My son is a Lego builder and I am a photographer. So when we mix the two together, we end up with photos like this.
Mom and dad Lego are enjoying some time on the family couch reading Junior a book. I know that for me and my family, we enjoy moments very similar to this and have a bazillion books throughout the house. Family story time is a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. 
~signed, Carltonaut
If I admit that I got this idea off of Pinterest, does that mean I lose my “Man Card”? But as a dad, I couldn’t resist the opportunity of capturing my young daughter in my wife’s wedding dress, with the idea of displaying it at her wedding when she turns 30 (Hey, a dad can hope, right?)
After rummaging through our closet to dig out my wife’s gorgeous wedding dress, I maneuvered my 6-year-old daughter into the dress. Obviously it was a little big for her, and the gown has a lot of fluff in the skirt, so I didn’t want my daughter to get lost in the poofyness.
She was a good sport, though she kept complaining about the dress being pretty itchy. I tried a couple of cutesie ones, then tried my hand at a few artistic ones. Here is my favorite photo from the whole shoot.
Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/60 | f/4.0 | ISO 200 | Canon Speedlite 430 EXII
You are welcome to check out the Bridezilla shot I captured, or some of the other ones from the shoot.
As for lighting for this shoot, I turned out all the lights in the house, allowing the daylight in from the windows to serve as the natural light. I used a Flashmate LED video light from GiSTEQ placed behind my daughter to serve as a fill light, the the Canon Speedlight 430 EXII mounted to the camera to provide the front lighting source. I am still a novice when it comes to figuring out lighting, but I learn by playing.
I invite others to try this same concept, and since you’ve seen it on a blog and not on Pinterest, you hopefully won’t lose your Man Card like I just did.
~signed, Carltonaut
Last week, I had the privilege of observing a memorial service at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah. As part of the service, attendees were invited to take a piece of ribbon, write the name of a deceased loved one on it, and add it to a wreath of remembrance.
As the social media specialist for the hospital, I decided to take a photo of the wreath and share it on the hospital’s Facebook page. But I liked the photo and thought I would share it with all of you to help recognize Memorial Day and honor all of those who have gone before us, and the military men and women who have served or continue to serve.
I took this photo using a 50mm lens with a wide aperture to help the wreath pop more from the background. I used a Canon Speedlite 430 EXII, bouncing the light off the ceiling to help illuminate the wreath, too. All in all, I really like how the photo turned out and was glad I was able to use my photography skills to capture something that honors those who have gone before us.
~signed, Carltonaut
Aloha! Yesterday was a long day – 28 hours in fact. That’s what happens when you hop on an airplane in Salt Lake City and head west, all the way to the Hawaiian island of Maui. When we arrived at our hotel, it was only 9:20 pm (Maui time). To us Utahns, it felt like 1:20 a.m. the following day. We were exhausted.
But with the Super Moon in the sky, the palm trees and foliage surrounding me, and my camera in hand, I put my wife to bed and headed out to grab some photos of the Super Moon.
Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 1/60 | f/22 | ISO 800 | Speedlite 430EX II Flash
The first few photos I snapped had too much glare and reflection in the lens itself, so I added my 67mm circular polarized filter to my lens before shooting any more. That helped immensely.
I didn’t want to bother with the tripod, so that created a few challenges as well. I was hoping to get some bracketed photos I could use for some HDR processing later, but I couldn’t hold the camera still enough, and the stark contrast between the brightness of the moon in the distance and the unlit foliage in the foreground, it just wasn’t happening. The palm trees were way too tall for my flash to light them up enough, so I found this other type of tree to use in the photo.
I did end up switching to manual mode for these photos, which offered me a lot more control of what I wanted to see in the photo. The details of the moon and the foliage. When I first shot this scene, my aperture was f/5.6, which made the tree really out of focus. While I liked that effect, I opted to use the one with the tree in focus instead. It just allowed more detail, without detracting from the Super Moon itself.
Regardless, it was a fun, though frustrating, image to capture, but I am pleased with the final results. I did end up doing a little Levels adjustments in Photoshop to help brighten up some of the areas that were a little dark, and I think shooting in RAW would have allowed me to produce a better photo, but again, I am pleased with how this one turned out.
Many more photos to come, I’m sure of it!
~signed, Carltonaut
This isn’t a great photo, but I look at it as the calm before the storm. This is the ride that is going to take my wife and I to Maui in a few moments (yes, I am writing this blog post while sitting in the SEA-TAC airport). We’re celebrating 10 years of marriage. Can you believe she’s put up with me for that long! She’s amazing!
Once we arrive, I am sure to be taking a lot of photos. They won’t all be shared during the trip – only when I have wifi and want to take the time out of my vacation to write a post or share a photo.
I invite you to follow me on Flickr, as I may have more success at adding the best photos to Flickr, and then when I return, I will try to write a little more about the photos, how I shot them, my thoughts behind them and the camera settings for any desired effects.
I’ll probably be uploading video to my YouTube channel, too, but I haven’t used that channel is so long, that I’ll need to look at it a little further before providing a link.
Between my GoPro (and numerous mounts and an extra battery pack) and my Canon 60D (plus my tripod, multiple lenses, Speedlite 430 EXII flash, monopod and multiple camera cards) I am bound to take A LOT of photos. Be ready!
~signed, Carltonaut
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?
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
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.
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
I really wish I could do night photography better. Mostly, I am constrained by life. In order to truly get the star photographs I want, I need to go out into the middle of nowhere and spend a few nights, sleeping during the day. But the other joys of life (i.e., family, work and responsibilities) keep me busy for the time being.
So for now, I settle into my backyard wearing pajamas and flip flops and freeze my little toes off trying new things. Could I have done it better? Probably. Would I have lost my toes to frostbite? Very likely!
Anyhow, here’s the photo. Can you tell which constellation it is?
Canon 60D | 18-135mm lens | 30″ | f/4.0 | ISO 100 | Manual Mode
It was a full moon out tonight, so that celestial object was enough light pollution to wipe out my vision of the stars through the view finder, meaning I had to guesstimate and take a few ”alignment” shots. I initially set my camera ISO to 3200, but I didn’t like how washed out it made everything, though I will admit it picked up more stars – but the sky was gray rather than black.
I gradually decreased my ISO to 100 and made shutter speed and aperture changes until I got it generally how I wanted. But the tree looked gross. It was more of a bright orange yellow, which isn’t the actual color of the tree. So, to the chagrin of my neighbors (but they didn’t holler any obscenities over the fence), I grabbed my Canon Speedlite 430EX II flash and held it at many different angles, flashing probably 12-15 times in various spots, ranging from 10 feet to the left of the camera, and 10 feet to the right – all done in the 30-second exposure. During one exposure, I took the flash to the backside of the tree, but the tree turned a deep red (I’m guess that’s because it was in the shadow of the flash) and that is even farther from how I wanted it to look.
In the end, I used the photo with the flashes in the front, then made it black & white, added my signature, and uploaded it to my Flickr page.
I would love to try this again, even if it is from my backyard. But I will need to make sure it’s clear skies, no moon, and everyone in Davis County shuts off their lights so I can get my shot. That’s not too much to ask, right?
Oh, and if you didn’t catch it, the answer is Ursa Major (a.k.a. Big Dipper).
~signed, Carltonaut
Having lost my NCAA bracket miserably, a colleague and I have challenged two others to a game of basketball, hoping to reclaim some basketball prowess by beating them miserably. However, I haven’t actually played basketball in a long time, so I thought I would practice in my driveway tonight while my kids rode their scooters.
However, when I saw the moon growing brighter in the sky as the sun set below the horizon, I couldn’t help but grab my Canon 60D and snap a few shots through a leafing tree on the side of my house. I tried a couple of different angles, but I found this angle to be the best.
Canon 60D | 55-200mm lens | 1/160 | f/18 | Exposure Compensation -1 1/3 | ISO 400
I needed to find a way to light up the tree leaves, so I mounted my Canon Speedlite 430EX II flash and shot a few more shots. I think my battery was low, because it took forever for my flash to recharge itself. I also had to adjust the exposure compensation a little lower so the colors looked more vibrant and less washed out.
So after lining up the moon a few more times in the center of this clearing in the tree, I was satisfied and headed inside to take a look at the spoils. That photo above is the result. What do you think?
I took another great photo of a blossoming tree at work earlier today, too. But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to check out that one.
~signed, Carltonaut
The weekly photo challenge – arranged – offers itself to so many possibilities. At first, I arranged some empty Jones soda bottles and took a dozen photos of them. But when my kids decided they wanted to pull out the game Perfection, I thought that is exactly what I wanted to shoot.
All the pieces, neatly arranged in their respective boxes.
The countdown begins. 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…POP!
Canon 60D | 18-135 mm lens | 1/250 | f/16 | ISO 6400 | Speedlite 430EX II
Now, let me share some of the challenges I had in taking the shot.
First, I didn’t have a super-bright area to take the photos, which was necessary to use a fast shutter speed to stop the unarranged pieces without any blur. I mounted my flash for the extra light, but none of the auto settings on my Canon 60D would work well, so I had to switch to manual mode.
I used a small white table pushed up against the white wall so I could bounce the flash off the wall to eliminate the shadows from a head-on approach with the flash. It seemed to work well at eliminating the shadows, so the next challenge – timing.
I tried to snap just one photo when it popped, but my timing wasn’t the greatest. I went to more of an automated approach, and when I thought the pop was coming, I held down the button, snapping roughly a dozen photos before the pop. I did this about three times before I felt like I had the photo I wanted.
And, as a photographer’s note, I think that the number of times it took me to snap the right photo, having to reset the pieces each time, I could probably beat the game and place each piece before the 10-second timer would pop them up. After all, that is the name of the game, right?
~signed, Carltonaut
