31Mar

Rex

 

I wish these were taken at a better location but it was convenient.  Rex didn’t really like the beauty dish very much but I love the rim light in the last image.

24Dec

Family Photos in 20 (minutes)

Woke up and felt like shooting.  I thought we should dress up some and head down to “Old Town Herndon.”  They look great in color but I love the B&W pop I was able to add using Nik Efex Silver Pro software.

 

SimpleViewer requires JavaScript and the Flash Player. Get Flash.

 

09Dec

MOAA 2011 Holiday Party

Had a great time at the 2011 MOAA Holiday party on Friday.  I started unloading the car and setting up the photobooth around 1020.  Its intresting setting up a 9′ backdrop roll by yourself.  I was planning on just using one strobe with a softbox for the shoot but since I had the other strobe I set it up anyway.  It was about 11:20 and the guest were starting to arrive so didnt put the softbox on the sencond strobe.  I took a few detail shots and started at 11:30.

SimpleViewer requires JavaScript and the Flash Player. Get Flash.
30Nov

Rex, Stay

Trying to get a Jack Russell to stay still long enough to back up and get a shot is not a simple task.  Let me clarify, a spoiled Jack Russell.  I have tried this in the past and had no luck.  This time I had a little more patience and was able to get several shots where we was mostly or entirely on the backdrop.

SimpleViewer requires JavaScript and the Flash Player. Get Flash.
05Nov

Planes and Trains Engagement Shoot

I was so excited to get to do this shoot at Manassas Airport.  See the full gallery at http://trrphoto.com/jon-mimi-engaged/

SimpleViewer requires JavaScript and the Flash Player. Get Flash.
14Sep

Ambassadors Ball (National MS Society)

SimpleViewer requires JavaScript and the Flash Player. Get Flash.
02Sep

Playing Detective

I love this picture for so many reasons…  I love the colors, the texture, the pattern, the beach and playful atmosphere but perhaps the thing that intrigues me the most is all the information that you can pull from this image.  If you play detective you can really gather a lot of information from this image.

Starting with long shadows you can tell its either near sunrise or sunset.  The person playing Frisbee as well as the other people on the beach in the distance give away that it is most likely sunset.  Once the time of day is determined you can determine which coast the beach is on and the story goes on from there.

01Sep

St Bernardus Abt 12 Beer- Delicious

Walking around the Reston Town Center I stopped at a specialty wine and beer store.  Looking around I saw lots of beers that I wanted to try but the lady working there reccomended a few.  I looked in the corner and saw this bottle of St Bernardus sitting right next my beloved Chimay.  The lady began to tell me that it had won best beer in the world two years in a row.  I had to try it.

As I carefully popped it open and poured it into my glass I noticed that it was very dark and appeared to be a little thick.  Excited yet nervous about the viscosity I took a sip and it was fantastic.  Not too thick, fruity and an abundance of taste.  As I finished my first glass I didnt think it tasted very strong but after the second I felt the 10.5% alcohol kick in.

I am definitely a fan of this beer but at $14 a bottle it will have to go on the special occasion list.

31Aug

Hanging with the Kids

Spent this past Friday afternoon grilling, making cup cupcakes, messes and hanging out with the kids.  Althougth it was a little humid, the sky was gorgeous that afternoon (see background).

Got a few pictures myself but the sharpest picture by far was taking by Molly of her dad.  The clarity and detail of this image blow really impresses me.  I love the framing of this image too (it was not cropped).  You really have to click on the image and see it in high resolution to appreciate it.

*photo credit: Molly Simon (my niece)

31Jul

Britney Spears @ The Verizon Center

Walking up to the Verizon Center I could immediately tell who was going to the concert.  The outfits were quite interesting and it wasnt only the girls that were decked out in Britney gear and dressed up as different eras of Britney, the guys had some pretty interesting outfits on as well.

Although I was disappointed I didn’t have a DSLR I was still excited to get to test out my new Nikon P300 point and shoot.

The lighting at concerts can make it pretty tricky to get a properly exposed shot, especially as far away as we were.  Although our seats were in the 100′s (lower level about 15 rows back from the arena) we were still a good 200 feet back from the main stage.  Most point and shoot cameras, including mine, dont offer any metering settings so the camera take an average of all the light in the frame and exposes for the average (known as matrix metering).  In this case we had a very small bright subject that surrounded by a sea of darkness.  Leaving the camera in automatic ment a overexposed blown out subject lacking any recognizable detail.   To compensate for this issue I set the exposure compensation dial down -.3 and then to ensure I would come home with  ”postable” images I set +/- .7 bracketing.  The only variable left to deal with was focus and it was an issue for one shot in particular but overall I was quite pleased with the results.

Most importantly Kerry was happy with her birthday gift of finally getting to see Britney Spears in concert.  A happy girlfriend means a happy boyfriend.

29Jun

Summer Sky…

I love how my back door faces west and I get to see the sunset over the airport.  Yesterday afternoon there were dark clouds rolling by and I could hear the thunder with occasional flashes of lightning.  The rain never came but when clouds started to clear you could see the vibrant reds, yellows and magentas in the sky.  Rex was running around the house playing with his ball so I knew what had to be done.  I ran down the stairs, grabbed my camera and the leash and Rex followed, ball in mouth, and met me at the door.  Over to the baseball field we went to this big hill behind the outfield.  Here are few shots we took.

 

02Jun

Fireworks

I always had trouble shooting really bright things in the dark such as fireworks and the moon.  The moon actually gave me the hardest time when I took my very first picture of it.  I grabbed my D40 and tripod and set the shutter speed to 1/20th of second and tried with no luck.  I tried slowing in down some then speeding it up with no success.  It wasnt until about 30 minutes later when I realized that the moon is extremely bright and I had to boost the shutter speed way up to 1/500th of a second to actually see the craters and get picture properly exposed.

These firework images below we 3 second exposures at f/18 and between 100-200mm.

10May

Rodriguez Family Photo’s

07May

Skyline Drive

Something I have wanted to do for years was take a drive through Skyline Drive.  I have heard all these great things about it but never seemed to make the time.  Now I know what all the fuss was about.  Its beautiful.

02Apr

Washington DC… One day I will miss you more then I know

I love when friends come in from out of town because we get to show them around this city in our backyard that us locals take for granted.  I know one day I will be living somewhere else wishing i had spent more time discovering the monuments and hidden treasures of our nations captial.

This particular weekend I did get to tour the city some.  We drove up to Madame Tussauds to check out the wax musem.  Then we headed past Ford’s Theater on our way to see the cherry blossems.

13Mar

Road Trip

As we were driving back from the beach I had my new 85mm lens mounted on my camera I was just checking out the other cars when motorcycle zoomed up to us.  He conveniently decided to take a break for a few minutes when i took this shot through the driver side window.   Unexpected shot came out pretty nice if i do say so myself.

 

 

29Jan

Sledding

What better to do on a snow day beside building a snow man?  SLEDDING!!!  (We actually built the snow man yesterday)

(D90, 18-200mm, @40mm, F/7, 1/640 sec)