Today was a fun day. I was able to spend some time with my future son-in-law. We played golf, went to dinner, and then my daughter and future son-in-law asked me to take some photos of them. They had about 45 minutes before they were meeting some friends for a battle of the bands date night. We thought that we would go to BYU and take some pictures in the Hinkley Alumni building. We didn’t realize it was closed. We did the next best thing by going to the Tanner building. This building looks very drab from the outside. It basically looks like a box with slightly taller ends and a matching smaller attached building. the exterior is covered in grey granite. The inside is amazing. It has so many lines and interesting architecture that you could spend hours in the building. I did when in college. For an architectural class I had to write a 15 page paper on what I saw. That is another story.

For this photo I used an SB 800 flash for the main flash and two SB600 slave flashes on the corners pointed at an umbrella. In the editing portion I lightened the background and slightly darkened the foreground leaving the main subjects as the focal point.

I like the reflection in the water.
I like how the architecture is pointing to the subjects.
I like how bright the subjects are.
I would like to remove the chair on the right.

Thank you for visiting my site today.

~wr~

Tonight is a quick blog. Last week I went to my boy’s Lacrosse game. This is his second year of playing the sport. I love organized sports for teenagers. It teaches them to work as a team, to think of other, hard work, and to give of themselves. My kids have been in many different organized sports in high school and I have to say they have learned so many life lessons. This shot was fairly straight forward. I used a monopod and shot in full sun.

The specs:
iso 400
140mm
f/5.6
1/400 sec

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~

This was my first attempt at shooting my daughter and her fiance. We went down to the local library to take a few fun shots. I brought along a new flash and umbrella system. I have a master and two slave flashes. While we were waiting for Brandon to finish taking a test in the library Emily and I started to set up the system. It became clear very fast that I forgot to bring a key piece of equipment along. I forgot the two shoes for the flashes so I was unable to hook them up to the system. Instead we improvised. I set up the umbrellas on the ground pointed upward. I placed my shoes on the ground to keep the umbrella from slouching down and sliding away. I also used the shoes for holders of the flashes.

I like the white background against the color of the clothes.
I like the mystery of what the subject is looking at.
I like the subtle shadowing as the flash cast light shadows through the railing.
I think I may want to do away with the dark window on the bottom of the photo.

Let me know what you think.

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~

Today was a great day. It was the warmest day of the year. When I came home I took my younger son outside for a walk and to play in the yard. With in a few minutes we found this twig. It came from one of the flowers in our garden last year. I love how the patterns are weaving in and out for the entire length of the twig. This was one of those days that has a promise for what is to come.

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~

Today started out with a trip to the dentist for a root canal. If time allowed he was also going to work on my wisdom tooth. As my luck would have it the canal was calcified thus making it even harder to successfully complete the root canal. Lucky for me the dentist I now have is very skilled at both the dental work and in reading the patients needs. He was able to successfully complete the procedure and due to a pre conference he anticipated complications I may have and headed them off before they became an issue.

Now onto today’s blog. While I was still numb from the root canal procedure my boy called and asked if I would help him with his photography homework. Like any parent I answered yes. Little did I know that this would mean he had to take about a dozen outdoor photos with only about five minutes of daylight left. This would also mean he didn’t want to put much time into the composition of the said photos. He was doing only the minimum. Which also meant no tripod or setting the camera up properly. The photo above was one of his finds. This was handheld in dim light with a battery grip, teleconverter and a 70-200 lens. That is why it is slightly out of focus.

The specs:
iso 400
120mm
1/8
1/20sec

Even though he didn’t set up the camera to give himself the best chance at success I like the photo he took.

I like the setting of the wood buckets.
I like the motion of the small windmill.
I like the seed pods on the trees behind the white fence.
I like the colors of the photo as they are enhanced by the setting sun.



To process these photos I started out in NX2 and made three different exposures each at 2 stop differences. I converted them to Jpeg format and imported them to Photomatix Pro. After making a few adjustments in Photomatix I saved and exported to Lightroom 3 beta. I made a few more adjustments and exported to CS4. From here I used Topaz Denoise for both and then for the bottom photo I converted it into an oil painting using Snap Art 2.

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~

Tomorrow is the day that I have a root canal and now it is looking like a possible wisdom tooth extraction. I am not excited about my trip to the dentist. At least I have a nice dentist who is also a good dentist. In preparation for the big day I thought I would look into my past pictures for one that reminds me of happier times and with Spring just around the corner gives hope for future photo shoots.

This photo is taken up Provo Canyon just past Bridal Veil Falls. This double falls is tucked in a section of Cascade Mountain that is easily missed if not looking for it.

I took this with my 70-200mm lens.
The specs:
200mm
f/22
iso 200
2.5 sec

I like the movement of the water
I like how the water is the focal point.
I like the colors of the trees.
I like how the water vanishes into the rocks.

Let me know what you think.

~wr~

Yesterday I awoke to a terrible tooth ache I couldn’t figure it out because I had a crown on that tooth. I called a dentist and he met me at his office late yesterday. After the x-ray we found that this tooth still had its roots. So the plan is now to have a root canal performed early next week. This comes with mixed emotions. I want the pain gone, but I hate the needles and sitting in the chair as the drill is moving up and down in my tooth. Well this got me thinking about small things. So today I decided to get out into my yard and take a few macro photos. This photo is the leftover stem from a scarlet gilia flower. The backdrop is bark mulch.

To get this photo crystal sharp it is important to use a tripod and cable release. Having said this I shot this one hand held.

The specs:
iso 400
105mm
f/20
1/250 sec


I like the contrast of light and dark.
I like the patterns on the branch.
I like blacks and color moving around the holes.

Thank you for visiting today.

~wr~