Week 51 – Jordan

Merry Christmas!

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/200s f/2.8 ISO 1600. Remote flash camera high.

Please don’t kill me, kid.

Week 51 - Nate

Merry Christmas!

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 28mm, f/3.5, 1/25s, ISO 3200

Week 50 – Jordan

Last night was the Fargo Force Make-A-Wish night where a group of families and volunteers attend, and the kids go out on the ice during the first two periods. Fans are encouraged to donate to the foundation and it’s all-around a pretty cool event that I think the kids enjoy.

I’m along to take a few pictures during the game and during their time on the ice, although I’m pretty sure I look weird walking around while they’re all standing still. Oh well. We had our friends come along and their son, Noah, attended his first hockey game.

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/200s f/2 ISO 400.

Week 50 - Nate

It’s been unusually warm this year and Maggie in particular has enjoyed the cool weather. We’ve gone on several long walks of late. I’m not sure how she ended up on the park bench but once she was there, Nila insisted we take a picture of the “nicest, sweetest, softest, cutest little black dog.”

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 37mm, f/2.8, 1/500s, ISO 100

Week 49 – Jordan

Ah, December in Fargo. That means a couple things. First, SNOW. Second, it’s Molly’s birthday (today, actually).

Uh, gotta go.

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/8000s f/2 ISO 100.

Week 49 - Nate

Canon 7D w/ 70-200 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 175mm, f/2.8, 1/125s, ISO 100

Week 48 – Jordan

Thanksgiving was also the introduction of Kinect to the family. What that means to me, is that someone needs to take pictures for blackma fun. So, putting my flash up front under the tv and standing behind everyone while they play Dance Central seemed like the perfect idea. I didn’t think of this until three people had already played, but six turned out pretty well. Next time I’d like to do it with another (very soft) light behind the people to add a little light. Next time…

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/160s f/2.8 ISO 400.

Week 48 - Nate

For the Holmquist Thanksgiving celebration, Anna made nametags for everyone. There were actually 8 (6 below + Anna and Grace). Unfortunately the shots of Anna’s and Grace’s didn’t turn out. I can assure you they were equally cute to the 6 that did turn out.

You might be thinking I’m cheating by using another Thanksgiving picture but since we celebrated Thanksgiving twice last week, I figure it’s fair game. :)

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
6 photos, taken at various settings.

Week 47 – Jordan

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We drove down to Nebraska for a few days and in typical day-after-Thanksgiving fashion (well, every other year), I was able to go to the Husker game. This was the first time I took my camera in with me, which was interesting. They didn’t give me any trouble, but it isn’t the easiest thing to use when you in a packed stadium. I managed to make a shaky video and took a few other pictures, though.

Canon 7D with 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm 1/100s f/3.5 ISO 200. 9 shots stitched with Microsoft ICE.

Week 47 - Nate

Happy Thanksgiving!

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 18mm, f/2.8, 1/50s, ISO 1250

Week 46 – Jordan

On Wednesday we had a going-away dinner for some friends that are moving to Seattle. The way seating worked out, I didn’t really sit near enough to them to get many photos (one group photo has most of them in it). Instead, Joel, Meghan, and Noah were close enough for me to pester for the night. Noah is growing very quickly and looked pretty darn cute in his sweater vest.

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/320s f/2 ISO 1600.

Week 46 - Nate

Jon and Maria were wanting some pictures with Grace so we met them at the Holmquist’s for a quick session. Almost all of the pictures were taken outside but we started with a few indoors. What I like about this picture is that we were able to get a “studio” looking shot in a decidedly non-studio environment. Jon, Maria and Grace were sitting on the floor of the living room, Nila was standing on a couch behind them holding a large black blanket. The lighting was all natural (from windows to the right and behind me).

The rest of the pictures are up here.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 42mm, f/4, 1/60s, ISO 500

Week 45 – Jordan

We had a rather long walk from our parking spot to the Santa Monica Pier when we decided it would be a nice place to visit. Our view was pretty nice from there, too.

This guy was taking a nap from his hard day of work playing the guitar at the top of the cliff.

Canon 7D with EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm 1/800s f/5.6 ISO 100.

Week 45 - Nate

According to some[one], Maggie has been significantly underrepresented this year. With time running out on the 2010 52 Project, I figured I better get started posting pictures of the “cutest, nicest, softest, fuzziest black dog ever.”

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 55mm, f/2.8, 1/80s, ISO 1600

Week 44 – Jordan

Previously, I mentioned how I would use other shots from our vacation as fallback material. Welcome to the first one of those. This shot was from the morning of our balloon flight as they were preparing the balloons. It’s quite the process and very neat to watch. The man standing in there was actually our pilot. Another balloon had a dog helping out, which was cool. The dog really liked the fans.

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/6400s f/2 ISO 100.

Week 44 - Nate

I don’t really dabble in HDR much. In fact this is only my second attempt (the first being the Golden Gate bridge from our Napa trip.) Anyway, stained glass is something that, to me, almost begs for HDR; it’s the only way you can really convey the color and beauty in a single picture.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
3 photos, Taken at 44mm, f/2.8, [1/80s, 1/100s, 1/400s], ISO 100, Merged using Oloneo

Week 43 – Jordan

As it turns out, last week’s experiment with getting off-camera lighting going with my camera was time well spent. Today (well, tonight) we hosted a Halloween party and most everyone even dressed up! We had a jailbird, an animal family, a Minecraft creeper (huh?), a snow ninja, a doctor, a door-to-door witness, Snooki and the Situation, vampires with their cute pet ladybug, and Amelia Earhart with her doctor husband and their not-allowed-on-Apple-products baby (huh?).

For the costume photos, I had my external flash sitting on the countertop being triggered by my camera. My goal, in the limited space I had (our kitchen), was to hit everyone from the side and get their shadow up on the wall for a more “Halloween-y” look. Next year? More lights, I hope!

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/100s f/1.8 ISO 400.

Week 43 - Nate

Halloween is technically tomorrow but that doesn’t stop us from putting Maggie in her “costume” and taking a few pictures. There were a couple others that turned out well but I think this one is the cutest.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 48mm, f/2.8, 1/60s, ISO 250

Week 42 – Jordan

Earlier today I was playing with the 7D’s ability to remotely command off-camera flashes. Up until now, I haven’t been able to, well, make it work, but I finally got it tonight.

The downside to the Canon system is that the on-camera flash is required to trigger any other flashes. Normally, this isn’t too big of an issue, but in my case, I’m right in Roxy’s face (as she would certainly tell you) and the on-camera flash was affecting the picture. So, this was taking with one hand being used to block the on-camera flash from hitting her, but far enough away that my external flash sitting on a foot stool to my left would see and trigger off of it. Got that?

Those of you more familiar with what I’m talking about might be wondering why I don’t get some other type of wireless trigger. Fact is, I have a Cactus V2s set that works most of the time, but takes CR2 batteries which I don’t really have on-hand. I would love a set of the much-more-reliable V4 triggers, or heck, Pocket Wizards, but I’m not really good enough at it to need those.

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/50s f/2.8 ISO 400. Slaved 430ex camera left at 1/32.

If you’re curious to learn more about what-the-heck I just said, I’d suggest starting here with David Hobby’s excellent series of articles about off-camera lighting.

Week 42 - Nate

We went to the KC Renaissance Festival this week. It was… an experience. I didn’t take much in the way of pictures so I’m stuck posting a random picture of a camel. Oh well.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 42mm, f/2.8, 1/1250s, ISO 200

Week 41 – Jordan

Earlier this week was the annual United Way Day of Caring in Fargo. My team from work grouped together to go help a few local senior citizens with fall yard work and house cleaning. Definitely a worthwhile event. I didn’t have a chance to take too many photos as I was actually doing stuff, but you can see all twelve photos here.

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/200s f/2.8 ISO 100.

Week 41 - Nate

Our good friends Shaw and Maureen are having a baby soon, and in anticipation of the soon-to-be arrival we took some pictures.  It was my first ever (non-baby) “photo shoot,” and overall I’m really happy with how they turned out. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have such good looking subjects.

The whole gallery is here.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 46mm, f/2.8, 1/125s, ISO 200

Week 40 – Jordan

It seems like it’s unseasonably warm up here, so as not to look a gift horse in the mouth, we thought we’d take Roxy out for a walk and to play a little fetch. This being something we haven’t done recently, she completely wore herself out.

Which is just fine by us. She definitely deserved her rest after all that running.

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/50s f/2.8 ISO 500.

Week 40 - Nate

This week was Grace’s baptism. I wasn’t able to take many pictures during/after the ceremony but afterwards we went to the old church for some group pictures. The old church hasn’t been used for 40+ years but they’ve kept it around as an historic landmark.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 42mm, f/3.2, 1/60s, ISO 100

Week 39 – Jordan

Today, a few of us made the drive to Shakopee, MN for the 2010 Renaissance Festival (Something I totally bet Nate will do in a few weeks). It was actually my first time at a faire, but it was definitely a good time. I mean, Kurt bought some sweet new boots, there was a cool juggling dude, a lady with a giant snake, a very dirty girl, a Grand Marshal with an awesome ‘stache, hard-hitting live jousting (and a horse, for Nila), and my personal favorite, Kurt being a dragon for a musical group.

Canon 7D with 70-200 f/4 L IS @ 135mm 1/250s f/4 ISO 125.

Week 39 - Nate

Not a whole lot of story here. Pretty rose made for a great picture. I love the color and detail.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 55mm, f/2.8, 1/200s, ISO 200

Week 38 – Jordan

One day during our trip, while everyone else went to do the smart thing and nap for a bit, I sto…borrowed…Nate’s wide angle lens to get some photos of the house we were renting. I didn’t take many indoors due to not wanting to wake the slumbering folks with the (very) creaky floorboards.

I did, however, walk around outside a bit. It was a nice little place to stay – definitely in the perfect location. Once again, the trip photos can be found here.

Canon 7D with 10-22 f/3.5-4.5. 3 exposures combined with Oloneo.

Week 38 - Nate

Fall is upon us. Even though the weather has been rather warm, the tress have figured it out and have started to change colors. We don’t have much in the way of trees in our neighborhood but there are several wonderful parks around Kansas City that do.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 17mm, f/2.8, 1/800s, ISO 200

Week 37 – Jordan

Like Nate said, Vacation! We’ve been traveling this last week and it’s probably safe to expect vacation photos used as fallback material if I don’t happen to shoot during a week. This makes all of you incredibly excited, I know.

The photo below is from our layover in Salt Lake City. We managed to get to our terminal right as sunset was hitting above the plane we’d be boarding. Since I had been wanting to see if anyone would harass a guy taking pictures of planes, it seemed like the perfect time to do it.

The rest of my photos from the trip can be found right here.

Canon 7D with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. 3 exposures combined with Oloneo.

No one bugged me.

Week 37 - Nate

Another photo from our trip this week. We went for an early morning hot air balloon ride on our last day in Napa. What a blast! We made it up to 6000 feet and floated along for nearly an hour before finding our way back down. This was taken as we searched for a place to land (which is much more of a process than I imagined).

Canon 7D w/ 30mm f/1.4
Taken at 30mm, f/1.4, 1/8000s, ISO 100

Week 36 - Nate

Vacation! Nila and I met Jordan and Molly in California for a trip through wine country. This is from Pride Mountain Vineyards, an absolutely gorgeous vineyard on the top of a mountain straddling the county line of Napa and Sonoma.

You can see the rest of my pictures from the trip here.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 28mm, f/3.2, 1/1000s, ISO 100

Week 36 - Jordan

Last night was the annual Make-A-Wish "One Enchanted Evening" Gala. It's a pretty big fundraiser for the local Make-A-Wish chapter and it gives me a way to volunteer my time.

Canon 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4 @ 30mm 1/40s f/1.4 ISO 320.

Week 35 - Nate

We tried to take 3mo pictures of Grace this week. Unfortunately she wasn’t too happy with that plan and refused to smile or hold still. I think she’s letting me know what she thought of me taking pictures here… by squishing my head (something Nila has been known to try as well). Oh well, we’ll get you next time, Grace.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 55mm, f/5, 1/500s, ISO 200

Week 35 - Jordan

As always seems to happen when you have something going on outdoors, it's been raining a fair bit here recently. This wall of rain was just south of us. Even though it missed us, the rest didn't. There's enough standing water out there now to allow some nice little mosquitoes to breed, which should be great, too!

Canon 7D with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm 1/100s f/8 ISO 100.

Week 34 - Jordan

You may remember that previously we discussed my ability (or lack thereof) to grow grass in our backyard. Well, as you can see below, the backyard has filled in quite a bit. Thanks to a generous donation of time and effort from my father-in-law, we managed to landscape a small portion of it as well. Various birds (not pictured because I'm super-scary) seem to enjoy this little area and eat most all of the seed I put out for them within a day or so.

Canon 7D with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm 1/15s f/11 ISO 100.

Week 34 - Nate

An annual tradition at the Holmquist’s neighborhood is the “doggie dive” where they allow everyone to bring their dogs for a dip in the pool before draining it for the year. Maggie wasn’t a fan of getting wet but her cousin, Riley, was all over it. He is also somewhat neurotic about his ball… look at his eyes, even through the shake, they do not leave that ball.

Canon 7D w/ 70-200 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 130mm, f/2.8, 1/640s, ISO 160

Week 33 - Jordan

Like I mentioned last week, it was my birthday. My wonderful wife surprised me with a new fancy thing to attach to the camera - namely Sigma's 30mm lens. It's pretty neat. Naturally, I had to test it out. I used it a little last weekend at the baseball game, but this week I actually got Roxy to sit still for me.

This also made me finally make the effort to rework my photo site (hosted by the awesome folks at SmugMug) so that when I hand people neat Moo cards, they don't think it was a trick. There's a few things I need to fix, but I mostly like how it turned out.

Canon 7D with 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM @ 30mm 1/400s f/1.4 ISO 100.

Week 33 – Nate

Nila went on a baking kick this week (thanks, I think, to watching Cake Boss) and made the most delicious cupcakes I’ve ever had. White wedding cake, raspberry tart filling with a raspberry buttercream frosting (and, of course a raspberry on top to make them “healthy”). Simply amazing.

Canon 7D w/ 50mm f/1.8 
Taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 1/80s, ISO 500

Week 32 - Jordan

While Nate was enjoying himself in the comforts of an air-conditioned home, I was outside sweating in the same city. When we made it to Kauffman Stadium for the Yankees at Royals games, the temperature outside was a brisk 108. Yeah, that felt pretty warm coming from the 70-80 degrees that Fargo was having at the time. For those keeping track, we drove to Nebraska last weekend and Kansas City this weekend. It was also my birthday (and my brother's, and my dad's) so there's that.

Kansas City was nice to visit and it was doubly nice that my great aunt and uncle let us stay with them. I wish we had had a chance to stop by and see Nate and Nila, but the schedule just didn't quite work out. Good thing we get to see them in a few weeks!

Canon 7D with 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM @ 30mm f/2.8 ISO 100. 9 shots, HDR with Photomatix, stitched with Microsoft ICE.

Week 32 – Nate

The weather this week in KC has been what can only be described as “unbearably hot.” No,the thermometer isn’t broken. This clock is on our back deck (which faces south-west) so the afternoon/evening sun hits it with full force. Click through for a close up of the temperature gauge.

Canon 7D w/ 70-200 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 78mm, f/9, 1/400s, ISO 100

Week 31 - Nate

This week we took a trip out to Dodge City to see my grandpa and go to the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo. The Greatest Show On Dirt did not disappoint this year (nor has it ever, really). Barrel racing is NIla’s favorite event and one that is quite easy to shoot (much easier than bull riding, IMO). I love all of the dirt getting kicked up in this shot as she rounds the final barrel.

Canon 7D w/ 70-200 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 130mm, f/2.8, 1/400s, ISO 1600

Week 31 - Jordan

This weekend was my cousin's wedding. It was pretty neat! Especially 'cause he invited us. Congratulations Evan and Marisa!

Canon 7D with EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS @ 200mm 1/250s f/4 ISO 2500.

Week 30 - Nate

Next week, we’ll be headed to the Dodge City Rodeo. It’s going to be a ton of fun. I’m going to take a lot of pictures (including this one). This event has always been one of my favorites because I enjoy watching the cowboys jump off their horse and try to wrestle the calf to the ground.

Canon 7D w/ 70-200 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 200mm, f/6.3, 1/160s, ISO 1000

Week 30 - Jordan

This week, we had the pleasure of our friends Dianna and Adam stopping by with their daughter (our goddaughter) and visiting us on their way to a cabin in Minnesota. Previously, every time we've seen them, my camera has been in the car. Since I can't seem to learn a lesson from that, having them stay with us for a night meant my camera was right there and I could actually take her picture. Once she came around to us and got used to being in a different place, she was very interested in Kirby and Roxy, pointing at them and following them around. In this instance, she was following Kirby into the kitchen.

Canon 7D with EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS @ 18mm 1/125s f/4 ISO 3200.

Week 29 - Nate

Not much of a story to this one. We found ourselves a bit outside of KC this week and Nila spotted a nice place to stop and take a few pictures. I really like the simplicity of the landscape in this shot.

Canon 7D w/ 10-22 f/3.5-5.6
Taken at 10mm, f/3.5, 1/250s, ISO 125

Week 29 - Jordan

Roxy and I spent some time in the backyard the other night trying to burn off some of her energy. I left her leash and chain hooked to her, but not attached to anything else. That way, if she decided to make a break for it, I could easily catch her. Eventually, I'm sure (ha!) I'll be able to trust her enough not to just barrel away through weeds and mud, but not yet. So we play fetch with the lease attached. She didn't seem to mind.

Canon 7D with EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS @ 200mm 1/500s f/4 ISO 100.

Week 28 – Nate

Last Sunday Nila and I went out on Clinton Lake with Jon, Maria and baby Grace. The weather was perfect; a great day to be out on a boat.

Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/3.5-5.6 
Taken at 21mm, f/3.5, 1/4000s, ISO 200

Week 28 - Jordan

We went to the Red River Valley Fair last weekend. Among other things, we went to the small circus that was showing. Despite being really warm out (for Fargo), we had a good time and mainly just walked around to look at things. All the photos from the fair are right here if you're interested.

Canon 7D with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS @ 46mm 1/320s f/5 ISO 100.

Week 27 – Nate

This cutie lives a couple doors down from us. I happened to have my camera out one evening this week while she was out running around and couldn’t resist taking a few shots.

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

Week 27 - Jordan

Happy 4th of July! Molly's parents came up to join us and I didn't end up taking too many pictures. However, the night of the 4th I went and walked around for a bit, hoping to catch someone's late-night fireworks show. Unfortunately, I didn't get any single person's show, but I did get a bunch of random ones while standing on a mosquito-covered bridge a block south of our house.

Canon 7D with EF 70-200 f/4 L IS @ 200mm 7s f/6.3 ISO 200.