Nikon D40 Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1000) Aperture: f/5.0 Focal Length: 125 mm ISO Speed: 200 Those eyes, ears, freckles, and smile really do a number on me. He gets away with a lot and still gets in trouble a lot! I took a fair amount of shots during their last set of swimming lessons. I sat on the edge about five feet from where they stayed on the wall. Sometimes I’d lay out flat and even with the edge to take some pictures. Sometimes from across the other side of the pool. All the pictures I took last week the sun was behind the boys. At times they saw me taking their pictures other times...

Nikon D40 – Exposure .003 sec (1/320) – Aperture f/5.6 – Focal Lenght 28mm – ISO 400 In honor of Father’s Day and the new re-vamp of this site I decided to post on of my most favorite photos from our Spring Break trip to Durango, Colorado. This particular photo was taken inside the entrance to the Aztec National Ruins. I however did some pretty big cropping to take out elements of the photo I found distracting and then used the B&W High Contrast preset in Lightroom tweaking the exposure ever so slightly. This is the original photo below:

This is a new test.

Nikon D40 – Exposure .002 sec (1/500) – Aperture f/7.1 – Focal Length 78mm – ISO 400 Manual setting to Aperture Priority with White Balance and ISO set manually. Photography for me is fun, a creative outlet, a hobby, a release. There are no pressures to get the right shot, right light, color, etc. Usually I’ll take 50 photos and like 4-5 and really like maybe 1-2. I’ve begun to have friends and family ask me to do a photo shoot for them and I don’t really mind if I have the time but I get concerned about their expectations. I don’t want to waste...

Nikon D40 – Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125) – Aperture f/5.6 – Focal Length 55 mm – ISO Speed 200 I was actually worried about how this photo would turn out because there was a lot of shade everywhere. Turns out what I really had a hard time with was getting them both to look towards me at the same time. This was the closest they got. The Z Man looks like a pro with Mr. CJ acting as if I was really bugging him asking him to look at me. Used a slight antique color action here and no other adjustments. Going to try again this weekend and have some friends who want me to shoot...

Nikon D40 – Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125) – Aperture f/4.8 – Focal Length 105 mm – ISO Speed 400 Black and White (High Contrast) Preset – Adobe Lightroom 2.0 This photo is proof of what a well placed crop can get you. Originally in the frame were three people including myself. Being that I wasn’t too fond of my pose or the goofy look on my youngest boy but loving the smile on this guy, I cropped us out! I applied a high contrast black and white filter and loved it! His eyes take the cake for me, funny because 5 minutes earlier he was crying…

Nikon D40 – Exposure .167 sec (1/6) – Aperture f/5.6 – Focal Length 50mm – ISO 1600 Sometimes it pays to find a different or completely new perspective. Even if it means laying on the floor with your little guy who is really ill. He spent a lot of this past weekend laying in a chair or on the floor (along with his brother) and we also watched a lot of cartoons and took naps. They had a stomach bug. I really like the lighting on his hair and the actions I used to soften the picture a little more. It really helps convey the feeling here. Nikon D40 – Exposure .2 sec...

Nikon D40 – Exposure .001 sec (1/1250) – Aperture f/5 – Focal Length 135mm – ISO 400 Using textures with photos isn’t a novel process but for some reason lately it’s a big hit. I used a texture with this photo and applied it as a layer mask in Photoshop. I did not however place the texture over my subject, i painted it out in the layer so that the texture effect only affects my background. I also lowered the opacity of the texture layer and used a soft light lay over. It adds a little bit of something to this photo along with the faded antique color. Photoshop...

Nikon D40 – Exposure .001 sec (1/2000) – Aperture f/5.3 – Focal Length 135mm – ISO 400 Caught a fellow photog in action at the football game this weekend. Okay, so it’s just Uncle Ken but he was still out there getting in a few good shots too. You can see his whole set here.

Nikon D40 – Exposure .002 sec (1/500) – Aperture f/5.6 – Focal Length 62mm – ISO 280 I love using the sun as back light. It makes for some really great effects on wispy hair, grass, you name it. This is what the youngest does at his brothers football games. That and ask a million times if it’s time to go yet. Sometimes he watches the games, most times he’s playing a game on my phone. He loves to lay in the grass though and I just got low and pointed the camera in his direction and trusted the auto focus. I wanted a way to bring the attention more to his eyes...

Nikon D40 – Exposure .003 sec (1/320) – Aperture f/5 – Focal Length 112mm – ISO 400 SOOC – Straight out of Camera This was a funky angle I shot of my little man at the park last week. It’s a bit busy but I still really liked the angle. I decided it was a good image to play around with a bit. So first I just adjusted the contrast level like this - That made the photo look really nice and I really think I could’ve stopped there. I decided to give an old favorite Lightroom preset Antique Fade to see how that would go - I like the soft focus this preset...

Nikon D40 – Exposure .002 sec (1/640) – Aperture f/6.3 – Focal Length – 120mm – ISO 200 I did some post-processing editing on this one but not a whole lot of it. I adjusted some contrast and the exposure a little and used a slight vignette around the edges of the photo. That really helps set the focus straight onto my subject. He has such a serious, down to business look. This was his first catch/run of the season.