Tag Archives: Photography

Nighttime Photography

Posted on by
Reply

On the street where you work

Well, the title might be slightly misleading, since this is actually early morning photography, but I wanted to share it nonetheless. I dropped my brother in law off at the airport at 5am one morning this week and decided I would take the opportunity to drive around downtown and look for something to shoot. Finally, I ended up just setting up at the end of the street where I work, and this was the result. I think I’m going to have to do more extended exposure stuff – it’s just plain fun!

Through the Eyes of a Child

Posted on by
Reply
Through the Eyes of a Child

Through the Eyes of a Child

Sometimes, the wonder of the Christmas season is lost on those of us who get caught up in the hustle and bustle or life. It often pays to relax, unwind, and try to view life for a time through the eyes of a child. Remember the brilliance and wonder of everything new. Celebrate the little triumphs like being the winner of the globally-important “Race to the Car”.
Continue reading →

A Princess Tea Party

Posted on by
1

Princess Cupcakes

Princess cupcakes made the day


Before your have to ask, no, it wasn’t for me. My eldest daughter turned eight this week, so to celebrate, my wife and I threw her the party she’d been dreaming of for months: an all out princess tea party. There’s a local Tea House about three miles from our house, and with their great pricing, we reserved their party room and had my daughter invite about ten of her friends to join her. I got a few good pictures at the party, and I did a quick portrait of each of the girls as they left which we printed and gave to their parents as a thank you for letting them attend.

Here are a few of the shots I was able to get. Let’s start out with some amazing chocolate, raspberry filled cupcakes we had a friend make for the occasion:
Continue reading →

Dynamic XML Slideshow in AS3

Posted on by
4

Over the past year or so, I have been responsible for developing and maintaining a JavaScript Slideshow component for our internal CMS. With the similarities between JavaScript and Actionscript, I have wanted to implement this slideshow in a manner consistent with the flexibility and usage of the JavaScript version. The biggest difference is that the JS one is focused on content, and the AS3 version will be focused on pictures – since AS3 does not fully support markup and CSS yet. This being said, I have had opportunity to attack my project and have the first phase completed. As with so many of my other personal projects, I’m tackling it in phases rather than having a defined spec list ready to go. In this case, I have the slideshow reading an image list from an XML document, loading the individual pictures and setting them on a timed rotation.
Continue reading →

New Portraits of the Kids

Posted on by
Reply

So, this week, I decided to get an updated portrait of each of our kids, and I was pretty pleased with how they came out. I’ve been reading on a few more techniques to clean up images and make portraits more appealing, so here’s what I’ve come up with this go around. One of the reasons I like these so much is that each really seems to show the personality of the child:

Sarah is the sweet, tenderhearted one of the crew
Sarah
Continue reading →

Return From Involuntary Haiatus

Posted on by
1

Well, it has been far too long since I was comfortably seated behind this desk, writing periodic updates to the site. I suppose that one could classify this post as still fitting the “periodic” tag, though somewhat extended in definition. Suffice to say that it is good to be writing a short blurb once again, and I thought it only fitting to write regarding the past several weeks of absence.

Seldom is absence by choice, and this is no exception to that rule. Work began getting a bit hectic, causing me to lack the time needed to play with some of my AS3 projects, and then I had a 2 week business trip. During the second week of my trip, my wife’s grandfather passed away, so I returned home for a single night before heading out once again – this time towards Alberta, CA. Our family spent the next week traveling through BC and AB, attending his funeral and visiting with family before finally arriving back home. That arrival was a mere two days ago.
Continue reading →

Bath Time!

Posted on by
Reply

OK, so I’m posting some pictures after all. These pictures of my youngest, taken the other day, turned out so well, I had to share them. She absolutely loves the water, and this bath time was no exception. Ever the ham, she poured it on when the camera came out, and though she’s getting a little big for the sink, she definitely had a grand time splashing about:

Bath Time!

Continue reading →

Photography Section Finally Added

Posted on by
Reply

Well, I suppose one might say this is long overdue — after all, I am a web developer, right? No matter how much work I’m able to get done, I seldom have time to actually add to my personal sites, so when I found out just how easily zenPhoto could be added to my site, I jumped. In a matter of an hour (give or take), I had this new section up and running, primed with many of the photos I’ve had sitting around just waiting to be posted somewhere. Needless to say, I won’t have to blog as many of my pictures anymore, since I’ll be able to link directly to their galleries now. So, when you have a moment, follow the link at the top of this page, or just go here to see the new gallery. As time allows, I will be working on a theme for both the blog and photo gallery that is more uniform and unique — but who knows when that will actually be completed…

Enjoy!

What a Difference a Flash Makes

Posted on by
Reply

While flash photography to some may simply be that which causes red-eye, I have been trying to read and learn some of the nuances of lighting and flash usage in my pictures. My biggest difficulty has been the lack of a “real” flash, but I am happy to say that I was able to get one for my birthday over the weekend. The Nikkon SB-600 Speedlight is pretty much the base model in good flashes for my D90, and I’ve been waiting to find a good sale. Pricing doesn’t vary much on them, apparently, so I jumped on the chance to get one from the Circuit City liquidation pricing at almost half off retail.

As with so many other things in life, I had seen and understood a part of the difference a good flash can make, but until you actually use one, it’s hard to really grasp the significant difference in the shots. I thought I would share my first comparison with you. Keep in mind that one of the biggest differences (besides the obvious brightness difference) between using the on-board flash and the hot shoe one is the ability to be able to direct the light and reflect it off different surfaces to keep from the harsh direct lighting typical to home photography. The following two photos show this poignant difference illustrated.
Continue reading →

December Birthdays

Posted on by
1

Well, once again the holiday season brings an extra measure of business to our family with two of our children celebrating birthdays during the month of December. Our youngest celebrated her first birthday on Sunday, so it was an even more special occasion than the traditional birthday party, and our son turned four today. We had the combined party for their friends last week and had 50 (yes, you read right: 50) guests at the house, and this week we did the individual parties and family gifts for them.

A new thing this year is that I am going to try to get a good birthday portrait of them myself instead of spending the money to have it done. I got one of my son yesterday that I am very pleased with, and while I have yet to get one of my daughter, I thought I would at least share one from her birthday so those who know us can see how much she has grown.
Continue reading →