ice

Last night we had an “Ice Warning”, and so I was getting excited about going out and photographing the effects of it, sadly it didn’t turn out to be as drastic as I wanted for photography…I bet people traveling are grateful though. Anyway, because it is just around the freezing temp outside (that feels warm to us now, sad) the snow on the balcony above us melts and drips down to us, then freezes on our balcony. So I just had to get out there, right? (I don’t use my macro lens as much as I used to but I sure love having it around for stuff like this.)

to busy for fun

Sorry, no posts lately…I have been working towards Urbana 09.

We had a really good snow fall last week (18 inches, and heavy!) that I really wanted to go out in, but I went into work anyway.


Walking home at night was fun though, it was like the sky was glowing with the combination of cloud cover and so much white everywhere.

I actually have a day off today before we leave for St Louis on Christmas, so I went hiking in the snow.

Hope to see some of you at the conference…well maybe, if they let me out of video land.
More after Urbana I hope.

how to make Christmas cookies

Over the weekend, Sarah and I got invited over to some friend’s house to make Christmas cookies...although, I think "eating the cookies while making them" is a better description of what we did.

my uncle richard

I haven’t seen my Uncle Richard in about 11 years, so when I get a call from his saying he is driving through town I of course have to run out and meet up with him…and why not take his photo too, right?
For those still on the fence about flash photography, below is my test shot without flash, above adds a simple off-camera TTL shot through an umbrella, camera right. Even with the best cameras out there that can see in the dark (making quantity of light less of an issue) quality of light is still important.

thanksgiving 2009

Since Sarah and I moved to Wisconsin 3 years ago, we have not made it back for the holidays yet. This would have been our 4th Thanksgiving away from family, but we couldn’t have had that, so we trekked out to Cali. We decided to try out LA’s public transit, and after we figured out the correct bus and train combination, it was quite enjoyable…and not sitting in traffic made us want to try it again. It doesn’t help that my mom works at the train station we pulled into. As always, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf’s Pomegranate Blueberry Tea Latte is always a draw for Sarah.


Our 1st thanksgiving was at my parents. Great to see the folks, eat pie (my first actually, I have always been allergic) cook with my older brother (sorry no photo, I was chippin’ away), and see grandma.


Our 2nd thanksgiving was down in San Diego area, met my cousin’s baby, ate Tur-Qua-Sant (turkey/quail/pheasant…really good actually) and watched the sunset over the Pacific.


Our 3rd thanksgiving had us at Sarah’s parents. Here we had a rest from Turkey and ate tri-tip; for those that don’t know about California’s perfect cut of steak you are missing out. Oh and we set up for Christmas since all the “kids” were in town and technically it was the start of the Christmas season.

more Christiana

This weekend was Kat’s B-day…so more opportunity for Christiana pictures! I could waste an entire 8-gig card on this kid. I think she is starting to get used to me though, she sure ignored me quite a bit when I was taking her pictures.

selling my backup Nikon D200

I am selling my backup camera, a Nikon D200 and MB-D200 vertical grip for $700.

I have had two-Nikon D200’s for a couple years now, but I no longer need two, so I am selling my backup. I have only used this camera occasionally at weddings as a secondary camera and have stayed intentional about only using my primary D200 whenever possible; therefore this is the nicer and “newer” of my two cameras…although you can only tell that by looking at the outside, image quality is just the same.

Thom Hogan has reviewed this camera as “the average persons D2x.” the D2x being the Nikon flagship camera at the time.

www.dpreview.com states, “From a design, build, features and performance point of view this camera really creates its own niche, it would be a pity to label it as 'semi-pro' because in use you soon realize that it's a professional camera. Which brings us to the competition, from a build/features point of view it's clearly ahead of the Canon EOS 20D/30D and in my opinion a step above the EOS 5D, a baby D2X.”

And that is why I got it…but now I don’t need it…you want it? I wanted to post this offer here before I send it out to other sellers; like e-bay or a camera store.

Everything that came with the camera is still in its original packaging, never opened…except the camera and battery. Only a couple minor scratches are visible on the bottom corners, normal wear. The MB-D200 battery grip is also in its original box; this vertical grip adds a second battery option as well as a vertical shutter and other controls for easier portraits. Neither of my D200’s ever had any of the “banding” issues that some of the early samples contained.

Most of the images on my blog are from a D200, gives you an idea of its possibilities…limited by me of course.

e-mail me:
fingerprintphoto@gmail.com

tina's baby...oh and her family too

Tina (first met her at this wedding) is pregnant, so she wanted some pre and post baby pictures; so a couple weekends ago we did the before pictures. It was fun for two reasons: 1) I have never done this, and 2) Ruthie thought the photos were about her. Well it was also fun because of how much the fun the people were but I always like little kids that want to be photographed, they seem to radiate somehow. Looking forward to the baby for the next session!