Laugh More

An interesting sign I noticed outside a business in downtown Edwardsville, IL. It is worth remebering that while we can't control a lot of what goes on in the world, but we can control the way we respond.

Mexico

Sorry for the light posting over the past few days. I really have been trying to do better Just back from my first ever trip to Mexico. Out Wednesday, back Friday, a quick business trip to San Luis Potosi... Sadly, no time for sightseeing, didn't even take a camera. Maybe next time...

Blocks In Blue

Uploaded to BetterPhoto March 2006

Made with Nikon D70 Digital SLR Camera

Another monthly Finalist at BetterPhoto, back in early 2006. Taken at my son's 6th birthday, which was at the local YMCA gymnastics center. This was a big ol' pit the kids could jump im... I actually climbed in to take this one.... The blocks are probaly about 10-12" cubed...

We didn't have a big, formal party for my son's 9th brithday this year. He did have 3 friends over for a sleepover, which was a lot less of an undertaking that the usual events...

Give A Little Whistle....

8.0 sec, f-13, natural light.Effects in PSE 2.0 Uploaded on 12/30/2005 12:26:53 PM

Made with Nikon D70 Digital SLR Camera

This one was a "photo of the day" and monthly Finalist at BetterPhoto, way back in December 2005. Back then, I was active in a Yahoo group that did monthly photo challenges. The challenge that month was "Teapots"... Someone pointed out later that this is, in fact, a teakettle.... Whoops.

This image was all about the arc for me. The 23 black arcs of the handles, the arc of the kettle, the arc of the lid.... The 8 second exposure was so that I could use natural light in the kitchen, and a big f-stop for lots of depth of field. I replaced the background in Photoshop Elements. It would've been a better photo if I'd've cleaned the kettle first...

Valentines

My wife made a wonderful cake for valetines' day...

And some funky cookies!!!

YUMMY!

The ever continuing BP rehash!

OK, I've got over 347 images from my years of posting at BetterPhoto, after these, there's only 333 left to go!! That ought to keep me busyy for a while! Hope you don't mind. Click on image for larger version...

Inner Visions

Flexified version of a "Lighted jars"... Uploaded on 10/10/2005 6:30:14 AM

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Leaf #24

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Autumn Wind

Intentional camera movement on a windy day, w/ 1/10th sec exposure. Uploaded on 11/4/2005 6:16:40 AM

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Poinsettia #1

natural light, 1/60th sec, f-4.5zoom at 70mm (105mm, 35mm equiv) Uploaded on 12/12/2005 6:43:21 AM

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Poinsettia in Black and White

1/60th, f-4.5, natural light Uploaded on 12/13/2005 6:22:56 AM

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still dripping from the BP archives

Lighted Jars

Indoors, natural light, handheld. 1/100th sec, f3.8, aperture priority, manual focus. 18-70mm @27mm. Uploaded on 4/5/2005 7:04:37 AM

Taken at Disney World, FL

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Dandelion #2 ... Selective color shift on the background...

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Jacked Up Jackhammer meets patio. 1/160th, f-4.5 zoom @ 55mm Uploaded on 9/6/2005 6:06:40 AM

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All of these were finalists in the monthly contest at BetterPhoto.com....

We're Number 1's!

Regular readers know that I participate in the wonderful world of microstock photography. During a recent review of my sales records, I noticed that there’s a pretty broad range of what sells. Just looking at my most popular file at each of my top 6 sites, I come up with 6 different images. My top seller at a given site may not be even accepted at other sites, or may not be successful across the board. I guess in microstock, like in investing, it pays to diversify. My most popular images, per site (based on # of downloads):

All of the thumbnails are from Shutterstock, for simplicity. Click on each image to see where it rules. Six sites, Six top images.... just goes to show.....

More BP through the years...

A few images from deep in the archives, previous posts at BetterPhoto.com. Stuff from way back when... All of these were finalists in the monthly contest, believe it or not!

Can't Stand Still Never could, never will be able to....

ok, this one was pretty much a joke. A yahoo group I was in did a challenge - self portrait. This was what I came up with. Back when my DSLR was pretty new (12/2004), playing with long exposures....

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Pink Dogwood Blossoms

Shot with my old film camera (Nikon FM2), probably in the late 90's. Scanned, then cleaned up a bit. Sadly the tree is gone now...

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Airshow Abstract

From the July 4th airshow at the St. Louis Arch, 2004. Taken with my dinky Kodak Easyshare camera, with LOTS of effects added in Photoshop....

Vista

Well, it has finally happened... We've replaced our home computer, and "upgraded" to Vista. We looked at paying extra for the XP downgrade, but decided to go ahead and take the plunge.

Less than 24 hrs in, and I haven't thrown it out the window yet... Still lots of things to get swapped over, etc, etc.... The biggest kicker so far is that my Photo Editing software isn't compatible. Grrrrr....

At The Watershed

Regular reads will know that the Watershed Nature Center in Edwardsville, IL is one of my favorite places.... Well, it was a warm Saturday today, a hint of impending spring; my son and I decided to give a visit...

The lake was mostly iced over, but melting fast. I really liked the brown reeds coming through the aging ice.....

Most of these images are laregly de-saturated, but they didn't quite work in B&W....

This is the last photo I was able to snap before my battery ran out.... That'll teach me to chack my equipment before heading out!!!

BP through the years

A few images from deep in the archives, previous posts at BetterPhoto.com. Stuff from way back when, iaround 2003...

Looking Back....

Now that the dust has started to settle, time for retrospection. And I see that I didn’t serve y’all very well last year. As shown on the graph below, my posting activity continues to drop off, and last year was a worst-ever. In my first full year of blogging, I averaged 1.8 posts per day. Last year that dropped down to an average of 1 post every 2.3 days. Pretty pathetic… I quit tracking my hits, so I don’t know if anybody’s still out there. Thanks to those of you who’ve stuck around, though.

I actually have several excuses, but you know what they say about excuses……

So, what of it? Is it time to shut it down? Or to rededicate myself?? I do have a couple of thoughts for “projects”, I’ll see if I can kick myself into some sort of forward gear…..

Early February, Frozen Field

OK, I'm about ready for spring, how 'bout you? It was 10 degrees this morning, but I think we're supposed to be near 60 this weekend. Soon we'll have some colors back in the world............

Just a couple of views of a field out here in the flatlands of SW Illinois. Something shot and processed over lunch. Maybe I’ll tweak these some more (or re-tweak from sctratch) when I get to my home computer and Photoshop….

Steelers 27, Cardinals 23

Wow. A great game, especially for those of us who are Steeler fans! But I'm also a Kurt Warner fan, so I'm glad he had a good game. I was afraid he was going to pull it out for Phoenix, though.... Phew. We had a few friends over, even though most of them were rooting for Phoenix. But we kept it civil, and a good time was had by all.

That's 6 super bowls for the Stillers, and I've been cheering for them at each of them. But I was only in Pittsburgh for the 1st two. The 2nd two were while I was in North Carolina (for college), and the last 2 since I've lived in STL area....