Photo Of The Day 02/08/09 - Flower Print

Jennifer recently put this old flower print I got from my grandparents' home on a side table under a funky lamp we also got from my grandparents' home.  The first thing I noticed was if the light was on, then the light from the lamp mimics the lighting in the flower image.  Typically we don't ever have the lamp on, but I could not resist this photo.  I don't think Jennifer ever noticed the connection. Camera:  Pentax K20 with Pentax FA50mm prime lens ISO = 400, Aperture=1.4 and the exposure was 1/90 of a second. Lighting:  That lamp, right there in the photogrpah

See the rest of my Photo Of The Day posts here or just look at the photos on Flickr.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Photo Of The Day 02/07/09 - Home Depot

Today we went to Home Depot with Olivia's scout troop for a fun day of making wood trinket boxes.  I did bring along my camera to photograph some memories.  It was a fun time, but I did not make a single fantastic photo.  The one above is probably my favorite.  Mia was very excited to get her own apron, complete with her name as well as a pin and the opportunity to make something cool.  The woman in the background of this photo was very kind even though Mia played shy and did not really say a word to her.

Olivia's scout troop seemed to really enjoy themselves and allowed me to photograph all of them at the very end.

For all of the photos from the day, visit my Smugmug site at pomranka.smugmug.com

Camera:  Pentax K20 with Pentax DA18-55mm lens ISO = 200, Aperture=4.0 and the exposure was 1/45 of a second. Lighting:  Home Depot lighting

See the rest of my Photo Of The Day posts here or just look at the photos on Flickr

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Photo Of The Day 02/06/09 - Comparison

I just picked up a new Pentax  DA 18-55mm lens and wanted to compare the image quality to that of my Pentax FA 50mm F1.4.  Here are two very similar images shot with two different lenses.  The top image is with my 50mm prime and the bottom one used my new 18-55mm.  I have to say, it took me a while to see any differences and I don't think they are very significant.  However, after some major pixel peeing, I was able to determine that my new 18-55mm has slightly brighter or bolder colors.  This might be a little off because Olivia did move around as I was changing the lens and her position relative to the light might have something to do with the subtle difference.

Camera:  Pentax K20 with Pentax FA50mm prime for the top photo and my new Pentax DA18-55mm for the bottom photo.  To keep everything as similar as possible for both images ISO = 200, Aperture=11 and the exposure was 1/180 of a second. Lighting:  Nikon SB-25 @ 1/2 power and 50mm zoom to camera left shot it into a very light khaki colored wall to camera right, about a foot from Olivia.  I then added fill light with a silver reflector to camera left.  Triggered with AlienBees CyberSyncs.

See the rest of my Photo Of The Day posts here or just look at the photos on Flickr

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Photo Of The Day 02/02/09 - Ashley on a PC

Nothing real special about this photograph, but it was my only photo form Feb 2nd, so it gets to be photo of the day.  The reason behind this photo is that Ashley loves her Mac and we like to joke around about the whole Mac/PC debate.  So when I walked into the office one day and saw her working on a PC and not her Mac, I had to capture the image for all to see. 

Camera:  Pentax K20 19-35mm lens  ISO 400 Aperture f/4.5 Exposure 1/20 (Yes, it was hand held.  I love the Pentax shake reduction.)
Lighting:  Just crappy office lighting

See the rest of my Photo Of The Day posts here or just look at the photos on Flickr

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Photo Of The Day 01/30/09 - Snow Angel

We had a decent bit of snow in St. Louis at the end of January.  It was not tons, but enough to really cover the ground and the statues that I brought back form Loveland over the summer.  We have on angel in the front yard that looked pretty cool with the snow coming up one side of it. 

So quickly before I had to take the girls to school I rushed out side with my camera.  I wish I would not have been rushed, because I was not really happy with any of the photos.  The best one of the day still required some post processing in Lightroom.  Nothing too much except for really cranking up the black levels.

Although the photograph is not horrible, the thought of a massive crop to get rid of all of the red in the background sounded interesting.  So I took the photo to the left and turned it into the photo above.  I think the cropping really simplifies the image to show what I really wanted to show, all the snow piled up on the angel.  What do you think?  Agree or disagree?

Leave your thought in the comments.

Camera:  Pentax K20 50mm prime lens  ISO 200 Aperture f/1.4 Exposure 1/1500

Lighting:  Just the overcast morning sun

See the rest of my Photo Of The Day posts here or just look at the photos on Flickr

Thanks for reading my ramblings.