Red - Color Day 2 - 04/21/10

(f/4.5, 1/30 sec., ISO-800)

Red. I took pictures of this snuggling duo at three different saturation levels to see what it did to the red. The first photo is minimum saturation, the second neutral and the third, maximum. The first is quite dull, but it does make the red pop a bit more. The second is the most accurate. The third muddles the colors quite a bit and causes the red to bleed some, I think.

(f/4.5, 1/25 sec., ISO-800)

Pink - Color Day 1 - 04/20/10

Today, I am moving on to this week's theme: color.

(f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO-400)

For day 1, I chose pink because of all the beautiful pink tulips in Boston Common. There were clouds in about 50 percent of the sky, so the light alternated every few minutes between cloudy and sunny. I tried using the sunny, shady and cloudy settings on the camera to get the most accurate color available in each picture. The pink flowers, I think, turned out beautifully.

(f/4.5, 1/1250 sec., ISO-200)

See the butterfly?

(f/4.5, 1/1250 sec., ISO-200)

I love it when one guy is just a little bit different.

Boston Marathon - Action Day 6 - 04/19/10

Since today was the 114th Boston Marathon, and since I missed the first two 'action' days this week, I thought I would extend the action theme one more day.

(f/8, 1/640 sec., ISO-400)

The wheelchair racers were the first to come down Boylston Street around 10:45 a.m.

(f/8, 1/400 sec., ISO-400)

She didn't even look tired!

(f/8, 1/400 sec., ISO-400)

Bruna Genovese (Italy) - Women's fifth-place finisher, just after turning on Boylston Street.

(f/8, 1/400 sec., ISO-400)

Robert Cheruiyot (Kenya) - Men's Winner of the 2010 Boston Marathon about a half-mile from the finish line on Boylston Street.

(f/8, 1/400 sec., ISO-400)

Ryan Hall (U.S.A.) - Men's fourth place finisher - Hall came around the corner, smiling, to lots of cheering from the American crowd. A helpful crowd member in a gray shirt pointed the way to the finish line, just in case Hall forgot.

(f/8, 1/250 sec., ISO-400)

I picked an aperture of 8 to increase the depth of field and stuck with an ISO speed of 400 - good for the low light of the day but still fast enough for action. Then, I just played with the shutter speed to get the light right.

(f/8, 1/320 sec., ISO-400)

The race was a testament to human kindness, with the crowd cheering on runners who got cramps and had to stop and rest with the finish line in sight. One runner stopped suddenly and began stumbling around in the middle of the road. Two other runners stopped to grab him before he fell and after making sure he was okay, supported him as they all three trotted to the finish.

(f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO-400)

A view of the crowd and Boylston Street from the Prudential Center.

I'm very proud of how all of these pictures turned out because I was on manual the whole time, including manual focus. I used my macro lens because it was the only lens besides my telephoto with decent zoom. (I left the telephoto at home because I wanted to get some crowd shots and I don't think it would have been wide enough for those.) The only issue with the macro is that it would not stick with a focal point. It would stutter between infinity and macro about twice a second, useless to me. But focusing manually proved to work all right. I was mostly at infinity the whole time anyway.

Rally Experience - Action Day 5 - 04/18/10

Team O'Neil Rally School Experience Day. Happy birthday to me.

(f/5.6, 1/640 sec., ISO-400)

The only bad thing about these pictures is the light. It was raining and snowing and overcast all day: pretty much the nastiest conditions for picture-taking. The picture below was taken with the "automatic" setting and you can see even the camera struggled to get something decent. I touched up the light in this photo some, but the color is just sad. Doesn't matter. I had a blast!

(f/9, 1/200 sec., ISO-400)

The black car was my favorite. I think it drove the best. Please note the mismatched wheels.

(f/9, 1/200 sec., ISO-400)

Wyatt, one of the instructors, taking several students on the end-of-the-day "maximum attack" ride in the "83" Audi.

(f/9, 1/200 sec., ISO-400)

For the "maximum attack," the instructors drove five cars at once and let all family and friends of the class participants go along for the ride. You can see where the cars came down the hill and made a sharp right turn in the parking lot before heading back up the hill. Not sure who was driving these two...

(f/7.1, 1/250 sec., ISO-400)

If you look at the car (click on the picture to make it bigger), you will see that the wheels are pointed at the camera even though the car is already pointed in the direction of the next part of the road. Pretty groovy, huh? I think I might have put the camera into "automatic" mode here, but it might still have been me on manual. Either way, I'm pretty happy with the picture. Still wish the sun would have come out, though!

(f/9, 1/125 sec., ISO-400)

Though the "89" car was going fast (as you can see), whomever was driving it was totally holding back. I'd had the best driving experience with Alan, so I hopped into his car for the "maximum attack." Excellent decision.

(f/5.6, 1/80 sec., ISO-400)

Unnnnnfortunately, I left my new flash at home which means that poor Alan's face is half-covered in shadow thanks to the Canon's fantastic built-in flash, perpetually obscured by 1/3 of the lens. That's okay! He didn't care either! (Notice the mud all over his pants. We were having fun.)

(f/8, 1/25 sec., ISO-400)

Alan, left, and my rally partner for the day, Brian, on our second go around the course.

(f/8, 1/80 sec., ISO-800)

I tried to get a good shot of the road outside as well as what was going on inside, but it was nearly impossible since: a) we were going fast, b) the windows were fogged up, c) the car was vibrating like mad, d) I couldn't settle on an exposure that would allow me to capture detail both inside and outside the car, and e) I was trying to enjoy myself and not worry too much about pictures!!

(f/8, 1/80 sec., ISO-800)

I think we were airborne for this one.

(f/4.5, 1/10 sec., ISO-800)

Back home. I don't think I'm ever going to wash these babies.

Team O'Neil Rally School