Jungle Gym

Part of a metal trellis or whatever it might be called, that Lovely Wife has in one of her flower pots.

I reckon it's for droopy plants to use as an aid for climbing.

Kinda like a jungle gym for flowers.

Pleasing Jumble of Lines

As I walked around this marina, I stopped and admired this view with all sorts of lines and curves.

All going all over the place with no rhyme or reason, but pleasing nonetheless.

To me at least.

(The killer evening sunlight and the pleasant colors didn't hurt either.)

Rumble Bee

A neon yellow Dodge pickup truck was parked a the beach and I thought it looked pretty good.

The stripe and icon there reminded me of the Chryslers and Dodges of the 60s and 70s.

I was just a bit too young to have hit the muscle car era when I could have bought one, but then again, I would have been old enough and probably sent to Vietnam, so I guess it worked out.

Black and White #35

At the beach, I thought this one would be a good B&W as I took it.

Now I just wish I had a little more of the ocean in it.

Oh well, there's always next time.

Stephanie and Jim

I had the honor of photographing a couple's wedding Saturday evening.

Photographing weddings is pretty awesome. I don't get very nervous, but in the end, I just realize that both they and I have one opportunity at getting good shots.

This one was caught on-the-fly, and he's a tiny bit blurry as he moves in for a kiss, but the look on her face made this informal shot one of my favorites. One of those shots that you get sometimes, not a technically perfect photograph, but the emotion of the subjects IS perfect.

I had a backup camera, which was nice, didn't have to use it, but it was nice knowing that if my new D90 went bonkers on me, I could just grab the other body and continue.

I've had enough work with the D90 in the past two weeks to have it's features be second nature to me. Though that wasn't really a big deal, the controls are so close to my D70s that using it is essentially the same.

The couple getting married and their families are a laid-back bunch of folks, so there was little pressure and the first look at the photos when I got home left me feeling they'll have a hard time deciding which ones to print. To print them all would cost a fortune.

It's a good problem to have, too many good ones to choose from.

Hope all the weddings I shoot are like that, laid-back and a multitude of good images to choose from.

Live Bait (After the makeover)

I posted a shot of this bait shop near the beach here a while back.

That previous shot showed the shop in yellow, but sometime recently it has received a makeover.

On this day, the evening sun made the new color of the bait shop stand out and demand to be part of the image.

Shuttle Endeavour Finally Lifts Off (No Photos)

Lovely Wife and I went to the beach a couple of times to watch the latest attempt to launch the Space Shuttle, but it kept being cancelled.

Just a few minutes ago, at 6:03pm EDT, Endeavour finally was able to lift off successfully.

I'm working late, and went on top of one of the buildings and watched it.

Sadly, I cannot bring in a camera of any type where I work, so I just had to eyeball it. My camera is in my car, but I couldn't get off early enough to go to a better location and try to take photos.

I'm about 30-40 miles south of Kennedy Space Center, and it took the rumble (sound) of the boosters over 4 minutes to reach me as I watched. But that gives you an indication of the noise when I can hear it 30 - 40 miles away.

If Congress will fund it to the end, the US Space Shuttle program that is, there are only 7 shuttle missions left planned.

I would be totally surprised if they get to launch all 7 of them.

New Condos

This building was recently finished in Melbourne, Florida.

I was wandering around a marina with my camera and, at a certain point, I could see this above and between the buildings closest to me.

Just liked the green here in the warm evening light.

After The Rain

Went out in our front yard after an evening rain the other day and ended up liking the rain drops on the leaves better than on Lovely Wife's flowers.

[FYI, I posted photos on my other blog today if y'all care to see them. Picture Post, Sunday, July 12, 2009]

Black and White #34: Beach House

Nice, frilly, Victorian accents on this recently remodeled old house out by the beach.

I'd like to have a nice chair there on the porch to watch and listen to the waves.

The sun came out for a bit, and the contrast made me think "black and white."

Eastern Sky Over Melbourne Harbor Marina

I took this Sunday evening. It was hot and humid, but a beautiful day.

Bridge Art

Near a local park in Melbourne, Florida is a bridge that carries highway US1 over Crane Creek.

The park, Manatee Park, meanders along the north bank of Crane Creek. It's a great place to see, you guessed it, manatees, in the winter when the animals move inland.

If you follow the sidewalk underneath the bridge to get to a very photogenic marina, you are treated to the pillars holding up this bridge, in their painted glory.

A city beautification project.

As I walked under this bridge this past Sunday, this particular fish was catching some awesome sunlight from the late evening sun on one of the bridge's pillars.

The fish seemed to glow from within as if it were a neon light.

I'm glad to say that this "neon feel" carried through in the translation from the actual world to the digital world.

A1A

US1 is a highway that goes from Miami to somewhere up in Maine, all along the mainland of the eastern US.

But chains of barrier islands are also along much of the eastern seaboard, just off the mainland.

The highway that picks up travels along the length of many of these barrier islands going up to Maine, is designated A1A.

The parking lot to the Atlantic beach that I went to on Sunday afternoon in Melbourne Beach, Florida is along a piece of highway A1A.

I liked the quality of the evening sun on this A1A sign pointing south, with the colorful buildings in the distance.

ISO 1600

I keep a guitar by my chair so that I can pick it up and practice at least a little bit every day.

We have two skylights in the den, and at a certain time each morning, about 10am right now, the sunlight comes through one of them to shine right beside me and has a lovely quality to it.

It shined right on the guitar and I snapped a shot at ISO 1600 with my new Nikon D90.

I have the camera set for "normal" noise reduction at high ISO within the camera, so this is a shot as it came off the camera.

Although my D70s still has a place in my heart, this kind of performance at such a high ISO leaves me breathless.

I keep thinking of how much grain is in a print made from ISO 800 film and then seeing this, I know I'm going to really be loving this camera once I learn all it's tricks.

As someone who shot thousands and thousands of 35mm slides on slow ISO (50, 64, or 100) film just to get the best quality, to see an image like this from ISO 1600 seems truly magical to me. I mean that.

I always longed for the versatility of being able to shoot at high ISO, but the grainy images turned me off completely.

If I'd had a slide or print film of ISO 1600 that had this kind of look, I'd have paid big money for each roll, and would have paid it gladly.

The viewfinder of the D90 is large and bright, a true pentaprism whereas the D70s is an electronic viewfinder.

The "eyepoint" (in Nikon-speak) of the D90 is 19.5mm, where the D70s is 18mm. This means that I can see the whole image inside the viewfinder while still wearing my eyeglasses with the new D90 and I just got in the habit of putting my glasses on top of my head when shooting with the D70s to see the viewfinder better. That will be easier, not having to pop my glasses up there to shoot photos, and pull them down for the rest of life.

I have two friends with the D300 and I envied their camera's low light performance, and now that same image sensor technology has trickled down to a lighter, easier to carry camera that I could afford.

Sweet.

What IS That Sound?

It sounds like, like, like, a choir of ANGELS!








But no, it's just the doorbell ringing.







Who could it be?









Why it's the United Parcel Service man bringing me a box!











Whatever could it be?



Oh my, it looks exactly like a brand-spankin'-new Nikon D90 camera body!




I guess that sound REALLY WAS a choir of Angels singing.

Angels always sing when John gets a new camera.

Angels are cool like that.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!