A Picture A Day

May 30th, 2008

May 30, 2008 – First KAP Flight!


An image from my maiden Kite Aerial Photography voyage. I got the Servo-BEAK from brooxes.com, assembled it this morning and went out this afternoon. What a blast! I used my Olympus Stylus 770SW on the rig, and a Flow Form 8 kite.

The kite wasn’t all the way out for this shot, I don’t appear in the ones where it’s out the farthest because I had the tilt set wrong for that.

Kudos to Brooks for his great kit – an hour to two to assemble, and it worked perfectly the first time. Thank you!

May 29th, 2008

May 29, 2008 – Macro Mesh


Playing around with my macro lens. This is a closeup of a Porsche ball point pen. The external mesh of the pen is the same material used for covering cables in the engine.

May 28th, 2008

May 28, 2008 – A Piece of My Photography History


My Canon AE-1, which I used in high school, college, and many years beyond. The background is a projected slide that I took with this camera around 1973 at either Hollywood Park or Santa Anita Racetrack.

May 27th, 2008

May 27, 2008 – Tomorrow’s Shot Will Be Great!


I found my old Canon AE-1 camera in a box the other day. This camera was my constant companion in high school and college, and for many years after that.

I had a great concept for this shot, but fouled out when the projector bulb burnt out right before the first shot. Tomorrow I’m getting a new bulb (assuming one can be found) and will try again.

Here’s the idea: I went through a bunch of my old slides and picked a representative shot from my high school portfolio (around 1976). I’m projecting that as the background and then light painting the Canon in the foreground. It should be stunning!

Ahh, well, sometimes ideas need some time to come to fruition.

May 26th, 2008

May 26, 2008 – Memorial Day


Sarah and I went to visit her father’s memorial stone today. The Golden Gate National Cemetery is a military cemetery, so each grave site was decorated with a flag for Memorial Day.

May 25th, 2008

May 25, 2008 – Adam Sandler Gave Me a Bad Haircut


Ran into Adam at the local cineplex today giving out free haircuts. Why not?

May 24th, 2008

May 24, 2008 – Switching to CFLs


I went through a few more lightbulbs than planned to get this, the clear ones are much more dramatic than frosted.

Using my HiViz sound trigger.

May 23rd, 2008

May 23, 2008 – Balloon Pop


I got a sound trigger kit from HiViz the other day and finally put it together. Any loud sound causes it to trigger the flash.

This is one of my first trials with it. I put flour in the balloon before inflating it, then rubbed it to create static electricity to make the flour stick all around the inside. Then a time exposure and a pin. Fun!

May 22nd, 2008

May 22, 2008 – Backyard Visitors


Two ducklings showed up in our pool this afternoon. We were concerned for awhile until the mom showed up half an hour later. Right now she’s napping by the pool while the kids swim around.

I looked it up, and ducklings can fly when they’re about 8 weeks old. These two must be at least that because there’s no way they walked here. Actually they’re way younger than that – they must have hatched in our backyard.

May 21st, 2008

May 21, 2008 – Cherries


I love summer. Fresh cherries – these are from the market, but they remind me of spending time with my cousins in Seattle when I was 13, sitting in a cherry tree eating them as we picked them.