Penning Photography Daily

I was fooling around with Karen’s point & shoot, the Canon A590IS, and found that 1. I could shut off the flash and 2. it has a high ISO setting that’s decent.

One thing I don’t like is that the high ISO setting has to be manually chosen. The ISO maxes out at 200 in the regular setting and jumps to 800 in the high setting. I haven’t found anything which allows for ISO 400.

I could say “What do you expect for $100!” But I really am feeling and saying, Wow! this thing packs a lot of good image quality for the money.

This image of me was taken with out flash, on the high ISO setting. The grain (noise) has a fine quality to it which does not bother me. Very nice for hand held in a mostly dark room with just a table lamp for illumination.

Karen’s good friend Wanda and her husband Don have several Christmas trees decorating their home. They will be soon moving to a smaller house, and won’t be able to have all of their trees up anymore. Karen asked me if I would document this year’s trees for Don & Wanda. Sure!, I said.

This is the last shot I took of the trees.

I decided to have some fun.

My shutter was set of a long exposure, and my Pentax K20D was firmly attached to a sturdy tripod. I had my human light stand (Karen) stand with a flash with a Flashwave radio trigger pointing to the ceiling to freeze the tree. As I set the shutter to engage, I zoomed my lens out to capture the light trails you see here from the tree lights.

Warp 4 Mr. Crusher: Engage!

After a session of documenting the various decorated Christmas Trees that Don & Wanda have in their home, Karen reminded me of the need for a self portrait. I’m thankful she did, as my head was still pondering the photos I’d taken, and already working on how to best develop them. She’s nice to me like that all the time.

I had my Pentax K20D with the Sigma 10-20mm lens on it. I set the lens wide open, and grabbed the remote shutter release.

If you look close at my right hand, you can see the red glow of the shutter release which lights as the shutter is actuated.

We had a nice meal after this, and I had something which 1. I usually don’t have and 2. a flavor I’d never tasted before! Egg Nog ice cream! Wow was that stuff delicious. Another reason to keep that off my list of acceptable foods – it was too darn good!

After dinner, Don got out the floor-plans and other documents for their new place and we took a table-top virtual tour. It looks very nice, with lots of amenities from being in a planned senior development.

From our smiles you can tell that we had a good evening among friends

I’ve been enjoying the Panasonic LX3 so much that Karen’s been mising having a camera in her pocket.

I jumped on a very good deal on a low-end Canon with Image Stabilization and picked up the nice A590IS for Karen as an every-day-carry camera.

Tonight, I mistakenly left the LX3 at work. It had several potential photos for the pictures of the day, but I decided to leave it and use the new Canon!

This was taken hand-held without flash.

I’m comparing my mug with the angel ornament on the tree. Two angels? I think you can see the trickster smile on my face. Angel would be a stretch.

I like how the camera – around $100 on sale – worked out in this low-light. It would be in sharper focus if my hand were a bit steadier.

Nice reflected light on my face.

The ice has been aroud here far too much this year.

This is from a few days ago. I entered my car and all windows were coated in ice.

I instantly saw the photo opportunities.

Nice diffusion of light and blending of colors.

The good thing was the ice was thin and with a bit of heat, it slid off very quickly.

Not before I took some interesting views of light through the ice glaze.

There’s a relatively new restaurant in downtown Springfield, Illinois.

The Lincoln Douglas Cafe.

I visited the place recently just to see their menu – was it a place I might want to take a meal with friends? The menu is eclectic and familiar at the same time. the usual burgers and such, but each with a distict twist which elevates it above the ordinary.

Even the name is extra-ordinary. We’re used to Lincoln around here, it being home to his tomb, the only home he ever owned, the State Capitol he served in as a legislator, etc. Stephen A. Douglas we know also, but usually don’t see the two paired up for commercial establishments, only referred to as a debate or political pair.

This portrait of Lincoln, with the traditional stove-pipe hat is made more memorable by the steaming hot dog which he stands ready to serve.

Looks inviting!

No I wasn’t really concerned or worried, or angry here. Just putting on a look for the camera.

i abandoned this one to the discard pile. As you can see, there’s not a discard pile, really. I save most of what I take, just in case there’s something I didn’t see the first time.

This time, it was what you see here: a llok of concern and a fixed gaze at something or someone.

There’s energy in this look, which is why I cropped it down to the eyes and not much more.

I realized that black & white would work, and then gave it this reddish hue.

Playing around with pixels.