Hawk's nest high in our backyard trees.

I was working on my computer when my wife gave me a shout that one of our sons had discovered a hawk's nest. I walked out onto the back deck with camera in hand and looking up, saw one of the birds still guarding the nest. The male was off looking for food and the female didn't stay too long before she too went off to look for dinner. I had taken notice of the nest of leaves several weeks ago but figured it to be a squirrel's. In reality it is much longer and flatter than the ones we have previously seen.

Later in the evening I went back to my computer and processed the image with the newly released Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta 2 software. I have to say that Adobe has made some really nice changes to Lightroom and can't wait for the final release to come out in June.

This shot was taken with the Nikon D700 with a Nikon AFS 80-200 mm f/2.8 lens and Nikon 1.4x teleconverter for an effective focal length of 260 mm. The exposure was 400 ISO at f/ 7.1 and shutter speed of 1/1000 second. (please click on the image above to enlarge it)

Photograph the prismatic effect of a CD. Easy Challenging!

Many moons ago, I purchased my very first digital camera. After using the camera for just a few minutes, I was swept away with "instant photographic gratification" (getting to see the results right away). Anyway, one of the things that I toyed with photographing, was a CD. I loved to tilt the disc in different directions - letting different colored prismatic effects skitter off of its polished surface. I vowed, that one day when I owned a better digital camera that I would try and improve upon the results. Today, approximately 10 years later (and no, it hasn't taken me that long to buy a better camera!), I try to repeat my results.

You would think that going about recording those intense colors would be easy but I soon found out that my original idea of photographing a rainbow reflected onto a white surface couldn't be accomplished with the low angle of the setting sun this evening. So onto plan "B" - I next try to get a decent shot capturing the colors coming directly off of the compact disc. Easy right? Wrong! The first thing that I notice is that my exposure is all over the place. I finally determine that for this setup, I need to dial in a minus 1.3 exposure compensation to get in the ballpark. That seems to help but one of the things that I notice is my colors are not as great as what I see with my eye. Suspecting that the auto white balance is the problem, I next dial into my Nikon D700 an adjustment for the daylight white balance setting. That seems to do the trick and suddenly the colors just start to "pop." Well it still wasn't that easy. After dozens of shots, I finally got several that I thought would be publishable.

Next, after a brief edit in Photo Mechanic, I took my selects into Adobe Lightroom where I made some subtle adjustments. It would have been tempting to just say "I'll fix it all in post processing" but I really wanted to challenge my ability to get this shot "in-camera", as they say. The final shot had just a slight black adjustment in Lightroom and a little bit of contrast tweaking.

This shot was taken with a Nikon D700 and 35mm f2.0 lens set at @ f5 for 1/125 second at 640 ISO with an exposure compensation of -1.3 dialed into the camera. (please click on the image above to enlarge it)

Jackson's not feeling well.

Jackson is my son's welsh corgi. He hasn't been feeling well for the past several days. A recent trip to the vet showed that he's had a fever. He is quite an active dog but lately has been spending much time in is crate. This shot of him was made through one of the air slots in the side of the opened crate. Taken with Nikon D700 and 35mm f2.0 lens.

Waiting for someone to come home.

Jakester is our yellow labrador retriever. His favorite activity when he is bored is to put his chin on the window in the living room and watch and wait for someone to return home. Taken with Nikon D700 and 35mm f2.0 lens.

Ring around the nose spells trouble.

Our third dog - Peetsie, is a golden retriever and was part of the breeder program for a local service dog organization named Canine Assistants. She had four litters of puppies and all survived. She is a great dog and at times loves to explore in the backyard. Today I discovered a black line ring around her nose. She's not talking but I'm thinking that she's been into something again. Taken with Nikon D700 and 35mm f2.0 lens.

Spring flower in the woods.

I love the change of seasons. Our home is situated on about an acre of land and on one part there is a woods with lots of trees. I've been peeking over into the woods for the last 2 weeks and watching as flowers have started to poke up through the fallen dead leaves. Their color contrasts starkly with the grays and browns of the ground. Today I ventured into the woods and tried a few random shots with the camera. I can't say I'm much of a nature photographer and I'm sure my technique used for this photo leaves something to be desired (get down on my knees and hold the camera out in front of me and let the auto focus and motor drive fly). I still had fun taking it and for today, this is my image. Shot was taken with the Nikon D700 and 35mm F2.0 lens.

My older sons and adult basketball league.

I can tell that my oldest two (of four) sons are getting older (me too), when after all these years, they're no longer playing with the kids, but now the grownups. Jacob, 19, (in the background), watches as Caleb, 18, dribbles past a defender during their adult league action. Both of my older boys have played basketball together for years. This year marked the return of Caleb to the court. He had been hampered by knee pain for some time. After dedicating himself to months of physical therapy, he finally was able to return to the court healthy and ready to compete.

This shot and the others below were taken with my Nikon D700 set at ISO 6400. I really was shooting just a little below the optimal shutter speed necessary to stop the action. Next time I will probably increase the ISO just a wink to give myself a faster shutter speed. The camera recorded "cycling" of the gym lights - a color shift occurring in about 2 of 7 frames per second when using my motor drive set at its highest frame advance and photographing under sodium vapor type lights. It is not perceptible to the human eye and this effect can be avoided by lighting a gym with strobes. I have done this before but for this situation it just wasn't practical to set up lights. My solution was to convert the images to black and white in Adobe Lightroom. Besides, under the right circumstance, I love black and white photography.

My sons' teammate, Cesar, reacts as his opponent tries to save the ball from going out of bounds.

Jacob grimaces as he prepares to make contact with his defender.

Joel's face is framed by his hooded sweatshirt.

This was a quick portrait of my third oldest son using my new Nikon 35mm f2.0 lens. I love the lens because it has a sweet bokeh wide open and is very sharp. Lately, I've removed the battery pack from my D700 and just kept this prime lens mounted on the camera. I love the idea of just going light with this and another prime lens stashed in my Mountainsmith hip pack.

Publicity shots for quartet

I know the guys with First City Quartet and they approached me about doing a publicity shot for them. We chose to do the shoot on white seamless. As the shot progressed everyone started to settle in to their personalities and relax. This shot was our favorite and we ended up sending an order to the lab for their first 100 copies. All in all, a good time was had by all.

Galloway School alumni event

Visiting alumni raise their hands in response to a question posed by a faculty member during participation in a class hosted for them at the campus.

Actor and model portrait session.

I photographed Brian Wesley Turner for promotional shots that he needed. Brian is a very talented guy and has done commercials and acting. He needed for me to photograph him with several different poses. We chose a relaxed and animated one for his portfolio. The shoot was a lot of fun.

Brian in a more animated pose.

Truett Cathy at the Chick Fil-A Parade.

Truett Cathy, founder of Chick Fil-A, waves to the crowd during the Chick Fil-A Parade in downtown Atlanta. The parade occurs during the day of the Chick Fil-A Bowl. This past year's game featured a matchup between Virginia Tech and Tennessee. Virginia Tech won 37-14.

Fans and face paint

Fans in the background whoop it up as another has the final touches applied to her cheek during the 2009 Chick Fil-A Fanfest. The event occurred just prior to the start of the Chick Fil-A Bowl featuring Virginia Tech and Tennessee.

Oh - I almost forgot to tell you....there was an umbrella located at each face painting station. I got the idea to take my off-camera flash and aim it up into the umbrella and use it like a photo umbrella to diffuse the light onto the foreground area. The resulting effect was soft - evenly diffused light for the shot. Small systems lighting on the go can be fun and imaginative.

Canon G10 and my son's new Martin guitar

My son Caleb has had his eye on a new Martin acoustic electric guitar for some time. He finally made the purchase. It's great listening to him play on it. This detail shot was taken with my Canon G10 and lit with a Photoflex softbox. Goes to show you, that even a point and shoot camera can yield great results when used properly.