Zoom

I got caught up looking at some images I made last year when I visited Tokyo. Scenes like this make me miss Asia.

Nikon D700, 70-300mm @ 300mm, f/4.5-5.6 VR lens, f/11, 1/320s, ISO 800.

Easy

I'm practicing with lots of techniques right now, and I'm trying to make beautiful portraits under various circumstances.

M. makes making a beautiful portrait under any circumstance easy.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 180mm, f/18, 1/200s, ISO 400.

Color

When I was a missionary in Taiwan (wow, ten years goes by so quickly!) I remember there were these girls who worked at the malls and department stores at the makeup counters. The thing is, they had so much makeup on, you could never recognize them in the real world. Sporting super powdered faces, garish lipsticks and eye shadows they would wrangle all the women walking by into letting them apply a quick makeover. You could always tell which entrance the women customers came in.

So, the thing is, color can be fun! N. is one of my favorite clients. She and her daughter return each year to kick off the holidays with family pictures. N. confided that she has been told that colors would look great on her, but her work environment makes colors go to grey very quickly, so she has not indulged very often. Well, when you're making pictures is the perfect time to let loose and try something out of the ordinary. This splash of color and texture is just right to show off N.'s youthful complexion.

Nikon D7000, 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII lens @ 105mm, f/20, 1/200s, ISO 200.

Decisions

Don't you hate when you've got decisions to make? That's why I only have oatmeal in the cupboard, black shirts, blue jeans, and Nikon equipment. 

Okay, I also have some red shirts, cause sometimes you just need a little color! That's how I feel about these two images. I think they both look nice, even though they have completely different subjects and feelings about them. 

Fortunately, this is my blog and I don't have to choose which picture to post. I can have my black and wear red, too.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 125mm, f/14, 1/200s, ISO 400.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 125mm, f/14, 1/200s, ISO 400.

Beware

See, these boys are dangerous. 

Nikon D3s, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 122mm, f/9, 1/200s, ISO 1000, SB-600 through umbrella

Every time I see them they are building something or crafting a new method for launching arrows or other projectiles. They are becoming increasingly accurate and powerful. Plus, the oldest brother, E., is a thinker; you can hear the gears of his mind turning from across the neighborhood. Then he's got the next boy, B., to refine thoughts and act as sounding board and executer. K. is dangerous just because he's fearless--he can literally do anything. Watch for him break dancing--he'll be famous and you can claim to have known him when. And don't let that little guy's innocent look fool you: he'll be joining the brothers in mischief in no time--just as soon as he can sit up on his own...

They think they have mom and dad fooled, too, but S. and S. are in the know, managing the boys and directing the mayhem in a controlled manner. They know what they're doing.

Nikon D3s, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 300mm, f/9, 1/125s, ISO 640, SB-600 through umbrella

We had fun making pictures together. I see the boys finding ingenius ways to haul one another around the 'hood on a single bicycle. I'm glad that we made these pictures before they kill themselves.

Nikon D3s, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 150mm, f/9, 1/125, ISO 1000, SB-600 through umbrella.

Killer Arab

Ever hear that The Cure song? "Killin' An Arab"? I have no idea what it was about, but it comes to mind every time I wear this scarf I was given by a friend in Saudi Arabia last year.

However, I've never made it look as good as T. did this morning. She looked exactly like the arabs I saw in Saudi arabia last year, except they were wearing extremely expensive leather coats. Still, she looks killer.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 230mm, f/18, 1/200s, ISO 200.

Woodsy Tales

Nikon D700, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 28mm, f/9, 1/160s, ISO 200.

There's a story you should read, if you haven't already. See, when I was a kid, my elementary school didn't have a gymnasium. We spent every day outside doing calisthenics while Coach Johnson sang "Daisy Daisy", then playing tetherball and tag on the playground, falling off monkey bars, rolling in tires, and getting bit by fire ants. Good times.

But, when it rained (this is Florida, ya know?) we had to stay inside. Sometimes P.E. was held in the cafeteria where we sat at tables and played BINGO; northern Florida in the '80's, what can I say? Other times we convened in the library where we watched film strips.

My favorite was the Lorax. I often helped load the tapes and the film strip and synchronize the two. The film perfectly followed the book by Dr. Seuss, plus some music. Remember the Grinch film? Just like that one, but you should have seen the brown barbaloots dancing about in their barbaloot suits! Good times.

Maybe that's why I've always enjoyed the woods...

Nikon D700, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 28mm, f/8, 1/250s, ISO 400.

And we were enjoying the woods a little while ago. This Autumn has been very lovely. Now with the first snows sitting heavy on the hills, it's a good thing we got some time for these fun images.

Nikon D700, 28-300mm f.3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 180mm, f/5.6, 1/200s, ISO 200.

I say 'we'. That's cause my friends C., L., and L. were good enough to let 11 photographers from the Cache Valley Photographers come along and work with them making pictures throughout a very chilly morning. Cafe Ibis cocoa kept us warm, though.

Nikon D700, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 28mm, f/8, 1/250s, ISO 400.

Oh, back to that story you should read. I recommend the Lorax, but that's not what got me thinking. It was picturing L. in a wedding dress one of the club members brought along. You've heard of The Bride of Frankenstein, right? Creepy looking bride with hair sticking straight back with stripes and plenty of diodes attached to her reanimated flesh? Well, the woods and the leaves and the vines and the dress got my mind stewing on another film we watched during rainy days on the playground.

Nikon D700, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 56mm, f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO 320.

It was a claymation rendition of Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle. Pretty awesome little film. I remember Rip testing the wind for a kite by licking his claymation finger and holding it in the breeze, and playing nine-pins with gnomes in the Catskills. At the end...well, I don't want to ruin it for you.

Suffice it to say, L. in her dress was a perfect Bride of Rip Van Winkle with vines and leaves of a hundred years grown about her. Bride of Rip Van Winkle: look for it in a theater near you.

Nikon D700, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 90mm, f/7.1, 1/160s, ISO 320.

There was one other film we watched, too, and it also happen's to be based on one of Irving's stories, though I believe it was produced by Walt Disney: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I'll let you know as soon as I figure out how to get L. on a horse and a pumpkin on her head.

Nikon D700, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 300mm, f/9, 1/250s, ISO 500.