Theme # 126 "Graffiti"

I can not remember what the name of this closed up restaurant was but any way it is across the street from a rather large Shopping Mall and has been closed for around a year now. I took five shots some from over to the left and right from where this one was taken. I decided that the straight on shot was the winner. Being vacant I guess the local Graffiti Artist's had a very good red brick wall for practicing and displaying their artistic talents. It is a shame that all this energy goes into this rather then into developing there talent on a professional artistic level. Who knows maybe the artist will be the next Picasso.

Exif data: Photo taken on January 30, 2009 @ 2:36PM with my Nikon D-90and the 18-200 VR lens. RAW format, Matrix metering Mode, Aperture Preferred Mode, WB-Auto, ISO-200, 1/50 sec. f/11 @28mm. Hand held, no flash, no exposure compensation.

Theme # 139 "Hands"

"Hands"......I know that I basically composed this image, in my mind, the first day I saw the 365 theme list. I also believe in order for a image to have a sense of being or character that the story behind the image is sometimes as important as the image itself. That said I will try to provide some background and insight in the making of this photo. In 1997 my mom's health took a turn for the worse and she suffered a slight stroke and required hospitalization and rehabilitation. My father has long been deceased and also her second husband so my wife and I became care-takers for my mother. Anyone who has done this for their elder parents knows how difficult it is at times. In 2007 my Mom's care escalated to such a degree that it was best for all concerned to place her in an assisted living care facility where proper care could be administered. This was by far the most painful and difficult decision that my wife and I have ever had to make. The guilt, sobbing, crying and sever emotional pain were with us until we sought help from the Alzheimer's foundation and went for group and individual counseling. They explained so clearly the "Journey" that my Mom was on and nothing we could do would change that journey. We did the best we could for ten years and now suffer no guilt at all. When my Mom was placed in the nursing home they all told us that acclimation to this facility would come about when she started to make contact and friends. These "Hands" are of my mother Gladys, and her dear friend Ruth. When they became friends my Mom sort of settled in and felt safe and secure in her new home. My mom is now 91 and Ruth's age I really do not know. When I went to visit her today she asked if I have seen Ruth as she has not been around for a few days. I wheeled Mom over to Ruth's room and the three of us had quite a chat and I asked permission of Ruth and my Mom to take a few pictures. Well here is one result. Too me my short story adds depth to the image as now We know who, where and what they are.....but Two strangers from different walks of life.... each on their own individual path of their life's journey finding friendship and strength from one another when meeting in their next to final home. We have made friends with at least thirty or more residents at this facility and when my wife and I visit my Mom we visit them all.
Exif data is as follows: Image taken on January 30, 2009 @ 3:52PM, Nikon D-90,RAW, Aperture Preferred Mode, WB-Auto, ISO-200, Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens at 1/60 sec. f/5.6,zoom @44mm. Hand held and in/on camera flash fired with minus one stop compensation.

Theme # 292 "Snow or Ice"

This little area of very thin Ice was just about twenty feet from the previous post the old abandoned water tank. What struck me was the blue reflections from the cloudless blue sky and the abstract patterns of the frozen ice. After I took a bunch of pictures of the tank I was going back to the car and had to crunch my way back through this thin ice. It intrigued me, caught my attention and I took about a half dozen pictures but intuitively knew that most likely I would end up chucking them. So many times I have tried this sort of shot but find it so disappointing when I see them first hand. It's sort of like a love and hate type relationship. One minute I like it and the next minute I say to myself I must be nuts to like this image. I took six shots and played around in Lightroom with all of them. Not so much image post processing as cropping. I finally ended up with this and have a rather thick skin so tell it like it is. I know I'm crazy but one moment I like it then the next I'm not too sure if it works. And believe it or not I'm still not sure.
Exif data as follows: Image taken with Nikon D-90 on January 29, 2009 @ 3:25 PM, Aperture Preferred Mode, WB-Auto, ISO-200, Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 zoom, exposure at 1/50 sec f/5.6 @ 35mm. Hand held looking straight down.

Theme # 5 "Abandoned"

This old abandoned water tank probably has an interesting life story but unfortunately I could not find out too much about it's history. All I know is that back in the early 1950's the United States Government bought up a couple thousand plus acres of land to be used as a flight test facility by Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation. Back at that time most of the land was unimproved and parts of it was farm land. A portion of that land was allocated for a National Cemetery and that is where the old tank sits. It's about a couple hundred feet off the main road in an overgrown area that at one time was part of a farm lot or whatever. The house is gone but some remnants of a foundation are still visible. This water tank is about 2 miles from my house and I've seen it here thousands of times but never took the time out to actually investigate and see really what it was. It's funny because we had about five inches of snow on the ground and yesterday we had a little rain and sleet so when I pulled the car over and got out of my car and headed towards the water tank there were fresh frozen footprints leading from where I parked my car to the old water tank. Some one else was curious and looked this place over perhaps even taking a picture or two. One of the old farmers told me that at one time these old water tanks had wheels on them and were moved around by tractors to provide water for the crops. Considering that this tank has been sitting here for fifty plus years it is in remarkable shape. The carriage and wheel assembly are gone but as you can see it's now on blocks and retired from farm use. I could not get real close as it's in a wet area and you can see the ice in the picture. Because of the DX format and a multiplier of 1.5 I really don't have a wide angle lens anymore. Otherwise I would have gotten in much closer and used the high depth of field to its maximum.
Exif data is as follows: Image taken on January 29, 2009 @3:22 PM. Nikon D-90, Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 lens, Aperature Priority Mode, Matrix Metering, WB-Auto, ISO-200, exposure 1/60 sec. f/8 35mm. No flash and hand held.

Theme # 103 "Flowers"

This stunning plants real name is "Spathiphyllum" or commonly called a "Peace Lily". It has only one small flower on it so figured I'd better get it now or never. The flower it self is no longer then 2".
I tried various angles and different lens but settled on my Nikkor 35-70mm zoom with the Nikkor-5T Supplementary Close-up lens attached to the front element.
Exif data as follows: Image taken on January 28, 2009 @ 9:08PM. Nikon D-90, Aperture Preferred Mode, Manual focus, ISO-200, Matrix metering, WB-Auto, Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 lens, zoom @ 52mm, exposure 15 seconds @f/11, no flash, tripod mounted and wireless infrared ML-L3 remote used.
Enjoy

Theme #364 "Works of Art"

Well I'm back from being gone for a few days. It seems I'm always playing catch up. These "Works of Art" were all hand carved by local wood carvers located here on Long Island. It is truly amazing to watch some of them as they start from a block of wood and a few hours later you can see the liking of whatever they are carving. Over the years I have accumulated quite a few pieces of waterfowl and duck carvings. Our house is decorated in Early American style so these fit in with the decor.
Exif data is as follows: Image taken with Nikon D-90 on January 28,2009 @ 6:58PM. 18-200 VR lens at 1/60 sec. f/11 and 36mm. Aperture Priority mode, Auto WB, ISO-200, Matrix metering, Hand held using SB-800 flash bounced off ceiling.
Enjoy

Theme # 4 "A Pair OF...."

Well here we are with another inside shot. These glass eagles have been my book ends since the late 1940's. My mother encouraged reading and subscribed me in the children's book of the month club. I still have those books. Hopefully next week will be the outside shots.
I tried various angles on this shot but straight on and a little higher seemed to work the best. Sunlight from the window really gave me too much glare on the glossy book covers so I covered up the window and used the on camera fill flash. I manually focused on the front of the glass eagle and then recomposed my shot.
Exif data is as follows: Image taken today January 22, 2009 at 2:22PM with my Nikon D-90. Aperture Preferred Mode, Matrix metering mode, WB-Auto, Manual focus, ISO-200, 18-200 VR lens, 1/60 sec f/11 @26mm. Built in camera flash fired. No exposure compensation.
Enjoy

Theme # 41 " Canine Companians"

What could I say about "Honey". She is the most adorable, loving dog that we ever had. When my wife and I decided to get another dog we wanted a short hair, extra calm and friendly dog. Honey meets the friendly criteria but she is a little hyper, a little nutty and long haired. She gives us total unconditional love with absolutely no pre-conditions. She is by far is the smartest dog that I have ever had dealings with. Her mother was a Golden Retriever and her father was we believe a Border Collie. She's five years old and a little gray hair now appears on her chin. She has a tiny white triangle of baby soft fur on her lower chest between her two front legs and little white hairs between her toes. Other then that pitch black. My wife attributes her shinny coat to the fact that we give her one of the best dog food's around. The name being Nutra Natural Choice Large Breed Adult. Even though she is five years old she is still a baby at heart. She steals your slipper, sneakers, hat, or whatever and runs around the house for you to catch her and is such a devil always trying to get in trouble and tormenting us with her childish antics. But that is "Honey" and we would have it no other way. We love her dearly. By the way she is named after my wife's childhood dog when she was in grammar and high school.

One of the tricks of pet photography is to always get down to there level. Some times being in close also works. Well I did both. With a pocket full of treats I placed her on one of her beds. They say when you point a camera at a dog they feel threatened so I let her sniff and investigate the camera to quite her down and sort of squelch any fears. That done I took about thirty shots and had about three keepers. At first I focused on her eyes but then her chin was out of focus. So I stopped down to f/16, focused on her chin and the eyes were in acceptable focus. I could see this pretty good on the rear display by zooming in on her eyes. I had her bed in front of our dark blue sofa so that the background would not be distracting. Over all I think it turned out nicely.

Exif data is as follows: Image taken on January 21, 2009 at 4:21 PM. Nikon D-90 with Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens. Aperture priority, Matrix metering, ISO-200, WB-Auto, 1/60sec. f/16. No exposure or flash compensation.

Enjoy

Theme # 48 "Childhood Favorite"

One of my childhood favorite toys in the late 1940's was my set of .027 gauge Lionel Trains. I dragged these few example's up from the basement, polished them up a bit and figured I'd try my hand at some more indoor photography. Considering that these trains are over 60 years old they really don't look that bad. I spent hours and hours running these electric trains around and around on its 4' X 8' plywood table. It had gates, crossing lights, curves , switch tracks, and little towns and streets. Little miniature people and buildings. I had a conveyor belt for coal transfer, a magnetic crane , a refrigerated milk car which would leave little milk containers on the platform and so many others that I don't remember anymore. I just about made all these miniatures up myself. These were the days before it was normal for every household to have a TV. I kind of miss the old days as life was so much more relaxed and family oriented. Sunday was a day of rest and nobody had to work.

At first I used side lighting from a large sliding glass door but just could not get the right affect. I waited for a hour or so till it was dark and used bounce flash off of the dinning room ceiling. This is all new to me trying my hand at still life photography. I tried around six shots trying to get maximum depth of field but was not able to get the front of the engine to the rear Caboose in acceptable sharp focus. The 20mm length ( 30mm in 35mm format) was not wide enough for me to get that depth of field. I tried smaller aperatures but not enough bounce light from the ceiling. I would expect the Nikkor 14mm f/2.8 would suffice or the Nikkor DX zoom 12-24 mm f/4 zoom. Next on the shopping list.

Exif data is as follows: Image taken with Nikon D-90 on January 19, 2009 at 5:59PM, 18-200 mm VR lens, RAW, Aperature Preferred Mode, Matrix Multi Pattern metering, ISO-200, Flash bounced off ceiling, 1/60 sec. @ f/8.0, zoom at 20mm.

Enjoy

Theme #355 "Weights and Measurements"

Well still stuck inside. Doctor's orders. Just to be on the safe side I use this scale to check my powder drop when reloading my own shotgun shells. I have reloading machines for all gauges of shells from 410 to 10 gauge. Some are progressive meaning every time the handle is pulled down a new reloaded shell drops out. Others are single stage reloader which take 9 steps of moving the shell and pulling the handle down. I save about fifty percent of the cost of newly manufactured shells. Because I shoot in competition which require's a lot of practice in order to not lose my competitive edge I shoot some where between 12,000 and 15,000 shells a year. With the increase in the price of lead these days it is not a cheap sport any more and I have cut back a little this year. My wife begged me to notify the local Fire Department that I have gun powder and live primers in the basement. No way, if I had a fire they wouldn't come.
The image as you can see is rather straight forward. I'm using the dinning room table with the reddish table cloth and a almost black back ground. I manually focused on the front edge of the scale to be within my accepted depth of field. When I looked at the image in Lightroom at 100% magnification every thing was nice and sharp. Because I need glasses for both reading and distance I sometimes go crazy trying to see if the focus is on. Well as my optometrist said it goes with the turf.
The exif data is as follows: Image taken on January 18, 2009 at 3:03PM with my Nikon D-90, Both Manual Mode and Manual focus, WB-Auto, ISO-320, Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 lens, 1/3 second at f/8, Spot metered and no compensation, Tripod mounted.
Enjoy

Theme # 99 "Film"

Remember the old days of 35mm film. I do and many of us here at the Village can reminisce about the old days. My first camera was a Kodak box camera. It used 120 Black and White film and was about the size of a small shoe box with a fixed lens and shutter and I believe a small Fresnel glass type view finder on two different sides of the camera. One for portrait and one for landscape type images. I probably got this when I was around 8 or 9 years old.
The image above is all 35mm both slide and print film. I think I am starting to get better at this . This one took fifteen minutes to gather all my old relics containers and another 15 to set every thing up, five shots later here we are. Very little post processing just crop and a few minor tweaks in LR-2 framed in PSE-7.
Exif data is as follows: Nikon D-90, Auto WB, ISO-200, Matrix Metering, 35-70mm f/2.8 lens, shot at 52mm 1/60sec f/13. Tripod mounted and flash fired at -.7 comp.
Eddie

Theme # 279 "Shadows"

I went out on my deck this morning and saw these diagonal lines which to me appeared intriguing. Got my camera and tried to compose so not all the vertical posts whose shadows were the subject would compete for the purpose of this photo. It was cold 18degrees and windy. I'm still not that chipper with my bout with the whatever. So I quickly grabbed off 5 or 6 shots. The image was taken this morning January 16, 2009 at 10:31AM. Nikon D-90, w/35-70f/2.8 lens at 70 mm 1/100 sec.@f/11. Matrix metering, auto WB, ISO-200, hand held, no exposure comp. There is some thing about this image that sort of baffles me. Like a optical illusion. It appears to me that the image when I look at it, it appears to be slanting down to the right. I even took my ruler and measured the two corners height but every thing is square. Beats the heck out of me. I thought it might still be the illness as I had a high fever for a few days but I think its a optical illusion. There is also a slight blue cast in the lower shadows but I could not remove that cast with post processing.
Eddie

Theme # 282 Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

Now where could I get a sign like this. You guessed it at a fund raising dinner for the one and only "NRA". Just in case if you don't know what NRA stands for it is the acronym for the "National Rifle Association". I am a life member and like previously stated enjoy the shooting sports. It's actually a Duck's Unlimited sign and they probably donated it. I won this great memento in one of the raffles. The only thing I don't quite understand is that my wife got more then a little annoyed when I hung it up in the nice formal living room. It didn't last ten minutes. So now it's in the basement where I keep all my reloading supplies and 49+ years of accumulation.
This is another one that took too many shots. I kept getting reflections from the windows and had to wait till the light was right.
The image was taken today January 14, 2009 at 1:46 PM. Used my trusted Nikon D-90, Captured in RAW format, matrix metering, Aperture preferred, auto WB, ISO-200, 24mm f/2.8 lens, 4 sec @ f/11, tripod mounted, no flash, no exposure compensation.
Enjoy

Theme # 73 "Cutlery"

I haven't been feeling too well the past few days so here I am again trying to play catch up. My wife had some kind of virus and guess where I caught it from. Well nothing I can do about it now so life goes on.
I tried so many different shots of different pieces of silverware and just could not get it down. Finally I said to my self "keep it simple" and got rid of all the extra hardware and picked three forks. The background I chose is a festive holiday place mat. This beautifully wooden boxed silver set of eight was given to my wife and I as a wedding gift back in 1959 by my father's mother and sister.
I probably took 10-15 RAW shots to get a couple of keepers. I don't have a true Macro lens so I tried every one out to try and get everything in focus. I ended up shooting practically straight down at the forks to keep it in one plane for focus clarity. The image was taken today January 14, 2009 at 1:35PM.
Exif data is as follows: Nikon D-90 with a Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 lens, zoom @ 35mm, Matrix metering, no exposure comp., 2.5 sec @ f/11, ISO-200, WB -auto, no flash and tripod mounted. Enjoy

Theme # 328 "Tie The Knot"

We "Tied the Knot" on December 5, 1959. One of the best decisions I ever made. It will be 50 years this coming December. That's almost a lifetime. I was 21 and the bride "Eveline" was 18. To give you an example of the financial world at that time, our wedding cost $500 band and catered affair at a local facility. The Photographer was a whooping $50 and no limos. We had somewhere around 100 guests. And paid for it ourselves. The money wasn't flowing like these days and weddings were very simple affairs. Personally I think its got out of control to spend $40-$50,000 on a wedding. I know I'm old fashioned. A friends daughter recently got married ($50,000+) and within 6 months got separated and then divorced. Supposedly he was a control freak.
I took this 8 X 10 out of our album and scanned it into my PC.

Theme # 9 "Advertisement"

I figured I'd try and play catch up today and post another image. Cold as heck out there today and I have a bad cold and sinus condition so I decided to stay indoors. I scanned this 1942 add from one of my old 1942 NRA Magazines that some how managed to survive all these years. My Dear wife has threatned me many times that she will kindly throw them out for me. Like I said in a earlier post I am a incurable "packrat". The interesting thing about this add is the header words which I will repeat if not legible in the image. I quote:
Washington, Jan.28.--(U. P.) The American flag still flies over Midway Island today because that tiny outpost's marine garrison dished it out--hot and heavy. The combination of American courage and good markmenship was too much for the Japs and so their first assualt on Midway, on the night of the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor, failed".
Enjoy, Eddie

Theme # 1 "One Hundred"

Another one of my obsessions is Shooting. I have been deeply involved in the shooting sports since I was a kid. Long Island back in the 40's was all country, woods, open land, and farms. I probably got my first BB gun when I was 5 or 6 and my first 22 when I was 10 or so. I did a lot of hunting in my early years but as I aged I mellowed out and never hunted animals unless I put it on the table for a meal. But as the above 100 patch says I am involved in the shooting of Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays. I also shoot rifle when the time allows but not in competition. While in the US Navy I was also on the ships rifle team and we used to beat the heck out of all the "Grunts" on board our ship. I have managed to collect my fair share of awards. A few years ago I was involved in a shot gun competition of shooting 50 Trap, 50 skeet and 50 sporting clays targets. Well there was a 5 way tie for my class so we had a shoot off. Each person would shoot at a target and if one misses he is out. I over heard one of the participants remark "look at that guy with a pump gun". Yep that was me shooting a Old 1950 vintage Winchester Model 12 Trap gun. Well there is a old saying in the shooting world beware of the shooter, shooting a Model 12 as he probably knows how to use it. Well I won the shoot off and nicely, politely told the person who made that remark if he ever needed any lessons I would be available for a nominal charge. He didn't say a word not even congrats. The patch is sewed on my shooting vest so I pressed it down real nice and scanned it into my PC using my Epson 4180 scanner.

Did a little cropping and added a frame.
Enjoy

Theme # 255 "Red"

Its been snowing outside just about all day so figured I would again pick a inside type topic. It's the Christmas and New year time so my wife got some Poinsettia's for decorations around the house. Believe it or not this particular Poinsettia was the smallest one that we had. I would say a 4" pot. But it had such a beautiful center that I chose this one for this image.
Since one of the purposes that we are all posting is to learn and sharpen up our techniques I'll bore you with the details providing another senior moment doesn't set in. I positioned the flower on my living room couch with a nice green table cloth for my background. Side lighting was coming from the right side a little bit in front of the plant. Because the outdoor light was so poor and diffused because of the snow I used fill flash at around -2 full stops. I did not want the flash to wash out the vivid colors. This meant that in Post processing I would have to increase my exposure which is what I did. My Exif data is as follows:
Image taken on January 10, 2009 @ 3:37 PM. Nikon D-90, RAW capture, Aperture Preferred mode, Auto WB, ISO-200, 18-200 VR lens at 34mm-1/60th sec f/5.6. Note VR is off when shooting from tripod. Fill flash used at - 2 stops. Post processing was done in Lightroom 2.2 and framed in Photoshop. I know that you will start to notice that a lot of my images are vivid and saturated but that is the way I see and perceive the world. I hope you enjoy.
Eddie

Theme #269 "Sculpture"

The Title for this sculpture is "Pink Lady". The credit for this piece of fine art goes to my Uncle, Michael Barkin. He was married to my mothers sister Martha who now at a ripe old age of 96 resides in a nursing home in California. Uncle Mike passed away probably around 20 or so years ago. His work has been displayed in Fine art galleries in Florida, Michagen and elsewhere. Both Mike and his wife were art teachers in Brooklyn, New York many years ago. The marble used for this piece was hand picked by Mike in Italy. I believe in a town named Carrera which is known for its fine pink marble. My Uncle told me that the infamous Michelangelo picked marble from the same area. Uncle Mike died from complications of enphesima caused ironically from fine dust resulting from his sculpture work.
I must admit that capturing this image was no easy task. I tried to use natural side lighting coming in the living room window. To make a long story short after about twenty different shot trying various lighting and lenses I figured I must have at least a couple keepers. The marble is so finely surfaced that reflections of natural and fill light came from all different angles and places. It is very hard to see if the JPEG image on the camera display is a real keeper. The histograhm tells me about exposure but not focus or fine detail. That said I did post processing in Adobe Lightroom-2.2.
The Exif data is as follows: Image was taken on January 8, 2009 @ 2:45PM
Nikon D-90, with a 35-70 mm f/2.8 lens. Aperature priority mode, Matrix metering, WB-Auto, ISO-200, 1/60 sec f/11 and zoom at 70mm. Fill flash was used with compensation -1/3 stop. Tripod mounted.

Theme #249 "Rain, Rain, Go Away"

It' such a gloomy, dreary day I just had to use this theme. We had about four or five inch's of snow on my deck but it has been pouring rain here all night so only a little left. I stepped out from the family room door and onto a covered sort of breeze way and immediately saw these opposing diagonal lines which I thought were interesting. This 365 challenge will teach me to be more cautious when I click that ole shutter. Meaning that I should really see the image in the view finder not when post processing. I hope I don't bore you with a little history about my deck but I find it interesting. My property slopes down ward from the road meaning I'm on sort of a steep hill. From where this picture was taken on the right we are at ground level. If I turned my camera to the left to show the rest of the deck you would see that the tree tops appear almost half way down to ground level. The whole deck is filled with diagonals different levels, and a octagon shaped piece on the far left. That part is around 35 ft. above the ground. I designed this deck in 1992 and had a friend of mine build it at a bargain of all bargains price. We love the deck because in reality it's my back yard.

About the image, you will note the verticle distortion of the ballesters I believe that was caused because I shot this at 18mm ...so the pronounced distortion. If I had used a mid range zoom setting the distotion would not have been so pronounced. I think! But because of the intense rain I did not venture off the breezeway.

The exif data is as follows: Image was taken on January 7, 2009 at 1:05pm, using my Nikon D-90 with my 18-200mm VR lense. I shot in RAW, ISO-200, WB-Auto, Aperature preferred , Matrix metering(no compensation), 18mm,1/60th sec. f/6 . Hand held And no flash.

In my estimation nothing special but interesting and helps the learing process.

Thanks for viewing.

Theme #182 "Memories of Childhood"

Well finally here is my first image for 2009. It appears I have some catching up to do. But a little pressure never hurt any one. This Xmas Tree stocking was given to me by my mother and father in 1937 for my first Christmas. I was one day old. Yes one day. I truly treasure this memento of my early childhood. I also have my sisters stocking from 1935 and who knows maybe it will fit in another category and be posted further down stream. My mother who now is 91 gave these treasures to my wife and I about 15 years ago when she knew that she was starting to fail and slow down. I'm a clutter bug and have boxes and boxes of things from the past when I was young and also from when my children were young.

This was taken with my Nikon D-90 on January 6, 2009 @ 9:53 PM. Exif data is as follows: Aperture preferred mode, Matrix metering, WB-Auto, ISO-320, Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens, @70mm f/7.1, 1/60 sec., Flash SB-800 bounced off to the right and ceiling to give it a soft effect. I used my Bogen 3001 Tripod and Giotto ball head. I used Lightroom for post processing.

"If Only Windows Could Talk"

I am uploading this image for practice to see how everything looks.

Eddie