TIRED TIGER

It’s Day 3 of Animal Week.  This poor little fella must have been exhausted because all he did was sleep the entire time I spent with him.  I don’t know why I called him a “poor little fella”.  Chances are that if he were awake, he would have mauled my face like a pizza shredder.  Thankfully I had a nice thick piece of plexiglass between us.  Seriously though, this is a beautiful creature.  The size and the colors are amazing.  If you ever get a chance to ride see one up close, you will not be disappointed.

Nikon D5000, 18-105mm @ 105mm, f/5.6, 1/30sec, ISO 280 

LONELY POLAR BEAR

It’s day 2 of Animal Week. Today we have a personal friend of mine, the Polar Bear! I’ve always had a thing for polar bears. They seem so warm and friendly, but you have to remember that they are still bears. One thing you just can’t comprehend until you see one in person is the size. This guy was huge!

I like this image because even though it was taken at a zoo, it still remains a cold image. The colors tones are cold. Plus the fact that he looks so lonely is also cold (in another sense). I look at him and believe he is wondering, “Why am I here?” I think the mind processes all of that and links it all together.

Nikon D5000, 18-105mm @ 70mm, f/5.6, 1/90, ISO 200

COMO PARK ZOO

This week’s theme is animals.  I recently returned from visiting family in Minnesota.  One of the stops during our trip was the Como Park Zoo & Observatory.  I am really glad we got a chance to go.  There are so many great Zoos in the NJ/NY area, but I never make time to get there.  So this was really my first time visiting a “real” zoo.  I had as much fun as my young nieces & nephews!

I took many pictures.  Most of them were through the plexi-glass of the exhibits so a lot of the images had reflections and other distractions and were pretty much useless.  However I was surprised to find that a handful of images did come out clear.  I will be sharing those images with you all week!

The picture above is of The Sunken Gardens building.  This is part of the floral gardens exhibit.  It is located at the entrance of the park and there is no missing it.  Unfortunately we did not get to take part of that tour.

• Nikon D5000, f/8, 1/2000, ISO 400
• Nikon 18-35mm @ 18mm
• Post processing via Nik Software’s SNAPSEED for iPad

STRUMMIN’

Today we have “Strummin” (Sorry, I ran out of “up” phrases)

• Location: Jamians in Red Bank
• This was the first time I had shot Kaotic Control.  I completely overestimated the venue and completely had the wrong gear.  I had rented the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens for this shoot.  It was complete overkill.  I was getting nostril shots all night.  This was before I owned my trusty 35mm f/1.8.  So I had to make something happen.  I came away from the show with a few good images.  This is one of my favs.  It is not tack sharp and the more I look at it, the more I like that it’s a tad out of focus.  Maybe that gives it a sense of movement, or maybe there is a bit of old school grain, or maybe it has something to do with that ring.  I just can’t place it, but I like this image more and more every time I look at it.
• Nikon D5000 | 70-200mm f/2.8 | San Disk Ultra Memory Card

STRUNG UP

Today we have “Strung Up”

• Location: Cooney’s in Old Bridge, NJ
• This was another “lean over the wall and see what you can get” kind of shots.  I really got lucky with the AF of the camera picking decent spot to settle on.  The composition isn’t awesome, but it’s off center enough to get your eye moving through the picture.  This is also a benefit of the 35mm f/1.8.  I shot the first set with the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 (which I rented specifically for this show) and it was not getting the job done.  The bar was lit with….well it might as well have been nothing.  Having the 35mm f/1.8 in my bag really saved my bacon on this one.
• Nikon D5000 | 35mm f/1.8 | San Disk Ultra Memory Card

MIC’D UP

Today we have “Mic’d Up”

• Location: Bart’s in Matawan, NJ
• I think this one is pretty cool.  The Bokeh from the f1/8 aperture is insane. Sure you could tell that those are lights in the background, but you could never tell that they were Christmas lights that were hanging above the bar.  Go from that to the incredible detail of the microphone.  That little 35mm f/1.8 is a killer lens for $200!  If you read Monday’s post, this image was taken about 2 minutes after that one.
• Nikon D5000 | 35mm f/1.8 | San Disk Ultra Memory Card

WIRED UP

Today we have “Wired Up”

• Location: Cooney’s in Old Bridge, NJ
• This again was taken on one of the band’s breaks that night.  It was only the second time I had shot the band.  I wasn’t fully comfortable with entering the performance area to take pictures.  Luckily this Bass was set down close to the wall where I could lean my camera over and take pictures of it.  After I was done grabbing my couple of shots, the Bassist, Mike, came over and asked if I wanted to come over to get a better angle of the instruments.  From that point on I knew it was now OK to take images of the gear.  Cool moment for me!
• Nikon D5000 | 35mm f/1.8 | San Disk Ultra Memory Card

AMP’D UP

I decided to go through my previous Kaotic Control shoots.  I knew I had a bunch of instrument pictures from those shows that were never processed.  I finally had some time to go through them.  I forgot just how cool some of them were.  I picked out my top 5 pictures and will be posting one each day this week on the blog with a little background about the show the picture was shot from.

Today’s Picture is “Amp’d Up”

• Location: Bart’s in Matawan, NJ
• This was shot during the first of two breaks in their performance that night.  Having worked with the band a few times prior to this gig, I had gained their trust and they allowed me to wonder through the performance area to get pictures during the break.
• Nikon D5000 | 35mm f/1.8 | San Disk Ultra Memory Card

I GOT YOUR BACK

Although my specialties are Sports, Music, and Landscapes, I recently have been challenging myself to look at photography in different ways.  Maybe try new techniques or perhaps short differently on subjects than I normally would.  This chair is a great example.  I would usually make sure that the entire chair back was in the frame and try to fill that frame.  I would end up with a nice picture of a chair back.  The problem is that everyone else can easily end up with the same image.  That does me no good in a world where we try to stand out from others with our photography.  I’m not saying the image is the greatest chair back picture ever.  It is however, different than most.

1.21 GIGAWATTS!

I went outside late Friday night to work on some night photography.  I was doing the typical “get the moon” type of shots.  I worked on getting the camera high and getting the camera low. I played around with f-stops an shutter speeds.  As I was almost falling asleep during one of my long exposures, I heard a loud electrical charge and bang!  That was then followed by a shrieking noise.  Then out of nowhere there was this blazing light that flew past me.  As quickly as this all happened, it was just as quickly gone.  By the time I gathered myself I said, “What the heck was that?!”  I thought, “UFO”?  Maybe (I never rule those out).  I continued to dwell on this.  After some more thought it hit me!  It was Doc Brown’s Delorean. The charge, the bang, the swoosh, it all added up.  He must have typed in “Hillsborough” instead of “Hilldale” in his coordinates.  It all makes sense now.  Though I do wish he would’ve stopped so I could’ve asked him about the intricacies of the Flux Capacitor