Shutter Muse

New video features!

2011-04-27T14:59:00.001-05:00

We are so excited to announce the addition of photo videos to our product line! From web video to high-quality DVD, these will be available to all our clients, but are particularly wonderful for seniors and wedding mementos!

Here's a sample I put together to advertise our senior portrait division, Muse Crüe.

Stacey Answers

2011-01-24T11:50:00.002-06:00

The studio is coming up on its one-year mark, and in that time, I've gotten a lot of the same questions from clients and from other photographers. So this is sort of a FAQ post--I'll add to it as I get more questions :)

How old ARE you?
I get this question a lot, though not usually so directly worded. Let's just say I was in grade school when MTV aired its very first video. I remember the death of John Lennon, though the Beatles had gone their separate ways before I was born. I first used an SLR camera (a Leica owned by the school) as a sophomore in high school in the late 80's and have been a shutterbug ever since, though I didn't buy my own SLR until 2000.

Canon, Nikon, Olympus?
I'm of the firm opinion that it's the skill of the artist, not the tools used, that makes a masterpiece. But I'm a Canon girl :) Not because Canon is necessarily any better, but because it's what I know. My first SLR was a Canon EOS Elan 7e, and I stuck with Canon each time I upgraded mostly so I didn't have to buy all new lenses.

What does 'SLR' mean?
Single Lens Reflex--what you see in the viewfinder is the lens view reflected up to your eye with a mirror. SLR's have detachable and interchangeable lenses, and digital SLRs still have an actual mechanical shutter like a film camera.

Where do you get your backgrounds and props and stuff?
We are, at our very core, do-it-yourselfers. Most of what we use is handcrafted in house. Rather than spend hundreds of dollars on a single mass-produced backdrop or prop that might be in any number of other studios, we choose to craft one-of-a-kind items ourselves and spend a lot less money. We hand-paint and/or hand-dye our backdrops and floor cloths. We hand-make our hats and tutus and hair clips. Not only does that make our product that much more unique, it allows us to charge YOU less money for it.

Do you make hats, backdrops, etc. for sale?
Not at this time.

How come you don't sell images on CD or DVD?
It's a quality thing. So much effort and care goes into each image that I can't fathom allowing them to be mass-printed with snapshot-worthy ink on snapshot-worthy paper at Walmart or CVS. The quality of my work is not defined merely by the image itself, but also the quality of the finished product. We do make exceptions for business headshots and such, which will be printed on business cards, billboards, etc., but in general, the Facebook images are the only digital files we release.

Did you have to go to school to learn how to do this?
This one's a tough one. The only photography-specific course I ever took was that photography class in high school where I learned how to use the camera, process film, darkroom stuff, etc. More useful for what I currently do were all the design classes I took getting certified in interior design, and spending 10+ years in the publishing industry experimenting with styles and refining my skills while crafting book covers.

Cool Creepies

2010-10-12T18:03:00.000-05:00

In general, I love creepy crawlies as long as they're outside, and aren't roaches, mosquitoes, or termites. Or on my face.

This beauty spun her web on the back garage a few weeks ago. There were two egg sacs nearby, protected by her massive web. She herself was pretty big, nearly the size of my hand from the tips of her back legs to the tips of her front legs. She's a garden spider, probably argiope aurantia. Interestingly, a male of the same species built a web over our front door and hung out for a week. He'd angled the web in such a way as to not be disturbed by the opening and closing of the storm door, nor by humans coming and going. I didn't photograph him, but it was cool to watch him wrap up his prey (moths), feed, then carefully unwrap them and let the carcasses drop to the porch, apparently recycling his silk. When he moved on, he dismantled his web completely and left no trace except for the pile of moth carcasses.

This critter has left the building, so to speak. A carolina mantis (stagmomantis carolina) molted and left her former exterior on the window screen. (I say 'her' because there's an egg deposit about three feet away.) I exaggerated the lens flare a little bit in photoshop.

Miss A

2010-10-07T21:51:00.001-05:00

This little one arrived at our studio asleep in her carrier. Mom got her out, woke her up, and she immediately gave me a big grin. No fusses, no sleepy eyes. Just smiles. It was a great shoot! Her mom is taking advantage of our Baby Faces First Year program, so she'll be coming to see me again soon.

Taylor Senior Pics

2010-09-24T11:24:00.000-05:00

Heinously remiss once again with updating this blog. (It's Facebook's fault! :D )

This is Taylor, a member of our Muse Crue. She's a senior rep for the studio, and so beautiful. These senior portraits turned out wonderfully!

Wee T

2010-08-06T11:21:00.004-05:00

This little one was not particularly happy to be deviating from normal routine. This is why our free newborn sessions typically go about two hours... adults just can't predict the mood of a week(s)-old baby. We work with whatever mood we get, though, and eventually sleep comes. Even the mad faces are adorable at this age.

*Note to parents: I purposely don't offer any identity information to protect your privacy.

Painted Faces

2010-07-01T10:19:00.006-05:00

In April, we ran a 'Fantasy Face' special, and not everyone who wanted to do the photos was able to do so. So yesterday I brought out the makeup and paintbrushes (a bonus to hosting a Brush and a Beverage in our studio is having suitable fantasy face paint always on hand), and did a Fantasy Face session featuring a pair of beautiful best friends.

I'VE DELETED THESE PHOTOS (they were being downloaded to hard drives several times a day)

Miss G

2010-06-25T12:10:00.004-05:00

Two is such a fun age. You never know what to expect from a two-year-old in a photo studio. As a photographer, you really just have to play along according to his or her terms, have plenty of cool (and colorful) things to play with, and be prepared to do a lot of photographing crouched on the floor :) Fortunately two-year-olds are experts at being photogenic, so it's easy to get good photos.

Newborn

2010-06-18T15:18:00.005-05:00

I did a free newborn session recently with a baby that was SOOOOOoooo good. Content and comfortable, inquisitive and watchful, and even snoozed for me. And didn't poo on me, which is always nice! Woo! I also remembered that I'd made hats, so the brown pixie hat is making its debut.

The consensus here at the studio is that she looks like her mommy. :)

*Note to parents: I purposely don't offer any identity information to protect your privacy.

Sweet Sisters

2010-06-17T13:26:00.003-05:00

Had the honor of doing an outdoor portrait session with these beautiful girls a few weeks ago. Oy, that grin!! Can't help but grin back!! Their mom makes *fabulous* bows, barrettes, headbands, and other hair adornments.

Heart-melty toes

2010-06-16T13:51:00.004-05:00

These are from a newborn session several days ago, such a sweet baby. This first one is my favorite from the session because of those toes on the edge of the flower pot. Love it!!

*Note to parents: I purposely don't offer any identity information to protect your privacy.

Tweaking the blog

2010-06-16T12:57:00.000-05:00

Things may look strange around here for a little bit... I'm tweaking :)

Anticipating Tess

2010-06-10T15:58:00.003-05:00

I am aghast that I've not updated this blog in more than a month!! So many photo shoots that haven't yet made it into bloggerspace yet (not MY bloggerspace, anyway). These are photos from another recent maternity session (referred by the couple in this post!). Tara (the mom) was so pleased with the photos, and has already scheduled her newborn session, even though little Tess won't be here for a few more weeks yet!

Le Viking

2010-05-03T22:22:00.004-05:00

We've had some nice overcast weather :) Birthday portraits, sort of; he'll be 15 soon. This kid totally owns that casual prep style.

Daaaaaaaavve

2010-05-01T20:36:00.006-05:00

Haven't posted any outdoor portraits in a while, so I thought I'd share these today. Fortunately the outside of my studio is fairly versatile, and there are other interesting settings nearby. I'm loving the bench in the third photo--it's looong, much longer than a standard park bench, and weathered just right. It's across the street.

The humble onion -- Updated!

2010-04-28T22:26:00.008-05:00

I was visiting my mom and dad's house this evening, and noticed that there were some irises and other flowers in bloom around the 1-acre lot. So I grabbed my camera and went crawling around in the grass, looking for interesting angles and/or critters.

The stunning flowers in the photos below belong to the humble onion. You know, the standard yellow/white onion you get for salads/burgers/sautee? Who knew they produced such a cool flower! I'm so glad my dad never got around to harvesting them from the garden.

I took lots of other photos, too, but these were my favorite, and I'm fairly certain at least one of them is going to be made into a painting for my paint studio, a Brush and a Beverage.

4/29 Update! What did I tell ya? I had some free moments at the studio today and set to work on painting my humble onions. This painting looks a lot better in person, and I love it :)

Feature in the Burleson Star

2010-04-23T10:48:00.008-05:00

Many thanks to my alert friend Susan, or I might have missed this completely! Apparently a feature article on me and my studio ran last Wednesday in the local paper. I knew it was coming, but I didn't know it was already done.

At right, I've cut and pasted the article together into an 8.5x11 size (I'm gonna frame it!). The interviewer didn't quite get facts 100%, but the gist is right on. I'm extremely pleased.

Click on it to see it bigger (and read it). Please keep in mind that I am SOOOOO not photogenic, particularly with worn-off makeup and fluorescent lighting more suited to painting.

Dog on dot

2010-04-22T12:43:00.002-05:00

Just a quick share... I've got my chihuahua with me in the studio today. She's already put lots of nose prints on the front doors about eight inches from the bottom, and now she's claimed one of the two round orange rugs. So cute.

Melissa & Armando

2010-04-17T23:15:00.002-05:00

I had the honor of photographing an expectant couple today, Melissa and Armando. Maternity portraits are always special, and today's were no different. Lots of fabulous photos; I had a really difficult time narrowing it down to just three to post here.

This couple wasn't afraid to tell me what they wanted. I LOVE when clients do that! The best portraits are a creative collaboration between photographer and photographee(s). The last photo in this post is going on my list of favorite photos ever, and it was his idea. Yay Armando!

She's a rock star

2010-04-10T18:40:00.002-05:00

Wanted to share three photos from a quick portrait session today. Trying some new backdrop ideas, and playing with lighting and postwork techniques. I thought it was a rock-star-looking set, so she dressed the part :)

More hats

2010-04-09T11:09:00.006-05:00

It's a momentary creative kick, I'm sure. I'll get bored within a week and not touch a crochet hook again for months or years. But at the moment, hats are the perfect size keep-the-hands-busy project to stuff into the visiting-the-hospital bag, easy to take out when the visitee is sleeping peacefully, and put away quickly when needed.

Yesterday I sat with my grandmother in the hospital (who isn't doing so great--prayers are appreciated) for much of the day, and got almost all of the blue/green hat done--just added the pompoms when I got home. It's probably 6-9 months in size

The brown one has a detachable pompom for two separate looks. The pink/orange hat is probably sized 9-12 months, the flowers are on clips, so can be used or not.

I didn't use a pattern for any of them--ooh, except for the flowers.

Hats for newborn sessions!

2010-04-07T10:24:00.004-05:00

One of the promotions our studio offers is free newborn sessions. Yesterday I was thinking on ways to market that aspect, and new ideas for newborn photos. I've had more than a few inquiries from expecting moms, one of whom is due within the next three weeks. So I went cruising over to Etsy, a fabulous place to get über cute handmade items for kids (and just handmade items in general, but the kid stuff seems to be the most impressive). Not only are there some fabulous PHOTOS of newborns, but also really cute hats and whatnot as well.

And I was inspired.

Not to spend money, though. I got looking at quite a few of the photos and thought to myself, "I can do that." So I gave it a shot since I already had materials on hand. Figured if it turned out that I actually could NOT do that, I could always go the 'spending money' route. As it turns out, I think I did okay. Made two very different hats.

The green one shown took a couple of hours, just 'cause it's essentially single crochet (scattered triple-crochet stitches create the bumps). By the way, I used this pattern for the green hat. I'll probably forever associate it with Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, because I was listening to a few Stuff You Missed In History Class podcasts about her while I crocheted.

The ear-flap hat took only about an hour (double crochet goes a LOT faster!), not including the braids and weaving in the ends of yarn pieces. For that one, I started with this basic hat, and elaborated on it... while listening to 'How the Taiping Rebellion Worked.' :) Multitasking.

Why Photoshop will always be in my toolbox...

2010-04-02T11:22:00.006-05:00

I had a two-year-old in the studio yesterday, and her mom brought along a baby boy she watches. So in the 'break' times (when said 2-y-o was not keen on being in front of my camera), I turned my lens to the little guy, who was very agreeable and all smiles. Mr. Handsome has itchy eczema pretty badly on his face and head, which did not in any way dampen that killer smile. However, my friend said she wasn't sure his mom had ever gotten 'real' photos done of him because of his skin.

So this morning I was sifting through the photos and couldn't help 'fiddling' with the photos of Mr. Handsome. This is why I love Photoshop (original on right, 'shopped version on left--click to see larger):

Air Hockey (and air guitar) Queen

2010-03-29T21:44:00.006-05:00

I realized today that I haven't been sharing 'real' photos here lately--just snapshots of the studio. I've been posting my work on the Shutter Muse Studio fan page on Facebook, rather than here. Hmph. Will have to work on putting a few here as well.

Anyway. Last weekend we brought the game table over to the studio. I love the air-hockey feature (am almost as good at air hockey as I am at air guitar!), so that's what it is most of the time. May have to offer special discounts for people who can beat me :) It also transforms into a small pool table, a foosball table, and pingpong. And checkers/chess/backgammon. Should help teens and parents loosen up a bit before they get in front of my camera :)

Photo above is straight off the camera, all window light, no flash. Aperture: 4.5; Shutter speed: 1/100; Focal length: 53mm; ISO 800.

Ribbon Cutting Day (Day 19)

2010-03-11T19:03:00.011-06:00

The studio isn't TOTALLY done, but it's ready for opening. The ribbon cutting ceremony today was fairly low-key. About 25 ambassadors for the Burleson Area Chamber of Commerce arrived to take a photo and network a little. My mom and David were able to attend as well.

Anyway, I took some time after I dust-mopped the floors to take some photos of the nearly-finished interior, and have paired them below with 'before' versions. I was looking back through the photos I took during my first tour of the place, and I wonder now how I ever saw the potential. It's a dramatic transformation.

Progress! (Day Twelve)

2010-03-04T22:49:00.005-06:00

My sign is finally up! Though it doesn't look quite the way I'd hoped, I'm happy it's up. Woo! This photo was taken through the windshield of my truck into direct sunlight, so pardon the bug guts. :) The painters were there patching the walls, and I didn't want to distract them.

Okay, here's a progress view of the front right portion of the studio. The boxes contain two loveseats that will go in the corner (gotta love IKEA and sofas that come in small boxes). The rubber wall base still needs to be installed along the bottom of all the walls, and the floors are a dusty mess.

Here's what it looked like twelve days ago, and here's what it looked like before that.

The front right portion of the studio, or what will be the 'office' area. Those sliding glass doors are on the side of the building and were quite handy when the place was a dry-cleaners, but will just be a window for my purposes. Yes, the walls are light gray.

The back portion of the studio, where the 'magic' will happen. Walls are darker gray. That wall cabinet will have to be painted out gray or black. And all the crap in the middle of the room, will have to paint that out, too, so it's not as noticeable. *grin*

For comparison, here's a similar shot from Day One.

Shot taken from the back door. Notice the stacks of folding stools waiting to be put together (just adding the footrests). And M inspecting some other IKEA purchases.

And lastly, the bathroom. I guess since I requested flat paint in the rest of the studio, they went with flat in the bathroom also. Have already scrubbed a thin spot by the sink, trying to clean up watery gray dribbles from the painters' cleanup.

LOTS of work still to do, as you can see! Stress level is rising a bit since the ribbon cutting is a week from today. But the studio will be a work in progress for several months, I'm sure--I just need to get it presentable by March 11th. :)

Thanks for your interest and support!

Got the key! (Day One)

2010-02-20T20:36:00.005-06:00

This morning I got the key to my storefront space in Burleson, so I was able to begin work on transforming the space into Shutter Muse Studio (featuring a Brush and a Beverage), with help from my family. My aunts Bonnie and Deena are in town, and helped out tremendously, as did my mom, David, and wonderful kiddos.

The flooring throughout most of the interior space was unfortunately very ugly, very nasty, and apparently very old. It was a lovely nauseating green hue with flecks of brown. See the photo at left. Can you picture that in a photo studio? Yeah, me either.

I couldn't even begin to imagine actually leaving it on the floor--it simply was not an option. I had assumed the carpet was glued to the concrete slab, and much preferred bare concrete to gross carpet. But as it turns out, I was way wrong.

What we found under the carpet: A lot of very sticky glue over linoleum tiles. If they were not yellowed by the adhesive, they would have been mostly white with streaks/flecks of blue, which wouldn't have been too awful. Except for the glue. And the glue was almost a deal breaker. Did I mention that there was a lot of it? And that it's extremely sticky?

We all have glue caked on the bottoms of our shoes, stuck in our clothes, and covering our work gloves.

But we took a peek under the linoleum tiles, still hoping for bare concrete, and found... beautiful stone aggregate slabs!

How. Cool. Is. That. It's too early to tell what kind of shape this floor is in--we already found some odd concrete spots, some stains and cracks. Will have to get the old glue off the entire floor before I can make an assessment, but even in bad shape, this stuff is a gazillion times better than the carpet. Better than bare concrete even. Very retro.

And I've got an idea for showcasing the undamaged parts while hiding the not-so-undamaged areas.

To the left is a close-up of a clean-ish spot (glue scraped off)

This stuff is throughout most of the space, though we did find bare concrete toward the very back of the store, and even an area that has even more linoleum under the white/blue linoleum tiles. It was sort of like an archaeological dig, unearthing an ancient dwelling and trying to figure out what the heck was going on at the time, and what the devil they were thinking. I'm still half expecting to find a huge blood stain or something, to indicate why they covered over the aggregate slabs in the first place.

Just to show our progress so far, to the left is a photo I took during one of my initial walk-throughs, while it was still being used for storage and meal-box assembly.

Note the green carpet and dark brown rubber trim. The brown stripe on the wall is where another tenant had built a wall that was later taken down.

Here is the same space this afternoon, carpet and trim gone, and working on taking up the linoleum tiles. We did eventually get all the linoleum up in this room. (That's David working on a particularly stubborn area).

This is my daughter working hard in the back room to take up carpet. Don't know how she went all day with her hair down. Tomorrow I'll suggest a ponytail.

And this is my crew at the end of Day One. Still a bit of carpet and linoleum tile to take up, but should finish doing that tomorrow!

Wooooo! Three weeks!

New blog design

2010-01-27T11:12:00.002-06:00

I'm hoping to finalize the lease on the storefront space within the next few days, which will make it both official and imminent! Meanwhile, I'm designing the website for the new Shutter Muse Studio, and I'll be transitioning all my domain pointers and whatnot to the new urls over the next week. But updating the look of the blog was easy (just a matter of adjusting colors and replacing the header image), so it got done first :) Let me know what you think!

New name and logo coming soon!

2010-01-11T06:53:00.005-06:00

In preparation for opening a storefront studio, in the coming months I'll be redesigning my blog and website, and shifting the name to something a bit shorter and more memorable than 'Portrait Photography and Custom Printing by Stacey L. King'.
Would you believe it took me nearly a whole day of thinking to arrive at Shutter Muse Studio? Duh. Too much aspartame, I think.*

I have already updated the 'branding' on my Zenfolio gallery/order site. Please check it out! http://shuttermuse.zenfolio.com

*Somebody asked me recently about the 'flower' associated with my logos. It's not actually a flower, but a wonky, stylized asterisk. In 2006 (perhaps it was 2005?), when I was redesigning my Graphic Artist/Web Designer website, I needed a doo-dad logo thing that was original, simple, and represented me as an artist. Since I'm not simply an artist, but also an author and photographer, I felt the asterisk, in an obscure way, represented the fact that there is always a footnote to just about every title I carry, every project I undertake, and just about every aspect of who I am. So it carried over to my PPACPBSLK website when I decided to focus on photography, and will continue to Shutter Muse Studio.

Gorgeous Miss J

2010-01-09T12:34:00.005-06:00

These are two shots from a photo shoot I did on Thursday. She's such a happy wiggly baby, and was a pleasure to photograph. She did make it challenging in that she likes to suck on her bottom lip. So a lot of the shots feature a very cute, very lipless baby. The second one was actually the very first shot we took.

Check out more from this photo session in the gallery on my facebook page.

A plan is in the works!

2010-01-06T22:21:00.000-06:00

I'm excited! It looks like I may be opening a photo studio sooner than I'd thought! Thanks to the Christmas gift from my sister, I've found a way to (hopefully) bolster the funds to pay for a storefront space. I don't have all the details worked out, but I'll tell you that it involves a brush and a beverage *wink wink*.

The sweetest pea

2010-01-01T12:08:00.005-06:00

I just got home from an out-of-state trip on which I carted a great deal of my photo studio gear. These photos made the trouble absolutely worth it. The first one is quite possibly my most favorite photo ever. When I ever get my own photo studio, that one is going to be framed large and hanging right when you walk in. :)

Check out more photos of this sweet pea in my facebook page gallery.

More 'product' photography

2009-11-26T20:12:00.004-06:00

What a full day! You'd think I would have taken a photo of something Thanksgivingy, but I was more involved in watching the Macy's parade and pitching in with dinner, and didn't even think to pick up my camera. We rested a bit after dinner, watched the Westminster dog show (I liked the Bulldog out of the final seven, personally), then piled back in the truck to make the drive home. I'm so exhausted that I was THIIIIIISSS tempted to post the sunset photo I took last night, but it would need more tweaking than I'm allowing myself for NaBloPoMoPHOTO.

I know this one looks like the previous two, but I used an on-camera speedlight bounced off the wall behind rather than a CFL/umbrella to the side. Also used a much wider/higher angle. It's two tubes of mascara, a thing of eyeshadow, and nailpolish (some of the makeup for a water sprite).

Tomorrow I will post a photo that does not involve small items on a piece of posterboard, I promise!

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 250
Focal Length: 80.0 mm
Flash: On-camera speedlight (bounced)
White Balance: Auto

Stacy G: Who's Coming for Dinner?

2009-11-26T20:08:00.001-06:00

From today...not the sharpest picture (still having issues with natural light) but I love the comp of the picture.

ISO - 160
f/1.8
1/60 sec
50mm

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Photo Phlop

2009-11-25T21:55:00.001-06:00

The travel muses are conspiring against me.

Knowing I wouldn't have time later in the day, this morning I set up my mini 'studio' from last night and took some photos of my vintage Sekonic light meter. Hooked up my camera to the computer, downloaded the photos and cleared my CF card.

And got distracted with getting the family out the door to the in-laws. I remembered the unpublished photo only after we were in the car. No problem, right? I have my camera, I'll just take another photo. Got a decent photo of a beautiful sunset.

Yep. Except that the Internet is unavailabe at the in-laws, and my phone just is not up to the job. So I'm gonna have to edit this post tomorrow to add my photo.

Have a blessed day of thanks!

EDIT: Here's my original photo for the day. I love that you can see the reflection of the umbrella and side table lights in the dome.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/20
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Auto

Cheap ribbon saves the day

2009-11-24T21:24:00.003-06:00

Realized twenty minutes ago that I'd not touched my camera all day. I've been working on processing photos from Friday, Saturday, and Monday. So I frantically set up a piece of posterboard against my headboard, dug out my tripod and clamped a CFL/Uumbrella fixture to it, then pointed it at the posterboard. And was stuck. What to photograph? I wandered around the house, picking things up and turning them over in my hands, looking for an interesting angle. Nothing worth the pixels. Then I spied a box of Target Dollar Spot ribbon on the shelf over my craft table. Aha!

My white balance target is still in the back of my truck from yesterday, and I was too lazy to go get it. So I did cheat a bit and tweak the white balance in ACR.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 85.0 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Tweaked

Bare-naked toesies

2009-11-23T18:30:00.006-06:00

This guy refused to wear his boots for the family portrait, but it was so cute. I almost suggested that they ALL go barefoot, but there were fire ant piles around. And as any good Texan knows, the more barefoot people, the greater the chance somebody's gonna get chomped.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 122.0 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Auto

Lazy day

2009-11-22T21:04:00.005-06:00

Low-key, lazy day. The trampoline springs provided an interesting texture. (We bought it second-hand for a ridiculously low price, and a safety net new for a not-so-low price. With the net sewn to the edge of the mat, we never bought replacement spring pads.)

Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 41.0 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Auto

The magic of a tiny arachnid

2009-11-21T20:54:00.003-06:00

Played event photographer today for the first time in 15 years. A friend asked me to come to the courthouse to serve as photographer while the family gathered to adopt their youngest child (today is National Adoption Day). Brought my daughter with me to photograph also, using the 'little camera' (the Rebel XT). I was using my 50D with speedlite flash in manual mode. Looking through the photos, they're... okay. Not fabulous, not bad. I'll have to fix a few (shot RAW), but overall, the fact that I was able to recognize problems with exposure and fix them immediately is huge for me.

Anyway, by the time the photo below was taken, it was past nap time for the little ones, who'd also had to get up early. They were cranky and fussy, and didn't want to sit for photos with family members. My friend started singing the ABC Song to no avail, so I suggested The Itsy Bitsy Spider--it worked wonders for my kids when they were little. There we were in the hallway outside the courtroom, probably a dozen total adults singing the spider song, drawing curious stares from people down the hall. And the little ones were mesmerized. It was magic.

Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 640
Focal Length: 33.0 mm
Lens: EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Flash: On-camera speedlight bounced off (high) ceiling
White Balance: Auto

Grandparents Day

2009-11-20T22:10:00.004-06:00

I had a loooooooong day at the elementary school doing Grandparents' Day portraits. Last year it was a sunny day, so I had ample light coming through the huge wall of windows and I didn't need to use any other lights. Today it was rainy, and the light coming in the windows depended on how thick the cloud cover was at any given moment. I had to use a strobe in a 2'x3' softbox and continuous light w/ shoot-thru umbrella, and a reflector, and sometimes even an on-camera speedlight, to get good lighting. Even still, I'm going to have to adjust the lighting on about 30% of them in photoshop. Dangit.

Anyway, below is one of the photos where the lighting was fairly decent (just a hair dark, though). This one was not chosen for a portrait package, but it might be my favorite of the day. I love the way Grandma and Grandpa are blurred just a smidge, laughing at Mr. J, who is being silly.

Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/25
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 47.0 mm
Lens: EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Flash: Strobe w/ softbox
White Balance: Custom (not sure what happened--that's actually a gray background)

An awesome camera and a studio

2009-11-19T14:54:00.009-06:00

I'm LOVING LOVING LOVING the 50D. I did a photo shoot with my good friend Courtney today (in an actual studio--I'll tell you about that in a minute...), and just sat down to look through the images. WOW! They are wonderful! I mean, Courtney is beautiful anyway, but the images are so crisp and fabulous, I could upload half of them directly to Mpix without touching them at all.

Check this out (be sure to click to see it bigger). Straight off the camera.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 41.0 mm
Lens: EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Flash: Studio strobes
White Balance: Auto

The studio we used was courtesy of David Whatley of The Covenant Studio. He's a member of StudioSpace Arlington, and graciously let me try it out during his time slot. Great place and great guy! I don't have the budget to become a member myself yet, but will definitely be using the space on a per-hour basis in the future.

Click here to see the final images from this shoot.

Such a handsome man

2009-11-18T16:44:00.006-06:00

Okay, kinda fudging a bit. The purpose of my own NaBloPoMo challenge is to post good photos straight out of the camera. The first photo is straight out of the camera, but 'good' is debatable. This is a handsome little man I met today. He sat so patiently in his carseat while his mom helped with PTA stuff.

Aperture: f/4.0
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 47.0 mm
Lens: EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Flash: none
White Balance: Auto

However... the color balance is way off, the overhead incandescents offered very little int the way of lighting, so the photo is more snapshot than photograph in my opinion. And since I'm a portrait photographer, I have a hard time posting photos of people that aren't fabulous.

So I spent two minutes in ACR and Photoshop and kicked it up a notch:

One-Light Louie cleaned up

2009-11-18T07:07:00.005-06:00

Yep. Bad battery. Dang it. Let it charge overnight, and got four photos this morning before it ran out of juice. Frustrated, but at the same time, kinda glad for an excuse to stop into Arlington Camera LOL

Anyway, I meant to post this pic last night. It's Sunday's pic, but with a little processing. Dang that compression again...the little one looks awful. Click on it to see it bigger :)

I'll post an untouched NaBloPoMoPHOTO pic later today...

Lame

2009-11-17T20:55:00.003-06:00

This one is really lame, I know. The new camera arrived at about 3:45 this afternoon, and I love it, I do... It's just going to take a bit of getting used to. It's kind of frustrating because I think it came with a bad battery--it charged for three hours and ran out of juice after 10 minutes. So I may be headed to Arlington camera to get a spare tomorrow so I can exchange this one with Adorama. Didn't get to take many photos, but I promise I'll do better tomorrow.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Flash: none
White Balance: Auto

Proud member of DSA

2009-11-16T22:09:00.005-06:00

That's Dye Sniffers Anonymous for you non-sniffers :) I love the smell of steaming hot RIT dye.

In this photo, I think the custom WB really made the colors amazing--I was even tempted to take the saturation down just a smidge (but resisted of course!). These are a four of the five backgrounds I've hand-dyed in the last week. I'm really loving the brown one, but all of them turned out better than I'd hoped.

Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/50
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 35.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: none
White Balance: Custom

One-Light Louie

2009-11-15T18:37:00.007-06:00

On Friday, I drove up to IKEA in Frisco and stopped by Cowboy Studio Lighting in Dallas on the way. Picked up a couple new shoot-through umbrella and continuous light fixture, among other things. Before we headed out to parents' house this afternoon, I tossed a light stand, CL fixture, and umbrella into the back of my truck, hoping I'd have time to shoot some basic portraits of this guy before we lost all window light. Yeah... that didn't happen.

But I forged ahead anyway, stubborn as I am. This is with that one light set up in a room that currently has no light fixtures (they just had the ceiling fixed), and it was just after dusk, so the light coming in through the big windows was pretty much useless. Had to go with a higher ISO than I would ever normally use for portraits, and it shows. The umbrella is about even with his head, about six inches to the right (you can see it reflected in his glasses). He's also holding a piece of white posterboard as a reflector on the other side of his face. I wish I'd had at least one more light with me, preferably one of my strobe & softboxes. Anyway. Be sure to click to see it a bit bigger--the blogger compression really did a doozy on this one. This one is totally untouched by the way. I'll clean it up a little before I let him use it for a profile picture :)

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 56.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: none
White Balance: Auto (forgot to tuck the WB target into my camera bag)

Psychedelic sea of chairs

2009-11-14T15:47:00.003-06:00

Had lunch at Rosa's Café today. Honestly I love the interior of the restaurant more than I love the food. Of course I had my camera with me, so I got a few shots to go along with my enchiladas. This first pic is my official photo of the day. I did crop out the top 1/4 of the frame--chose to do that rather than climb on top of the table to get the composition perfect in the camera :)

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/50
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 38.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: none
White Balance: Auto

This is what I THOUGHT would be my pic of the day. I got four different shots of these frogs that were hanging on the wall (picture me with my camera pressed up against the bricks with my camera pointed up, and picture the lunch crowd staring). Unfortunately the ones with the good exposure settings were at an odd angle and cut off too much of the front frog. This one was great composition-wise, but was underexposed in my camera. But I liked it enough to share, so adjusted the exposure and whatnot in Photoshop.

Stacy G: Brutus on the Edge, Take 2

2009-11-13T18:08:00.002-06:00

Ok, here is the attempt with the flash....a little better...Getting there!!

ISO 100

F/1.8

1/60 sec

50mm

Librophile, logophile, photophile

2009-11-13T17:08:00.003-06:00

I haven't played with bounce flash in a while. I generally eschew on-camera fill-flash (patooey!), and when I'm out and about, I normally don't carry a shoe-mount flash with me. Even for portraits, I prefer to use natural light and a reflector or two. I can honestly admit now (*uncomfortable cough*) that my negligence of my strobes and shoe-mount is largely because I haven't been comfortable with the manual settings on my camera (sadly whatever mastery I gained in Sgt. Pratschler's photography class circa 1989 was neglected and disused upon the purchase of my first wonderfully automatic Canon SLR).

I wish I'd knocked myself upside the head and done this manual-immersion challenge years ago. *shaking head ruefully*

My photo of the day is of a very small selection of books in my front room/office. It's just a hair underexposed, IMO, which I didn't see until I opened it in Adobe Camera Raw. Resisted the urge to fix it with a quick slide of the exposure control bar. But the colors actually look better here than they do in real life.

Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter Speed: 1/50
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 41.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: Kodak shoe mount bounced off white ceiling
White Balance: Auto

Stacy G: Baylee the Wiggle Butt

2009-11-12T19:56:00.003-06:00

Stacy says: A little dark, but great picture if I may say so myself!!

AV mode - nice setting - really like it (try it)

100 ISO

f/1.8

50mm focal length

1/8000 sec

Stacey says: What a beautiful baby!

Pizza for four, table six!

2009-11-12T19:25:00.004-06:00

I'm a doofus. It was so loud and hectic that I didn't even think about ISO. It was the monthly school fundraiser night at a local pizza hangout, and we hadn't been yet this year. Everything in this place is dominated by the color red it seems. We sat at a red table that had reddish lights overhead. Got a pic of the red cups all lined up on the red table. Shoulda turned the cups so they were all different directions, I know. Shoulda increased the ISO, too, yadda yadda yadda. The table was my tripod.

Aperture: f/4.0
Shutter Speed: 1/6
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 28.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Auto

On a fabulously exciting note, I ordered a new camera (a Canon 50D--nearly twice the resolution of my XT!) and actual digital image stabilized lens today from Adorama!!! I'm giddy, and can't wait to get it in my hands. I hope hope hope it gets here by Wednesday, because Thursday I've been invited to shoot with another local photographer, Friday I have a school gig, Saturday I have an adoption party gig, and on Monday I've got a portrait session for a family of eight. I'd love to use my new toys for every single one :)

One of the other items I bought was backordered, so I called to see if I could substitute a similar item. Talked to a very helpful customer service rep named Lucie, who has the cutest New York accent and sense of humor. Adorama is where I got my XT body three years ago, and various accessories and doodads since then.

Stacy G: Brutus on the Edge

2009-11-11T11:34:00.004-06:00

Stacy says: Here is my picture of the day...Straight off the camera... I had the vision of the picture in my head and it did not come out...oh well...keep practicing!!

f/5.6
Shutter 1/30
Focal length 65mm
ISO 160

And here are a few more pics she sent that I didn't get posted last night. She says:

I am very happy with the one with the Tuba...I love that I caught the cheerleaders in the tuba!

From Pitt Cheer Day that my daughter was a part of.

Forget Ambrosia...

2009-11-11T11:21:00.003-06:00

...THIS is the nectar of the gods...

I need to invest in a better lens. I'm still using my old analog lenses, and this particular one came with my EOS Elan 7e when that one was first released. The aperture limitation made this pic just a tad dark, IMO.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 79.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Custom

"P to the R to the N to the 'cess' "

2009-11-10T21:43:00.003-06:00

I'm fudging a bit. Actually took this photo a few days ago, but since Stacy sent pics of her critters, I thought I'd continue the theme and post a pic of another one of mine. This is ChiChi Ratriguez, named after John Lequizamo's character in To Wong Foo (who uttered the line used as the title of this post). She's about 12 years old, was once all black but has now gone very gray. The bright sun on her white muzzle made an annoying hotspot, but I love the expression in her eyes. Sort of confused ("Why do you keep calling my name and then pointing that thing at me?"), yet adoring and trusting. And she'd just roll her eyes if you ever called her a princess.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Inadvertently custom

Stacy G: atch-up pics of the critters

2009-11-10T21:30:00.005-06:00

My friend Stacy has been sick but is feeling well enough to be incredibly busy! She sent a bunch of manual-setting photos to share today. These are her critters. The dog is named Brutus. Will have to ask the cat's name :)

Holiday bauble

2009-11-09T20:01:00.005-06:00

I've been running all day, didn't take my camera with me and wouldn't have had the time to stop and take a photo anyway. So this evening I was wandering around the house, looking for something to photograph, when my eyes fell on the Christmas fiscus tree that's still decorated with ornaments from last year. So I grabbed a colorful one, set up some foam core and two desk lamps, got out my new white balance target, and made myself smile. This is the first shot I took, again straight off the camera :)

Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 54.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Custom

*Added 11/10: By the way, my new white balance target is a set of three 3½x5" Wilsonart kitchen counter laminate samples in Designer White, North Sea, and Black, which I got for free by following the links on this site, but I think you can pick some up at Lowe's. Eventually I'll get a 'real' target, but these worked beautifully!

Take a deep breath and make a wish

2009-11-08T20:42:00.008-06:00

I love dandelions. Which is silly, really. But in this state, they're so beautiful! How can such delicate and fleeting beauty make such a mess of my yard?

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Auto

And this is a 'just because' photo. Meet Jasper, one of our two cockatiels. As you can see by his crest standing up, he's not terribly fond of the camera. I tried to get him to do the feminine pose, but he insisted on doing the basic 3/4 pose. Such a diva. :)

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/80
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Auto

O Tiny Toad on my Doorstep

2009-11-07T09:33:00.008-06:00

Sounds like the title of a Keats poem :)

Got home from Gold's this morning and as I approached my front door, I caught a bit of movement near my feet. We've got hundreds of geckos and a dozen or so lizards that live on/around our house so that's not unusual, but when I looked down and spied the fairly-well-camouflaged critter, it wasn't a gecko or a lizard. My first instinct was to move it into the cover of the monkey grass so it didn't get eaten by a sharp-eyed jay, but after a few failed attempts at rescue, I dashed inside to get my camera.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None
White Balance: Auto

Pretty sure this is a young female Woodhouse's Toad, though it might be a male that doesn't have the dark throatpouch yet? Cute as a button, regardless. A tad more than an inch long from nose to rear. She sat still for a good five minutes and let me zoom in quite close--I didn't want to risk taking the time to change lenses, so even at 90mm, the lense was within six inches of her. Good thing the neighbors are kind of used to seeing me crawling around on my belly with a camera in front of my face. I really like the angle of this photo, even though the DOF blurs out the texture of her skin.

Here's another pic I took before I got down on my belly (same settings as above). Not as much DOF on this one, so you can see the texture of her skin. Very cool, IMO.

She eventually lost patience and hopped into the tall grass under the bushes.

Sam's Club pizza... mmmm...

2009-11-06T22:49:00.004-06:00

It was 7:30 this evening, we were sitting in Sam's eating a cheap dinner, and I remembered that I'd not done my daily photo yet. My camera was in my backpack (I carried it around all day thinking I'd have time to grab some photos of downtown architecture... *sigh*), so I pulled it out and took a picture of the most colorful thing available to me in the light that was available. And yes, people did stare at me taking a photo of my pizza...

The photo looked okay on the LCD screen, but opening it up in Photoshop, I see that the colors are awful--I never reset the white balance after testing a white balance target outdoors in the shade. However, the exposure isn't too far off, which is kinda cool. Again, this was a set-up-the-camera-BEFORE-I-shoot-and-go-with-the-first-shot deal. So even though the photo kinda sucks, it's still progress. And small victories add up.

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/20
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 50.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None

And just for the halibut, I adjusted it to the way I hoped it would magically turn out...

Nothing like morning sunshine...

2009-11-05T09:20:00.002-06:00

...to illuminate the dust on the dashboard. :)

Just in case I don't have time to post later today, I'm gonna post this pic even though it's kinda boring. I took my camera with me for the carpool drive this morning, intending to get a photo of a rose that looked so beautiful in the dappled sunlight coming through the trees. I only notice it on the way out when we're in a hurry, and don't remember by the time I get home. Turns out traffic was awful, so by the time I got home, the sunlight on the rose wasn't worth the effort. But while I was stopped at a traffic light (just turned red, had plenty of time), I did get this picture. I'm thinking I might convert it to artsy black and white and print it big to hang on Teenager's wall.

Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/50
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 44.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None

Maybe tomorrow morning I can get a photo of that rose...

A wee bit o' November color

2009-11-04T07:16:00.007-06:00

Just want to reiterate that my personal goal for NaBloPoMoPHOTO this month is to get decent shots straight off my camera. That means no color or exposure adjustments, and no cropping. I aim to resize for the web and maybe slap on my watermark, and that's it. I'm already good at post-processing--that's not where I need the practice. I want to master my camera, and make it do what I want it to do.

Which makes this photo a little bit exciting for me =D. I got out of my truck this morning and noticed that my neighbor's tree has fall colors! If you live in Texas, you know fall colors are fairly rare because we don't normally get enough rainfall to keep the leaves on the trees long enough TO change color.

So noticing the tree and the way the sunlight was was perfect and the sky so blue, I ran inside to get my camera. I adjusted the ISO, shutter speed and aperture before I took the first shot, and as it turns out, I only needed one. This is that shot! Normally I need at least one test shot to gauge and tweak. So this one got a little personal victory dance in my driveway.

Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 44.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None

Stacy G: Pic of the day!

2009-11-03T20:12:00.006-06:00

Here is my friend Stacy's manual photo of the day:
She says:
ISO 100
f/7.1
1"
65mm Focal length

Love the colors in this, Stacy. Nice depth of field, too. :)

Buggin'

2009-11-03T15:06:00.008-06:00

This guy was on the door of my very dirty white truck this afternoon as I left to pick up a kiddo from school. This is as close as my lens would let me focus (was running late, so couldn't switch lenses), but I totally love his shadow :) Click on the pic to see it bigger--the blogger resize makes it look awful.

Was tempted to crop a little bit, but didn't. Converted from the RAW, because the processed JPG looked too blue.

SOTC
Aperture: f/10
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 90.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None

Freshly Shaven Pate

2009-11-02T08:00:00.001-06:00

Fudging just a bit--this photo is from yesterday afternoon :) Resized and added the watermark, didn't touch it otherwise.

SOTC
Aperture: 5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 71.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None

Photo taken indoors next to a large window on the left. Glass on the right (an indoor window) reflecting just a bit of light.

Can you believe I do not own a white balance card? Before now I've never actually wished I had one, since I shoot RAW and can fix it with a simple click. But this photo shoot illustrated to me the importance of having custom WB, so a WB target is at the top of my list of things to add to the camera bag. The Auto WB setting on the camera gave me an image that was blah and flat (pic below left). The simple click in photoshop turned the image blue in this case, because the spectrum of colors in the image is so limited. It was still an easy fix (duplicate layer, overlay blend mode, adjust brightess and contrast, reduce opacity), but it would be very cool if I didn't HAVE to fix it because the camera captured the colors just right. KWIM?

Yaaay! My friend Stacy Holumzer Ginkel is also participating in the photo challenge, but lacking her own blog, I've invited her to share her photos here. This is her first:

SOTC
Aperture: f.8
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 100
AWB: Daylight
Flash: None

Kindred Spirits Lost in Conversation

2009-11-01T11:05:00.001-06:00

My first NaBloPoMoPHOTO picture. The concept in my head was a little more difficult than I thought it would be to actually execute, and it doesn't quite match what I envisioned as far as composition. Oh well. Practice, practice, and more practice this month.

For some reason the JPG version gives the silver a bluish tint. :(

SOTC (Straight Off The Camera--resized only)
Aperture: 5.0
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 54.0 mm
Lens: 28-90 mm
Flash: None

NaBloPoMoPHOTO

2009-11-01T09:52:00.000-06:00

Okay, I admit it. I've been shooting with a Canon SLR for nearly ten years now, and I STILL hardly ever shoot in manual mode. It's a travesty, I know, but it's easier to shoot in one of the program modes and I've been lazy. However, as I begin to make the move from hobby photographer to professional photographer, I'm sometimes frustrated with my lack of MASTERY of my camera.

So I intend to tackle that this month. November is National Blog Posting Month (30 posts in 30 days). Since Shutter Muse could use some serious attention, I'm imposing a challenge on myself: Take and post one GOOD photo per day that was shot in manual mode. Not P, Tv, or Av. M. And preferably straight off the camera (resized, but no other manipulation).

And check out the 'NaBloPoMoPHOTO blogs' list in the right-hand column! Those are other photographer bloggers that are participating in the challenge, too! Check 'em out!

I don't have my photo yet for today (will post again later), but I'm excited!

New website live

2009-10-17T21:54:00.001-05:00

I've been volunteering/donating my portraiture skills to friends, family, and PTA for the past few years. Finally enough people asked, "Why aren't you making money for this?", that I decided maybe I should give it a try.

For about three years, my web site at staceylking.com has been more of a portfolio of an assortment of skills, among them book covers, graphic design, web design, photography, and flash animation. It had no real purpose, except to show my students when I was teaching a class on web design, or photography, or graphics, or flash. It now has a purpose.

For the past three or four days, I've been brushing up on my Flash skills (it's been a long time since I taught it), and cranking out a new and improved website, this one a home for my portrait photography. Rather than an entire site in a single flash animation, I split it up into separate pages, so the browser buttons work, and individual pages can be bookmarked. And I'm very pleased with the result!

Woop!

Woodhouse's Lovers

2008-04-26T08:15:00.002-05:00

This is a pair of Woodhouse's toads. I love the sun on the water in this photo. Almost looks romantic. LOL. There are lots of toads hanging out in the pool now, and they're fun to watch, because you'll have a pair like this, and then another male will lunge sideways at the 'resident' male, and try to pry him off the female. The first guy doesn't let go, so the female is caught in the tussle, squeaking and grumbling her annoyance.

We've had to rescue several. They can get out of the water onto the top step, but the smaller ones can't jump high enough to actually get out of the pool.

Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
Lens: 28-90mm (analog)
Focal length: 90mm
Exposure: Auto
Flash: None

Three Frogs

2008-04-26T08:12:00.002-05:00

The pump and filter system quit on my parents' pool, and it's going to cost mucho dinero to get it fixed. So all winter, the pool has been languishing and collecting leaves. Much to the delight of several frogs and toads. I haven't yet been able to identify their species, so if you know what they are, please let me know!

Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
Lens: 75-300mm (analog)
Focal length: 300mm
Exposure: Auto
Flash: None

American White Pelican

2008-04-26T08:10:00.003-05:00

This is an American White Pelican photographed a few weeks ago in Jackson County, Oklahoma. The fin on the beak is only there during breeding season. I managed to catch a few in flight, too. They have beautiful black-tipped wings.

Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
Lens: 75-300mm (analog)
Focal length: 300mm
Exposure: Auto
Flash: None

New Blog

2008-04-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

I know, it's silly of me to start another blog, but here it is. Needed a place for my photography stuff.