Ground Cover Angel

My wife loves angels, so one year for Chanukah, I bought her this clay angel for the garden.

This location isn't the angel's normal habitat, but I liked the contrast of the terra-cotta, green ground cover (don't ask me, I don't know from plants!) and the fallen leaves.

Shot in the fall of 2004 with my Digital Rebel and it's 18-55mm kit lens.

Testing...

I'll be photographing a wedding at the US Naval Academy Chapel this coming weekend, using, among other things, a borrowed Digital Rebel XTi and a my brand-new Sigma EF 530 DG Super flash unit. So it was time to test, test, test.

Since I haven't been "in the yard" for several years, I schlepped my gear to the Naval Academy, about six miles from our house. As luck would have it, the Chapel was closed for Labor Day. But my trip was far from in vain, as it was useful to scout out shooting locations and note the location and movement of the sun (I went at 2PM, same time as the wedding will be Saturday).

In the process, I shot just over 200 pictures (many of which were just bursts of 10 or more images of the same thing, just to stress the camera, flash, new 2GB Compact Flash card, and the smaller battery of the XTi.)

I'm happy to say that all the gear came through with flying colors. I especially like the Digital Rebel XTi (400D) as compared to my camera, an "original" Digital Rebel. My now 4-year old camera uses the original Canon DIGIC image processor, whereas the XT and XTi use the next generation DIGIC II procesor. Whereas my camera takes about 2.5 seconds to "wake up", the newer models "wake up" instantly - sometimes this can mean getting or not getting a shot.

Beyond that, the control layout of the XTi and the way you use the very nice 2-1/2" LCD for all camera operations are well thought-out. The XTi is noticably smaller than the original DR, something I thought I'd have a problem with - but to me, it didn't seem cramped at all - it was just right (I don't have especially large hands, mind you.)

Although the Chapel was closed, many of the rest of the buildings were open. I stopped inside Dahlgren Hall and got this photo of a replica of a 1911 Wright Navy B-1, the very first airplane delivered to the U.S. Navy.
Dahlgren Hall has had many uses over the more than 100 years of its life, including an indoor ice-skating rink. Much of it is now given over the the Drydock Restaurant, which on this day seemed to be layed out for a mess.
After a while, I left the Academy and walked the few blocks to City Dock to get a bite to eat and watch the crowd enjoying the pleasant weather by Spa Creek.

"The B & B Talk Show"

Sandy was doing some VHS archeology today - she wants to take our 25 years of family videos and transfer them to DVD - a great idea.

I picked up one of the ancient tapes and suddenly there was our son Ben and his friend-from-birth and next-door-neighbor Bryan, ten years ago at age 11.

Trained by me from a young age to be a wise-guy, Ben and Brian were performing their long-running "B & B Talk Show." They were two talented kids even back then. Bryan was already a pretty good pianist, and Ben was learning a lot from him.

Most of the "show" was just what you'd expect from two kids this age, a lot of lame jokes and shennanigans - probably not of much interest to anyone but me, my family, and Bryan's family.

One thing I noticed is that Ben was already working on his "Hey Kids!" expression (see the fourth photo below.)









At one point, the video jumped ahead four years to Ben & Bryan doing a 15-year-old's version of B & B Talk Show. By now, Bryan was an accomplished keyboardist, guitarist, and drummer. Ben had also become a darn good guitarist and was getting up to speed on drums as well.

Suddenly, as if in a time warp, the scene before me was once again Ben and Bryan at age 11, brandishing "swords" and nunchucks (I think Sandy had transferred 8mm video to VHS and happened to get some segments out of order.)

To see what Ben looks like today (or at least a few months ago,) see this post.

Meanwhile, maybe I can prevail on these two clowns to do an updated B & B Talk Show for YouTube.

Slo-Mo

Another "Wild Kingdom" photo shot during a recent trip to the Marlyand Zoo in Baltimore.

This is an especially nice-looking Spur-Thigh Tortoise (Geochelone sulcata), probably weighing over 200 pounds (they can grow to 240 lb, according to the Zoo.)

Ol' Spur-Thigh's usual stomping grounds are the southern fringes of North Africa, a band that goes all the way across the continent.

Taken with a Canon Digital Rebel (D300) Taken with a Canon Digital Rebel (D300) mounting a Sigma 70-300mm Macro II zoom lens racked all the way out to 300mm.

Brockville Farm

A rusty wheel from an ancient farm implement guards the door of a long-unused barn in Brockville, Ontario.

Taken last week while visiting my wife's cousins in rural Brockville, an area full of beautiful farms south of Ottawa.

For this photo, before snapping the exposure, I envisioned that the textures, shapes, and shadows suggested a black-and-white treatment. Shot with a Canon Digital Rebel and Canon EF-S 18-55mm zoom. Back in the electronic darkroom, I applied a gradient mask in photoshop to produce the B&W version.

The small photo at right doesn't quite show off the texture, so be sure to click on it to see the larger version

Pour Les Oisseaux

I don't know what it is lately, but my best photos over the last few weeks have been for the birds. Well, of birds, that is.

I met this handsome fellow on the deck of the ferry from Cape May, NJ to Lewes, DE the other week. We were returning home after having seen the Rain concert in Atlantic City the night before. Atlantic City, in our humble opinion, is dumpy and depressing, but the ride down the Jersey Shore to Cape May the next morning was anything but - one handsome beach town after the other.

Taken with a Canon Digital Rebel (D300) mounting a Sigma 70-300mm Macro II zoom lens.

Storm

Here's a storm drain manhole cover on East Pratt Street that I must have walked by hundreds of times on my way to work. One day recently, I did a double-take when I realized that it was full of blossoms that had fallen from the tree above it.

I thought this was something photographically worthwhile, and I took a few shots with the Canon A640 I carry in my backpack. After getting back home and editing the image in Photoshop, I really liked it, but I wasn't sure it would appeal to anyone else.

At times like that, I often do a sanity-check with our son Ben, so I emailed him a copy. Here's his reply:

I love this storm image and I’ll tell you why. Because the word storm carries with it a feeling and meaning of volatility. But then wrapped around it and even sometimes covering it up are these beautiful flowers of nature. This shows both extreme ends of nature. It also represents that maybe the storm was what caused the beautiful flowers to fall, yet they are still beautiful afterwards.