Cora and little sister Layla.
Subjects of my family photo session this afternoon.
Matt & Monica were gracious hosts, laying out a lunch feast before the photo fun began.
Although it’s not perfect, this one does capture their relationship as sisters.
I wonder how it will look 10 years from now?
I had a blast. =)
After a busy evening, morning and afternoon, I laid down to rest and read.
Johanna joined me.
When I got up, I had determined that she was going to pose for me.
I setup my camera - still doing manual - and set it on the bed.
Johanna promptly began her bath.
I took selective photos, which remain unpublished, lest I embarrass Johanna. 
This is one towards the end.
Johanna mostly ignored me, as per usual.
She’s looking right at me, wondering why I’m perched on the wrong side of the bed looking at her.
Or so it seems.
I’m glad she cooperated.
Mostly. =)
I couldn’t help myself. =)
Karen and I had taken the day off to do some things together, including another trip to Litchfield to capture more of the nature preserve there.
After our doings in Springfield, we headed south, traipsed around the preserve and had a nice dinner at The Ariston restaurant on old Route 66.
As we headed out, this sunset greeted us.
I pulled over and grabbed my old Panasonic FZ-30 - now Karen’s main camera.
Did the manual settings mojo magic and stuck the camera out the window as the cars flew past.
Nice.
I put on my 50mm f1.4 tonight, thinking I would be taking some portraits at choir practice.
This sky hit me on the way to an errand after work.
I immediately pulled over and took this photo.
One shot.
Manual settings too!
I was being brave, stretching my skills at getting the right exposure with only the meter to help.
After this, in about fifteen minutes, it started to rain. No more sun.
I was glad to have stopped and caught this.
Not getting into a cloud rut, but hey, when the vistas present themselves, I gotta grab my camera!
This one intrigued me the most, hence my Picture of the day.
Coming out of a store, I saw this cloud formation.
I had noticed the clouds as I was leaving work.
They prompted me to put on my long zoom Tamron 70-300mm. I wanted to get some closeups. =)
As I was taking a few and changing settings for this one, a flock of birds flew past my viewframe.
Too fast for me to get, but I looked around, saw more coming and snapped off a few more.
The solitary bird against this dramatic sky.
Nice.
The Strobist group has been showing examples of balancing ambient light and flash to make subjects pop.
Here you are. My version.
I drove about 15 miles out of town after work, seeing a certain spot that’s a favorite for sunsets.
I was so elated to see this small tractor. =)
I set up with my camera on a tripod and the flash on a light stand with a diffuser on.
I tried the flash at camera right, then moved to to camera left as shown here.
My Pentax K10D works wirelessly with my flash to control it’s output. It uses the on-board flash not to fill me with light, but to communicate the E-TTL parameters to the flash - letting it know what light to put out.
I set the camera exposure for the sunset - not for me. I let the flash fill me in.
I don’t quite have the right settings here, so I brought it into Photomatix Pro to use it’s abilities to bring out the High Dynamic Range - lights and darks - into better light.
I wish I was a tad brighter. Take that any way you want!
A little flower arrangement by my bride Karen. Taken at her request.
In our bathroom with no window.
On a pan on top of the sink.
Resting on black matte foam, curved up at the back and held up by a bottle of soap and a toothpaste dispenser.
Camera on the tripod.
Manual focus. 25 second exposure at f25, ISO 100, 45mm focal length.
A pocket LED light with bright white LEDs, wrapped in a piece of the same black foam material, held together with black gaffer’s tape.
Turn the light off, turn the snooted light on, set the 2 second delay and start painting with the snooted light.
The snoot allows light to fall only where I put it. The foam material is stiff but flexible. I squeeze it to open or stop down the light falling on the flowers.
I like the effect of the base being lit up along with the flowers.
She liked it. =)