Monthly Archives: April 2012

GoPro, Just for fun

Running in Motion on the Soccer Field

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My son had an 8am soccer game Saturday, and since we finally made it 5 minutes early to a game, though everyone else was late, we had a few moments to kill. I whipped out my GoPro and had my son stand at one side of the field, about 10-15 feet in front of me. I set the camera to take a single photo every .5 seconds, and told him to start running.

Here is the result.

042812 Triple_Andrew

GoPro | Timed Photos – .5 Seconds

I took the three photos that had my son positioned right and merged them together using Photoshop. The thing I like most about the photo is the shadows that are evenly positioned in between each image of my son.

What’s your favorite part of the photo?

~signed, Carltonaut

Alphabet Photo Challenge

CTE Weekly Photo Challenge: Q is for Queen

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I had a lot of ideas for Q – Quench. Quilt. Quarter. Quick. Quote. But time kept getting the better of me, because I didn’t have a lot of time to really set something up. Nor did I see anything that screamed, “Photography me! I start with Q.”

One of my colleagues, Ingrid Rauter, who also does the CTE Weekly Photo Challenge, photographed a Quarry. We chatted for a bit about some option, and she mentioned Queen, as in a chess board piece. Well, I had a chess board my dad had made and thought I could take a great shot.

I started with my GoPro, placing it on the chess board and snapping a shot or two. I even added a black drape behind it to get rid of a busy background. I also tried some with my Canon 60D with two different lenses. But none of them had the setup I really wanted. Here’s the photo I settled on for the challenge.

042812 Queen_Chess

GoPro | Photo Setting

I think what would have helped would have been to find someone who would have played me in a game of chess, and then I could pause the game and photograph the setup every time I thought the Queen was in a good photographic setup. Alas, that didn’t happen, but I don’t expect to take a masterpiece in every single setup.

~signed, Carltonaut

Just for fun

Surrounded in AYSO Soccer

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If you read the title of this blog post, it may be a given which boy in the photo is mine. He is surrounded on three sides, all of them with the same goal – kick the soccer ball.

042412 Surrounded Soccer

Canon 60D | 55-200mm lens | 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 100

My son plays AYSO soccer, and even though he whines about going to practice and even playing the games, he does a respectable job of playing. Saturday’s game was a good one for him. After sitting out the first quarter, he played offensive for the next two quarters before finishing up as a defender. His team one, and I was proud of the effort he put into the game.

Now if I could only get him to be happy about it and stop whining!

~signed, Carltonaut

Travel

Sharing a Photo in Honor of Earth Day

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Today’s Earth Day. It seems like I was an avid landscape photographer before starting my blog and pushing myself to try new things, so I didn’t have any recent nature shots. I decided to go through the archives to see what photo I could find that showed the beauty of the Earth.

Board walk through the grass

Canon Digital Rebel XT

During a family trip to Waterton National Park in Canada a few years ago, my wife and I took a hike into British Columbia. This was part of the trail – a wooden boardwalk placed over a wetland area. I thought it made a great photo, and it reminds me of all the beauty that we saw up there – including the wildlife.

It was a great vacation, and one I would definitley do again.

~signed, Carltonaut

HDR, WordPress Photo Challenge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Sun

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I usually don’t capture the photo challenge so quickly once it’s announced, but yesterday was a beautiful sunny day at work. When I got back to Intermountain Medical Center from a lunch meeting, I figured the sun and building would make a great composition, so I set up the shot.

However, I know that photographing the sun can cause havoc on proper lighting in a photo, so I figured I would go for the HDR setup again. I leaned up against my car so the camera would be still enough to grab three identical images, then processed it using Photomatix Essentials. I was really pleased with the outcome.

042012 Sun at IMC - HDR

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/640 | f/14 | ISO 100 | HDR
Exposure Compensation -2 | 1/1250 | f/20
Exposure Compensation +2 | 1/320 | f/10

Is it bad for a camera sensor to be exposed to directly to the sun? I’ve seen many photos of the sun, but if it can ruin a camera sensor by doing it, I think I’ll avoid it in the future. I know that astronauts on the moon had to be careful, because pointing their camera at the sun from the moon, or even space, could fry a sensor. But, I guess there is no atmosphere on the moon, so…

~signed, Carltonaut

HDR, Travel

HDR in Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

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During our weekend trip to St. George, we spent Saturday indoors because it was cold and rainy; even terrential at times. But on Sunday before heading back home, the rain stopped and the temperature was just right for a hike in Snow Canyon State Park. It was a beautiful day, and I thought I would try taking some HDR photos.

So at various points along the trail, I would stop, adjust the exposure stops to -2 and +2, hold the camera really steady, and snap the three pictures needed to later compile an HDR photo. While not all of them came out good, here are the two that I thought came out best.

041512 Snow Canyon HDR1

041512 Snow Canyon HDR2

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | Bracketed Exposure -2, 0, +2 | Photomatix Essentials

If you’ve ever been to Snow Canyon State Park in St. George, which trail is your favorite? We despise the Three Ponds trail. Hiking through sand to see what ended up being Three mud puddles was not worth the effort. But the scenery along the trail was nice. :-)

~signed, Carltonaut

Just for fun, Travel

Skywalker lounges in Tatooine

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I must give full credit to my 9-year-old son for this photo. He knew we were taking a trip to southern Utah and decided to build a Lego lounge chair, table and beverage for his little Luke Skywalker Lego guy to enjoy on the red sands of Snow Canyon State Park. He set up the scene and had me shoot it. What do you think?

041512 Skywalker Lounge 2

Canon 60D | 55-200mm lens | 1/250 | f/10 | ISO 100 | Speedlite 430EX II

Once he had the scene set, I hooked up my flash and shot away. I used my zoom lens, mainly just to use it so I didn’t feel like it was wasting space in my camera bag. I took photos from a few different angles, but then my son decided to make the drink look like it was coming off the table and that Luke was using the Force to get the drink in-hand.

So, full credit to my son for this creative Lego shot.

~signed, Carltonaut

GoPro, People, WordPress Photo Challenge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Two Subjects

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When I saw the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge topic for this week, I was determined to capture it while on vacation. So when we swung by the pool, I whipped out my GoPro and shot some underwater shots. The two subjects in this photo come from one person – my 3-year-old son’s two feet.

041412 Two Feet in the Pool

GoPro | 11mp photo setting | 1 photo every two seconds

I simply set the camera to take a photo every two seconds, then followed my son walking through a shallow area of the pool. He was clueless about me taking photos, so I guess this is more of a candid shot!

~signed, Carltonaut

GoPro, Just for fun, People, Travel

Waterslide Compilation with the GoPro

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Last month I got a GoPro HD Hero 2 for my birthday. It wasn’t until today that I was able to test it. We went to St. George for a family vacation and I was very excited to hang out in the pool with my kids and test my GoPro. But the 44-degree temperature and the continuous rain, the hotel pool wasn’t an option.

So we headed to the Washington City Community Center and hung out in their aquatic center for a few hours. It made me nervous to have the camera in the water, but once I got over that, I tested out various modes and settings – all in preparation for my wife and my trip to Hawaii next month.

The WCCC had a large water slide, but my daughter was pretty nervous to ride it. We went up to the top, and had to take the walk-of-shame back down when she changed her mind. But a little later, she wanted to try again. So up we went – and this time, it was a go. You can watch the video on my Facebook page.

The next time we went down the waterslide, I set my GoPro to take 1 photo every 2 seconds. So from the top to the bottom, we ended up with 20 photos that fit nicely into this compilation.

041412 Waterslide Compilation

GoPro | 11mp setting | Photo every 2 seconds

Needless to say, we all had a lot of fun, and the waterslide was everyone’s favorite part.

~signed, Carltonaut

Alphabet Photo Challenge

CTE Weekly Photo Challenge: O is for Overflow

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My mind was drawing a blank earlier in the week for this week’s letter – O. I just couldn’t think of anything, so I whipped out the Thesaurus on Tuesday night, searching for ideas. When I saw my word, I began envisioning how I would accomplish this. My end result is pretty close to what I envisioned, but with less Oreo showing.

041212 Overflow r1

Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/250 | f/5.6 | ISO 400 | Speedlite 430EX II 

I set my cup on a baking sheet so I didn’t make as big of a mess on my kitchen counter. I also placed a black cloth over the oven and cupboards because I didn’t want too much additional noise in the background. I mounted the camera to the tripod, added my Canon Speedlite430EX II flash.

Using my shutter release cable, I stood ready, Oreo positioned above the cup filled with milk… ready to drop. My timing was a little off on some of the shots, so I had a good variety of splashes. You can check out my photo outtakes in my Facebook photo album.

And if you must know… I did eat an Oreo or two after I had used it for it’s intended purpose. I even drank a little milk from the cup before cleaning splashed milk up a five-foot diameter area of our kitchen (floor, counters and cupboards).

~signed, Carltonaut