Week 51 - Jordan

Mom will probably kill me, but that's too bad! Also, it'll be awhile before I go back to Nebraska, so maybe she'll forget by then.

She wanted a new picture for her profile picture on Twitter and various other things, so I took a few while we were snowed in on Christmas. This was my favorite of the bunch. Unfortunately, I realized later that the different light temperatures were, well, different, so I couldn't completely correct for it.

Other pictures from Christmas are here.

Canon XSi with EF 50mm f/1.8 @ 50mm 1/50s f/1.8 ISO 400. On camera flash.

Week 51 – Nate

We spent Christmas Eve at the Holmquist house. Anna was full of excitement and anticipation for the presents and coming of Santa. The rest of our pictures from both Christmases are up here.

Canon 7D w/ 50mm f/1.8
Taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 1/50s, ISO 1600

Week 50 – Nate

Mmmm. Two food posts in a row. Tis’ the season for delicious treats. We made the long trek over to the Holmquist’s for Christmas cookie decorating this weekend. This is one of 4 trays of cookies that resulted from their hard work.

Canon 7D w/ 50mm f/1.8
Taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 1/250s, ISO 2000

Week 50 – Jordan

Holy cow, only two more weeks! (Well, more like 1.5)

I finally got around to taking a picture of our Christmas tree (as inspired by Stolee) and posting it online. Gifts under the tree were expertly wrapped by Molly, in case you were wondering. I’m pretty sure none of them are for either of us, but the tree makes a decent storage spot until we drive to Nebraska for Christmas.

Canon XSi with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 34mm 1.3s f/8 ISO 200. Three shots merged in Photomatix.

Week 49 - Jordan

This week was the annual company holiday parts or “Holiday Wine and Cheese”. Similar to last year when Nate and I took photos, Ryan and I took photos throughout the event to put together a slideshow at the end. Dissimilar to last year, the slideshow wasn’t shown as the event ended early and Lightroom exports very slowly on a 2.1Ghz Pentium M.

So, here’s Santa and some elves on an escalator.

Canon XSi with EF 35mm f/1.4 L @ 35mm 1/500s f/1.4 ISO 800

Week 49 – Nate

Color! We had a delicious dinner this week of Chicken Carbonara. Our simple table and decorations seemed just right for a picture.

Canon 7D w/ 50mm f/1.8
Taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 1/200s, ISO 1000

Week 48 - Jordan

Yeah, two pet posts in a row. Sorry.

Roxy and Kirby seem to be getting along better these days. They were just laying like this on the couch, so of course a bunch of pictures had to be taken. This is probably my favorite of the bunch, but your opinion may differ. I just like her expression.

Canon XSi with EF 35mm f/1.4 L @ 35mm 1/25s f/1.4 ISO 800

Week 48 – Nate

We went Christmas tree hunting this week. Try as we might to support 2 different local tree farms, we ultimately found Home Depot had a better selection. The trip to the tree farms wasn’t a total bust, though, because we got to see some good friends and came away with a few good pictures.

Canon 7D w/ 18-55 f/3.5-5.6
Taken at 55mm, f/5.6, 1/1000s, ISO 400

I’ve kind of been on a B&W kick lately. Maybe next week I’ll post something with color.

Week 47 - Jordan

Continuing the cat theme, here’s Sam at my parents’ house. Hopefully she wasn’t thinking about eating me. Probably turkey.

Mmm, turkey.

Canon XSi with EF 70-200 f/4 L IS @ 70mm 1/1250s f/4 ISO 200

Week 47 – Nate

I almost went a year without posting a picture of a cat but George was too cute to pass up on. I really like George… mostly because he acts like a dog. :)

Canon 7D w/ 50mm f/1.8
Taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 1/25s, ISO 500

Week 46 - Jordan

It was gorgeous outside over the weekend, so Molly finally convinced me to put up some lights. The first round of lights we had purchased lacked the necessary female connector on the end (despite the box clearly indicating its existence). These lights are better anyway. Still to come (maybe), is lights over the garage.

Canon XSi with EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS @ 18mm 3/10s f/3.5 ISO 800

Week 46 - Nate

After what has been a wonderfully mild November, we finally got our first snow this week. I’m usually not a fan of selective coloring but I think it works really well on this picture.

Canon 7D w/ 18-55 f/3.5-5.6
Taken at 55mm, f/5.6, 1/125s, ISO 800

Week 45 - Nate

The weather turned cold and rainy this weekend so I didn’t get out to take pictures of the fall colors like I wanted but instead tried to get creative inside the house. I really like the way this one turned out, especially the focus (click through for a better view).

Canon 7D w/ 18-55 f/3.5-5.6
Taken at 55mm, f/5.6, 1/15s, ISO 1000

Week 45 - Jordan

Spent the weekend in Bismarck for the Make-A-Wish “World of Wishes” gala. I thought I’d get out and see the city a little bit, but it’s kind of hard to shoot with a puppy attached to your arm, so that went out the window.

During the event, they had a neat group called “The Strolling Strings of Bismarck” play. Much like it sounds, they walk around and play. The age range seems to be middle school to high school aged kids. It was definitely something unique which made the event enjoyable.

Canon XSi with EF 50mm f/1.8 @ 50mm 1/25s f/1.8 ISO 1600

Week 44 – Nate

Late post this week, I know. I just transitioned computers and it took a bit longer getting my photos copied over and Lightroom back up and running than I expected. Anyway, this picture is fitting because it’s late but still very awesome, much like the lamp :-)

Canon 7D w/ 50mm f/1.8
Taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 1/800s, ISO 200

Week 44 - Jordan

Tried something new tonight. Blending multiple exposures to get multiple copies of Molly and Roxy in the picture. It being dark and stuff outside made her blur while walking, so I’ll have to try this sometime when it’s light out.

Canon XSi with EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS @ 18mm 1/8s f/3.5 ISO 800, Seven exposures

Week 43 - Nate

Halloween kind of snuck up on us. We were still out working in the yard when the first trick-or-treaters showed up at our house. Realizing I hadn’t taken a picture for the week, I hurried out and took a few as it got dark. The results were decidedly less than spectacular so you all get stuck with a regular jack-o-lantern.

 

Canon 7D w/ 50mm f/1.8
Taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 1/50s, ISO 800

Week 43 - Jordan

Happy Halloween! We celebrated at Joel and Meghan's and had a pretty great time. Molly and I made some cookies, so here you go! (Oh, you can't taste them through here? Bummer!)

Canon XSi with EF 50mm f/1.8 II @ 50mm 1/80s f/1.8 ISO 800

Week 42 - Jordan

We're currently in the middle of Microsoft's Give Campaign where employees are encouraged to give back to their community. Our group put on a foosball tournament with a variety of game types. In the end, we raised $500-some for the United Way.


Canon XSi with EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS @ 18mm 1/30s f/3.5 ISO 800

Week 42 – Nate

Mousetraps.

Do we have a mouse problem? Nope. Just a dog who thinks our new couch and loveseat suddenly become hers when we leave the house. We’ll see how well that goes over on Monday *evil laugh*

**Before you go calling the humane society: we have the traps covered by a blanket so they’ll only scare her, not actually snap shut on her paws. Simmer down.

Canon 7D w/ 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Taken at 115mm, f/3.5, 1/25s, ISO 1600

Week 41 - Jordan

They put up art semi-recently in the new buildings at work. Some of them look pretty boring, like over-starched tie-dye t-shirts. This one is actually pretty interesting. There seems to be something printed on the individual butterflies that are made of metal, as you can see here.

Canon XSi with EF-S 70-200 f/4 L IS @ 70mm 1/80s f/4 ISO 800

Week 41 - Nate

I didn’t get out to use my camera for anything creative this week so I’m cheating and using another shot from the high-ISO workout last week. While we were at First Fridays we came across a group called Quixotic performing. We arrived late so we had to stand at the back but I still got a few good pictures. This guy played a mean violin.

Canon 7D w/ 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Taken at 195mm, f/2.8, 1/800s, ISO 3200

Week 40 - Nate

I was giving the new camera a high-ISO workout at First Friday’s and happened across a really pretty girl with a cute little black dog. Wish I knew her name…

Canon 7D w/ 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Taken at 70mm, f/2.8, 1/40s, ISO 3200

Week 40 - Jordan

Went to a Windows 7 House Party + Housewarming part for Jeremy and Shelby this week. We were encouraged to dress up to a 1920's theme. Joel did, with his white suit. I guess he stole Shelby’s hat when he got there.

Canon XSi with EF 50mm f/1.8 II @ 50mm 1/50s f/1.8 ISO 800

Week 39 - Jordan

We're not getting much of a "fall" up here in the north, and I hear the story is similar in other places. Luckily, I was able to go out on a decent day while Molly and I were in Nebraska and take a few photos. One of them actually involved leaves that had been able to change color. Pretty amazing, all things considered!


Canon XSi with EF-S 70-200 f/4 L IS @ 187mm 1/500s f/4 ISO 100

Week 39 - Nate

I got a new camera this week from my wonderful wife. Instead of taking the self-portrait that Jordan suggested (sorry!), I had the camera take a picture of itself using a couple of mirrors, live-view and a 2-second timer. I think it worked well. Turns out when you have 18 MP, you can crop to your hearts content which is all I had to do in post. :-)

Canon 7D w/ 50mm f/1.8
Taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 1/320s, ISO 1000

Week 38 – Nate

For the first time since the wedding, we had a lazy Saturday. Didn’t get much accomplished, but it was nice to relax. Although she’s a bit camera shy, Maggie did enjoy having us around.

Canon Rebel XT w/ 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Taken at 120mm, f/2.8, 1/10s, ISO 800

Week 38 - Jordan

This week was the world’s largest ice cream social. Did you go?

Canon XSi with EF-S 70-200 f/4 L IS @ 70mm 1/80s f/4 ISO 100

Week 37 – Jordan

Finally took a few pictures of the outside of the house after we’ve done landscaping and planted trees. How’s the backyard? Not ready for pictures. Hopefully it will start sprouting grass soon, though. If you want, you can compare the photo below to the original look of the front of the house that I’ve posted before!

Canon XSi with EF-S 70-200 f/4 L IS @ 70mm 1/250s f/4 ISO 200 (A collection of 24 shots stitched with Microsoft ICE)

Week 37 – Nate

Before and after of our recent kitchen project.

 

Canon Rebel XT w/ 10-22 f/3.5-5.6
Taken at 10mm, f/5.6, 1/400s ISO 400 &
              12mm, f/3.5 1/100s ISO 800

Week 36 – Nate

We received a surprise package this week from a fellow dog lover. Inside we found some wonderful bumper and window stickers. It didn’t take long for those to make it onto Nila’s car.

 

Canon Rebel XT w/ 50mm f/1.8
Taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 1/500s & 1/2000s, ISO 400

Week 36 - Jordan

This week was the annual Make-A-Wish of North Dakota’s One Enchanted Evening Gala. It’s a pretty big fundraiser for them and has been a good time both times I’ve been there. Molly is pretty responsible for planning the event, so props to her for putting together a great evening. You can find all of the photos from the event here.

Canon XSi with EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS @ 18mm 1/6s f/3.5 ISO 1600

Week 35 - Jordan

Took the weekend to actually relax for once. It was nice.


Canon XSi with EF-S 70-200 f/4 L IS @ 106mm 1/6s f/4 ISO 800

Week 35 - Nate

Nila has always wanted an espresso machine and I’ve never been a fan of $4 lattes so we broke down and bought one a couple weeks ago. I haven’t quite figured out how to pull the perfect shot, but I’m getting better on a daily basis. :)

Canon Rebel XT w/ 50mm f/1.8
Taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 1/50s, ISO 400

Week 34 - Jordan

Molly's parents are in town this weekend and we're getting a bit of landscaping done. Haven't picked out and planted any plants yet, but Molly found some solar lights she's happy with and we've done a good amount of pulling up sod and creating a mulch-filled bed for future plants. Here's the lights on their first night of operation:


Canon XSi with EF 50mm f/1.8 II @ 50mm 1s f/2.5 ISO 800.

Week 34 – Nate

We happened to to have some flowers around the house this week. Nila doesn’t like this picture because the bouquet is actually really bright and pretty but I love the lighting and colors.

Canon Rebel XT w/ 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Taken at 100mm, f/2.8, 1/200s, ISO 400

Week 33 – Nate

Seeing Jordan’s post in my Google Reader reminded me that I didn’t post over the weekend either. Oops!

This guy decided to build a massive web off our back porch. Unlike the cicadas (which Maggie loves to eat) our dog was fairly wary of the spider…

Canon Rebel XT w/ 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Taken at 180mm, f/2.8, 1/100s, ISO 800

Week 33 - Jordan

Pretty sure I forgot to do this on Saturday, even though I had a photo selected and everything!

The other day, the clouds were particularly awesome outside with scattered storms rolling through and everything. I ended up taking a few different photos while I was over in Moorhead feeding Joel and Meghan's kitties, but I liked this one the best.

It took a little planning to do right, considering I can't very well look through the viewfinder while driving. So I stopped, set things about where I needed them and figured out the angle I'd need to get the shot. Then I drove slow enough to get someone behind and shot a few.


Canon XSi with EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS @ 55mm 1/320s f/5.6 ISO 100

Week 32 - Jordan

Two weeks ago, we moved into a new building at work. The full set of photos of it are still coming, as I currently lack several things necessary to appropriately photograph the buildings (among them: health, battery charger, and time). It will happen, however, but for now, I’ll leave you with a photo of the outside of the two new buildings. Yes, they aren’t landscaped yet. If it’s neat when it’d done, expect photos of that, too.

Canon XSi with EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS @ 20mm 1/100s f/3.5 ISO 200, 4 shots

Week 32 – Nate

Queue the anonymous comment from Nila about the cutest dog in the whole-wide-world.

Canon Rebel XT w/ 18-55 f/3.5-5.6
Taken at 30mm, f/5, 1/100s, ISO 400

Week 31 – Nate

The Irish countryside is gorgeous. We found it difficult to take a bad picture while at the same time almost impossible to take a picture that adequately depicts the beauty. This is about as close as I could get.

Our other attempts (and a bunch of photos of us) can be found in the 4 honeymoon galleries here.

Canon Rebel XT w/ 18-55 f/3.5-5.6
Taken at 18mm, f/10, 1/250s, ISO 200

Week 31 - Jordan

What’s that? Not enough cute in your week? Here’s some to fill that gaping void for you!

Canon XSi with EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS @ 18mm 1/40s f/4 ISO 200

Week 30 - Nate

Sorry this one is so late. Nila and I just got back from our honeymoon in Ireland where we all but avoided the internet. I’m just now getting through all the pictures we took. I’ll include a link to the rest of the honeymoon pictures in my Week 31 post.

This picture is from a hike we took in Connemara National Park on our second day.

Canon Rebel XT w/ 18-55 f/3.5-5.6
Taken at 18mm, f/11, 1/320s, ISO 200

Week 30 – Jordan

So, I was pretty sure I posted this before, but somewhere along the line, there was a disconnect. Here’s one more photo from Nate and Nila’s wedding. This time it’s a panorama of the reception, which was a very nice reception indeed. :-)

Canon XSi with EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS @ 20mm 1/40s f/3.5 ISO 800, 7 shots.

Week 29 - Jordan

He's not lying, he really did get married. :-) Congratulations to Nate and Nila! (The rest of the photos I was able to take at the reception are here.)

Canon XSi with EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS @ 55mm 1/80s f/5.6 ISO 800

Week 29 – Nate

Yep. By the time any of you see this, I’ll officially be hitched.

Canon Rebel XT w/ 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Taken at 200mm, f/2.8, 1/25s, ISO 100

Week 28 - Nate

This weekend brought the 13th Annual Amelia Earhart festival in Atchison, KS. We missed the airshow because we were busy building a fence but we made it to town just in time for a wonderful fireworks show (not kidding, one of the best I’ve ever seen).

Canon Rebel XT w/ 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Taken at 70mm, f/2.8, 1/13s, ISO 400

Week 28 - Jordan

This week I was lucky to attend the annual company night at Trollwood, which is a local performing arts school. The musical they performed was called “The Wiz”, which, as you may guess, is a take-off on The Wizard of Oz.

Canon XSi with EF-S 70-200 f/4 L IS @ 187mm 1/50s f/4 ISO 800

Week 27 - Nate

Canon Rebel XT w/ 70-200mm f/2.8L IS
Taken at 70mm, f/13, 1/40s, ISO 100

Week 27 - Jordan

I’m trying to grow grass. Here’s some of it at week 2. Other parts are a bit more filled in, but I liked this shot better. Ignore the line that runs through the top…Flickr seems to be having an issue when I upload.

Canon XSi with EF-S 70-200 f/4 L IS @ 200mm 1/500s f/4 ISO 100.