50mm f/1.4

I got a new Toy!!!! Actually it's a sophisticated piece of equipment. The new member of the family is the Nikon Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4g lens. It's absolutely fantastic. It's actually more than that, I really am at a loss for better words. If you can't tell, I really, really, really, like this lens.

So here are two pictures of the lens, and the first picture I took with it. You'll be seeing a lot more of this...

A learning experience

Today I had one of those "Crap, I wish I was ready/prepared" type of moments. On my way to work today I was driving in the rain, in the left lane as traffic was steady. A quick glance in my rear view revealed a red car, coming up close, followed by half a dozen red and blue flashing lights. The driver immediately passed me on the shoulder and the police followed. More police pulled onto the highway about 1/2 mile ahead, until the State Troopers came blazing by. In the half second that I realized what was going on, I grabbed my camera bag, unzipped it, frantically pulled the camera out while unwrapping the cord from around the lens, flung the lens cap off, turned to Program Mode, and with shutter firmly pressed began to fire away. Once I got to work I took a peak at the shots I took hoping I might have got a decent one. To my surprise, nearly pitch black images were shown on the screen. I switched back and forth through the several pictures I took only to find them all black. A quick look into the processing information showed the following: ISO 800, Shutter 1/2500, Me:Still Confused. Then I noticed the -3.0 exposure compensation and the Focus Mode: Manual. I had forgotten to reset the settings from my previous shot the day before which required a lot of attention.
Lessons learned:
1. Reset settings after shot.
2. Always have the camera ready.
3. These lessons make me better!

A little bit of Photoshopping brought some 'light to the subject' and actually would have made the photograph somewhat salvageable if: 1.Lower ISO (less grainy) 2.Auto focus 3.Image practically not usable due to poor angle of shot (still learning how to blindly shoot) 4.Windshield Wipers (I believe strongly in RainX, I just need to reapply....)

Here's the News Article

cheap lens???

I've taken a picture of this storm drain before but thought it looked to fun to not take another one, the slickness reminded me of the feeling of wet clay being thrown on a wheel; Delicious. I had a burnt out light bulb in my possession and was thinking about shooting through it. I'll have to take off the screw plug and the 'guts' from the inside but I think I could get some interesting wide-angle/fish-eye type of perspective from that. Who knows.

classic MODERN

I was thinking more about my ranting post the other night about technology and thought it would be interesting to intersect the classy black and white persona with a modern technological shot. This is what I came up with.

Fun with the big light

aka 'The Sun'

Here turkey turkey turkey

Took a hike at Cheyenne Mountain State Park today. Got in a moderate hike before the storms came in, saw a wild flock of turkeys while we were having our picnic! All together there had to be 30-40, mostly babies (not sure what you call a baby turkey.....

Love

I shot a 50 Year Wedding Anniversary Party for this really sweet couple. "Some people ask me if 50 years felt like a long time, but honestly, she's my best friend and it hasn't felt that long at all" -my favorite quote from the evening.
My Temporary Website is up and running. www.StohsPhotography.com

Coffee and more

Yesterday someone suggested I take a picture of Coffee Art. So this is a different take. I collect all the starbucks and panera cups at work all week and take them home to recycle on the weekend. There is a QDOBA cup in there too, but most of it is coffee related....

and also some fun with a watch

Fun and More Fun

So I did it, I pushed the button. Twice actually. After waiting a few minutes with no residual consequence, I left the vicinity, disappointed, and went about my day.

More fun followed in the evening. I met up with some friends at a local bar for a drink. They have a gas 'fire pit/place' on the roof. I was amazed at how the people were so close to the fire, literally inches from the flames. I decided to capitalize on the situation and make a Advertisement worthy picture of a Corona.

night running = funny smells, weird sensations.

I took a little late night run tonight. It's always weird running down a pitch black road. Talk about trust. Then throw on some headphones to completely drown out any residual ambient noises. Creepy. Then I ran by the hospital, Penrose Hospital, where they have this giant smokestack looking thing with a giant cross on it. I enhaled deeply for a little bit of oxygen only to smell a nasty burning hair and rubber smell. My first thought was incorrect, fortunately. Penrose Hospital does not have a Crematorium, I checked after getting home.

structure

I've been trying to get a really unique shot of the new Lowe's being built on Nevada and I-25. However, it hasn't happened due to several different reasons, the latest being, being chased by the security guard out of the complex.....I am not a crook. Enough Said. So this will have to suffice until I have a day off to do more detective/slueth work. I'm thinking the final answer somehow is going to result in me gifting a six pack and becoming friends with a few construction workers...I'll keep you posted.

Yellow and Red

So I'm finding out that I really like taking pictures of Orange Road Cones and Stop Signs. I was going through all of the pictures that I've taken this year that I haven't put anywhere or done anything with and there are A LOT! That being said, I took another one last night :)

Web

Spider Time!

uh, yeah.

Thought this looked a little creepy, I guess that's the theme for the week, you know with the robitussin babies and all....To un-creep this one out, this was shot through the window of a halloween store that is still setting up costumes and stuff. I really liked the lighting on this one.

A Mystery....

I really, really, really, really, wanted to push this button. However, for the first time in my life, I resisted.....I think that's a pretty positive transformation for me. Now i'm wondering what it is, and I think I must investigate...

um, not sure what to title this, your captions welcome

One too many long nights with Robitussin.....

Notice the Scattered legos and other interesting objects.

Might as well go all out.

The picture you wish your friend didn't take of you....

On a more jovial (always wanted to use that word) spirit, here's a urban landscape:

sunset

communicate

such a simple device was such a complex dream a mere 15 years ago, for something so small. Now I have the 'free' phone which translates into "the simple so easy to use we give it to people who have never seen a cell phone" phone. Which is funny because this would have been a marvel of engineering back in the day. At what point will we plateau and meet our breaking point of technological evolution and self-destruction? This could be really interesting. I think this is the ongoing human study of my lifetime, this above all else will be what's talked about in history books long after economic depressions, terrorist scares, political blah blah blah, etc..... We are living in the age of change and discovery, in a time where most feel everything has been discovered. We've done more in the last ten years as far as advancement, than had been done in the last 300 years. What will come next, what will become of old past times like handwritten letters, land lines, Cd's, film? Not sure what prompted this rambling, perhaps the midnight hour, but I'm so fascinated by this. I love love love technology and seeing all the advancements, but just as so, I'm fully aware of boundaries and expectations that have been completely flattened, walls torn down whether good or bad. What a wonderful time to live.

Post 200

Abbey loves Geese, after laughing at these geese walking across the crosswalk, she told me I HAD to take a picture of these. By the time I was in a good position as far as the background goes, they were a little sloppy. About 20 seconds earlier they were in perfect formation, evenly spaced.

We went to Denver to look around and just get a change of scenery. We took Highway 83 up there for a more scenic drive. I spotted these and had a lot of fun taking a couple dozen different shots of these.

a different perspective.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a _________.

workin at the car wash

dark and light

Blue

Blanco

White Balance is key, for sure. This took a few shots to get right.

Hmmmm

Preston trying to stack lenses: 0
Two perfectly good Nikon Lenses resisting to work together: 1

I thought I'd try to stack some lenses tonight, I guess you could say that I did try. It was so bad I don't even think you can say I failed. It could be I was doing it without a coupling right and really needed about 3 more hands to get it right, it could be I'm using the wrong equipment, as I can't manually adjust the aperture, it could be I just need to do a little research before 'blindly' trying to make things happen. Though that's usually much more fun. Anybody done this before? I'm not even going to post the pictures...
So here are a few abstracts that I did after noticing the rather large quantity of blue LED lights throughout our house. From CD players to Computers, to random electronic equipment, they're everywhere!

Climbing!

On Thursday I went climbing with one of our friends' brothers, who's from St. Louis. He's on a trip around the country (and Canada) climbing wherever he can! You can check out his blog here Anyway, we went to Red Rock Canyon Open Space in Colorado Springs; Had a great time and got quite a few good climbs in before rain moved in. Geoff and I met up again to go climbing at Eldorado Canyon before he heads out of the state. Here are a couple pictures of Eldorado. Thanks for the awesome climbing Geoff!
Routes:
First we climbed Wind Ridge, a 3 pitch trad Route.
Then we climbed the first pitch of Calypso and traversed over to the start of Reggae. Both were on Wind Tower.
This from the top of Wind Tower: Wind Ridge, our first climb, my first multi-pitch trad route (it was 3 pitches).

Looking back at Wind Tower as we left:

The river that ran through the canyon.

Rain

It rained pretty hard again today, which is a nice afternoon treat. It's nice to not have to worry about water shortages. All of the rivers are running full power! I also added the picture of the Fire Hydrant because i had posted a similar picture awhile ago of a different colored one. Come to think of it, I've posted 3 fire hydrant's now, I guess it's become a series. Also just playing around with some depth of field with the red poles.

4th of July

Happy Independence Day! I urge you all to read the original Constitution written in 1777 just to see how it compares to the current Constitution. As you read it, you'll notice only about 5% is the same. It's just interesting to see how this country ran for the first 10 years as a organized nation. I of course had to take some pictures of the fireworks, but of the neighboring city, Manitou Springs. Colorado Springs due to budget restraints decided to cancel their show this year. I've got a link to the other 70 I took right here: FIREWORKS
Also here's a picture of a rock I want to do some bouldering on. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if that will ever happen because it seems to be IMPOSSIBLE!!!!! I tried for about 10 minutes to even get a single hold on it, it's just too smooth.