Playing with Product Photography

Over the weekend Lisa and I added lattice to our deck, to keep the critters out. While cutting one of the boards for the project I accidentally cut the tape measure with my Compound Mitre. To make the mess up public in my facebook profile I took the mangled tool into the studio. I have a set up for product lighting and was able to create a neat image.

I like the seamless look to the image. I also like the reflection of the ragged edge. I think this is a great example of how even everyday objects can be made unique with a creative set up.

Florida for Easter

Lisa and I went to see her parents in Florida over the easter weekend. I had a lot of fun and it was great to see them. The photographic theme for the weekend for me started the first morning we were there when Lisa woke me up to see the sunrise. There was a low hanging fog layer, that made the woods near the condo look like something out of jurassic park. From the 25 th floor the scene was awe inspiring. Of course I started snapping away. One of the Trees caught my attention and became the focus of the shot below.

I could see on the camera's LCD the tinge of red in the shot and thought it would look great. It wasn't until i got home that I noticed the hawk or eagle in the lower left side of the picture. It adds such life to the shot.

Later that day we went out on the boat and I was playing with the camera trying to get a shot of a pelican doing one of their extremely low passes over the water. My newly purchased Canon 2x teleconverter helped out and i was able to get the shot.

I love the primordial look of pelicans and their skill at low level flight is impressive.

On our last day we went for a walk and came across a Gopher Tortoise. Honestly I don't think I would mind if this guy were tearing up my lawn. Although Cricket would probably freak out.

I will also be uploading these pictures to the Lanigan's Lens page on Facebook.

Landings

I haven't updated this as much as I should. I will try to be better about it in the future.

I flew last night from Denver to Columbus and got to thinking about one of my photos.

I took this while Lisa and I were in Monterrey, CA for her ACVP convention. It has become one of my favorite nature shots. i think because you can see the concentration in the pelican's eyes as it flares to lans on a tiny rock.

I thought about this photo because it shows the thing of beauty that a landing is. I think that we as earthbound beings, relying on machines to fly, can only have a glimpse at what it is like for birds as they master the skies.

We all know a bad airline landing when we feel one, however, when you consider the incredible amount of variables and nuances that comprise a landing it is incredible they aren't flubbed more often. I will spare a long description of how to land an airplane, but consider this: Last night I flew over a thousand Nautical Miles and then had to place a multi-ton aircraft going 140mph onto a strip of pavement 150 feet wide and just over a mile long. (If you want to get technical in order to land as a part 121 air carrier I had to touch down in the first 3,000 feet of the runway.)

For me the mark of a good night landing is when I open the cockpit door and can still see people rubbing their eyes because they didn't wake until we reached the gate.

But I am no where near as good a pilot as that Pelican is.

A Wonderful Birthday

For my birthday, Lisa rented a cabin in Hocking Hills. It was a great vacation. Nothing like getting a couple of days away with your spouse and the dogs. It was nice to reconnect and have nothing to do but go on long walks and talk. Of course I took my camera and had a lot of fun just taking pictures of the scenery. We hiked the trail around Old Man's Cave. We also went to Cedar falls, I had a great time shooting pictures, while Lisa froze.

Here are a couple of pics of the cabin. It was great with a hot tub on the back porch. It was really quiet at night which was great.

Cricket And Brewster had a great time. I was amazed at how close Cricket would stay to us, Lisa got this pic of my dog behaving herself.

Crick exploring.

Brewster had a great time too. I loved how his tongue became a little smile. He was so energetic and just loved to walk and explore.

These are from our hike around Old Man's Cave.

This rock formation is called the Devil's Bathtub.

This is Cedar Falls it is really beautiful. I love how the two streams come together to make one fall.

The fall colors were amazing I couldn't believe the variation.

In the next couple of days I will be uploading larger versions of these files to my site laniganslens.com. They will be under the nature section.

When not to FLASH

Lisa and I made our annual trip to D.C. for easter to see friends.  We decided with our limited time to see the sights that this year we would visit the National Museum of American History.  The renovations to the building are nice but the museum was way over crowded.  I had my backpack with all my photo gear and was hoping to get some neat shots of some of the treasures, in our nation's attic.  

I got a couple of decent shots, however, with the prevalence of cheap digital cameras it seemed everyone in the museum had the same idea.  As a result (i'll explain why in a bit) I wasn't able to get many usable images.  Although I was able to get one of the few Lincoln Life masks, taken of the president's actual face.

I think it is strikingly personal connection to such a historic figure.  the image had to be color corrected as it was yellowed by the light in the display area.  Amazingly this bust was one of the few artifacts that oodles of people weren't taking oodles of pictures of, thus the nice picture.  

So now my rant, If you are going to take a picture in a museum DON'T USE THE FLASH if what you are photographing is behind glass.  otherwise all you and anyone else trying to take a similar picture will get is the reflection of your flash and nothing else.  As seen in this next picture (notice how every fingerprint on the glass and minor imperfection is now in the image).

As an example this next picture was taken in another part of the museum through 1/2 inch thick glass (no flash) and you can see the details nicely without fingerprints or nasty flare.

Well enough ranting, I hope my frustration will help some others to actually get the picture they want..  

After the museum we went to dinner and on the way back, I had some fun with night pics and low light in the subway.  

I want to ride my Trike

On Saturday, I picked up my Sun EZ Tadpole trike.  It looks like some kind of crazy contraption, and from the looks you get as you ride the casual observer would agree.  Lisa and I took our new rides out for a quick ride (see the pic below).  The trike handles nicely and once you are used to sitting down and pedaling it is quite comfortable.  Lisa Took the great pics.

An interesting Flight

Yesterday I took off from Midway to La Gaurdia..

The flight started with a passenger causing a rucus because he was in coach and wanted to put his bag in the overhead in first class.  Ended up that I had to leave the cockpit and explain to him that Airplanes are not a democracy and that he had to do what my crew told him to do.  So we get the plane buttoned up and push back as rain starts pelting the airplane.  The rain lasted for most of the push-back and then stopped with a beautiful rainbow.  Then the lightning started.  We took off away from the storm but in their infinite wisdom ATC turned us right into it.  We were handed off to departure and the controller started trying to give us approach instructions.  We tried several times to get him to understand that we were a departure.  When he realized that he just gave us a frequency change, not the heading we were requesting to avoid the storm ahead.  I contacted the next controller with the heading request.  After 3 tries to contact this controller her only reply was yet another new frequency.  We checked on with this center controller and he gave us an immediate climb but could not give us a different heading.  We climbed quickly trying to top the storm and ended up going through the tops.  A rough ride and lots of rain/lightning.  

We get to cruise and think all the excitement is over for the flight.   About over Cleveland we got a master caution light and several messages pop up.  Including Avionics MAU 2 fail, a bad message that would require a diversion and fire trucks.  About three seconds later all the messages clear and the cockpit returns to normal.  So with no more messages we continue to LGA.  

I must say the new snacks on Delta are very good and make a decent dinner.  So the descent into New York goes good nothing but a beautiful view of the city.  

The approach was a different story.  At around 600 feet about 30 geese cross about 50 feet below us.  I know this because they were close enough to be illuminated by the landing lights.

So we pitch up go over them and report it to tower.  The FO makes a good landing and I taxi us to the gate.  

I was really done at this point.  The crown jewel of the evening was the 40 minute wait for the hotel van.  Seeing as the hotel is 5 minutes from the airport.

So much for customer service.