Back to the studio this week. Sarah was the perfect subject and let us take several photos in different poses. Once those were done, we had Elizabeth take some of us. I just love this one of Nila and Sarah.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 55mm, f/3.5, 1/160s, ISO 100
I have...a few...photos from Christmas, but the majority of that (probably?) was taking pictures of my new niece. She's pretty cute. Happy New Year :-)
I rented a lens for vacation and decided to annoy the pets by trying it out on them. Here's Roxy pretending she's asleep so I'll leave her alone. Didn't work!
Christmas came a bit early at our house this year. Sarah Teresa was born on the 20th. A friend of ours has an awesome in-home studio and was kind enough to let us use her setup to take pictures (while teaching me some of the ins-and-outs of studio photography). Our session was cut short by Sarah getting fussy so we might go back next week to take a couple more.
Merry Christmas!
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 24mm, f/3.5, 1/160s, ISO 100
Though Nila is due tomorrow, it seems little _ _ _ _ is quite comfortable in the womb as she hasn’t given much indication she’s ready to come out. No worries, that’s giving me a chance to try out my new flash.
Canon 7D w/ 10-22mm
Taken at 10mm, f/7.1, 1/100s, ISO 100
AB-B400 w/ Photek Softlighter camera right
Merry (almost) Christmas! Continuing my semi-tradition, here's an HDR of our living room and Christmas tree. Nearly all of the gifts currently stashed under the tree will be going into our car for a 7 hour drive.
The end of the year is coming up pretty quick on us and it's about this time that I start wondering if I'm using the right number on each post.
Oh well.
Yesterday was our annual company holiday party. This year it was held at a new venue, named The Venue (creative, eh?), which was (in my mind) a lot better than previous years. There was a full stage, so I was able to walk up/around/in front of the band while they were playing and take pictures and things were just pretty neat. My friend in the photo below (you may remember him from the last time I mentioned the company party) recently joined the band and was belting out one of his songs. You can see the rest of the party photos here.
One of the annual traditions in my family is jelly making. My grandpa comes into town with all the supplies and we spend a Saturday making some of the best jelly I’ve ever had. This is the signature Sandhill Plum.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 55mm, f/2.8, 1/60s, ISO 3200
Using another photo from Thanksgiving. This is my brother's dog, Yuki. She's very shy around people that are not my brother or his wife, so I was happy enough that she was willing to stare at me long enough for me to take her photo.
Last Sunday was Sophia’s first birthday party. Nila made cupcakes (and an awesome cupcake owl) which Sophia seemed to enjoy. Full set here.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 44mm, f/2.8, 1/60s, ISO 1600
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a good time - traveled to Nebraska and saw family. I was lucky enough to go to the Husker game with my dad while I was in town, which was fun (and we won). The photo below is Molly's uncle, Jimmy, being Spiderman. He owns a gym in Lincoln and is fairly practiced at jumping up to the wall and staying there for a bit.
Happy Thanksgiving! As was the case last year, Anna made nametags for everyone. This year, Nila’s was extra special.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 38mm, f/2.8, 1/60s, ISO 500
This week involved absolutely no photo-taking. It did, however, include a ton of video for a short skit we were making for our company holiday party. I think it turned out rather well, but we'll see how it goes over. One of the scenes involves crazy things you can do before our healthcare plan changes. So in the shot that I pulled this frame from, my friend is "drinking" "laundry detergent" and making my garage smell like detergent and Kool-aid at the same time.
The Stolees were in town this weekend and Derrick ran the Overland Park Gobbler Grind Marathon. This was taken around mile 12, so I’m not sure why he’s still smiling but he seemed to be enjoying himself. Nice work Stolee!
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 44mm, f/2.8, 1/400s, ISO 100
Fall leaves are filling up our yard. Nila and I aren’t too fond of the cleanup but Maggie sure seems to enjoy it…
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 37mm, f/2.8, 1/100s, ISO 100
Roxy really loves laying in the sun at our front door. She loves it so much that she didn't move while I practically laid down in front of her to take her photo.
A few weeks ago, we took a trip to Minneapolis to watch the Huskers play the Gophers. It was nice to see a solid win and a ~50% red audience. We had a nice time driving around the city. We made a stop in the Microsoft store in the Mall of America and visited the Kinect "booth" they have setup near the amusement park. Pretty nice, I think, demoing yet-to-be-released games and all. Anyway, here's a photo of the stadium from our seats.
Happy Halloween! We decided to celebrate a little early, since Halloween itself falls on Monday. We got together as a group at our friends' house and had a good time chatting, eating, and playing games. I set up a very impromptu area to takes pictures of everyone in their costumes and then forced everyone to show up for a group photo. If you guys ever read these, thanks for putting up with it! The rest of the Halloween photos are here.
Cheating a bit this week. While we were out taking pictures of Sophia, we had Shaw snap a couple of us. There were several good ones (here) but this was one of our favorites.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 47mm, f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 125
Unless you're looking for a photo taken from a video game, I'll use another photo from our Colorado trip. Despite other tourists very similar to us, it was very peaceful climbing up the mountains (in a car). This hopefully reflects that feeling.
Babysat our friends' son Noah today. He's much more mobile than he used to be and absolutely loves running around and handing people things. Books, blocks, toys, coasters - anything. And then he'll be more than happy to take it back and hand it to the next person.
Fall is in full bloom.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 37mm, f/2.8, 1/1000s, ISO 100
This morning, Molly, being the braver and more adventurous of the two of us, ran the Oktoberfest 5k. It was her first one and I'm very proud of her for doing it. I also put together a very brief time-lapse of the run.
Sophia is rapidly approaching 1 and as the cutest almost-one-year-old we know, we had no choice but to get to a park and take some pictures. Even having skipped her afternoon nap she managed to play it up for the camera and bust out a grin every once in a while. Whole gallery is here with some cute family shots.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 31mm, f/2.8, 1/160s, ISO 100
From our previously mentioned trip to Colorado, Molly and I walked up a path for a bit and stopped to take some pictures.
Came back to Nebraska for the annual Raikes alumni event. It was a great time getting to see everyone again. Of course, I didn't take my camera with me to that. I did, however, decide it would be a great time to try out some astrophotography while staying at my parents' house. So, here's my first try at it. In the pitch black, I set up my camera on the tripod and moved my flash around to various locations around the house to light it. Combined those afterwards. The house is slightly blurry because, as I was stumbling around in the dark, I kind of tripped over the tripod.
Emma’s second birthday party was this week. Although there are plenty of cute pictures of the birthday girl (full gallery), I really liked this one of her dad, Pete. I can’t pin it down but something about the color and lighting is just neat.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 35mm, f/2.8, 1/60s, ISO 3200
Last Sunday I took a trip with some friends from work to the Sheyenne National Grasslands south of town. David knew of an abandoned house in the area, so around sunset we made a short hike to it from the road. The shot below was part of a series of trial and error, where I'd hit the timer on the camera and run about 15 feet in front of the camera with my flash and point it at the side of the house. If I did it again, I'd probably put an orange gel on the flash to match the color the setting sun was giving everything else. You can find the full set here.
Friday night was the annual Make-A-Wish gala. This year, they mixed it up a little and instead of a sit-down dinner, it was a wine tasting with food pairings. I thought it turned out well, with increased attendance this year, but I haven't heard any official numbers. In the photo below, I managed to convince our friend Dana, one of the event organizers, to "make it rain" with the tickets she had been meticulously counting while I tried to mess her up. It's likely she'll never fall for this again, but I certainly thought it was a fun photo.
This one is also from Berchtesgaden… a random mountain road leading to our B&B.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 17mm, f/10, 1/30s, ISO 100
Molly, her parents, and I took a trip to Colorado last weekend. I'm sure I'll use more of these when I fail to take a photo for the week, but this is a good place to start. This is the main office / owner's house of the cabins we stayed at. The owners are originally from Nebraska, so it was comforting to see a nice "HUSKERS" doorstop when we arrived. The cabins are right along a small stream, which provided the right amount of white noise and scenery to enjoy our time.
After a few days in Prague, we drove down to Berchtesgaden, Germany where we spent a day out on the Königssee. The lake is absolutely gorgeous and known for its clarity and teal green tint. Pictures don’t do it justice but here is one of my best attempts…
Canon 7D w/ 10-22 f/3.5-5.6 IS
Taken at 10mm, f/10, 1/60s, ISO 100
After the work part of my trip was done, Nila flew over and we turned the trip into a vacation. First stop: Prague. This is my favorite picture of the trip and one of my favorites all year. Click through to view it in full screen.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 35mm, f/14, 15s, ISO 400
Last weekend we attended Andrea's first birthday party. She was very quiet and mellow the whole time. She didn't really attack her cake, either. She just sat there and peacefully picked off the small decorative frosting pieces and ate them, one-by-one, while everyone watched. I'm fairly certain she thought we were all quite weird. The rest of the set is here.
Work took me to Germany for a couple weeks this month. While there I managed to find some time to take pictures. This was the interior of a restaurant where we had dinner one night. Good beer, delicious food… what more could you want?
The rest of the photos from the trip are here.
Canon 7D w/ 17-55 f/2.8 IS
Taken at 17mm, f/2.8, 1/8s, ISO 3200
Last Sunday was my birthday, so I suckered Molly into letting me go to the "Fargo AirSho". I spent a few hours there getting sunburned and taking some photos. Even got an additional shot of the Civil Air Patrol plane I've written about previously.
In the photo below, there was an F-16 demonstration (by the Viper team, I think). I didn't know clouds did that when the sun comes through them, but I suppose it makes sense.
This weekend, we tried to go disc golfing, but we got rained on instead. We ended up back at Kurt's house, where I proceeded to annoy his cats by trying to take their picture. The one below is Buddy, who, prior to this photo, had been sucking on that purple mouse (which is full of catnip). He was feeling pretty good.
After that, I had to depart to go do home things like fix a toilet and install a ceiling fan. The rest of the guys went downtown and ended up on a scavenger hunt of sorts. I think those of us that missed out on it will be going next weekend.
Tuesday morning, we were woken up by a pretty strong storm going and the local tornado sirens going off. That's sure what I want to have to think about at 4:30AM, but whatever, Mother Nature! Once the storm passed and I determined I would feel worse if I tried to sleep for an extra hour, I went outside to catch some of the super-crazy lightning on the back of the storm. There was simply a ton, which made getting this shot pretty easy.
It's hard to believe that Noah is a year old already. I'm sure his mom feels the same way! After winning (in our minds) a softball tournament, I was able to head over and catch the gifts and stuff at Noah's party. Meghan and Joel did a great job of putting it on!
