Arrived Pittsburgh and, of course, the first shot I took involved coal.

<photo geek post>

I feel pangs of guilt – I mean to update daily, and I still usually shoot photos daily, but this blog is making me look much more seriously at my photography, which I guess is the point. Learning….

Today’s post is case in point. Don’t get me wrong – I like the shot, yet I feel like there’s more I could have had….

This little fella was having breakfast with me this morning – he gets into my bird feeder, then shakes the seeds down onto this rock where he breaks them and eats breakfast. I get sausage and fried eggs (cast iron skillet of course!) and he has healthy, low-fat seeds…. sorry little man. Yet he’s as welcome to the seed as the birds. I caught him today after work – probably the same guy – as he was hanging out in the sun.

Where I’m faulting myself is technical – this shot almost feels textbook to me. Apply the photographer’s rule of thirds here; painfully on the grid.  Check depth of field – the grass blurs, yet he’s in sharp contrast. And contrast? Yes, I shot this manually – hand set aperture and speed, almost to a fault with the rock behind him turning to blurred white and his coat in contrast.

Technically, I like the shot, yet it’s really too textbook. So here’s my challenge to myself – break the rules. Center subjects. Let light in when I wouldn’t, and see what dances. My next few posts may not look much like the rest, so we’ll call this a learning week. Why not?

</photo geek post>

Breakfast buddy

1/200 f/6.3 ISO 400 250mm

Every time the light is right for this picture, I seem to be either in a hurry (tee-time) or I don’t have my camera with me. As the sun sank last night, I drove out there to take the shot.

Fall reds

1/125 f/8 400ISO 42mm

1/125 f/7.1 400ISO 50mm

Am playing with manual settings on the DSLR… trying to pull off some of the shots I used to make with my faithful K1000 back in the day. The problem with back in the day (film, printing…) was that every time I didn’t get the shot, I still had to pay to expose the shot and learn where I hosed the settings. Now? Oh, man, how do I love shooting digital? Let me count the ways… 16 shots and only one to post, but not a dime spent to expose a frame. Diggin’ that.

night shot

30″ f/4.5 65mm

Went to see him speak today – more pics coming soon.

Senator Obama

ISO 400 at 1/200  f/6.3  250mm

Back in the day, MSU was MSC. I was leaving our new office in the Natural Science building today when I noticed this on the second floor. I didn’t want to just take a pic, so I asked a professor across the hall if he thought anyone would care. “No,” he said, “but I have much prettier rocks than that.” I laughed – he’s a geologist; nah, it’s the cans I’m after. They’re marked MSC Creamery. That’s a long time ago. “Yup,” he said, “about 45 years since that place closed down. We just use them for rock sample storage.”

MSC Creamery

ISO 400 @ 1/80  f/5.6

A little sideways light, some railing, and a Fall evening.

slats

Catching the last of the day through the last touch of summer.

sunset

1/50 f6 95mm

Everything’s flooded here – record breaking rainfall over the weekend, and we’re still drying out. This drainage from a field is usually barely wet.

creek

ISO 1600 1/200 at f/7.1

Part of our data storage at work.

tape robot

ISO 1600 at 13  f/4.5
100mm