My First Photography Contest

I just entered my first photography contest with Popular Photography magazine.  The theme for the month was backlighting (http://www.popphoto.com/contests/2010/08/share-monthly-photo-challenge)  Here are the three pictures I submitted.

Picturing the Temple at 60 MPH

Here is a picture of the Gila Valley temple spire that I took on our way back from Texas.  I’ve included the exposure info below it.  It came out sharp even when I took it from the passenger seat of the RV while going 60 MPH down the highway.

Canon 7D with my EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
1/2000 sec at f/2.8 and ISO 100

Feral Hog Hunt in Texas

WARNING: I have lots of pictures on this one, but I’m trying to catch up… My brother, Doug, organized a hog hunt for my Dad and all my brothers on a ranch in Texas.  Even though I saw more deer than hogs, we had a great time.  I go along with my brothers on their hunt and take my camera to shoot with.  I got to test out my 2X extender with my EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS II USM.  With my Canon 7D crop sensor, the 2X extender, and my lens, I could get out to the equivalent of a 640mm lens at f/5.6 and 18MP.  Here are some of my favorites from the trip.

Here are a couple of my Dad as we hiked around searching.

Aa hog’s skull we found while Hiking

Most of the hunting was done from blinds near feeders.  While sitting there for hours, I had to take pictures of what ever I could.  I liked the backlit fuzz on this tree.

There was plenty of wild life around… foxes, armadillos, hawks, cardinals, and a ton of deer, goats, and sheep and more.

These particular goats where fenced in around the main ranch.

Every night I would get about an hour to take photos of the stars before clouds would roll in and block it all.  Here is a 8.5 minutes shot pointing at the North Star (54mm zoom at f/2.8 and ISO800).  If I would have had more time, I would have liked to have made it much longer and zoomed in closer.

And here is my favorite photo from the trip.  Some of the guys where in the barn with the lights on.  I gave it a 30 second exposure at f/2.8 and ISO 1600 with the 17mm end of my EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens. 

Wood Working

The boys have been working hard around here on wood projects.  On top of helping out with the fort, they recently built wooden swords for mock sword fights.

Caleb and I put together a new dog house for Lucy (our dog).

And Josh had me help him put together this bird house.

They recently built pinewood derby cars too.  That’s for another post though.

Disneyland–How we left

Here is the final results of 3 days at Disneyland. 

Some left Happy.

Some left sad.  Here is Simon trying to throw a keychain Buzz Lightyear gun that is attached to his belt loop.  It was sad… but hilarious.

Some left changed

And we all left a little crazy!

It was fun.

Disneyland–Final Abstracts

Grizzly Rapids

Grizzly Canyons

Mickey Balloons

Disneyland–Family

Disneyland–Jonah

Disneyland Lights

Here are some other abstract type, long exposure  pictures I played around with at Disneyland.  I’ve given them titles.

Dumbo’s Wings

Pulse of the Matterhorn

Monorail

Music of the Ride

For this picture I used a 5 second exposure with a 2nd curtain sync flash  so that the flash went off at the end of the shot.

Disneyland–Abstract Carousel

While everyone went on the Casey Jr. Circus Ride, I sat at a table and played around with long exposures and zoom blurs.

The regular shot

A two second shot with the camera sitting on the table and the carousel in motion

A two second shot with zoom blur

The same two second zoom blur shot, but I rotated the camera around the lens

Disneyland–Carousel Ride