A walk in the woods, peak color

CJ and I took Scarlett for a walk in some woods nearby.  The timing was perfect, late afternoon light and plenty of leaves still on the trees (enough on the ground to build a new collection though).

Somehow, Scarlett didn't make it into any photos this time around.  But at least she was somewhat behaved...

Another leaf

I think I took a similar photo last year, although it was further down the block. The neighbors are starting to think I'm kind of weird, photographing leaves on the part of their lawn where all the dogs pee and poop. But the fall light on the leaves in the grass works pretty well I think.

Good weekend, good photos

We had a pretty decent weekend where nothing went wrong, we managed to enjoy the sensational weather, and even the dog behaved herself. Go figure. On Saturday we went on a hike in an estuarine reserve in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and while we didn't see any cool migratory birds, we did have a nice time in a nice piece of woodlands whose leaves were just starting to turn colors. We also saw some pretty marsh scenery. Heck, when it's 70 and sunny, anything looks beautiful... and it is.

Oh, and a special note of thanks to the spider whose web held up the leaf in the first shot!

On the merry-go-round

I've been working hard to keep up with everything at home and at the office, and sometimes it's harder than it should be... As a consequence, I haven't really kept up with this blog, which is too bad because when I started it I swore that I'd keep it going despite what may happen. Oh well. Life is starting to look up a little bit though, and we are starting to get out a bit more. And CJ enjoyed the carousel, even though she wasn't too keen on getting her picture taken...

Family photo

It's been a rough few weeks again, as I've hunkered down and worked hard at the office. But after a week of rain last week, we went for a family hike and managed to get in a nice family portrait before the dog went nuts, overstimulated by everyone out and about, ruining a nice day.

What's interesting is that photoshop crashed twice while I was trying to make the magenta highlights a little less intense. It was a minor fix, but weird that that it crashed the software twice...

Four images after Irene visited

Hurricane Irene came and went this weekend. Overall, the house faired pretty well and the trees made it through without much damage. My butterfly bushes, however, didn't do so well.

The winds knocked them all over. But it was nothing a little hard work couldn't rectify. Here's hoping there was no permanent damage.

After the landscaping work, I took Meg and CJ to Great Falls, where the water was high but not as ridiculously excessive as you would expect after a major hurricane passes through. Of interest was a great blue heron that I captured with my new lens:

I'm not 100% certain it was a heron, and will try to find time to confirm later today...

Family portraits (sort of)

On Saturday, we went on the first hike we've taken in what seems like forever. It's the first time I was in any kind of woods since March, really. It's been that kind of year.

Anyhow, we somehow missed a large number of rainstorms and got in some nice tree-hugging. And almost everyone smiled for their portrait...

New Lens

It's been an absolutely crazy summer--crazy year, actually. And while I've been home for the past few weeks, I thought I should treat myself to something. So I sold off a lens on ebay (my heavy Tokina 50-135 f2.8) and bought a Sigma 100-300 f4 on sale.

So what did I shoot in test-driving the new lens? A nice buck was kind enough to pause for a few photos in my backyard before moving along (I helped in that process, of course). Unfortunately, no butterflies and no hummingbirds were available for additional shots, but there as a cute little moth at least...

How sharp is the lens? Pretty sharp. This is a 100% crop from my Canon 60D:

Another step

Last night I entered a photography contest for the first time. Outdoorphotographer.com posts themed assignments every week; the one I entered is on "heat." In thinking how to approach this, I chose to get Scarlett taking a drink after running amok. CJ helped with the shot. My entry can be found below, or here if you'd like to vote for it.

Storm clouds

This one looked really nasty. But does the photo properly show the intimidation factor?

At the fountain

I took this at a big fountain close by over the July 4 weekend. Given the coming heat wave, we may be making a return trip soon!

First attempt at panning...

As CJ led her friends in doing laps around someone's backyard, I tried to experiment in panning the shot: tracking the action and shooting with a longer exposure while staying focused on the subject.

I was somewhat successful; the picture below is more abstract than I wanted but successfully shows some of the motion, along with the joy of being five and running around in circles.

A weird bug visits out butterfly bushes

Undoubtedly, I'll be able to figure out what type of bug this is (some type of moth was our guess). At first I thought it was a hummingbird. It was pretty neat though. And Scarlett didn't really bark too much despite how excited we were to look at it. Will wonders ever cease?

My butterfly bushes are now peaking

The only thing better than looking at these bushes is smelling them. Until smellovision comes to the internet, you're just going to have to take my word for it.

The tulips were popping

This was a scene from the garden in April. The morning sun hit the new tulips perfectly. Sometimes, a flash is used to light up the subject and as a result the background is a perfect black. But in this case additional light was not needed.

A scene from a strategy meeting

My apologies for not posting lately. June has been a pretty crazy roller coaster ride, and we're only 1/3 of the way done.

Anyhow, I took the photo below at a strategy meeting where the AV/power set-up was far from optimal. It made for good visuals though...

Making News

Scenes from my life as a publicist.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Congress in action

This shot was taken at a House Agriculture Committee hearing in March. It appealed to me, maybe because of the pinstriped suits, maybe because if you look real close you'll see that the portrait in the front of the room is of the representative in the middle of the picture.

Ahh, photoshop

I tried to take photos of my Mom's surprise party at the end of February. It was a disaster; I didn't bring the standard lens, the room was dark and all I had was the on-board flash which cast a shadow when paired with the wide-angle lens I used. And the wide-angle flares, as you can see in this example, even with birthday candles.

But thanks to photoshop--photoshop elements, the junior edition no less!--this picture with too fabulous smiles has been salvaged. I think it even merits placement on my office wall.

Do you agree?

Another dog

At the end of March I cleverly dumped a mug of coffee on our old laptop, inadvertently imposing a break from extensive photo editing and sorting. We now have a new computer and I am almost done setting it up, which means it's time to dig out of a backlog of photos taken but not reviewed/processed/whatever.

Below is an image I took back in February. This is Tucker, my brother-in-law's yellow lab (or English lab, or something similar). Tucker likes sitting on the kitchen chairs, can't you tell?

What to do with this?

Walking home from the Metro yesterday, I came across the following scene. The homeowner has been having trouble with his/her holly-tree-hedge, and dug out a few of them so that they could be replaced (I guess).

Caught between wanting to capture the cool-looking root ball, the disruption in an otherwise smooth hedge, and the new spring feel of the leaves, I tried to capture it all:

Should I have just tried for a closeup or two? Or a different perspective?

Looking out the window

Or is she admiring her portrait?

Getting attention

This is one photo that's pretty self-explanatory. It's interesting that I'm having a difficult time keeping Scarlett's nose in focus, even when focusing manually.

More from spring

The hits just keep on coming, like this little daffodil and his back-up chorus:

Spring, take 2

A local magnolia tree catching the fading afternoon light:

Spring is springing

Last November, I took a leap of faith and pruned back the roses that the previous owner had planted. Last winter, the one with the extremely large snowstorms, I didn't prune the roses back. And it looked like the previous owner hadn't touched the roses in quite some time, if ever.

But hey, don't you know, this whole pruning thing actually works. I may yet become a gardener...

Union Station Red Line platform, 10:37 am

Sick passenger delay, everyone was kicked off the train. I looked up from my pda and noticed that not too many people were looking up from theirs. Amusingly enough, once I pulled my camera out to take this photo, a few other people did likewise...

The dog that took over our lives and stole our hearts

It certainly wasn't a hostile takeover. Peaceful? No. Easy? No. Any Regrets? Not really... But could we have the couch back please?

Meet Scarlett O'Hara

Not an exceptional photo, but quite an exceptional dog.

Hong Kong

Exploring Hong Kong in November 2008

Recapturing the pose, en masse

Mom and a few of the "girls," trying yet another recreation. The harsh backlight made for a tough shot; in postprocessing I opted for a black and white shot that emphasized the light. It was easier and more practical than fighting through it in photoshop.

Happy Birthday Mom!

She still has it - and I'm not talking about the white sweater. That was a loaner for this pose; I think it made for a nice touch.

Debut

This is a new blog that will explore how I can display and play with my photography. Much like my daughter's fashion design, my photography tools are cobbled together from spare parts and secondhand online stores. The results from her design studio, displayed above, are unimpeachable; I can only hope to approach that standard.

Kids Stuff

Photos from a father's perspective

Morocco

Exploring Agadir and Essaouira

Egypt: Antiquities

Exploring Egypt in March 2010

Egypt: Cairo

Travels through Cairo in March, 2010

Chesapeake

Exploring the Chesapeake Bay in January, 2011

High Sierras

Travels through Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks in August 2010