Mar 07 - Ice Fishing

Mar 07 - Ice Fishing, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

The ice is still about 18" thick, but with temps reaching 60 degrees (F) today, we had to slosh through about 3 inches of water and slush. Spring is almost here. From this photo, it doesn't look safe or wise to be out on the ice today. It was very safe, not sure about the 'wise' part though ;-) The Cub Scouts had a blast baiting the hooks then rushing off to go sledding (that whole patience part won't kick in for another few years). My son only popped out onto the ice in the final 15 minutes that we were there, he managed to become entirely soaked sledding down the slush and mud hill.

Mar 06 - Me

Mar 06 - Me, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

Better known as "this is what happens when you use your camera at work for work stuff and leave the CF card in your laptop which is still at work with all your intended PaD potential images from this morning on it". It gave me a great chance to set up my studio (black duck cloth background, my special flash reflector, flash stand, tripod, camera, and other stuff that gets in the way). I also got a chance to drop into PS CS4 to adjust the black levels of the background since some of the wrinkles from the fabric made their way into the image.

Mar 05 - Wide angle crane

Mar 05 - Wide angle crane, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

Something for an UWA lens. I was amazed at how close I had to get to this crane for this shot. The Tokina is nice and wide. I have the B+W CPL on the front of the Tokina, I didn't see the exposure difference in the sky until just now, during Post-processing. I had read comments about a CPL on an Ultra Wide Lens but never really thought about it. This sky shot is after applying an aggressive gradient filter in Lightroom.

Speaking of Lightroom, I applied the 2.3 patch the other day. Today was the first time I'd tried Localized Edits in 2.3. There is a very noticeable improvement. I can now say that Localized Edits are very usable in Lightroom.

Mar 04 - Urban Scene

Mar 04 - Urban Scene, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

I have seen this fire escape a number of times when driving through Portsmouth. Today it marked my "Point of no return" for the morning PaD. I mentally dialed this shot in as my final choice. It was a bland morning, more for me than anything else, technically I could have stopped and captured any number of things along the way, but nothing really worked for me this morning. Photography is like golf, a lot of it is mental (and I am arguably mental ;-)

Mar 03 - Sign of the times

Mar 03 - Sign of the times, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

I've been to this stand a few times in the past 6 months or so. This sign is on top of the roof of the stand, I am hand holding the camera for this shot and NOT extending the camera above my head. There is a snow bank that I am standing on (out of frame) that puts my eyes about level with the "Farm Stand" lettering. I used the Tokina up close for this one, I should have gotten a little closer as I had to crop out a chunk of the left side (there was as car in a snow bank that didn't contribute to this at all). I'm not too pysched about the grey skies, but there isn't much I can do about the weather (except wait).

Mar 02 - Clearing the driveway

Mar 02 - Clearing the driveway, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

My old faithful Wheel Horse C-120 garden tractor with snowblower attachment. I have the 42" mower deck and the straight blade attachment (for use a a plow) for this tractor. I believe this tractor is circa 1974. It gets a lot of attention when I mention it at the local small engine repair (I go in for parts once a year or so). It just came back from service a couple of weeks ago, it got a carb rebuild & the snow chute was repaired (now I can control direction without getting off the tractor). The snowblower is a single stage, with the throttle on full, power to wheels set to Lo (directing most of the power to the PTO) this thing will throw some snow. You can barely make out the spruce tree to the right (it is about 15 feet from the tractor). Had I thought about it, I would have used a wider angle lens to get the full snow stream.

As this IS a Self-Portrait, I have to provide some details.

I set the camera on my Tripod (Bogen 055MF3, Culman Head, RRS QR Plates). Portrait orientation (RRS makes this easy). I have this Chinese Knockoff Timer Remote Cable called "Aputure". It allows me to set a Delay (The amount of time before firing starts), a shutter release value (which is meaningless on the camera if I have anything but "B" for Bulb set), an interval timer (the time between shots), and a counter (the number of shots).

For this shot, I set the delay to 20 seconds, that was enough time for me to get onto the tractor and moving forward into proper frame. I left the shutter release value set to 0, an interval of 4 seconds (between shots), and a counter of 20. One pretty cool feature on this timer (and the camera in general) is that with Autofocus on, the AF will lock on for each shutter press. This kept my back in focus when I was in front of the center AF point (You can set any AF point in the camera the center provided the most coverage for this shot).

The camera and lens was well-protected in my garage, I put the lens hood on to minimize any errant snow-flakes (or salt) from inflicting optical harm.

I've always wanted to get a shot of me on the tractor, I'm glad I did this!

Mar 01 - A Good Book

Mar 01 - A Good Book, originally uploaded by DamnBeavers.

My daughter enthralled in a book this snowy afternoon.

Today has been declared a "lazy day". No swim lessons, no running around for various groceries & household goods & no shoveling the driveway (at least until later this evening).

It was also a "No driving around looking for my PaD photo day". This just meant that I had to seek opportunities here at home.

It has been snowing on and off all afternoon, so far there has been very little accumulation. I guess we will have to wait until April to determine if March came in like a Lamb or a Lion.