Nikon D40x

Stucking Customs - HDR Stuff

2010-04-15T07:19:00.000-07:00

I thought I would also post a link to one of my favorite blogs regarding HDR's. I would have to state that Trey is most likely world renowned or at least I would consider that. But his work is simply put as AWESOME!!! I have been following him for quite some time now and have learned new and inventive ways for creating HDR's.

http://www.stuckincustoms.com/

Eyes on the Camera

2010-04-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

This shot was durning my practice shooting in the previous race, This was the race leader. I think his name was Jason Catching, Well in this shot, he has his eyes on me. Anyways it was a great shot.

Tommy Bednash - Las Vegas (WERA)

2010-04-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

Had a great time taking these high speed panning shots. Tommy placed 9th out of about 30 riders. It was a partly cloady day, but this was the first time I made it inside the track to take photo, and what an experiance it was. Only about 15ft away from the track, so filling up the frame was not hard. Played around with the f/stop which ranged from a 5.4 to 13. Wanted some more blure in the tires when adjusting to the higher f/stop.
1/1000s
f/9.0
ISO: 400

1/2000s
f/5.3
ISO: 400

Valley of Fire

2010-04-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

Perspective shot: Leaned up close to this rock to capture a DOF shot. Played around alittle more in Adobe Lightroom with filters.

ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/100 sec
Aperture: 11.0
Focal Length: 32mm
Flash Used: No

ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: 11.0
Focal Length: No
I like this BW shot. Intresting contrast.
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/250 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Focal Length: 300mm
Flash Used: No

Arch Rock

2010-04-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

Valley of Fire
Arch Rock.

Went down to the Valley of Fire hoping to get the desert in bloom. Well we were about a week early. Bummer. Oh well still captured some nice photos. Wish there was some cloads in the sky.

ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Focal Length: 55mm
Flash Used: No

ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: 4.5
Focal Length: 70mm
Flash Used: No

Tidle Rush

2010-03-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

Almost got wet on this one too. Luckily it just barley missed.

ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/400 sec Aperture: 4.0 Focal Length: 18mm Flash Used: No

More Waves

2010-03-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

Waves

2010-03-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to get some nice wave shots as they were hitting the cliffs and creating some really nice spays. In this one, if you look at the lower left you will see that there is a wave heading towards my left side. WELL I was not quite expecting this to actually hit me so I was more focused on getting the bird in the shot. WELL needless to say that wave snuck right up on me. Oh well, whatever it takes to get the shot.

ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/640 sec Aperture: 4.2 Focal Length: 30mm Flash Used: No
Love stop motion shot.
ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/640 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 52mm Flash Used: No
ISO: 200Exposure: 1/640 sec Aperture: 4.0Focal Length: 19mm Flash Used: No
Play around with some filters in Adobe Lightroom. Got some nice effects with these.

Sea Cliffs

2010-03-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

These little tide pools were intresting to shoot. I was hoping to get more reflections off the pool of water, but not as I was hoping for. Oh well, still some nice shots.

ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/200 sec Aperture: 7.1 Focal Length: 70mm Flash Used: Yes

Spring Dress Con't

2010-03-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

Tracing the heart. There was a slight breeze that day which made for some nice suddle movements.
ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/200 sec Aperture: 5.0 Focal Length: 18mm Flash Used: Yes
The kiss. We had to do a couple attempts on this one. She kept wanting to look at me and was being silly, which is not nessary a bad thing, just not what I was looking for.

ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/800 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 34mm Flash Used: No
Updside Down.
ISO: 200Exposure: 1/200 secAperture: 6.3Focal Length: 20mmFlash Used: Yes
The Spray. Both were trying to get the camera man wet. Got the spray!
ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/200 sec Aperture: 7.1 Focal Length: 34mm Flash Used: Yes

Spring Dress

2010-03-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day for this shoot. Mommy wanted to get some new photos of Trinity in her Easter Dress. Could have not pick a better spot than Sunset Cliffs. The colors around really enhanced the photo shoot. Even the green algae brought out the yellow in her dress. Shot all of these in manual mode, with an external flash so to get her face. This helps tremendously when there is a large light source behind (Sun). Have to be careful not to over expose the shot. When you are using flash, the max shutter speed is set at 200, which can cause problems with high speed shots and exposure. What I have learned to do is to adjust the f/stop to compensate.

Trinity was so worried that the crab would pinch her that it took Mommy to convince her that it would just tickle. Once that was okay with her then she agreed.

I love the way the green and yellow compliment in this photo.

Daddy's little girl

2010-03-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

I love taking photos of my daughter. She can give some of the greatest poses when she is playing

f/5.6
1/200
ISO; 400
300mm

1/160s

f/5.0

ISO 400

105mm

2010-03-15T10:47:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to doing some spring photos. My daughter will be showing off her new Easter dress in the next week or so. Plan on taking her down to either Sunset Cliffs or down by Hotel Del and taking some candid shoots....

On another note, feel free to make any comments that you would like.....

Engagements

2010-03-09T08:58:00.000-08:00

Some engagement photos of close friends. She was so happy with these that she asked myself and my buddy Joe to take her wedding photo. Those also came out really nice. All of these were taken at Sunset Cliffs in San Diego.

Family Portriats - Friends

2010-03-09T08:43:00.000-08:00

Had some friends that wanted to have Holiday photos done for their Holiday Cards. It was a great shoot. These are just a couple of shoots.

ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/60 sec
Aperture: 5.3
Focal Length: 45mm
Flash Used: Yes
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/60 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Focal Length: 52mm
Flash Used: Yes

Gators

2010-03-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

Another shot of my buddy Tommy taken at Fontana Raceway in California. I took one NEF and saved it four different times with different exposures. Then combined them using DynamicPhoto program. Played around with the setting in tone mapping and got this result.

2010-03-09T07:53:00.000-08:00

I like this shot, for a telephoto lens, it came out pretty good.
ISO: 400
Exposure: 1/1600 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Focal Length: 240mm

Taken at the San Diego Zoo heading towards Polar Bear Plunge.

Fonatana

2010-01-10T20:14:00.000-08:00

Got the privillage of taking more high speed shoots. Most of these were taken at ISO 200, F/S 9-11 and about 320 to 500 Shutter Speed.

I think this one is my favorite. Way to go Tommy Bednash!

2010-01-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

La Crosse, these were great to get of my newphew, nice action shots, Shot in a manul setting, ISO 100 F\S 5.4 250mm

2010-01-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

Love action shots, This is my buddy Tommy racing at Fontana, we are actually going there
This weekend and I get to use a better telephoto lens. 70-300mm

2010-01-08T09:14:00.000-08:00

My buddy and I did some family portraits this year instead of going to some studio, I think we did pretty good.

I used Adobe Lightroom to add the Vinettes

Used Photoshop to change the color of her eyes a little.

Yosemite

2010-01-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

Vernal Falls and the Merced River

More HDRs

2010-01-08T08:01:00.000-08:00

Yes even more HDR's

2010-01-08T07:59:00.000-08:00

More HDR's taken on our vacation this past summer. Through the Redwoods and down in Yosemite.

2010-01-08T07:55:00.000-08:00

My daughter is so photogenic it's great taking photo's of her. Been doing a lot of things in PhotoShop
and LightRoom

2010-01-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

I know that it's been a long time since I have posted any images, but here we go again. This is two HDR images in one, took it down in Gordon Wells on New Years. Been having lots of fun taking photos. Will upload more in a few

Golden Eagle Part Two

2008-05-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

Been having fun catching photos of this graceful bird of prey

Golden Eagle

2008-04-29T04:42:00.000-07:00

We have a local Golden, but I can't say were. Anyways he sure is beutiful to watch.

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/320 sec Aperture: f/6.3 Focal Length: 300mm Flash Used: No

2008-04-08T11:38:00.000-07:00

This was taken at Disneyland near the Charosel Ride

Love the Spring time.

ISO: 140 Exposure: 1/250 sec Aperture: f/5.6 Focal Length: 48mm Flash Used: No

HDR

2008-03-04T17:48:00.001-08:00

HDR Images

Had fun today taking photos for use of HDR images

2008-02-21T07:23:00.000-08:00

This was taken last night durning the Lunar Eclipse.
Set the camera on bulb and used a remote. Shot with 55-200mm lenes
on a tripod.

ISO: 200 Exposure: 1.2 sec Aperture: f/6.3 Focal Length: 200mm Flash Used: No

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-21T07:20:00.000-08:00

I was wanting to play around a little with this. Combine three images into one.

Wild Animal Park - Lion Cubs

2008-02-18T07:49:00.000-08:00

Two Lions had 7 clubs combined.

Lions and Tigers

2008-02-18T07:36:00.000-08:00

Raja
ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/125 sec Aperture: f/13.0 Focal Length: 200mm

ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/40 sec Aperture: f/13.0 Focal Length: 200mm
Mr Mohawk. AKA: Bakari

Got to go visit LTB again this weekend. You can read more about them at: LTB

DOF - Pine Creek

2008-02-18T07:28:00.000-08:00

Decided to take some DOF shots. I used spot matrix and center AF. Wanted to focus on the weeds with the background just out of focus.

Used Apeture Priority, ISO: 100 Focal Point: 20mm F/S: 14

Snow Level at 1,200ft

2008-02-14T17:59:00.000-08:00

Snow in Alpine... If it wasn't for the fact of going to school this night and the possiblity of road closure, I would have stuck around to take more creative shots... Hopefully the snow will be there in the morning to get more shots

Just used Landscape Shooting Mode and point and snaped.

Droplets of Red

2008-02-11T21:03:00.000-08:00

I took this photo using manual focus with Shutter Priority. This is just one of 49 photos that I took. I used an eye dropper and a natural white light to help iluminate this more for a higher shutter speed. I debating entering one of the photos in the Flickr weekly challenge.

ISO: 400 Exposure: 1/200 sec Aperture: f/5.6 Focal Length: 52mm Flash Used: Yes

Blue Angles @ Superstition

2008-02-11T10:51:00.000-08:00

This was a shot that was taken about a month ago when I was out at Superstition near El Centro, CA. We got a nice little air show while they were doing a practice session.

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/500 sec Aperture: f/6.3 Focal Length: 200mm

Starry Night

2008-02-11T07:25:00.001-08:00

Well this shot was a trial of long exposure. Can't figure out what the purple lights are on the top. There was no back light in that direction. Will have to play around a little to figure that one.

Update: Andy Pagett says:
Hmm I don't fully understand what you put there but let me see if I can explain!!:

What you did: You had noise reduction turned OFF... you held the shutter open for 30 minutes by whatever means (cable?). After 30 mins the shutter closed and you got that pic

What should have happened: You would have noise reduction turned ON, you would hold the shutter open for 30 mins as you did above. Once you let go and the shutter closes again, the camera would then lock up for 30 mins (if you look in the finder it says Job-NR in the bottom corner) whilst it does the dark frame subtraction. So the whole process takes twice as long, but gets you a clean image.

Thanks Andy for this comment.

ISO: 800 Exposure: 1795.6 sec Aperture: f/22.0 Focal Length: 18mm

Traffic

2008-02-10T15:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I decided to enter a photo challenge on Flickr Photo Challenge So I went on the hunt for a high advantage point and found Mt. Helix. The night was nice and clear and very nice view.

I used apeture priority settings. I will place the setting up in a day
ISO: 800 Exposure: 11.0 sec Aperture: f/5.6 Focal Length: 50mm

Update: I won this weeks challenge. See more at http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikond40challenge/

American Kestrel Falcon

2008-02-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

ISO: 320 Exposure: 1/500 sec Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 200mm

Bird Hunting

2008-02-06T11:53:00.001-08:00

Went out today to look for some birds of prey and got luck. Found a Red Tail Hawk and I believe a American Kestrel Falcon.
ISO: 220 Exposure: 1/500 sec Aperture: f/4.2 Focal Length: 66mm

Things we do for a photo

2008-02-05T07:30:00.001-08:00

Well this wasn't the greatest photo, but had to post the story behind it. The local mountains got some snow, so I couldn't resist in "trying" to get some neat photo's maybe even HDR opportunities. I headed out after I got off work up the road about 15min to Pine Valley. Upon arriving, I notice that the snow on the ground was not what I had hoped for. So after taking this shot and a couple others, I decided to leave. On my way back I ended up going through snow flurries, then hail, and then ice then back to rain. I also saw 5 car accidents 2 right in front of me. People out here don't know how to drive when it rain, and snow is a whole different story.

Any way’s it just made me think what we do or go through sometimes to get one photo.

The shot above settings: ISO: 400 Exposure: n/a Aperture: f/5.5999 Focal Length: 18mm also had a polarizing filter on.

Astute Photo Blog

2008-02-04T11:10:00.001-08:00

Another Photo Blog

This site has information regarding photography in general.

You can view it here Astute Photo Blog

Low Light Shooting

2008-02-01T22:38:00.000-08:00

I just so happend to live in San Diego that I get lucky enough to get photo shots like this. If you saw the tutorial videos that Bob Krist does for Nikon, Understanding Digital Photography, Low Light Shooting, you might recongize this photo. His lesson in low lighting situtions really was good advice. This is just one of about thrity shots that I took.

ISO: 800 Exposure: 1.8 sec Aperture: f/8.0 Focal Length: 18mm Flash Used: No

Anyways I hope you enjoy.

Nikon D40 and D40x Photog

2008-02-01T07:47:00.000-08:00

For more informative information on the Nikon

D40/x, Visit this site. I have learned a lot of

great advice and tools in using my SLR

Click Here

Fun with HDR

2008-01-31T19:03:00.000-08:00

I took this photo today. Used Photomatrix to generate the images. I use three images at 2.0EV seperation. I love taking photo's like this. Can't wait to do more. There is so much information on how to create HDR Images.

This link is great tutorial. http://stuckincustoms.com/2006/06/06/548/

Shooting through Cages

2008-01-31T11:49:00.001-08:00

Shooting through wiring was a real trick at first till I realized that all I had to do was to set the lens to manual focus and zoom in. So lesson learn, whenever you are shooting through cages at the zoo, do the above.

This was a Steller Sea Eagle.

Peanut the Cow

2008-01-31T07:31:00.001-08:00

A very friendly cow. Just out exploring and couldn't resist taking this photo. Just wish I had taken it in RAW.

The Hunt for Mud.

2008-01-30T07:16:00.001-08:00

Now this day was a lot of fun. Every mud puddle that we could find, we went through. I love the action of the mud spray.

Shotting continous mode:

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/30 sec Aperture: f/10.0 Focal Length: 30mm Flash Used: No

Guard Towers

2008-01-29T14:09:00.000-08:00

All I can say is ahhh.... This was taken at the San Diego Zoo.

I had the new camera for about three days when I took this shot using Child mode: ISO: 500 Exposure: 1/500 sec Aperture: f/5.6 Focal Length: 200mm

High Speed!!!!

2008-01-29T13:46:00.000-08:00

This was a fun photo taking day for me. I had been waiting about two years to get nice crisp high speed shots of my buddie Tommy racing in Fontana at the California Speedway. He races superbikes and been doing it for several years...

I learned a lot that day as far as using Apeture Priority shotting modes instead of Shutter Priority. What a difference. I was shotting at F11-13 at 320-450 and ISO at 100-200

The Yellow Bird

2008-01-29T13:33:00.001-08:00

Then on a trip the Wild Animal Park, I was able to get this shot. I don't recall what type of bird it was, but what a nice photo. If anyone know please let me know.

Anyways I was impress with how clean this shot came in, With the other camera that I had, sometimes this shot would come out dark and out of focus.

ISO: 800 Exposure: 1/80 sec Aperture: f/5.6 Focal Length: 185mm Flash Used: No

The Arrival

2008-01-29T13:21:00.001-08:00

This is pretty much the first shot that I took with
new camera. I couldn't believe the quality and vibrant
color that I got in this photo.

Up Close and Personnal

2008-01-29T12:57:00.000-08:00

Can I get a little closer. LOL This shot was not taken with my new camera but a Nikon Coolpix 8700. But I thought it was worth the posting.

This is Raja a Bengal Tiger - Born: 9/5/1996 - Weight: 550 lbs.He is permentaly being taken care of at a Big Cat Rescue. You can read more about him on Lions Tigers and Bears website.