A clear night

I've been waiting for the skies to clear so I could play around with the length of the 70-200mm lens on the moon. I wasn't expecting crystal clear detail, but I hoped for some kind of shot of earth's celestial partner that looked like more than a glowing golfball in space.

The moon also happens to be just about full if not actually 100% out tonight. Which is why I was especially disappointed that i forgot to take my shots when there were no clouds in the sky. After dinner and a movie, I glanced out the window to see the familiar glow of light pollution against the clouds. I saw the moon peeking through and decided to give thing a try anyhow.

Turns out, the clouds add a lot to a shot that I was pleasantly surprised with.



I still need to discover all the ins and outs of this lens before really putting it to the test in Africa. So far though, I am very pleased using it for purposes it wasn't even truly intended.

Forced Inspiration

Every now and again I enter the Boston.com "RAW" competition. It is a monthly themed contest where different guest judges view the entries submitted and award modest prizes for the winners. Whenever I enter, I always make the 1st large cut, but then fall short of placing in the top 10. My entry is usually accompanied by my fellow aspiring shooting buddy Pravin.

The contest both fun and frustrating at the same time. I often enjoy the themes they come up with for us to shoot (anything from weather, to abstract, to portraiture and landscapes), and will often try new ideas to come up with a shot to enter. However, judging photography is so subjective, I'm often left wondering how my shot, or other shots I feel are much stronger are left out of the winner's circle. Obviously I'm bias, but it just opens the window to try, try again.

This month's theme is "The human form". We often don't get much of a description beyond that, as what's the point of rigid entry guidelines when you're talking about art?

I tried looking through my archives, as when this contest was announced, I was not yet in the best shape to produce anything due to my health. I found nothing worth even submitting for a "phoned-in" entry. Looking back, I don't know why I even bothered doing that, since I'm always much happier producing something new, and honing skills etc, etc.

Luckily, my wife/muse is always the willing model, so after some trial and error, I conceptualized a new shot, and just executed it to the point of my liking this morning. Here are the results of this new effort:



See if you can spot the little "hint of Dan" in the photo. It shouldn't be too difficult.

I'm fairly pleased with the outcome. We'll see if this ends up being the contest submission for this month, or if some other idea takes hold...

and here I told him "You can't just run away from your problems".

Acquired!

Life gets in the way of updating again. But oh my, have things been happening...

Namely things like a major client contract. Who isn't not these guys:



:)

Oh and for good measure, lets add one of these to my bag of tricks:



Going to be really active again soon. Feeling good about it.

Luck and patience

Around lunchtime today I decided to strike out into the snow to try to capture some wildlife pics. I brought my macro lens with me, and little else, hoping not to accidentally ruin any extra gear.

I descended down through the knee-deep snow towards the nearby pond where many ducks hang out year-round. Once I got close, I painstakingly made my way down the steep, snow covered banks of the water as to not disturb the flock.

I took off my lens cap and tried framing a few shots of the mallards resting in slushy ice.... As it turns out, brownish-grey ducks on a white background look about as interesting as one might imagine. I got up and left soon after.

On my way back towards home, I was keenly aware of many birds chirping away in the trees above me. As I saw one that got close enough for an interesting photo, I actually snapped off a frame that had serious potential, and then went to check the result:

"NO CF CARD"

...As the curse words poured from my mouth in an endless fountain of frustration, I most likely managed to scare off any remaining animals nearby. I didn't even think to check within the inner reaches of my pack to check where I usually keep a spare memory card. I was done for now. Defeated, I made my way home.

I headed inside to warm up and commiserate with Andrea, who always reassures me that I'll get the shot next time. This turned out to be incredibly ironic, as after I informed her of my folly, I then said "I would have killed for a shot of a male cardinal or something"

Andrea, who happened to be standing next to our backyard sliding glass door, then immediately says "Oh look, there he is now!" as a gorgeous bright-red cardinal landed on our back fence....

I sprinted into action, re-gathering all the winter gear that I just took off, as additional curse words were exclaimed. Andrea gave me some bread to throw out in front of me as I took up a position, lying low in the snow, partially shielded by some bushes where the birds were fluttering about. I stayed there perhaps 20 minutes as the snow fell around me, barely moving.

Here are my favorite results:


The elusive cardinal:



Female Dark-Eyed Junco



Cardinal returns. Hide and Seek.

A Wachusett-area relic

For those who grew up in the Wachusett area, you may remember the semi-famous stone church. This building is all that remains of the old town of West Boylston Ma. With the creation of the Wachusett reservoir, engineers flooded the old downtown.



In 1897, the Nashua River above the town of Clinton was impounded by the Wachusett Dam. Six and 1/2 square miles were flooded in the towns of Boylston, West Boylston, Clinton and Sterling. The church now sits just feet from the reservoir that engulfed everything else around it.



Here the stone structure sits, an abandoned skeleton of its former self. The building is far from forgotten though. On Christmas day, when my wife and I took a brief reprieve from the holiday hubbub to visit the site, we encountered at least eight other groups and families stopping by the church for no clear reason we could determine.



Not deterred by the horde of roosting pigeons above us, Andrea gladly served as my model as I experimented with lighting and composition inside the hollow structure.

I have to say, the area around the church is very peaceful. The church is surrounded by water on 3 sides, with fairly picturesque alpine and deciduous forest lining the shores of the water. It's also on a less than high-traffic road through a fairly sleepy section of West Boylston. I find there are less and less places like this that I find, and I hope that it remains standing for many more generations to stop by, if not for historical sake, but to just escape it all for a bit.

Holiday Baby!

I couldn't resist quickly posting my favorite shot of a little guy I met this past weekend. I made the hike to Reading where my friend Stacey dwells whereupon I was introduced to the following character:



His name is Mason. He's about afraid of me and my camera as dogs are of bones, and is quite possibly the cutest little ham I've photographed ever...Well besides my newphews. Ok I am bias, sue me. :)

The couple who's responsible for my new main man Mason, was super nice and I was pleased as Stace reported they were happy with the body of shots I sent their way.

That's all for now. Possible interesting stuff coming up, I've got some ideas over my little Christmas vacation...Stay tuned.