Last sunrise of the year.

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Dec 312006
 


Well, for sure, it was nothing spectacular! Hobbs and I left for our walk about 30 minutes, or so, before sunrise. Sunrise was scheduled for 7:31 AM. It was totally cloudy and starting to sprinkle, so I didn’t think that we’d even get a peek at the sun.

About a 1/2 hour into our journey, I began looking for the sun and lo and behold, it appeared briefly for all of about 30 seconds. It was a feeble attempt, but one nevertheless. I got to take about 2 shots and then it was gone. I waited in between shots to see if it would get any better, but it didn’t.

So, we continued on with our walk. In the end, we covered our 4 miles, got rained on a couple of times, but it was light rain, and came into the house. The sun hasn’t been seen since.

Naturally, tomorrow I’ll be looking for the first sunrise of 2007, at least for this neck of the woods, as it has already happened in New Zealand, which is 18 hours ahead of EST!

 Posted by Paul at 5:32 pm

Looking back

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Dec 302006
 


Well, there is but one more sunrise and one more sunset left in 2006. Unfortunately, with rain in the forecast for the next 2 days, it doesn’t look like I’ll get to experience them.

I’m not one to reminisce much, but this has been a great year.

  • This year I got back into my photography, after a long hiatus of several years.

  • I took time off from work to explore my passion. I visited the Blue Ridge Parkway in both NC and VA quite few times!

  • I started two blogs, after not even knowing what a blog was! :-)

  • I started dieting and exercising have lost 31 pounds, 18 of these over the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays!

  • I bought a Nikon D2x and whole bunch of other stuff to go with it.

  • I met some really nice people of the internet and have a feeling that one of them will become a very close friend … you know who you are! I’ll be there for a visit in March!

  • I’ve seen some really good photography on the web.

Overall, it’s just been fantastic.

I think that this is my favorite picture that I took this year. Based on my frame counter, I’ve shot well over 14,000 images since April. Of course, a lot of them have been deleted, or are duplicates. Of those 14,000, I’ve posted 234, a scant 1.6%.

Next year, I think that the number of exposures will be less, but the quality higher and type of image will be different. I’m really looking forward to my Next Step workshop and getting some shots of people.

So, here’s to a Happy New Year! (Lifts his glass of Beringer White Zin to toast!)

 Posted by Paul at 11:59 pm

Portrait photography having a difficult time.

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Dec 282006
 

Occasionally, I cruise through photography related news looking for a few nuggets here and there. In the past two weeks I’ve seen information related to portrait photography.

I remember, as a child, all of our school pictures used to be done by Olan Mills photo studios. Well, now they are defunct, bankrupt, kaput! Other photography studios are having a hard time enticing customers into the studio, as well. Loddy, doddy, and every darn body has a digital camera, access to color printers, and cheap processing, so they are doing there own thing.

No longer is a customer willing to pay a $100 sitting fee and pay a markup for an 8×10, etc. when they can take the picture, go to Eckerd, have it processed, and place it on the mantle, all about 1 or 2 days, for little of nothing. Sure, it’s not a ‘professional quality’ shot done with studio lighting, etc., but who cares? They just want the memory.

So, like the pony express, the portrait studio is swiftly becoming a thing of the past. I foresee slim times for portrait studios as digital cameras become more ubiquitous, a fate similar to the pay phone after the advent of the cell phone. The pay phones are few and far between, but they still exist.

 Posted by Paul at 3:00 pm

The quest for the perfect lens!

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Dec 272006
 


In my continuing quest for the perfect lens, I’m again looking at the Nikon 18-200 VR zoom lens. This lens has been out of stock forever, basically since its introduction in early 2005. Sure, I could get one, used, off of eBay for about $1000. The MSRP is $690 and retailers, such as B&H, Adorama, and Ritz are selling them for $749, when they have them in stock.

The thing that attracts me about the 18-200 is that it is a great walk-around lens. What more do you need? This weekend I was walking along the beach taking pictures with my favorite lens, the Nikon 18-70mm, but there were, and always are, those times that I wished that I could zoom out to 200mm to catch a seagull in flight, or whatever. Changing lenses is slow and somewhat cumbersome. I’d like to just be able to take the shot.

Now, my perfect lens would probably be an 11-500mm zoom, f/2.8, Internal Focus, Vibration Reduction lens with very little distortion, if any, at any place along the zoom range! That’s 45x zoom! Oh yeah, with a price of under $1,000!!! And, last, but not least, a solid construction with a weight under 2 pounds! Keep dreaming!!! :-)

I’ve ordered mine from Ritz and it will probably be a few months before I get it. I won’t, however, get rid of my 80-200mm f/2.8 Nikon lens just yet. It is THE sharpest lens that I have and is just amazing and at a constant f/2.8, it can’t be beat for low light situations … with a tripod. This beast is heavy because it is built like a tank!

Oh well, I’ll just have to keep swapping out lenses until I get a good mix, or until that 11-500mm f/2.8 VR IF comes out! :-)

 Posted by Paul at 12:38 pm

Full tilt!

 Photography  Comments Off
Dec 252006
 

My friend, Hobbs, after an all-out, seagull-chasing, rainy morning walk. As part of his Christmas present, and because there were few people on the beach, I let Hobbs free to run along the beach and remove the seagulls, which he seemed more than happy to do.

This is after his run. Never once did he go into the water. He doesn’t ‘do’ water. This is all from the rain. We had a great time walking in the rain. I had my camera protected under my jacket and took it out to shoot. I looked rather odd, to tell the truth, with my jacket protruding out away from my body. :-)

All in all, we had a great time. I may go back again, even though it’s supposed to rain all day. Only about 4 hours left before darkness.
 Posted by Paul at 7:03 pm

Merry Christmas

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Dec 252006
 

My family and I are pretty non-traditional when it comes to holidays, but one thing is for sure, we’re always together.

Every year since we moved from Texas, we’ve gone on out of town for Christmas. As of right now, we are at Saint Simons Island, Georgia.

This morning, I woke up about 6:30 AM, went to the beach, took some pictures, and then came back to the house. Afterwards, my wife and I went and walked about 1 mile with Hobbs, then about an additional 3.5 miles, without him. My feet were hurting quite a bit when I came back. I should have asked for some new shoes for Christmas! :-)

We don’t buy really big presents for each other, but we spend a bit on the kids, even though they are 22 and 14.

Earlier this afternoon we all went to the pier, caught a few blue crabs, and generally had a good time. Looks like I may be rained out tomorrow, though. 90% chance of rain. Of well, maybe just down with the new books that I have and read all day. I may be tempted to go outside in the rain and take some pictures. Rain makes for great mood. I only need a little something to protect my camera.

I got a new 2GB card for the camera, too, and a pedometer to see how far I walk!

All in all, what really matters is that I am with the family at this time of year.
 Posted by Paul at 6:41 am

Lacking Christmas Spirit

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Dec 182006
 

My Christmas spirit, this year, is a bit lacking. It feels kind of like this Santa, a bit flat.
For whatever reason, I just can’t seem to get up for the occasion. My wife is having the same feeling, too. We just aren’t in to it. I think that is because this is the first year that we won’t be spending Christmas with relatives. After we moved from Texas, we had people come to visit us.

Last year we had Christmas, with friends, at the beach. This year, we will go to the beach as well. I think that it has also to do with the fact that our kids are no longer kids. Pedro is 22 and out of the house at school. Tony is 14 and is still excited about Christmas but, for the most part, wants money so that he can buy himself some new clothes.

I usually don’t want much of anything for Christmas. I buy what I want throughout the year and want for nothing. My wife just likes to be surprised and she is easy to please.
We’ll do what we usually do, send presents to all of the kids in the family. Nieces, nephews, etc. Oh well, I don’t feel bad, just not ‘joyous’. :-)
 Posted by Paul at 12:30 am
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