Lyla Grace

Re-post June 2011

As all of you are aware, my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl 2.5 weeks ago.  Like all parents, we are taking plenty of pictures and videos.  Recently, I took this picture after her bath.  I love how her hair is standing up and how she is looking towards her mommy.  Even though, she is still too young to focus in on objects, you can tell she already has a tight bond with the people that love her.

A night at the drive-In

My wife and I have always been big movie people, going to the movies at least a couple of times a month.  Obviously, we don’t get to go much anymore because of our baby girl (that’s not a bad thing).  Last summer we were anxious to see the last Harry Potter movie.  We hopped in the truck and drove to the drive-in.  I caught this picture when I was walking back to the truck.

ISO 800 1/30 f/1.4 50mm

Riding my pony

I recommend if you take a lot of pictures make sure every so often you go back through them.  I have over 23,000 pics in my library (I deleted about 10,000 last year) and it’s real easy to forget pictures that you’ve taken.

This picture was taken at my nephews second birthday 18 months ago.  I found it this weekend.

ISO 100 1/1000 f/1.4 canon 50mm 

Man on a bike

I don’t typically discuss my post-processing but today I thought I would mention a few programs that I routinely use.  I store all my pictures in Apple’s Aperture 3.  Most who read this blog are probably familiar with it or know of it.  It’s basically a program to easily store and file all your pictures (i.e. library).  You can also make adjustments to your pictures without making permanent changes.  Most, use Adobe’s Lightroom or the casual photographer will use iPhoto. I’ve used all 3 and iPhoto is definitely more for enthusiast..  Lightroom and Aperture are very similar and I really wouldn’t say one is better than the other.

I use Adobe Photoshop 5 or more recently 6.0 (beta).  I use this when needing to make more complicated fixes or needing to layer my pictures.

Last, I routinely use Nik Software’s Silver Efex 2 and Color Efex 4.  Both allow very controlled and  unique changes and I highly recommend both.

I’ve posted a prior shot of this guy with cars flying by him.  This is just one shot when he was patiently waiting for traffic to clear long enough for him to go.  This shot was edited with Aperture 3, Photoshop 6, and Nik Software Color Efex 4.

Here’s the previous post.

ISO 160 1/30 f/1.4 50mm summilux

Watching you

We have a two-sided fireplace (as you can see) and often times my little girl can easily be seen playing in the great room.  I was watching TV and began watching my wife interact with our little one.  I rushed out of my seat, grabbed my camera and hurried back and put my feet up and began shooting.

ISO 160 1/50 f/.95 50mm noctilux

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