Tag: efs 28-135 is

Happy Dallintines Day

Story behind this down lower…

I started with the following picture:

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Did some work in Lightroom:

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Then into Photoshop for the text (hopefully I can do this all in Lightroom 3 when it comes out):

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Final Product

So the computer editing is all well and good, but at this point Dallin just looks like he’s shaking his fist in the air.  The funnest part of this project is when you add the lollipop:

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Full Story

Full disclosure that I blatantly stole this valentines day card idea from Suzanne over at Lookie Loo Photography.  I am a huge fan of her work and if I were to have someone else take pics of my family, she would be one of the two I would go to.

So what is Dallintines day?  Last year when my son Dallin could first really register the word “valentines” he naturally thought it was Dallintines because hey… how many words have an “allin” sound in them? So when I started thinking about recreating this idea in making a card for him to hand out, I thought it would be fun to include that on the card.

Dallin doesn’t normally like to sit/stand still for my parentally enforced photo shoots.  Luckily he was kind of interested in this one after seeing Suzanne’s examples and so cooperated with me. He even did the arm on the hip like Suzanne’s daughter did without my prompting.  Here are a few more of the winning shots from the evening.  We got a few of each of them printed out to mix it up a little.

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Thanks to Suzanne (who hopefully isn’t mad I “borrowed” her idea) for the inspiration. This was the most fun I’ve had taking pics with Dallin in a while.

Gritty Details

I shot this in my basement with my two AlienBees B800 studio lights, two yards of fabric from the fabric store and my normal camera gear.  The fabric is actually clamped on to a boxspring I have standing up against the wall… nothing too fancy.

I got the studio lights after the first studio lighting photowalk back in 2008. So far all I’ve used them for is pics of family (and the occasional macro).  I really need to break out of my comfort zone and use them more often so I can get good enough to charge a few bucks and get the cost back.  But until then, I sure have lots of great pics of my boys and their cousins 🙂

Daniel at Discovery Park

Daniel

Canon 40D, EFS 28-135 IS, 1/30, f/5, 65mm, ISO 800

If I posted all the pictures I take of my kids, the blog would be over run with them.  But for some reason this one just grabbed me when I started editing it.

This was taken in a small cubby hole at the Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove, UT.  It was a bit overcast and this was under the main structure so it was quite dark. The 800 ISO gives the photo a great grain but Daniel’s face still looks like a porcelain doll as my wife says.

Somewhere I learned how to use gradient tool to add the nice dark edges which I really think adds to it, and draws the attention in.

I guess I shouldn’t be so afraid to post the pictures of family that I take.  That is a huge part of my photography right now and those photos are definitely worth being shared as well.

Freedom Festival Fireworks 2009

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Made the annual visit to Provo High School to view the fireworks at the Stadium of Fire.

While waiting for the show to begin I was checking my twitter feed and saw Scott Jarvie mention his firework photo tips from 2008.  One of the tips was that he uses his telephoto to zoom in on shapes.  I didn’t exactly follow his advice, but it did make me zoom in in general to get more details then the “big picture” type view I have done in the past.  I definitely liked the different look it gave me.

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New Posters in the House

Canon 40D, EFS 28-135 IS, 1/60, f/3.5, 28 mm, ISO 100

Canon Rebel XT, EFS 28-135 IS, 1/200, f/8, 33 mm, ISO 400

After yet another dry spell I got the urge to post something today for some reason… so here we go.

After 3 years of living in our house it is still devoid of pictures for the most part.  I don’t know why, we just haven’t put pics up.  So a few weeks ago I decided to change that… at least a little bit.

We got the above pictures printed out as 20×30 posters and they now hang in our bedrooms.  Dallin loves trains and so we hung that in his room right above the foot of his bed where he can see it easily as he lies down.  He absolutely loved it the first few nights and would be so excited to go lay down and see it.

The other one is when Daniel was a week old and we layed Dallin and Daniel down for the first time to take some pics together.  It was so fun to watch Dallin interact with him and to be so good and careful around him.

I really enjoy my hobby of photography, but naturally am worried as I see the total amount spent on equipment continue to rise.  But then there are these special moments that you are able to capture and then (finally) hang on your wall to enjoy that help offset those costs.

We also printed this one poster size for our living room.  We love going to see the hot air balloons so it is a great reminder of the fun we had.

Salt Lake Temple Zoom

Canon Rebel XT, EFS 28-135 IS, 1/320, f/11, 28 mm, ISO 200

Starting this up again after a bit of a hiatus due to the welcoming of a new member to our family (pics coming soon).

Yes this is more of a Christmas shot, but while Kaylene’s parents were visiting to see our new addition we had some pictures playing on our TV (thank you AppleTV) and her dad just went gaga over this shot.  So I thought, why not post it up for others to see as well.

Purchase Salt Lake Temple Zoom

2008 Freedom Festival Hot Air Balloons

Canon 40D, EFS 28-135 IS, 1/100, f/7.1, 28mm, ISO 640

This was probably my favorites picture from spending three mornings at the Provo Freedom Festival Balloon Fest this year. We had a great time as always and this year was extra awesome  But I will share those details in an upcoming post.  For now here are a few more pics.

All my pics from this year, with a sneak preview of the awesomeness that occured.

Flying Dallin

Flying Dallin

Canon Rebel XT, EFS 28-135 IS, 1/400, f/11, 85 mm, ISO 200

After so many other failed attempts at blogging, I thought I would give it yet another try with a photoblog inspired by some of my fellow photowalking photographers.

For my inaugural post I thought I would use my currently most popular photo on Flickr. My second most popular photo is the sequel to this one. Dallin’s Second Flight.

He’s a growing boy so I won’t be able to do this forever. But hopefully I can get one more in before my back gives out 🙂