I Work In Pixels

This is a test page for AJ. The video should appear below if this works.

Here’s some stuff from a while back that I recently found sitting on my hard drive. More to come once I find more to post.
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Those of you who have been visiting my site previously will know that things have been different lately. No more posts every week. Fewer photos. Well, you’re not hallucinating. This blog is changing.

With everything that’s on my plate right now, I haven’t had enough time to take enough pictures to make sure of having 7 good ones every week. So, rather than start putting out crappy pictures, I’ve decided to restructure the blog. I’ll be posting whenever there are more good pictures to show, and the format will be a lot less rigid. I’ll still be selling my photography, but probably through an online printer instead of directly from my site. Prices will therefore vary, since I will no longer have to include shipping or materials in the price.

I hope you all enjoy the new format, and I look forward to posting more high quality photos for you in the near future.

Sorry for the wait on more pictures, folks.  Amber’s family was in town and we spent the weekend with them. I took a bunch of pictures of stuff while we were out (some of which will end up in this week’s post), but there weren’t enough good quality pictures to post.  Anyway, here’s what’s happened lately.

8/4/07

Last Saturday, Amber’s family and I went to the Wonders of Wildlife museum while they were in town. There was a lot to see there, and plenty to take pictures of, but unfortunately most of them didn’t come out. Here’s three of them that did:

There was a big plastic snake in the lobby for kids to have their picture taken on. Right before we got up the stairs there was a group of kids really abusing it, but it took the abuse with the kind of heroic stoicism that only a giant plastic snake is capable of.

There’s also a giant metal cutout of a trout bolted to the wall right after the first giant fish tank… and it’s got the coolest texture I’ve ever seen on a giant metal cutout of a trout…

An anemone towards the end of the exhibit caught my eye: I really miss living near the ocean, and I remember when I was a kid I’d have hours of fun poking the anemones in the tide pools in Pacific City, OR. If you ever get a chance, go visit the Oregon coast: it’s beautiful out there.

And finally, a waterfall in the main Outdoor World building. This was a 1/2 second exposure taken without a tripod: I’m actually pretty impressed I was able to keep the camera that still.

8/11/07

Yesterday Amber and I spent most of the day taking pictures around various parts of town. I visited the corner of National and Chestnut again, and Commercial Street. I wasn’t disappointed. Here’s what I found:

A fire hydrant proudly guards the abandoned buildings behind Kum N Go and the Too Hotties shopping center.

The bridge over the train yard gleams in the sun.

And finally, the sunflowers are in bloom all over Commercial Street. If you can stand the heat, I suggest you get down there soon. It’s a great place to take a walk.

Well, that’s it for this time.  See you soon!

7/30/07

This week I went two places: an abandoned service station in Nixa, and the Nature Center. First stop was the service station, where I got some shots of some broken windows that didn’t quite come out, as well as this picture of the roof, which is my second favorite shot this week, I think because I’ve always liked the Dr Pepper logo…

And while I was there, I went inside and found a bird’s nest on top of an old power box.

I also got a picture of an old desk, but in retrospect I wish I had put something on the bottom shelf. It feels like there’s something missing in the bottom of the shot.

The next stop was the Nature center, where I once again failed to get all kinds of interesting wildlife shots because I don’t have a telephoto lens. I’m saving some money to get one, though, so next time you see anything from the Nature Center, it’ll be cardinals and squirrels and frogs, oh my! Anyway, the first thing that came out there was this tree stump, which had some really interesting wood grain.

Then, I went to the bridge, and got this wonderful picture which shows it winding into the background. I deliberately tried to make one side over-exposed and the other under-exposed with the bridge in the middle correctly exposed. I didn’t accomplish this as well as I would have liked, but I still like this picture.

And, while walking on that bridge, I happened to notice a frog sitting in the water, and I decided to try something I’ve seen before in other photographers’ work: the “Where’s Waldo?” shot. I need to work on the technique some more, but for some reason I still like the way the frog is hidden in plain sight right in the center of the photograph.

And, finally, my favorite shot this week. There is a big red and white reflective sign on the road in front of the Nature Center, and although I have absolutely no idea why it needs one, you can’t possibly miss this sign! And because it is so big, I was able to get this great abstract shot!

7/11/07

I started the week out with a picnic at Jordan Valley Park with my family. I attempted to get some shots of the fountain out there, but nothing really awe-inspiring came out at all. I got what would have been a really good shot of my niece, except it was about 4 stops underexposed. Note to self: when you’re done taking pictures of fireworks, be sure to turn off any manual settings requiring at least 30 second exposures. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, I got skunked again the next day.

7/12/07

I went to the nature center to take pictures of wildlife, and boy did I see wildlife! Around the first bend on the trail there were 3 deer standing right next to the trail just staring at me. But that’s normal. What happened next was really weird.

Down by the creek bed I saw a tree standing about 30 feet from a fallen log. On the tree was a squirrel, and on the log was a beautiful owl. And they were yelling at each other. The squirrel would let out a defiant shriek (I’m sure it was squirrel for “You dirty rat… you killed my brother!”) and the owl would shriek back. This process repeated for about 20 seconds before the initial shock of witnessing a conversation between a squirrel and an owl wore off enough for me to realize that I had a camera in my hands.

I moved slowly so as not to spook the owl, who was by then staring at me and wondering what the heck I was up to. I carefully set up my tripod, placed my camera on top, and focused on the owl. I double checked that the internal flash wouldn’t spring up and ruin everything. I placed my index finger on the shutter release. This whole process took about a minute, during which time the owl didn’t move a muscle.

But as soon as I reached for the shutter release the owl sensed that I was now prepared to take a picture of him, and flew off. He landed about a hundred yards up the trail, and on a branch that was about 40 feet high. If I had a telephoto lens, he still would have been mine. But, unfortunately, all of the pictures you will see here on iworkinpixels.com were taken with the stock 18-55mm lens that comes with the Canon XT. I took a few pictures, but the owl ended up being a tiny dot in a great big forest.

So, having been cheated twice by mother nature, I decided to try something a little bit different. I got out the light tent! I like taking household objects and looking at them in a new way, so I thought I’d start week 2 out with a portrait of a killer robot (or MiniDV tape, whichever you prefer).

I followed that up with some color, in the form of some decorative glasses that Amber has in our kitchen.

I took some other pictures with the light tent, but none as good as these two. I enjoyed shooting in the light tent, though, so I’ll probably revisit it later on in the project.

7/15/07

I spent most of the day today traveling around downtown looking for old things. I found lots of them, and in keeping with the old things theme, I’m presenting most of these in black and white. The one of paint peeling I left in color because the streaks on the wood and the yellowing of the paint around where it has cracked give it character.

This one, of a door handle on an abandoned business downtown, is my favorite of Week 2. I like the composition of this shot, and in the full size version the detail in the paint and on the screen is incredible.

It’s a well known fact that rusted out vehicles are among the most photogenic objects in existance. They’re just way too much fun to take pictures of! These are sitting at an abandoned service station on Commercial and National.

And, finally, what collection of old stuff would be complete without a brick building, covered in ivy, with broken out windows? Don’t worry, folks… this one’s got it all. It’s one of the old buildings on the corner of National and Chestnut, and that area is chock full of good stuff to take pictures of. You’ll be seeing more of it in future weeks!

Well, that’s it for this week. If you know of any good spots in Springfield, email me and I’ll check it out. This town’s full of great things to take pictures of! Keep those emails coming, and I’ll see you soon!

This is the beginning of a year’s worth of photos! I’ve been looking forward to starting this project for a long time, so it’s great to finally get a chance to get the ball rolling on this thing!

7/01/07

On the first of the month, Amber and I went to Nathaniel Greene park to take some pictures of the flowers. While we were there, I also snagged a picture of the statue of Artemis that they have in the garden there. We left soon after because the tornado sirens were going off, but nothing came of it. We didn’t even get any rain.

That night we went to see Firefall, but instead of paying to get in, we parked our car at the head of the bike trail and walked about 2 miles in to see it! I think we actually got a better show than the people who paid to get in, because we were a lot closer to the action than they were. In the middle of the show, I managed to snap this great shot. I like this one the best out of this week’s images.

7/04/07

When I got off work on the Fourth, Amber and I took one of her clients to the park and then to an Independence Day celebration… I grabbed my camera and tripod, and we headed out the door.

We went to the park first, where I got some pictures of a purple flower that I cannot seem to identify (any help would be appreciated). Camera was hand-held, lens at 55mm, 1/160s at F/8. I was trying to reduce the depth of field as much as possible, so I got up real close and ended up with the following shot:

Then we were off to see the fireworks. We sat down with some friends of mine and took pictures of each other, the sky, the stage, and some random people while we were waiting for the fireworks show to begin. When it finally did, I had my tripod up, my camera on bulb, shutter release in my hand, and I was ready! Unfortunately, at several points throughout the show there were large concussion fireworks which were powerful enough to knock my camera out of focus. I lost a few shots that otherwise would have been great, but there were still a few keepers in there:

7/08/07

Amber and I went bike riding around Springfield today to test out the bikes we got yesterday. And because anything worth doing is worth overdoing, we rode about 8 or 9 miles, from Sequiota down to Highland Springs and back. We’re both incredibly sore, but we both made it and the bikes are turning out to be a good investment. I’ve always been fascinated by gears and when we were about to take the bikes off of the back of our car I noticed the bike rack made for an interesting composition, so I snapped the following shot before our epic ride.