My day job brings me to Baltimore a handful times of year. This time I brought my camera and will hopefully get some time to shoot. This shot is from my hotel room right when I checked in.
I walked into the hotel room, didn’t even turn on the light, and the photo was just there. I didn’t have a tripod, so I propped the camera on a couple books next to the window.
It’s so nice to drive home in daylight! Gone are the days of driving to work *and* back in the dark of night.
This shot is of Gray’s Lake, the lake for which our town, Grayslake, is named. The sun made me pull the car over and grab a quick shot with our Nikon S52 point-and-shoot.
I was intrigued with this little guy the first time I saw him.
He was outside the apartment complex of my wife’s cousins we visited in Madison. Though I don’t know *exactly* what he is, the first thing that came to *my* mind was “penguin”.
He’s only 2 and a half feet tall.
The interesting part of taking this photo was I couldn’t get the DOF (depth of field) that I wanted. I knew the items in the background were going to be distracting, so I tried to shoot with a wider aperture. I was trying to get an f/4 or so, but my camera didn’t let me as it metered the shot at a shutter speed *greater* than what my camera could handle at 1/4000 of a second.
I know I could add some bokeh in Photoshop, and with the right amount of time I could figure it out (I did it before with the help of a tutorial). I just didn’t have the time for the purposes of this blog, so I’m leaving it as it stands.
On the way back from the Wisconsin Dells, we stopped in Madison for the night to visit with some of my wife’s family. We ended up at a Courtyard Marriott, the chain of hotels which I have stayed in many times for work.
I was absolutely amazed at the quality of this Courtyard in Madison. Wonderfully decorated, great pool area for the kids with zero-depth and all the fun kids water-park attractions like fountains and buckets-o-water that fall on you, comfortable beds – you name it, they had it. All at a Courtyard?!?
This photo was taken in our hotel room with our Nikon S52 point-and-shoot.
The family and I headed to the Wisconsin Dells for a weekend of water park goodness. The first day in the park the sun shined in the many windows of the park, creating some great shots. Running around with my point-and-shoot, I dodged water trying to get this shot.
I know it has photographic flaws (light really blown in top left for starters), but sometimes a photo really grabs you regardless of the "flaws".
I love this one.
My wife Kristi with our son Miles. Taken at Chula Vista Resort and (Indoor) Water Park.
Taken with my Canon XTi.
No one really pays attention to what happens to all the Valentine’s Day gifts a week after the big event.
The chocolates you got your sweetheart turn into a extra 60 minutes on the treadmill. The card where you profess your love enters the shoebox where holiday cards go to die. And the flowers, well, the flowers still actually have some character left to them (in my perverse humble opinion).
My wife Kristi years ago got an idea from a relative of mine to put old photos of older generations on our wall. This is our family.
I was very lazy the day I shot this photo. Laying on our chair and a half, I grabbed our point-n-shoot and looked around the room to see what I haven’t shot yet. This turned out to be an interesting shot. I also played with the photo in Photoshop a bit to get the contrast.
My parents recently came back from a trip to Eastern Europe, including a stop to the Czech Republic. Since my mother is 100% Czech, she really enjoyed getting her kids (and grandkids) various gifts from the motherland.
Hanging the Czech eggs on the Christmas tree is a tradition in our family – but why keep them boxed up 11 months of the year? My wife Kristi put them out in our china cabinet for some added color and flair.
During the first 45 days of this Project 365 experiment, I have noticed some themes in my photography. Theme #3 is the Rollins Savanna. This forest preserve near my house in Grayslake has a two connecting trail loops that I frequent for runs. I’ve recent brought my point-and-shoot camera to capture some of the scenery. This is one of my favorite places on the trail.
