Month: October 2006

  • Strike Up the Band!

    This picture thing is certainly a success! Tonight, I passed up the $650 mark in high school football game sales in just over two weeks. Believe me, I'm the most surprised of anyone. Now, I'm getting requests for senior pictures and portraits and more band performances and for calendars and nature prints. If only my sister would trust me to take her pictures, that's one thing I don't understand. So my answer to that is yes, yes, and yes. I will be putting my nature and travel images online and making prints up to 11x14 (which look beautiful with 6 megapixels!), mousepads, buttons, magnets, keychains, greeting cards, trading cards, calendars, books, t-shirts, even mugs and wall clocks. The main emphasis will be on reasonably priced large prints that you could cover your wall with or use as gifts. Cheers to that!

    If you're looking at my calendar on the bottom of this page, I've got Youth Convention this weekend with Chi Alpha, which is always a highlight every year. This past weekend, Chris and I visited our brother Perry in Chicago and had a great time watching Man on Fire, Inside Man, and Good Fellas. Here we are with our great hair. Anyways, he's moved into a nicer apartment since the last time we visited him and while it may no longer be $250 a month in rent, it's much bigger, and his new roommate is his gf Katie. He's now saving $5,000 a year in cab fares too (!!!!) now that he's near the L and can take that to work.

    Taking these pictures takes me all over the state, which I do enjoy. Last week, I fell asleep in a marsh outside Madison's Dane County Airport waiting for this picture to expose. Actually, this six second exposure of the State Capitol framed by a runway probably isn't to blame for the 30 minute nap I took in 40 degree weather! Oh my, I was tired. And wet. And I had hiked a mile in and needed to rest before hiking back. So you wanna be a photographer? How much patience you got? I've seriously spent hours every single day reading about pictures and cameras, trying to learn every bit I can then I spend hours every single day taking pictures and filling up memory cards before spending hours every single day processing pictures in Photoshop, wishing I had used red-eye reduction or wishing I had bounced the flash off the ceiling...then applying it the next day.

    Here I am in Manitowoc, with a view of the Manitowoc Maritime Museum and its submarine on exhibit, which I vividly remember visiting as a kid.


    You no like-a spiders, eh?

    Joe and I rolled up to Green Bay for another photosode in my life. When he tells you that he's got an unbeaten record at Lambeau Field, remember this picture.

    Happy birthday to my mom, who turned 39 again on Tuesday. You can leave her a note on her guestbook.You probably guessed this, but I gave her some framed prints.

    One last shift in gears: my 89-year-old granddad (Dad's dad) fell on Saturday, hitting his head. He doesn't remember what all happened, but he was probably dehydrated. They brought him to the hospital and was supposed to come home Monday (he lives in an apartment complex for the elderly, essentially), but he was getting up on his own without help and fell a couple more times, so they're keeping him longer, maybe until next Monday. Last night after Chi Alpha, I stopped in to see him and had a really good time sharing laughs. Before I left, I gave him his water cup that he slurped on a bunch of times then told me that "drinking from a straw is a drag" and that drinking from a glass "furnishes the incentive to drink!"  He's still very much with it, but he's clearly struggling - which is the hardest part to watch.

    He's brilliant. I've had fun searching for him on the web, pulling up his involvement with the creation of the PC and the first airline reservation system which you use every time you search for a flight online. Maybe two months ago, he handed over the reigns of a project that he's worked on through retirement to my dad's cousin. He still thinks about it - it was the first thing he told me about when I came in. My grandpa died right after his fiftieth wedding anniversary, the day before 9/11. There's no doubt in my mind that people press on psychologically to meet their goals. My grandpa to see his 50th, and my granddad to see his project come to fruition. Now that he's passed it on, maybe he feels a release. I sure don't want to see him go.

    Earlier this month, the Father of Modern Arboriculture passed away from a fatal fall on a flight of stairs. Dr. Alex Shigo did an amazing number of things that reminds me of what I want to be remembered for and want to be pressing to complete in my final years. Like it or not, the rest of my life is just further down the track that I'm laying out now. Am I doing what's worthwhile? Am I giving up my small ambitions? Lots to think about, and a youth convention with perfect timing.

  • Hurray for Huge Apertures


    Large apertures let lots of light in, allowing you to use a faster shutter and freeze action. A side effect is a more shallow depth of focus, which yakked about before. This DOF is highly sought after in my areas such as portrait and sports photography where you want the focus - and with it the emphasis - on the subject, leaving the background a pleasant blur. I've selected pics where possible that used a very low (large) aperture to demonstrate. My fastest lens, a 1.8, does an excellent job of this. You'll always see it on when I'm in low light and with people. =) If you're thinking of getting into digital SLR cameras, I've made a list of goodies on my shopping list.


     

    From bowling last week with Chi Alpha, [with David]

    To shooting sporting events night after night, [with David and Joe]

       

    Even some more casual subjects,

    To some absolutely rocking concerts by eVibe and by my friends, The Buskers, [with Lindsay]


    To a very cool museum in Minneapolis with the Body Worlds exhibit, and finally,


     

    Visiting great friends and traveling with family. [with Katlin and Chris]

    So how are you? Let's go eat, I'm hungry!

  • I just started to cry.... this is so exciting. I just sold $70 $92 in pictures between two orders.

    Really, I appreciate every kind comment about pictures that I've taken, but I can't even begin to tell how it feels when someone is willing to pay over $20 for a single image. Many thanks to David for setting me up with WisconsinPreps.com where they featured my pictures at the top of this page beginning yesterday, to my parents for buying the camera for my b-day, and to Esther for getting the lens that took 95% of the pictures. =)

    The bestseller:

    I was reading before I went that "faces sell" so I made sure to focus on shots with faces and expressions. Sure enough, these sold too...

    I just hope to make enough to support the habit. Do drug dealers fool themselves with that logic? But really, almost all of the pictures that sold were pictures with flash. I say with flash because it works when it's charged up... I had it set to go for every shot, but when you're shooting across a football field, literally, it completely discharges itself as it puts out as much light as possible. Sometimes, it would take 10 or 15 seconds before it was ready to go again. So this Friday, I'm going to use rechargeable Ni-MH batteries that recharge more quickly than alkaline. :crosses thumbs: Suddenly I don't feel so bad for spending $194 on the flash. Ack, I'll be on cloud nine for the rest of the day. Thank you Lord.