Exmore

- Stopped in Exmore on the way back down the Eastern Shore of Virginia today. Exmore was named after the number of railroad stops left until reaching the Delaware state line, there were 10 more stops, thus "X-More." The tracks are now part of the Bay Coast Railroad but were originally built by New York, Pennsylvania and Norfolk Railroad (NYP&N) aka the "Nip 'n N". Canon G11, 1/800 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200, converted to black and white with Silver Efex Pro 2.

Table & Chairs

- This table and chairs where silhouetted against a backlit glass panel at the Harvest Moon Brewery & Cafe in New Brunswick New Jersey. Canon G11, 1/8 sec @ f/3.2, ISO 800, underexposed by 2 stops.

Red Delicious

- Some hotel room still life for today's photo of the day. The Red Delicious sure is a pretty apple although its not my favorite for eating. Canon G11, 1/3 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400 in macro mode. Use a drink bottle for camera support along with the 2 second delayed shutter release.

Free Beer

- Got your attention with that title, didn't I. Sitting outside on the deck at the Market Street Inn in historic downtown Salisbury Maryland. Very cool old downtown and the dinner was outstanding. Droid X camera phone, using the Vignette app.

Classics in the Stacks

- Took a tour of the library at the new Portsmouth Campus of Tidewater Community College this evening. Great new building and the library has 96 computers but I was happy to see that there are still old fashion books and stacks. These are in the "PA" section using the Library of Congress Classification System - Greek and Latin Literature. I'm sure my son Mike the classicist would be happy to know the community collge still has these in its collection. Canon G11, 1/125 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400, converted to B&W using Silver Efex Pro 2.

Cooking With Gas

- I had an opportunity recently to photograph a house that is coming to market soon. I tried to capture some interesting details to go along with the interior views. This Thermador Professional gas range was one of those shots. This is some high end cooking! Canon 40D, 1/13 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens converted to B&W in Silver Efex Pro 2.

High Fly'n

- One of my eleven foot wing span delta kites. Seems whenever I'm at the beach I forget to bring the kite so I end up with a new one. Canon 40D, 1/250 sec @ f/7.1, ISO 200, zoom at 170mm focal length.

Sand Crab

- This is picture from a few years ago of a tiny sand crab on Hatteras Island North Carolina that never made it to the CIOPhoto blog. Canon 40D, 1/1250 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200, zoom at 400mm (the big gun).

Floaters

- The recent hot and dry weather is taking its toll on the trees. These brown leaves were floating in the fountain at Town Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Canon G11, 1/320 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 400.

Crazy Angel

- The "Crazy Angel" roll at Nara Sushi in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Seared tuna & asparagus with tuna, salmon, whitefish, eel and tobiko on top - a spicy wonder. We also had a ginger and scallion soft shell crab as an appetizer. Yummy! Canon G11, 1/10 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800 in macro mode.

QWERTY

- Got a cool new backlit keyboard for my PC from Deck. It's really a gaming keyboard but has the old style tactile feedback keys that I like. Each key is backlit by an individual LED and has a switch that produces the famous "IBM" keyboard feel and click. The key switches are rated for about 50 million key strokes - it should last me for a few years. Best of all, it comes with a skull key cap to place as you want. Canon 40D, 1/30 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 800, converted to black and white in Silver Efex Pro 2.

Brave Little Guy

- This little guy was not happy to have his picture made. He's only about an eighth of inch long and was sitting on a daylily leaf. He actually jumped on the LED Litepanel right after I took this picture. I managed to get him back on the leaf and about his way. Portrait photographers always want to get the "catch light" in the subject's eyes, I managed to get catch light in all four forward facing eyes. Canon 40D, 1/125 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro.

Luminarium

- Hope you like blue. This is another photo from inside the luminarium Amacoco that was here in Virginia Beach last month. Looking up at the ceiling in the, you guessed it, blue room. Canon G11 1/400 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 400.

LEDs on Glass

- My grandson Robert likes to plays with these glass beads Cindy had left over from some project. He loads them into his dump trucks. As I was playing with him tonight I wondered if there was a photo in there. Using the LED Litepanel and the macro lens produced this image. It is certainly colorful. Canon 40D, 1/500 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens.

Water Lights

Town Point Park in Norfolk Virginia has a cool new sidewalk fountain with various colored lights. Makes for a nice image 30 minutes after sunset during the civil twilight. Canon G11, 2.5 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 100, camera sitting on the sidewalk with a 2 second shutter delay used.

The Mighty ATM

- The automated teller machine or ATM to most Americans revolutionized banking beginning in the 1970's. One could now do banking transactions 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Prior to the advent of the ATM, bank branches closed early in the afternoon so tellers could reconcile their cash drawers and deposits before the end of the work day. The ATM changed customer service in banking as well as the livelihood of many bank employees. Will online banking, mobile devices and the debit card replace the need for cash and spell the end of the ATM? Most likely. Canon G11, 1/25 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800.

Paddle Faster!

- Paddle Faster! I hear banjo music. Jackass Flats at the Jewish Mother in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Canon g11, 1/60 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, camera flash at -2 stops.

Sunflower

- A mature sunflower is actually a "flower head" (also known as a "composite flower") of 1000-2000 florets, (small flowers) crowded together. Sunflowers are the subject of famous still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. I really like this one called "Two Cut Sunflowers". Canon 40D, 1/1600 sec @ f/3.2, ISO 800, 50mm prime lens, overhead halogen spot supplemented by an LED Litepanel.

Take Time

- Miss Sasha reminds us to take time to smell the flowers. Both of our cats thoroughly enjoyed the new bouquet of fresh cut flowers Cindy got at the Why Not Wednesday farmer's market at Town Center in Virginia Beach. Canon G11, 1/60 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 800, on camera flash dialed down two stops.

Really W i d e

- I used my Sigma 8mm F3.5 EX DG Circular Fisheye lens for this picture from the hangar overlook facing the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk and the Vought Corsair at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The overlook provides a sweeping view of aircraft hanging throughout the Boeing Aviation Hangar. In photography, a fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in a broad, panoramic and hemispherical image. They provide a unique, distorted appearance. Canon 7D, 1/25 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 800.

A Dandy Dandelion

- A dandy dandelion in black and white. Canon 40D, 1/640 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 400 100mm macro.

Honor System

- Took a drive out to the country - the southern part of Virginia Beach, Virginia, today and stopped at Vaughan Farms Produce stand. The stand was attended today but some days its still just the "honor system". Robert Vaughan was granted 243 acres of land in 1695 in what was then Princess Anne County. Now, over 315 years later, the Vaughans' still operate one of the oldest, continuously owned family farms in the country.

Better Off Here

- "Better off here than across the street claims" the neon sign at Payne's Biker Bar in Leesburg Virginia. The "across the street" is the Loudoun County Courthouse. Canon G11, 1/320 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200.

It's a NEW PC!

- Yep after six years of service I'm finally replacing my old XP computer. I'm building the new PC from the ground up to be photographer's killer machine. I thought seriously about building a "Hackintosh" but decided to stay with Windows. Got my inspiration for the new PC from the Image Science blog. The new PC specs:

Intel Core i7-920 processor
12 GB RAM
OCZ 240 GB SSD SATA II Windows System Disk
OCZ 120 GB SSD SATA III Lightroom and Photoshop Cache/Scratch Disk
WD 600 GB VeloRaptor, 10,000 RPM SATA III for programs and catalogs
WD 2 TB Caviar Black for data and photo files
Blu-ray writer & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner
16x max. DVD-ROM
Windows 7 Pro

The photo is 12 GB of RAM installed, yes its a freaking beautiful sight. Canon 40D, 1/30 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800, LED Litepanel for extra light.

Anchors Away

- A goofy picture of my parts drawer full of plastic wall anchors. The Brits call these "wall plugs". So there you have it, another random photo and a little of useless trivia courtesy of CIOPhoto.com. Canon 7D, 1/200 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro.

Cowabunga!

- My grandson Robert jumping into his new pool. I often tell people that you can make a great photograph with almost any camera. However action pictures like this really benefit from good photo gear. The Canon 7D was set to high speed shooting mode at 8 frames per second and the camera's fast 19 point auto-focus helped to ensure a sharp photo. The zoom lens was was also big and fast. This is the fourth of seven frames captured during one second of action. The result was exactly the picture I was looking for. Canon 7D, 1/1250 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 200, 70mm focal length.

67 Years Later

- Sixty-seven years ago today my father's unit, Company C of the 13th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division, United Sate Army went ashore at Normandy France to take part in the invasion of Europe during WWII. My father was 17 years old at the time and would celebrate his 18th birthday five weeks later on August 15th near Rennes France after fighting through the hedgerows. By the following Spring he was a hardened combat veteran wounded five times and earning two Bronze Stars. He fought through the longest single battle in U S Army history in the Hürtgen Forest between Belgium and Germany. This photo of the Washington Monument taken from the Wold War II Memorial is dedicated SFC Edward H. Sullivan, a member of the "Greatest Generation". Canon 7D, 1/800 sec @ f/11.0, ISO 400, 70mm focal length.

Red, White and Blue

- Fourth of July calls for cookouts and a pool party. We had both at my son Brian's house this afternoon. Click on the pool party link to see more pictures of a splashing good time. Thanks to Cindy for being such a good foot model. Canon 7D, 1/5000 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 200 zoom at 135mm.

Glass Burst

A ridged glass panel gives off a nice star burst pattern of colors. Canon G11, 1/80 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400.

Katydid

- I noticed this tiny katydid on one of my Stargazer lily blooms this evening. It was very small, about a 1/4 inch in length. The 100mm macro did a nice job of capturing the image. Canon 40D, 1/200 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro focused at 1:1, handheld with image stabilization on. A little extra light provided by an LED Litepanel.

Think Pink

- Think Pink and support finding a cure for breast cancer. Canon 7D, 1/160 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200, 55mm focal length.