We drove up to Chicago this weekend for a short 3 day vacation and for me to participate in the Leica Akademie M9 Shooting Experience. I’ll post my thoughts and some pictures from the event in a few days.
We’re staying at the Allerton Hotel. So far it’s been good. It’s an old hotel but the rooms are very nice. Here is a pic of Lyla and mommy resting on the bed after a long day of traveling and shopping.
I can remember the many drives from Southern Illinois to Des Moines and how much I would complain that there was absolutely nothing to look at. If you’re not familiar with this part of the country lets just say it is extremely flat and all you see for miles is farm land.
Now don’t get me wrong, I loved where I grew up and wouldn’t change it for anything but when you are stuck in a car for 8 hours, it’s nice to have something to look at.
Until recently, I never realized that Iowa actually is not that flat and has many rolling hills. I took this picture just west of Des Moines, it captures the typical farm land scene in this area.
Recently a friend of Serenity’s (my wife) inquired if I would be willing to take a few family pictures. As much as I enjoy taking pictures, this is still out of my comfort zone. I don’t envy portrait photographers, there are many things that go into making a great family picture. For one, you need great lighting and no shadows. Second, you have to have your subjects position just right so that a proper exposure can be obtained. Last, trying to coordinate all subjects to look and smile at the camera all at the same time can be especially difficult when dealing with small kids.
The picture below was shot through the opening in the back of a chair. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out but I think it’s what made the shot. It allowed for me to frame my subjects and also allowed for some candidness. As you can see, there was no issue in getting their attention.
Watching a new born grow is simply amazing. Our daughter as of yesterday is 10 weeks old. I can’t believe how fast it has went. In such a short time she has almost doubled her weight, grown more than 3 inches, and went from sleeping and staring into space, to someone who has a wonderful personality and enjoys to smile, giggle, and show her admiration for her parents (especially mom).
Today’s post is a continuation of my “Our Future” series. My wife was unsure if she would even cooperate for the pose. For the first time she was awake for the shot and clearly, didn’t have any problem posing for dad.
P.S. A friend of mine from San Diego, Elijah Nicolas has a blog (you can see it here) and recently posted a great commercial Google created promoting gmail. The commercial shows a father creating a gmail account for his newborn and writes to it frequently so that she can have a journal of her early years. Please watch below (it reminds me of what my wife and I are doing with taking frequent pictures).
Sunrises and sunsets are always amazing to watch. The surrounding environment is calm, the sky undergoes multiple changes in color, and the rush of daily life has either not begun or has ended.
When I was in the Outer Banks taking pictures of the Avon Pier I witnessed one of those moments. As the sun began to rise, it cast an orange glow in the sky. I was able to line the shot just center and below the pier. I didn’t realize until later that there were two birds posing for the pic.
The Leica M9 is not only known for its great color pics, it’s probably better known for its black and white images. I have to admit, the M9 does a phenomenal job of creating black and white pics. It’s hard to describe what it is but the M9 just has that extra touch when creating these type of images. I don’t routinely shoot in black and white while using the camera. I shoot in raw (uncompressed picture format) and then edit it with Niks Software Silver Efex Pro 2. If you like monochrome images, this is the software to purchase. I have owned just the aperture plugin and now own the Photoshop CS5 plugin and prefer having the Photoshop plugin because it just makes a new layer instead of altering the original pic like it does in Aperture.
Soon after purchasing my black M9 (I have not moved on to the M9-P) I traveled to Cleveland for a conference and on my way home I stopped and shot a few pics. This pic, originally in color was edited in Silver Efex Pro 2. Let me know what you think?
I finally received it, the new Leica M9-P in chrome. I purchased it at Dale Photo but you can also pre-order at Amazon.com and be notified when it’s in stock at B & H Photo. As I mentioned in a previous post, there are no internal changes, just cosmetic changes to the body consisting of removal of the front “red dot” and “Leica” logo and placement of an engraved logo on top, a leatherette grip, and a new sapphire anti-reflective LCD cover. I originally chose the black Leica M9 only because there were no chrome available but I was fortunate to get one this time. Personally, even though not as “stealthy” as the black M9-P, the chrome is much more retro and has a more classic look.
Below are pictures from the unboxing.
I hope to have some pics up in a few days taken with the new M9-P but right now here is another picture of my beautiful wife and daughter at our recent trip to the Drive-In to watch Harry Potter (definitely see the admiration my daughter has for her mother in this pic).
Last winter I visited the Auburn Cord Duesenburg Automobile Museum in Auburn, IN. It’s located at the original headquarters of the Auburn Automobile Company. From the outside it looked like a good size building but I never imagined the amount of cars they had. I’m not a motor head but enjoyed my time looking at their collection. It’s definitely a place to visit if you enjoy looking at old cars. I snapped many pics and thought this one in black & white with a little noise worked well.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography has gained a lot of interest in photography. HDR Photography is where you take multiple exposures of a image and then stack them on top of one another to create one picture. By doing this you create an image that often times is very similar to what our eyes see. Most digital cameras can do this by using the auto bracketing function. For best results you need to use at least 3 exposures. If you are shooting in very bright or low light then you often times need to use 5, 7, or 9 exposures. Unfortunately, you typically need a semi-pro or pro dSLR to do this.
After you take the pictures, you then need software to stack the pictures on one another. The best way I’ve found is using Photomatix or you can use Photoshop CS 5. If you want to see some great HDR pictures you need to check out Trey Ratcliff at Stuck in Customs. He does phenomenal work and has many tutorials.
My wife grew up outside a very small town in Southern Illinois called St. Francisville (well known for the scariest bridge to cross in Southern Illinois/Indiana). In March, we were there for my wife’s baby shower. There is a very old Catholic church that sits down town. I decided to take a 7 exposure HDR pic using my Leica M9. Most of the time when shooting in HDR you want to create a color image, I think in this case monochrome works very well.
Lately, with work I have not had much time to write or upload pictures to my blog. I’m not going to complain because I enjoy working and most of all enjoy helping others.
I don’t like taking “canned” pictures. I prefer when my subjects are not looking into the camera and focusing on whatever task at hand. Personally, I think this makes the moment much more memorable and can often allow the viewer to imagine what the subject is feeling or remind them of a similar time. Also, I enjoy capturing many of these moments in monochrome. Again, I think this adds a much more memorable, and long lasting touch.
Below is a picture of my beautiful wife and now 8 week old girl. You can see enjoyment in my wife’s eyes when looking down at her cherished little one. Even though you can’t see my daughters face, you can imagine that she is showing affection back to her mother. I think the monochrome and vignetting assist in this “real life” portrayal.
