New Pez!

- As regular followers of my blog know, I collect PEZ dispensers. Since I have several hundred it is a rare treat to get a new one, especially when its a gift. My grandson Robert brought me this new style Disney Dalmatian dispenser last week. So this picture and blog post is a big thank to Robert for expanding grandpa's wall of PEZ. He and I have a good arrangement, I get the PEZ dispensers he gets the PEZ candy.

This photo is a good example of shallow depth of field and bokeh. You will notice that his nose and right eye are in sharp focus at f/4.0 but the left eye which is just a few millimeters farther away is beginning to fall out of the shallow field of sharp focus. The background is completely out of focus with the soft highlights known as bokeh. Canon 40D, 1/50 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens, room light.

Ice Cold Tea

- A glass of ice cold tea a southern tradition. We had dinner tonight at the No Frill Grill in Norfolk, Virginia and sat on the open patio. It was a glorious evening and the late afternoon sun was nicely illuminating Cindy's ice tea. She was kind of enough to wait for me to take the picture, actually five, before having a drink. I really appreciate the way she suffers for my art. Droid X camera phone in macro mode, no flash.

120 Collage

It's day 120 for my 2011 365 Project. So today's picture is a collage of the first 119 pictures taken. I'm about one-third done with this year's project. Since I started in 2009, I've complete 850 daily posts each with a different photo with most taken on the same day. I hope you've been enjoying these past 850 days on CIOPhoto.com. This project was done with Shape Collage Pro version 2.5 software.

Sandbox

Our grandson Robert is spending the day and night with us. He spent much of the day outside enjoying the beautiful weather. The sandbox is always a hit and here he is feeding sand into two different spinner toys and yes that's spaghetti sauce from dinner on his face. Canon G11, 1/25 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 100

Charge!!

- The 18 volt power tool batteries are ready to charge into action. Canon 40D, 1/160 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens.

Under Pressure

As my current home renovation project continues and continues and continues, there's been little time for photography. So tonight I turned the camera on the project and the pressure to complete. This is my air compressor charged up to power the brad nail gun. A nail gun is a wonderful thing. Canon 40D, 1/200 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens, converted to black & white with highlight color.

Looking Down on Me

My PEZ collection always watches over me at my computer. This is part of a larger shelf with about 500 different PEZ's. Can you spot Popeye, Zoro, Elvis and the GEICO Gecko? This collection leaves just about everyone who sees it speechless. Canon 40D, 1/40 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 800, 50mm prime lens.