Just Some Street

Out this morning downtown and working on my street Photography. Not a lot of people out this morning, but will work up to more people as I go. No explanations just the Photos.

Refraction and Bokeh

It is really a blah day outside today. Rainy and cool, and I feel every bump, bruise, tear, break and every hard landing from the last 54 years. So I stayed in and did some work with my new Sony ILCE 5100. Playing around with Light refracting through water in a glass, and the Bokeh effect I can get with different apertures. Sharon was doing some of her magic with the watercolors and made a great model for the background.



Still need to practice this, want to do this downtown in front of some of the neon signs.

Update 12/29/2014

My wife liked the third photo the best,but she thought that it would be better, or less distracting if I would tone down or remove the light by her head. Well, I tried to just tone it down using the quick mask mode in PS, but the light is too overexposed and blown out. There is just no information there to work with. So I decided to just use the spot healing brush tool and blend it out of the photo. Here is the original and the Redux:

Out For a Walk in the Woods

Yesterday I grabbed my girls and some Banh mi sandwiches and headed to Clark Park to get a little exercise and some photos. We had a good time, and as you can see from Bellas face she is smiling.











Bella had the disadvantage while we walked , she took about 8 steps to our one. But as you can see she looks like she is having a good time.



Then there is my beautiful Bride. This is my reason for living.

My Volunteer Oak

Just an update on my little volunteer oak tree, it has finally given in and turned brown. It still is holding on to its leaves. Not letting go just because the calendar says that it is winter. You hang in there little buddy.


I took this with my Sony, and did the post production in LR and PS. I guess this little guy has become a theme for me apictory if you will. Let's see where it goes.
Here is the story so far


Then the one at the top. Gues the next move is up to that little tree.

Christmas

Weather was not like Christmas at all, it was about 69 or so for the most part. Oh well, what are you going to do this is the Sandhills of NC. Not much in the way a photos, was enjoying being with family. But here are a few, most are by my lovely wife Sharon.



Here is Bella and Maggie Christmas morning. Bella in her new t-shirt, she just loves to wear shirts and sweaters. Maggie in her new Bandana, this is a bandana loving dog.


My wonderful wife, with a selfie.



Well, here I am making the Au Jus for the Prime Rib. We dropped the turkey years ago it was just too much turkey with Thanks Giving and Christmas back to back. So the rib roast is a family present. Oh, yeah, and we love dead cow. The little one is my little helper, yeah she is really just hoping I drop the roast.



Anybody need an explanation LOL.



Last one, getting ready to eat.
Hope yall had a great Christmas.

My New SONY ILCE-5100 Camera

I wanted to show off my new SONY ILCE-5100 Camera that I won in the Photo Concentrate Black Friday Ultimate Camer Giveaway. I am very pleased with this camera.I have only used it a short time, but I love it. I already said all this in an earlier post so I will get right to the pictures:



Here is the camera and the box. You can see it is very compact.This is a high resolution with 24MP APS-C sensor, Instant sharing via smartphone with Wi-Fi® and NFC1, Ultra-fast auto focus with 179 AF points and 6Fps, Contains- Rechargeable Battery (NP-FW50) AC Charger (AC-UB10) Lens cap Shoulder strap Micro USB cable,Mirrorless Camera WOW!!!

It came with the E3.5-5.6/PZ16-50mm OSS Lens.

The back boasts a 3 inch screen, a dial to control the functions, menu button, and the "?" button gives shooting tips.

Here you can see the 180 Flip screen. This makes selfies very easy.You can also see the light reflecting there, this from the ring light that I am using.

Now for my Christmas present this year. I needed good flash. I have a cheap flash that works so so, it is manual and does not talk to my T3I. So this year I told my beautiful Bride that all that I wanted was a Canon 430EX II flash. So she told me to go ahead and order it, so I got exactly what I wanted. WellI did and it arrived the same day my Sony did. Talk about a great day to get the mail.







This is the ring light setup I am using, it is a Newly and works pretty good.


I will post more about the camera and the flash as I become more familiar with them.Thanks again to Rob and Lauren of PhotoConcentrate for this contest. Check them out they some great classes.

Well, did the Polar Bear Plunge at Smith Lake Army Recreation area , on FT Bragg, this past Saturday, That was different. Wow, you know when you plan on doing something like this you know that it will be cold....very cold but you have know idea how cold until you are waist deep and your legs stop working. It was really an eye opener, it was a blast, but soooooooooo cold, can't wait to do it again next year.My wife says that I will do anything for a T-shirt, maybe that's true,I have a lot of T-shirts..lol.
Ok here are a few of the shots my wife took, these are with my new Sony a5100 camera that I won from Photography Concentrate in their Black Friday Ultimate Camera Giveaway. Thanks, Rob & Lauren, love this camera and winning it is awesome.
These were taken in the auto mode so my wife could just point and shoot, so straight out of the camera, have not been to LR or PS.


Ok I reaaaaaallllyyyyyyyy HAVE TO LOOSE SOME WEIGHT,,,,,,,WOW ok this is the picture that is it for me back to the gym tomorrow.
I made it to the rope,that was the 5ft level. WhenI hit waist deep my leggs stopped working, just flat stopped, andI dove in and swam from there and most of the way back . Leggs came back on line on the way out.
Well that is on frosty old man there .....it was fun like I said. Went from here to my new Favorite Thai Resturant and had hot soup to raise the core temp back close to normal.




The proceeds from this event went the Ft Bragg MWRto help the troops and their families. I will have more pictures of the event later that I took. I didn't get them developed in LS & PS this weekend, because after I had soup and warmed up we went out to the DZ and watched part of the Gemeinde Meteor shower,it was about 34 degrees out there. LOL so it was a very cold day and night.
Will post again later.