Monthly Archives: June 2012

WordPress Photo Challenge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Create

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I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do to meet this week’s photo challenge – Create – which is why I am a little late getting my photo posted.

My son is a BIG Lego fan, so I asked him to create something that I could photograph for the challenge. He created some mini figures creating the doors to what will eventually become a large castle. You’ve got the guy in the door using the jackhammer; the guy with the hammer on the right side; the guy doing cement work above the door; and the guy sanding the wall on the left. Quite the creation for a photo of Create.

062612 Lego Creation

Canon 60D | 50mm lens | 1/250 | f/4.0 | ISO 100 | Speedlite 430EX II Flash

My son did an awesome job helping me out with this week’s photo challenge, so the credit for this photo goes to him. You can check out another design he built and set up, then had me photograph during a family vacation in St. George – click here.

~signed, Carltonaut

GoPro, Just for fun

My GoPro + Golf Course = Creative Golfing Shots

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The other day, a few friends and I were supposed to meet at a local golf course to do a round of nine before work. Two of them were unable to make it last minute, so Marcus and I hit the links.

I brought my GoPro with me, along with my suction cup mount, and off we went. While I grabbed some video footage during some of our adventures (which you can watch here), I also shot some stills. Not just any still, but from the viewpoint of the hole.

061912 Jason golfball

I posted my favorite one above, but here are two others that you can check out. Which one do you like best?

061912 Marcus golfball

061912 Marcus Putt

061912 Golfball n Hole

One of the many nice things about the GoPro is it’s petite size. It allows it to fit in smaller places, get mounted on a wall without being in the way, and be easily carried from place to place. I’m not a salesman for GoPro, but I think it is one of my favorite pieces of camera equipment I have in my repertoire.

~signed, Carltonaut

Alphabet Photo Challenge, Just for fun

Food coloring and water – who knew?

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One of the many photo challenges I follow, and have been pretty good at contributing regularly, had the letter W for last week’s challenge. Even though my last post was the photo of my daughter on a watery slide, that wasn’t the real photo I wanted to share for the challenge, but time had gotten the better of me.

But I grabbed a little time last night and set up a little attempt to capture food coloring splashing into a glass vase filled with water (here’s the best outcome of that attempt). However, the lighting wasn’t the greatest, and I couldn’t get the outcome I had in mind. But when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. So here is the shot I ended up with, and was pretty content with the final outcome.

061012 FlowingBlue

Canon 60D | 55-200mm lens | Sadly, I don’t have the other details (I had to clear the card for another photo assignment for work and didn’t grab the other details before deleting)

That’s one of the things about photography – you can picture the photo in your mind, but for one reason or another it doesn’t come out the way you were hoping. But that just means you have to problem solve the issue, fix it, and try again. Which is exactly what I am going to do… eventually!

Some notes about the photo – I used a zoom lens to see how that would affect the lighting; the flash kept reflecting in the glass vase, so I stopped using it; I shot in raw so I could adjust WB afterward; I placed a white tissue-paper table cloth in the background so it wasn’t as distracting with kitchen cupboards.

~signed, Carltonaut

Alphabet Photo Challenge, GoPro

Alphabet Photo Challenge: W is for Watery Slide

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I had a really cool shot in mind for this week, using the word Water for W. However, it’s been a crazy week yet again, so I didn’t have the time to set up the shot and take it. But eventually I will, and I think the wait will be worth it.

Anyway, during a birthday party today for my niece, my daughter went on a trip down the watery slide (slip and slide). She was gracious enough to take the GoPro down with her; I’d set it to take a photo every .5 seconds and ended up with this one that was the best.

060912 W is for Waterslide

Did anyone else photograph something for the letter W this week? Now on to the Weekly Photo Challenge from WordPress – Friendship.

~signed, Carltonaut

Just for fun

Stories in honor of National Cancer Survivors Day

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Leo Carlton during his pilot training (roughly 1943).

In 1997, I lost my grandpa Carlton to leukemia. Since my aunts, uncles and grandma on my dad’s side keep telling me that I am his spitting image, I guess I have a special bond to him. In honor of tomorrow (June 3) being National Cancer Survivors Day, I wanted to write this post to honor him.

It wasn’t until two years ago when I dove head first into a history project for my grandpa. He was a B-24 co-pilot based in Cerignola, Italy with the 459th Bomb Group. During his 10th mission, his plane was damaged near Munich, Germany, and they tried to land in Switzerland. However, a dummy runway setup by the Germans served it’s purpose and their plane, the Cherry II, landed on the wrong side of the border. He and his crew were taken POWs.

His story is one that I am honored to have researched. His personality and attitude toward his very hard circumstances, I feel, are what got him through this fight with cancer. Thought he lost his war in the end, he fought numerous battles – won a few and lost a few.

I write this post in honor of him, and all other cancer survivors. If you, or someone you know is a cancer survivor, click here and take a moment to honor all cancer survivors by writing your (or their) story. This Facebook app allows you to read the stories, share your own, and find hope. You won’t regret it.

~signed, Carltonaut

Just for fun, WordPress Photo Challenge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Today

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When I saw the email about this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, I thought the write-up about it makes a great point on photo challenge submissions. I have a pet peeve about that, which I will most likely elaborate on in future post. But for now, I’ll share the photo I shot and am submitting to the photo challenge.

060112 Today photo challenge

I was in a meeting and didn’t have my camera on me when I saw the post. Then it was one of those CrAzY Fridays at work where you’re frantically trying to get stuff done so you don’t have to bring work home with you over the weekend. (Which probably means I shouldn’t be taking the time to write this blog post, but I was eager to get my photo up).

At about 1:30, when I finally decided that I better grab some lunch, since I skipped breakfast and didn’t want to get sick before dinner, I headed out to grab some food. I decided to bring my trusty GoPro along to get a shot that I’ve been thinking of taking for a few weeks now. Carpe Diem!

I put back the sunroof, set the camera to take one photo every .5 seconds, and held it outside of the car. I didn’t expect to get so much of a reflection in the windshield, but I liked the final result. One that I really liked was of a cross walk directly in front of the car, and perfectly reflected in the windshield, but the camera was off-kilter (that’s what happens when you’re driving and photographing at the same time).

So that’s my shot. I’ll rant about my photo challenge submission pet peeves later!

~signed, Carltonaut