Bridge To Nowhere

I came across this abandoned railroad bridge yesterday and couldn't resist.

It has had a Lightroom Action, a blur vignette, and a dark vignette added. The hope was to make it look sort of old and surreal.

Portrait Practice

This is Allison. She allowed me to practice taking portraits while she was playing "dress up" on her jungle gym. It was her princess dress from last Halloween.

Other than cropping, all I used was Portraiture on medium setting.

I notice the colors are different on this computer than on my desktop. I am sure the prints will be a different color too.

Note to self: I have to remember to convert to sRGB before posting.

Stopping By For Breakfast

This tiny little creature stopped by for breakfast on my back deck. My E-30 was setting next to me so I flipped it on and fire off a couple of shots before she flew away. I didn't even take time to look at the settings, and it turned out to be on "Auto". The flash bar came up, but it didn't go off.

I thought it might be a good time to experiment with silhouettes. This photo has been cropped with "Duplex" preset in Lightroom applied.

Disc Dogs

This picture was shot at the Indiana Disc Dog tournament in Fishers Indiana. It was a great day to practice fast shutter speeds. To be honest... my best luck was using the cameras (Olympus E-30) built in "Sports" setting. I used my new Sigma 70-200mm lens and it was a full sun day around 11am.

See more at Demotix.

Fishers Freedom Festival

This balloon was hovering nearby the Fishers Freedom Festival.

I simply snapped the shot with my E-30 on Auto, cropped it, increased the saturation a tad, then darkened the outer edges for depth.


See more at Demotix.

Olympus E-30 "Pop Art" in-camera filter

Mustang day at "The Suds". With all the colorful cars, I thought I would click one off using the "Art Filters" on the E-30. This one has the "Pop Art" filter applied in camera. Nothing else has been done other than crop.

Colorful if nothing else.

Run for Ronald

I attended the Run for Ron today at the Canal in downtown Indianapolis. I used the event to practice the "sport" setting on my new Olympus E-30. This one has had a bump in saturation to show off colors.

Help !! - Digital Photo Processing Quandary

Shutterfly
Mpix
dotPhoto
Kodak
.. or Walmart ?!?

I am in a total quandary. In short.. I have sent the same digital image to 5 different processing labs and received 5 different looking prints. Some are quite bad. Now I am not a professional photographer making a living on these things, but how in the heck is a person suppose to figure out how to get a decent looking photo on a consistent basis from their hopefully decent looking digital image ?!?!

Help !!!!! Please send any comments you can on your experiences.

\ _ & - @ / | _ ( / } - \ - this is all the hair I have pulled out trying to figure this thing out :)

Sigma Saga

Check out this pic of the front lens on my 2nd new Sigma 70-200mm lens. All of the gunk you see is on the inside of the lens, right out of the box. I got 2 in a row like this! Obviously Sigma has a major quality issue when 1 person gets 2 in a row.

BUT.. I have to dish out some credit. I tip my hat to Adorama Camera and their customer service. I don't think I have ever had any better. Right from the get go, Helen (and then Adam), along with all the other behind the scenes employees were all over this issue getting it resolved for me. Besides a very rapid turn around time, Adam even hand selected a lens and kept it for me until my defective one arrived. Helen kept me up to date on every move, thus I was never left in the dark. So... if you are thinking about making some camera or equipment purchases and customer service is a big deal for you.. then consider Adorama. My customer service experience with them was exceptionally great.

Miracle Ride for Riley

A child being treated at Riley Hospital for Children waiting for the motorcycles to come by.

7,000 riders paraded past the kids for charity.



More here.

Alien

I took this during a car show for charity in Indy. Freaky lookin'.

My challenge was dealing with the strong but low morning sunlight, and the post processing to lighten the harsh shadows on the right side.

Thank god for Photoshop.

You can see more in my Demotix site.

Having lunch on the steps of Indiana War Memorial

I took this picture of a person having lunch on the steps of the Indiana War Memorial while I was waiting for the Flags 4 Heroes to start. I haven't yet corrected perspective. I hope not to lose the design at the top of the pillars in the process.

The more I look at this... the more I think I might crop it again. I can keep the door, globe, lion, statue, and the lady detail. It should still have enough interest and yet the bring the solitary figure into play a bit more. She is almost too obscure.

Arrrrggggg !! - Sigma Lens Quality Issue

With much help from Adorama Camera I am trying to resolve a quality issue with a Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 telephoto lens I have purchased. The replacement I have received appears no better than the one returned. On the inside of the outermost lens is contamination as illustrated by the picture on the right. In the sunlight, each of the little dots sparkle and the 2 smudges are just there. Now this would have to make an impact on the photo, right?

Not sure what the dots are.. coating issue or oil spray? The semicircle looks like the remnants of a dirty suction cup.

I am hoping the customer service folks can get me in touch with the Sigma Rep so I can figure out if it can be fixed. Bummer... I am going to miss using it on this weekends shoot.