Week 26 of 52 Theme: “Candid” Background Music

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#LPTG13WK26, Asian, B&W, band, Black and White, broiwse, candid, candid moment, Candid portrait, D7000, D7000 Blog, Digital Camera, Digital Photography, DSLR Modes, Duo, entertainement, Farmer Market, Farmers Market, Gardner Village, girl, guitar, harmonica, images, Learning D7000 controls.Camera Controls, LensProToGo.com 52 week challenge, LPTG, LPTG 52 challenge, LPTG.com 52 week Challenge, LPTG52, Mid day portrait, Music, musical duo, Musician, New D7000 user, Nikon, Nikon Blog, Nikon D7000, Nikon D7000 Controls, Nikon D7000 From Snapshots to great shots, open shade, photo, photo display, Photography, photography display, Photoshop, pictures, postcards, Salt Lake City, Silver Effex Pro2, Still Life, Street Photography, Sun, Sunny, Theme:Candid, Using a Nikon D7000, Utah, Week 26 of 52, West Jordan, woman

I’ve wanted to shoot a Farmers Market for awhile and this weeks theme of Candid was the perfect excuse to visit the recently opened Farmers Market at Gardner Village. Although it was early the Sun was already blazing away and seeking shade became a main priority, lucky for me that meant being near a pair of musicians performing a wide variety of music including requests from the audience giving me a nice candid opportunity to capture.

Harmonica Man

I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the harmonica…

Sadly I didn’t find out who these guys were, but they were amazingly talented!

Before you were able to browse for images online you had to do it this way!

The Gardner Village Farmers Market was more “Market” than “Farmer” so there were only a few vendors selling fruits and vegetables, I’ve heard that the downtown Market is better so I hope to visit that one soon.

Thanks for your visit today.

Happy Shooting!

Howard

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Week 25 of 52 Theme: “Cars” End of the Line at the End of the Day

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#LPTG13WK25, Benro, Benro A298M8 Tripod, blending, bracketing, Caboose, camera, camera controls, Camera Mode, Car museum, car on roof, Cars, Color, D7000, D7000 Blog, D7000 HDR, D7000 Promote COntrol, dead end, Digital Camera, Digital Photography, Downtown, DSLR Modes, End of the line, Evening, exaggeration, exploration, exposure blend, family outing, Fisheye, focusing, Golden Hour, Graffiti, Graffiti art, Handheld HDR, HDR, HDR Sunset, Howard Jackman, Learning D7000 controls.Camera Controls, LensProToGo.com 52 week challenge, LPTG, LPTG 52 challenge, LPTG.com 52 week Challenge, LPTG52, Monster Truck, Monster Truck Display, New D7000 user, new DSLR, Nikon, Nikon Blog, Nikon D7000, Nikon D7000 Benro Tripod, Nikon D7000 Controls, Nikon D7000 From Snapshots to great shots, Nikon HDR, Perspective, photographer utah resident, Photography, Photomatix, Photoshop, Photowalking, print sale, prints, Promote Control, rail, Rail Cars, Railway, Randomw find, Rokinon, Rokinon 8mm, Rusty Monster Truck, sale, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City Rail, Salt Lake City Train, Still Life, sumoetx, Sunday afternoon, Sunset, tonemapped, tonemapping, train, Train car, Train HDR, Union Pacific, Urban exploration, Urbex, urbex HDR, Using a Nikon D7000, Utah, utah exploration, utah HDR, Utah Rail, Utah Train, West side, Wilderness Log homes

Feeling like I really had to redeem myself from last weeks fiasco the theme of “Cars” seemed like a no brainer and just to stack the deck in my favor even more there were three car shows during the week.

That would have been too easy for me (That sentence is dripping with sarcasm by the way) Actually I just didn’t have the time to go to any of them, so Sunday afternoon found me wondering what to do. I decided to drag my wife and daughter along on an exploratory photodrive to the west side of downtown Salt Lake City.

I love it when you find something unexpected and wonderful!

The end of the line at the end of the day

Although I shot 9 brackets of this scene I ended up not tonemapping it at all rather I manually blended together three of the images to get the best sky, Caboose, and tracks.

A few more of the scene:

7 shot HDR @1EV

Before capturing the Caboose we had driven around a bit and found these random cars…

I have no idea what a car has to do with “Wilderness Log Homes” but it was a fun find.

I really enjoyed finding this one!

To finish up just a few more of the Caboose:

Thanks so much for your visit today! I hope you enjoyed our little sunset exploration for an interesting shot.

Happy Shooting!

Howard

Week 24 of 52 – Theme: “Trees” “Sharp Concept – Fuzzy Image”

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#LPTG13WK24, 52 week challenge, astronomy, astrophotography, camera, camera controls, Camera Mode, camera shake, D7000, D7000 Blog, Digital Camera, Digital Photography, EtX-90EC, Howard Jackman, Late night photography, Learning D7000 controls.Camera Controls, LensProToGo.com 52 week challenge, LPTG, LPTG 52 challenge, LPTG.com 52 week Challenge, Lunar, mirror shake, Moon, Moonset, mountain, New D7000 user, new DSLR, Nikon, Nikon Blog, Nikon D7000, Nikon D7000 Controls, Nikon D7000 From Snapshots to great shots, Oquirrh Mountains, Photography, Photoshop, Prime Focus, Ridgeline, Salt Lake City, Setting, shaky mount, Shooting Mode, silhouette, Still Life, sumoetx, T-thread, Theme: Trees, tree line, trees, Using a Nikon D7000, Utah, week 24, Week 24 of 52, Wireless shutter remote

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.
Ansel Adams

Combining my two favorite passions of Astronomy and Photography always makes me happy. Seeing the theme of “Trees” I knew right away what I wanted to do, I was going to use my telescope to shoot the Moon setting behind trees on a mountain ridge.

Easier said than done…

Having to wait for the right conditions (my work schedule vs Moonset times) I had scouted out a location on a road that dead ended at the base of the Oquirrh Mountains on the west side of the Salt Lake valley. This would place me about 1 1/2 miles from the mountain ridge, well within range of my Meade ETX-90EC Maksutov Cassegrain telescope.

The Moon was a waning Gibbous and would set about an hour after I got home from work giving me plenty of time to drive and set up. As soon as I walked outside I should have known not to go as it was windy with gusts up to 25mph, but I had to submit my image as I was already late by a few days. I removed the battery grip on the D7000 to lighten the load the telescope mount would have to handle and added the counter weights to the front, I left the tripod at its lowest setting to improve stability and tried to block the wind the best I could with my car, I attached the camera to the telescope using a T-thread adapter and started making test images purposefully underexposing  in order to keep my shutter speed as high as I could to counter camera/scope shake.  As I looked through the viewfinder I could see that the atmosphere was absolutely boiling and would make capturing details in the lunar surface nearly impossible. Again I should have aborted the shoot, I had the wind and “seeing” against me. I was using my wireless remote to trigger the camera again to minimize camera shake however one thing I forgot to remember was that when using the wireless remote you can’t use the “Mirror Lock Up” function, it needs a wired shutter release cable to work. Strike Three!

It’s surprising how fast the Moon sets and I was snapping shots as fast as I could hoping against all hope that I could get a decent shot, the Moon was setting behind a near perfect scene of a large weathered tree with a small line of trees just a little to the left of it. Watching through the viewfinder was mesmerizing and I was stoked thinking of how cool getting just one clear shot would be to post in the flickr forum. Looking back I realize that with the wind, the turbulent atmosphere, and no Mirror Lock Up I really should have just shot video and pulled out and stacked the best frames to make a final image.

Instead I got this…

Behold a fuzzy image of a sharp concept.

With all due respect to the great Ansel Adams I think I’d rather have a boring picture that’s sharp than this mess…

I plan on re-shooting this, using lessons learned from this experience, as soon as I get it I’ll share it with you.

Thanks for stopping by and I apologize for the crap image, but it’s good to be reminded that not every shot we make is a winner, but it’s a step to getting better.

Happy Shooting!

Howard

Week 23 of 52 Theme: “Metal” The Mighty SR-71 Blackbird

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#LPTG13WK23, 52 week challenge, A-10, Aerospace, Aerospace heritage of Utah, Air Heritage of Utah, aircraft, Airplane HDR, Aviation HDR, B-17, B-25, Benro, Benro A298M8 Tripod, Blackbird, Bomb, Bomb bay, Bomber, camera, camera controls, Camera Mode, Ch-53, Cold War, Color Effex Pro 4, D7000, D7000 Blog, D7000 HDR, D7000 Promote COntrol, Digital Camera, Digital Photography, DSLR Modes, F-111, F-15, F-16, F-86F, Fighter Jet, Fighting, Fisheye, Fisheye HDR, Flag, Free to Public, HDR, Helicopter, Helo, Hill Air Museum, Jet, Jet Age, Jets, Korean War, Learning D7000 controls.Camera Controls, LensProToGo.com 52 week challenge, Lightning, LPTG, LPTG 52 challenge, LPTG.com 52 week Challenge, LPTG52, metal, Military, museum, New D7000 user, new DSLR, Nik Filter, Nikon, Nikon Blog, Nikon D7000, Nikon D7000 Benro Tripod, Nikon D7000 Controls, Nikon D7000 From Snapshots to great shots, Nikon HDR, Ogden, P-38, P-47, P-51, P-51D, Pavlow, Photography, Photomatix, Photoshop, Promote Control, Promote Control System, Rokinon 8mm, Sabre, Silver effex pRo 2, snap shot to great shot, Spyplane, SR-71, SR-71C, Still Life, T-38, Theme, Thunderbolt, Using a Nikon D7000, Utah, utah HDR, Week 23 of 52, WW2, WWII, WWII bombers, WWII Fighters

I was contacted earlier this year by the director of the Hill Air Museum and Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Utah (A super nice guy!)asking if it would be possible to use some of my images for their websites and Facebook pages. I was honored and humbled that they would ask and willingly gave them permission to do so as I’m a huge fan of the Museum and all the hard volunteer work that goes on to keep the place open and free to the public. (You can see many of my shots on the Heritage’s homepage and on the Museum’s Facebook page) Hill Air Museum has a huge collection of aircraft and support apparatus from the beginning of powered flight to today’s modern aviation wonders on display in two large hangars and a large outdoor area, well worth a visit (or twenty) if you can find the time. I hadn’t been up there this year and I wanted to try out my fisheye lens to see what I could get, and seeing how this weeks theme was “Metal” I thought it would be the perfect place to shoot.

The Mighty SR-71C 5 shot HDR using the Promote Control

You read that caption right, this is a “C” not “A” model. This SR-71C, “The Bastard” S/N 61-7981, was the only C model Blackbird ever built and was the last SR-71 to be manufactured. It was nicknamed “The Bastard” since it was a hybrid comprised of the rear fuselage of the first YF-12A (S/N 60-6934) and a functional engineering mockup of an SR-71A forward fuselage built for static testing. You can read all about it’s fascinating history here.

I would love to be able to shoot this thing from a higher angle to really show off it’s immense wing area!( 1,800 ft²⁾ Head on it looks really tough but it’s all engines and cockpit which is very deceiving as this thing takes up a massive amount of space!

Want more? I’ve got more…

The A-10, F-16 and F-15 on display at the rear end of the Hangar – Fisheye HDR

Another view of the trio! Fisheye -HDR

The Sikorsky MH-53M Pavelow – Fisheye-HDR

The F-111E I’ll have to shoot more of this one next time I visit!

Moving back in time…

The F-86F Sabre!

The F-86F Sabre Head On -Fisheye HDR

The business end of a P-38J Lightning!

The Beastly P-47D Thunderbolt! -Fisheye-HDR

Forgive me a moment as I flood you with a ton of shots of my favorite airplane the ever amazingly sexy P-51 Mustang…

Last, but certainly not least the bombers…

I couldn’t decide which I liked better so you get to see both…

So that was my quick walk through the museum to try out my fisheye and to get a shot of “Metal”, how’d I do??

As always I didn’t have enough time on this visit and I would love to be able to get higher vantages to really make these images stand out from everyone else’s, but I’m happy with what I was able to get and look forward to returning soon to shoot more as each visit helps me see better and to explore shots that I missed on previous visits. If you ever get a chance to be near Ogden, Utah please take an hour or more to visit this amazing place you’ll only be disappointed that you couldn’t stay longer!

Happy Shooting!

Howard