Homearama @ Night

- We volunteered as hosts tonight at the Fall 2010 Homearama held at East Beach in Norfolk, Virginia. This is the Armed Forces House, house #1 and our assignment. It was a great house with amazing cherry floors with cool inlays and a kitchen to just die for. The view from the second floor porch includes glimpses of the Chesapeake Bay. We had a great time. Thanks Becky for asking us to help out. Canon G11, 1/6 sec @ f/3.2, ISO 800, camera hand held.

HDR Gardens

This is a simulated high dynamic range (HRD) photo of the Hunter Savage Colonial Garden at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. This was a cloudy overcast day which made it ideal for capturing details, I just had to avoid the blah sky. This image is a blending of three exposures, one taken at the camera's meter reading, one two stops under exposed and one two stops over exposed. I did the blending with Photomatix Pro. This allowed me to avoid blowing out the highlights on the white gazebo and fence while capturing details in the shadows. Not a great picture but an interesting lesson for me in HDR. Canon 7D, 1/6 sec @ f/14.0, (metered exposure) ISO 400, 70mm focal length, mounted on a tripod.

Rethink Your Lash Look

- Check out those eyelashes on Astro one of the kangaroo mob at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk Virginia. I know many women would spend a fortune to get lashes that long and thick and these are wasted on a male kangaroo who doesn't even have a female roo to bat those lashes at. You see the mob at the zoo are all males, apparently its the only way to keep the peace. Canon 7D, 1/2500 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 200, zoom at 170mm focal length.

Emu Watching You

- Shelia the emu at the Virginia Zoo was real interested in our visit with the kangaroos yesterday. She followed us around the whole time and keep a close eye on all of the activity. I think she was really interested in my camera. They are know for their keen eyesight and hearing and for their curiosity. Canon 7D, 1/1600 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 200, 200mm focal length.

Roo is Cool

After a little hesitation my grandson Robert got into to feeding the kangaroos at the Virginia Zoo today. This is Beans who took a liking to Robert and his peanuts. Canon 7D, 1/2500 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 200, zoom at 123mm.

Model Railroader

Today we took my grandson shopping for his birthday at one of his favorite stores, Chuckatuck Collectibles in Suffolk, Virginia. He spent a lot of time operating the accessories on the Lionel train layout. Here he is intently watching the coal loader do its thing. Canon 40D, 1/25 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, 50mm prime lens.

Zombie Night!

Tonight was the Survive Norfolk Zombie Tag Game in the Ghent neighborhood. It was a social networking viral marketing sensation featured in USA Today and on the front page of the Virginian-Pilot, above the fold! I didn't make it down to take pictures tonight so I thought I'd share a picture from a zombie encounter I had last year at Zoo Boo at the Virginia Zoo. Canon 7D, 1/60 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 1600.