Ok - still no luck with getting our internet connection fixed up at home. Comcast is already annoying me, and they haven't even even installed yet - but then again, that's why they're annoying me. Which means I have five sets of photos waiting to upload, so you'll have to bear with me a bit longer here and wait for the Vintage Grand Prix photos as well as some photos I took for Anya's Card Blog, and of course more nature photos.

Anyway.......... I am going to switch gears a little and make a post specially for my mom. Today she asked me why I had so many weird photos on the site recently, and actually called my cactus photo from the other day "a little creepy". I'm not quite sure what she meant by that, but she asked for more landscapes or "cute baby" photos (ie: my six nieces and nephews - her grandchildren). Well, I'm not so big on the baby photos - heck, I'm not even that big on any kind of portraits. But I do work in some landscape stuff from time to time. So here you go, mom...

Technical Data: Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital Elph at 4.6mm, 1/320 sec (horizontal) and 1/250 sec (vertical) at f/7.1. ISO Auto. No post production. Punta Sur, Cozumel, Mexico.

So we'll ignore some of the technical errors with these photos - like the sloping horizons - and just focus on the orientations. Do you like the horizontal or the vertical view better?

Either way, I wouldn't mind another trip to Cozumel. There are some white sand beaches there (and even a small one in the photo), but usually the beaches are rocky as you can see at the bottom of both photos. But the water is crystal clear and bright blue, and the sky mirrors the bright blue water (or is it the other way around?). Either way, I'd love to take mom and the rest of my family on a trip to the beach, and I definitely wouldn't mind a scuba trip or three.

Anyone have any winning lottery tickets they're not going to use?

- Bill

So I guess we can take slight break from all the bugs (though if you've missed them, scroll down and check them out).

I took these two photos specifically with the thought in mind to try multiple framing options for a subject.

Close Crop

Wider Crop

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/32 and 1/50 sec at f/8. ISO 200. Dolica AX620B100 tripod. No post production. Kanawha State Forest, Charleston, WV.

Unfortunately I was using a prime lens, so I actually had to move the whole camera, so these aren't necessarily identical framing, but I still like both. Vote for your favorite and drop me a comment to let me know why.

- Bill

If you haven't read part 1 yet, definitely check it out.

I've said this before here, but when you find a subject worth shooting, take your time and work with the subject. I kept over thirty exposures (and took probably twice that many but deleted the completely worthless ones) from a span of over two hours of working with this spider.

Definitely work your subject.

With that in mind, I kept trying different exposure levels. Here are four different exposures - take a look and vote below for your favorite. Despite the great variance in the look of these photos, these are straight out of the camera with no post production.

Version 1: 1/5 sec at f/9.1 with pop-up flash. IMG_0998

Version 2: 1/10 sec at f/9.1 with pop-up flash and exposure compensation -1 stop. IMG_0999

Version 3: 1/3 sec at f/9.1 with no flash and exposure compensation -1/3 stop. IMG_1000

Version 4: 4 sec at f/25.8 with no flash. IMG_1001

Pretty different, huh? If you use tabs in your browser, I recommend opening each image in a different tab (usually control+clicking the link) and switching between the tabs to see the distinct difference between the images (scrolling through them sometimes makes it tougher to compare.

General Technical Data:Canon EOS 7D, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro with Kenko Teleplus PRO 300 "DG" AF 2x Teleconverter for effective 360mm with 68mm in extension tubes. ISO 200. No post production.

One of these will definitely be submitted to a couple upcoming contests. I just need to figure out which one I like best.

What do you think? Vote below, and then leave a comment and let me know why you chose the version you did.

- Bill

Normally I hate modified photos. In particular, I hate modified photos when you can tell the photo has been modified.

One of the presents Anya got me for Christmas was a copy of Photoshop Elements. At first, I wasn't sure whether I would use it much.

With my recent venture into entering various competitions, I've found the need to use it a bit more.

We have some photos from our dive trip to Cozumel, and I love them as photos, but their color isn't necessarily spot on.

So I modified the following photo to see if I could make the colors closer to what I remembered them to be like. Take a look at the original and the modified version below, and vote for which one you like better.

Unmodified

Modified

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Unfortunately, I forget what exact changes I made (something I will try to be a bit better about recording in the future), but I know that I darkened the photo and adjust the contrast slightly. I also modified the colors slightly to remove a bit of the blue color cast that is typical of underwater photography.

The colors in underwater photography without a ton of flash is usually not accurate since the spectrum of light drops off the deeper you go. Did you know that? That is one of those things you don't really think about, but you learn when you get scuba certified.

Anyway - vote for which version of the photo you like better, and leave a comment to back up your vote.

- Bill

Yet another style of post to try out today...

Sometimes, I try multiple settings for a photograph and then when I get home I either forget to delete the lesser quality shots or as is more often the case, debate which version is better. Sometimes I'll have multiple versions of a photo that I like each version for various reasons.

That's where you come in - from time to time, I'll post those multiple versions and leave it open to a vote as to which version is the best.

Today's photo set was done as easily as using the flash for one shot and not using the flash for the other.

Flash Version Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Canon EF 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II at 89mm, 1/60 sec at f/4.5. ISO 400. Flash Auto. No Post Production. Near Frisco Pier, Cape Hatteras, NC.

No Flash Version Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Canon EF 80-200mm f/4.5-5.6 II at 89mm, 1/13 sec at f/4.5. ISO 400. Flash Off. No Post Production. Near Frisco Pier, Cape Hatteras, NC.

Honestly, I'm torn! I can't decide which version I like better. What about you?

Cast your vote, leave some comments to back up your vote!

- Bill