Life Through the Lens

Women Drivers ;)

She almost made it in the parking spot. I know that free Chick-Fil-A breakfast is something that will get you excited in the morning, but you can't be in such a hurry to get your 3 chicken mini's that you miss the parking spot by half a car length.  And its not like she was driving a Mini Cooper.  This was a mid-sized Honda Pilot SUV.  In any case, when she pulled up next to me I thought she was going to back up and adjust her position...but then she opened the door and walked into the Chick-Fil-A.  Crazy.

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Photocamp Houston 2009 Photos

Here's pics from the unconference...see the rest here.

Photocamp Counselors

We're FAMOUS!!!!!

Here's Houston Photocamp Video of Doug Diddy and I.  This weekend me and Doug headed down to the Houston Technology Center to participate in the first ever Houston Photocamp.  Its part of a program called Barcamp that has lots of like minded people getting together and doing an "unconference." Its basically a freestyle teach and learn event.  We were drafted by the Houston Strobist group to do some strobist teachings.  But in the end we ended up just goofing off trying our own stuff in that cool building.  We did make lots of new friends and hopefully taught a few people some of the strobist philosophy.  More photos to come.

The New Lens and Flash have Arrived!

WOOOOOT!!!  My Canon 24-70mm F2.8L and 580EXII Speedlite just showed up today.  Needless to say, work has been put on the back burner.  Here's some shots of the new gear.  Now all I need is a new 5D MKII to go with it...and maybe a 16-35mm F2.8L wouldn't hurt either :)

Canon 24-70mm F2.8 L USM

Houston Marathon 2009

Here's some pics from the 2009 Houston Marathon.  My buddy Brian flew down from Detroit to run it, and my friend Eileen hooked me and Doug up with VIP access to normally inaccessible places :)  See the rest here.

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Within Hours of Arriving in Houston...

I guess the Beefcake is in full effect.  Brian came down for the Houston Marathon, and we had to get him registered and signed up, so we headed directly to the Convention Center and low and behold...Houston Dynamo Cheeleaders.  I also got a $65 parking ticket because we stayed too long watching the world's strongest man bend hammers and cresent wrenches.

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Brian Drinking Bubble Tea

I guess round-eye's do like bubble tea.  Who would have thought :)

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Tilt Shift Effect

Here's the coolest website ever (well maybe not ever, but at least for the next 10 min).  Normally, you have to spend thousands of dollars to get a tilt-shift lens to do this, but the effects are similar and are much cheaper :)  Here's the before and after of a photo I took in Rome of the Coliseum.  You need a wide angle shot that looks down.  Makes everything look like its a model.  Pretty cool effect.

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  Before

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After

Love the Smell of HDR in the Morning

Here's a shot of the driveway to the office.  Shot from the window of the Fit.

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Nokia E71 Camera isn't so bad

Driving down Kuykendal Rd. today, I saw a fantastic sunset.  The weather got warm again today...and the clouds were just perfect.  Unfortunately, I was driving the Porsche, so I didn't have my 40D or my S70 in the cupholder. But I did have the E71 handy.  It was good enough to capture the moment.  Of course, you have have to the white balance manually and underexpose it by 1/3 stop. Took them into Lightroom to punch up the saturation, clarity, and do a bunch of noise reduction.  But the end result isn't half bad.  Amazing what camera phones can do these days.

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