Best of the 365 Blog – January 2019

Nikon D810, 105mm (28-105), 1/500, f/4.5, ISO 800

The new year began as usual with our annual trip to Kaufman Stadium to wish the Royals luck in the coming summer. The scattered glitter behind the medallion created an interesting halo effect.

Nikon D810, 1/100, f/4.5, ISO 800

 This month we’re fostering two kittens. As a group they’re called The Wonder Twins. This one is Rudy.

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 And this one is Max.

 

Nikon D810, 105mm (28-105), 1/60, f/10, ISO 200

 Driving down Washington Boulevard not far from my house, I noticed a branch stuck on a power line. It made an interesting series of images.

iPhone 7, cropped and filtered

Back at the college for pre-semester inservice. The actual weather was almost as gloomy as this black and white filter job implies.

Nikon D810, 90mm (28-105), 1/100, f/8, ISO 400

A long time ago we had a Christmas tree on the back deck. Its tree topper was a sun face, at least until the ornament fell off and broke. Its pieces are still lurking about the deck. Frame ...

Nikon D810, 105mm (28-105), 1/800, f/4.5, ISO 400

... and face.

Nikon D810, 21mm (18-35), 1/320, f/16, ISO 400

I needed a symmetrical landscape for a 52-week challenge I’m working on. I also needed some shot composition examples for the weekly exercise in my photography class. As the flags indicate, it was extremely windy. And very cold. I actually had to give up before I got everything I was after.

Best of the 365 Blog – May 2018

The end of this month marks the second year in a row that I’ve successfully completed the 365 project.

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/100, f/9, ISO 100

The sight of a tree covered with white blossoms in the middle of a graveyard was too interesting to pass up, so I actually retrieved a camera from home to get the picture. Unfortunately, at the time I was also playing around with some filters in Lightroom. I noticed after the fact that switching this to black and white makes the white blossoms indistinguishable from everyday green leaves.

Nikon 810, 75mm? (28-105), 1/1000, f/4.5, ISO 400

Narrow depth of field makes for a good photo from the college’s flower garden.

Nikon 810, 300mm (75-300), 1/160, f/11, ISO 100, cropped

During this year’s annual visit from the carpenter bees, I finally got camera, lens, light and subject to line up perfectly.

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The clouds blew through without dropping any rain, but they certainly look ominous.

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/60, f/5.0, ISO 800

Part of the series of photos I took in the caboose we rented in Arkansas.

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.0, ISO 400

Another caboose shot, this time a rain-slick exterior.

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 250

I stopped for awhile in a small park in Eureka Springs and took pictures of some yarn-bombed trees. It was a relaxing experience.

Nikon 810, 75mm? (28-105), 1/100, f/4.5, ISO 5000

Back at home, some used limes in the sink turned out to be more visually interesting than the average daily desperation photo.

Best of the 365 Blog – April 2018

Spring is in the air. At least sorta.

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/125, f/22, ISO 100

I needed an illustration for a piece I was writing about cookie-targeted ads. By fortunate coincidence, my mom baked some particularly photogenic Easter cookies for us.

Also please note that I may be getting some bad data on some of these. I doubt that I shot this many photos with my 28-105mm lens at exactly 75mm.

Nikon 810, focus stacked (28-105mm), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 6400

The Picasso exhibit at the Nelson closed early in the month, so I got over there on a quiet weekday before the crowds got bad. I took some phone photos the first time I went through, but I wanted to go back with the 810 and get some better shots.

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 400

Happy Easter! Again courtesy of Mom.

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 400

Though I admit that I shot this out of desperation to get a photo for the day, I nonetheless like the result. I was working on a masked layer color wheel in Photoshop, so this fit with something else I was already working on.

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Shower thought: the shadow of the shower curtain rod and rings looks like an alligator.

Nikon 810, 50mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.0, ISO 1600

A good rain storm (especially with a little hail) is always a good opportunity for a study in motion.

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 1600

Didn’t dare drink it, but it made an interesting photo.

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I noticed this tree in bloom on my walk from class back to my office.

Best of the 365 Blog – March 2018

Other than spring break, March was a sparse month for photography. Rather than publish an excessive number of bad snapshots, I’m going with five photos rather than the usual eight.

Nikon 810, 66mm (28-105), 1/100, f/10, ISO 200

I’m using this photo of the leftovers from a traffic mishap to teach students about visual storytelling and how to read an image.

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 800

As bad as the rest of the month was, our trip to Pratt, Kan., was a visual goldmine. I took dozens of photos at the Pratt County Historical Museum, including this shot of my favorite exhibit: the toaster collection.

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), HDR

The next day we drove to Greensburg to visit the Big Well. This is an HDR shot from the bottom looking up.

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On the other hand, this is what most of March was like. It’s a somewhat interesting pattern of mulch bags, but it doesn’t amount to much more than a quick picture taken while I was out running errands. It meets the one-photo-per-day requirement but not much more.

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/125, f/25, ISO 100, cropped

Dramatic lighting and macro focus make this small bear from my bookshelf look quite menacing.

Best of the 365 Blog – February 2018

Nikon 810, 35mm (18-35), 1/200, f/22, ISO 400

March got off to an interesting start with a photo of a lonely ball in the middle of the street.

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/200, f/16, ISO 400

The outdoor kittens have turned into outdoor cats. This is the same guy from the January best of.

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 100

For many years I’ve meant to start a photo essay (maybe even a book) documenting cenotaphs. That project officially got underway this month.

Nikon 810, 8mm, 1/60, f/3.5, ISO 1250

Bathroom renovation continues apace. This is a shot using the 8mm lens.

Nikon 7000, 100mm (28-200), 1/60, f/5.3, ISO 1600

I had my honors students do a group cooperation exercise. It produced some interesting results and this interesting picture.

Nikon 810, 90mm (28-105), 1/80, f.4.5, ISO 320

In January I blogged a photo of the bathroom light fixture without its glass. Here it is with everything in place. I had a little fun with the exposure, which is why it looks a little strange.

Nikon 810, 50mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4, ISO 3200

Anna has a yawn, making for an interesting shot.

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/60, f/13, ISO 800, adjusted

The contrast in this photo as shot was already fairly stark, so I pushed it as far as it would go. On my bookshelves at work I’ve got a guide to the laborious process of producing this result in the darkroom. In Lightroom it was a quick tweak of a slider.

Best of the 365 Blog – January 2018

Nikon 810, 98mm (28-105), 1/4000, f/4.5, ISO 200

The year got off to a good photographic start with a little bokeh from the ballpark.

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/1000, f/4.5, ISO 400

Last year’s outdoor kittens are starting to get big.

Nikon 810, 66mm (28-105), 1/80, f/4.5, ISO 8000

I finally got the drone out of the box. Any day now I’m going to fly it.

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/125, f/10, ISO 200

We’re getting some work done in our bathroom. This is the new light fixture without the glass balls that will hang from the hooks.

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/125, f/5.6, ISO 400

We have two questions: where is breakfast, and give us breakfast. Mom’s on the far right.

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 4000

For my photo class, I needed to take a picture of something I hated. This is part of the old kitchen sink faucet that was screwed up, leaked water into the basement, and was a colossal pain to remove.

Nikon 810, 92mm (28-105), 1/80, f/11, ISO 500

Also for the class: something I collect. Freakies. The full set.

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/2500, f/4.5, ISO 200

Somebody had a horrible fight and left blood and bloody footprints all over the stoop.

Best of the 365 Blog - December 2017

To officially finish out 2017, here’s the best of the 365 blog from December.

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Too far away to get much goose detail with the phone, but I liked the random scattering juxtaposed with the architectural geometry.

Nikon D7000, Lensbaby single glass with shaped aperture, 1/2 sec, ISO 100

 For the final, “fun” session of my photo class, we played around with shaped bokeh by hanging a string of Christmas lights on the wall behind a ceramic figure.

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Tile on the floor at City Fish and More.

Nikon D810, 55mm (28-105), HDR

Christmas lights on the house across the street. This is an HDR combo of three photos.

Nikon D810, 8mm, 1/60, f/4, ISO 200

I shot this fisheye view of our bathroom renovation in progress by lying down on the floor.

Nikon D810, 105mm (28-105), 1/100, f/14, ISO 800

The first real snowfall of the winter. One of the outside cats left some prints on the walk.

Nikon D810, 90mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 8000

Our contractor’s shop vac looks like it has a smiley face.

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And to finish out the year, some tiny snowflakes on the car window.