So I figured since this is my first post I had better post one of my best! I was in San Fran back in June and we were walking around Golden Gate Park. We came across this patch of orange flowers with lots of bumble bees flying around them. I was able to snap a few great shots. This is one of them! Hope you enjoy! 

P.S. Kirk, Don't be to jealous ;-) JK

Wood and Metal

Took this picture while out messing around one day.  It's a simple picture, taken from the inside of a gazebo, looking up through the center of it.  Not fancy, just liked how it turned out.

Denver's Underground Artists

Joey and I decided to head out  for a day of shooting in the most; well, un-touristy of areas here in Denver.  I have always liked the works by these unnamed artists that like to put their work on the side's of boxcars, bridges and alley walls.  This is one of those pieces.

Just Joey

I came across this picture I took of Joey a few weeks ago.  Good natural lighting and it turned out really good.  I had Joey's permission to post.

Stormy Wednesday Night

I am a huge fan of nature and the wonderness and beauty that is offers and represents.  This pic, although probably a little over rated, but, this is of one of my favorite topics that nature has to offer; storms! This image is a pre-storm setting and I love it because of the sun rays that shine through the clouds and they way it makes the "puffy" and "cotton-like" sky shimmer with all that this gorgeous planet has to offer.  Maybe a bit sappy right now, but you've got to love it.  BTW-I will try to work on getting better pics of the wonderful storms that Colorado has to offer, so hopefully this is the first of many.

Just a beautiful day out and about taking pictures with Kirk. This little guy was really busy.

City Park, Denver - Just A Day of Shooting

It had been awhile since I had been out for a day of shooting, I promised myself I would try to get out a lot more this summer to work on my photography eye and skills with this new hobby of mine.  So Joey and I went out a Saturday afternoon to City Park and snapped a few pics.  This one is of a tree (which names escapes me now), but I wanted to post it out of all of the pictures I took (mostly of flowers) because I really like how the blossoms shinned in the sunlight as if they were almost transparent.  I used my Cannon and had it on AV settings using my 75-300mm lens.  I know I really must get a 35mm lens for such a picture.  I was standing and taking the picture at a 20 degree angle with the sunlight behind me.  Hope you like it!

Estes Park

Another posting of an outing with my parents and Kirk. At some point when I learn more about the settings I'll start including them.

On 04/01/2012, I was lucky enough to photograph a wedding for someone that I have known for a while.  I took over 1,000 photos and this one has to be my favorite!  It's the bride's bouquet with their wedding rings.  I used Photoshop to enhance the colors.

Oh, I posted this pic because Kirk has also been begging! LOL just kidding!

Stanley Hotel - Estes Park - Ghost Tour

Joey, my in-laws and I went up to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park for the afternoon.  We took one of ghost tours they offer.  Now I wasn't as lucky as some of the people in our group, as I didn't get any orbs, silhouettes or funny shadows, but what I did get was some good pictures of the hotel.  This picture was taken of the grand staircase from the lobby of the hotel up into the second floor rooms.  Rumor has it that CO Stanley and his wife have been seen several times walking up and down this staircase.  I took the picture because I love old wooden staircases, but you can see a picture of CO in the upper left side of the photograph, along with his reflection in the adjacent mirror.  I decided to post this picture out of the almost 400 that I took because I like the classical setting that it represents and of course the lighting is excellent in this image.  I had my Canon on auto (again) and it captures just enough light to bring the image to life.  I'll post some more from my outing and I know that Joey will be posting one or two of his own.

I know nothing about the settings of my camera when I took this picture since I am totally new to all of this but Kirk's been begging that I post something so here it is. As I learn I'll tell more about my pic and what I did.

My New Toy

I just purchased a new toy, the Canon 600D.  I was really excited to use it for the first time.  The photo is from a shoot I did on March 31, 2012 with my beatiful friend, Chelsea.  I was playing with different settings during our shoot, so I don't remember what settings I used for this photo.  This was one of my favorite photos from that day. Yes, Chelsea gave me permission to post her picture =).

Eldorado Canyon State Park - Shooting Day Two with Joey (Image 2)

Here is another picture of our visit to the Eldorado Canyon State Park.  This picture is one of the many inlet caves that are all over the park.  This area was once inhabited by the Ute Indians and they used these caves as shelter from the harsh Colorado winters.  Gold was discovered in these parts in the early 19th century and because of the significant amount of recreational activities that this canyon provides and is known for, including tight rope walking and rock climbing, it is now a state park and can be enjoyed by everyone.  This picture was taken at 2:30 p.m. with a resolution of 72 dpi, f/4 1/80 sec. exposure time with a 75mm focal length.  I loved this picture because it came out so clear and detailed and really accents the caves dimension - no flash was used, because of the exposure time it came out perfectly.

Eldorado Canyon State Park - Shooting Day Two with Joey

Taken at 2:54 PM at at Eldorado Canyon Sate Park here in Colorado this picture is just one of the many great pics I took today.  This was was with a resolution of 72 dpi / f'6.3, exposure of 1/250 sec and 170 mm focal length.  I was standing in the middle of the road that takes you through the park.  I really liked that separation of the rock formations and the accent of the evergreens from top to bottom.  For those of you who don't know, the Eldorado Canyon State Park just southwest of Boulder, CO is primarily a recreational rock climbing park, which you will see in my next posting.  Please enjoy this picture as I did not put any sunscreen on and got a really bad sunburn obtaining it and the others of that day.

Mikey - "Shooting Day One"

My friend Mike, who is a memeber of this blog, but seems to yet post any of the amazing pics he takes.  This is from November of 2011.  Taken with my Canon 5D, this is at knee level taking a picture of Mike taking pictures of some ducks in the water.  My settings were f/7.1, 1/1250sec. / Demensions of 2784X 1856 / 72 dpi at a 240 mm focal lengh.  The picture was taken at 2:27 p.m., it turned out great.

How Cute....

Also from my Day At The Zoo, here is another picture that I wanted to share.  Mikey has a great one of these little critters as well, lets just hope he posts it.  In any event, this picture taken at 2:25, using my EOS 72 dpi, f / 5.6 at a 280 mm.  How cute....
                          

Day At The Zoo

So Joey, Mike and I headed out to the Denver Zoo today to do some shooting on 2.19.12.  This picture is one of many favorites I got on this day.  This picture was taken at 4:17 p.m in the Aquatic area of the zoo.  It was with the EOS, using the f/4.5 135 mm lens.  Hope you enjoy it.  I will get some other posted in coming weeks as I have several from this day. 
 
                    

A Snap And A Link

Hey guys!

This week I thought I'd post a photo I took (as usual) but I also want to post a link to an article that I found pretty useful and I think will help you out a lot, whether you are just learning or you think you know what you're doing. Here's the photo.

I took it at DIA and I made it black & white because I didn't like the full color version (^_^).

Here's the link: http://www.expertphotography.com/a-beginners-guide-to-photography
This site always has a lot of tutorials and tons of good info. It's updated regularly.

Happy shooting!

Day Out With Mike

This picture was taken with my Canon on November 22nd during a "shooting" day with my friend Mike.  It was taken at approx. 4:00 in the afternoon, so it was all natural lighting.  I wanted to get a shot of the ducks in motion, this is the best one that turned out.  I used my 75-300mm zoom lens in AF mode.

Canon Direct Store

For those of you with Canon SLR camera's (as I do) this is a great site to get accessories.  I bought my EF 75-300mm zoom lens (refurbished), lens filter, battary pack and a few other items from this site.  They offer some really good prices on refurbished accessores (and camera's for that matter).

http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/subCategory_10051_10051_-1_29751

Check it out.

First From Tommy

Hey guys, Tommy here.

I figured I should introduce myself (chances are you already know me).

While I'm at it I'm going to post, for you, a photo I took a couple months after I got my first DSLR, a Nikon D3100.

I took it in Las Vegas outside the Aria Hotel. There was long wall with water streaming down and few flowers. There was one bloom kinda standing alone so I decided to snap it. The light was low so I had the aperture as open as I could get it with the 18-55mm kit lens I had at the time, f4.6 I believe. I have the ISO set to 800 to help so the image has some noise.

After I got back home I decided to try my cool new investment, Adobe Lightroom. In Lightroom I cleaned up a little of that noise. I wasn't sure what I was doing at the time so the changes I made are minimal but they worked for me. Let me know what you think.

I'm going to try to post more soon and I'll try to go into more technical detail about how I got the results I did.

Also I might be adding links to articles that helped me as I was learning about composition and camera settings and such. Until then, feel free to comment. (^_^)

Here is a picture of my dog, Dori.  I took it about 10:20 in the evening in my living room.  I used my Canon with a Vivitar flash and my 75-300mm lens.  I wanted to post this because the blog has been active/online for about 26-hours now with over 30 viewers, yet no posts, so I decided to post this picture of Dori, perhaps it will help to incentivize others to start posting.  Don't worry, Dori gave me her permission to post a picture of her.  Enjoy!

Using my Canon D5 EOS Mark II camera with a 75-300mm AF 1.5m/4.9ft lens I took this picture.  The picture taken on 1-9-2011 is of the rear corridor of the officer's quarters, accenting the gunnery doors of the old frontier, military compound Fort Scott in Ft. Scott Kansas.  It was taken from the east side, looking horizontally to the west.  I used all automatic settings.