major problems: I left the ISO at 800, I had my McDonald’s coffee cup in a few of the pictures, and I had my camera back in a few other pictures. Doh!

Right before the sun came up (~5:30) I was able to dial the white balance down and make the sky turn an awesome shade of blue. However, I noticed ghost lights in the shot. I wasn’t sure what it was or how to fix it so I kept shooting. Well after the shoot I was told that I was getting a reflection between the UV filter and my lens (stupid Canon filter). So I went back to the Bonfire Memorial at 8:30 that night to see if I could reproduce the shots. I was able to get the sky a dark blue but I didn’t like the color as much as the morning shot. The ghost lights showed up again and I took the filter off to make them go away. I’m going to have to find a filter that doesn’t have this problem.

I should have the pictures up on Flickr by the weekend.

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/codygreen/3545391509/[/flickr]

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George Bush Presidential Library and Museum Photos

I went up to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum on Sunday to take some shots to find a good bridal portrait location. I was surprised how nice the pond behind the museum is so I shot almost 1.3GB of photos. Only wish it had not been early afternoon; the light was not great. Watched a photographer take some shots of his future daughter-in-law. He was really good at posing her and telling her what to do, but he seemed a little light on the camera knowledge.

Once I was done shooting at the museum I headed over to the administrative building. I was surprised to see a few photographers waiting their turn to shoot; popular place on Sundays. I was lucky enough to be there while a pro photographer waited for the bride to show up. We started talking and next think I know he let me tag along for his shoot. It was a blast! He gave me an outstanding two hour lesson on photography and tips for shooting bridal portraits. It amazes me how generous some photographers can be at sharing their knowledge.

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/codygreen/3544492610/[/flickr]

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Website Updates

Well, the front page is almost finished. I’m planning on a few more tweaks today or tomorrow then I’m going to start working on the blog section. I’m not really happy with the code (I hate PHP intertwined with HTML!!!). So the OCD in me wants to write an HTML wrapper class (poor man’s template system) that would allow me to only have PHP in my theme code. Since I don’t program PHP anymore I find myself writing Python and then wondering why I get errors when I try and display the page . Also, the JQuery has issues in Safari; sometimes the details are listed and other times nothing is listed. Will have to debug that.

It’s funny to me that two or three years ago this type of programming was my specialty. Now, I spend so much time doing systems work or systems programming this “make it work in multiple browsers” crap is pissing me off!.

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Murder Mystery Dinner

So Scott had a great idea to host a murder mystery dinner. Megan and I had a great time. The theme was based in the 1920s and was centered around a speakeasy. Megan was the daughter of the mob boss who was killed and I was a reporter who wanted the boss dead. Luckily neither of us were the killer and both of us guess the correct person at the end of the night.
This was the first time I was able to use all of my camera equipment. I set up the ezybox to the left of the camera and a umbrella to the right. The room was very dark so I’m really happy with how the photos turned out.

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Ring Dance

Well Megan was nice enough to let me bring my camera to Ring Dance. We had a great time, but my pictures are really bad. Just goes to show you that you can’t buy your way into a great shot. I have all the gear and I screwed up on exposure 101 that night! Still a few of the pictures are interesting and I told people I would post them.

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My Best Shot of Maggie Yet!

My Lastolite ezybox came in and I figured I’d try it out on my most willing model, Maggie. She never gripes, is extremely photogenic, and always has a smile (well until she gets sick of my taking pictures and not playing with her). So the ezybox is a 24″x24″ to the left of the camera. The shooting area was really tight and the model was constantly moving so the light source is pretty bright. But I like how it makes her supper white and black and that yellow ball just pops. This is by far one of the best pictures I’ve ever taken of Maggie!

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