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.