Sun and the kitchen sink

New addition to my lenses!

This is actually the first lens I have ever purchased. I bought my D7000 with the 18-105mm included, and the manual lenses I have were given to me from my uncle, along with his Nikon FE.

So this is my first hard earned addition! Well, hard earned is sort of a misconception. It is really an early Christmas present from my wonderful girly. She found a Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye on Craigslist for a price we couldn't resist! We thought there was a scratch dead center on the lens, but I brought my MBP along with the coolest free app from the app store installed, "Sofortbild". It is a "tethered shooting" app.


I can have my DSLR attached to my laptop via USB, and instantaneously see the pictures as I pop them off! I can also control the camera through my camera! Check out that link for more details on this awesome app!!! It is currently a totally free app! Get it while it's hot!!!


BACK TO THE SCRATCH! So we managed to talk down the price a bit because of this scratch, even though Sofortbild showed no imperfections on the picture.

A few days later I tried to get a few shots of my best buds dog, Kaiser. 

 His wet doggie nose bumped my lens. I had to get that gunk off ASAP.......


Me: "WHOA, that wasn't a scratch!!!"
Jessica: "What?
Me: "I was cleaning off Kaisers wet nose stuff, and the "scratch" is GONE!!!"
Both: ":))))))))))))"


I am SO happy it wasn't a scratch, I'm still not certain what it could have been, but I'm not complaining! It makes my mind SO much clearer knowing when I take pictures of people, they won't be staring into a lens imperfection.


I've still got plenty to learn about taking pictures with a fisheye, but I'll have it down soon and get some festive fish eye Christmas pictures up for you to enjoy!

Maybe some pictures of some kitchen action. Holiday cookies and treats in the making!

KEEP YOUR FINGERS OUT OF THE NUTELLA JESSICA!

Buddhism near Burleson

I am shocked. 

I have lived in this town for almost a decade, and I have NEVER seen the 

"Quang Chieu Zen Monastery" on Rendon Road,  just off of 1187. 

WHY is this not more well known? 

I am very very anxious to visit this place! 

Visitation is greatly encouraged, but it's starting to get pretty chilly outside!

You can all expect a spring time blog entry about this place as soon as the new season begins!

Welcome to November.

S'mores with Jessica, and my brother-from-another-mother, Justin. Halloween night.

Here we go. Two more months and another years past. This years been a crazy one thus far. First year with a DSLR! I hit some pretty low lows, but I'm reaching higher than I ever have. 

I can definitely see a new light shining through, and I'm excited to see what all this light has unveiled! I've been exposed to things new to me and I'm really enjoying this new chapter. I'm trying hard to put back money, but I'm not restricting myself from some great weekends every now and again.

I'm excited that I am ACTUALLY close to getting something from these past few years in college. I never knew I'd be the type to go to college at all, and now I open my eyes and I'm almost done with an associates in behavioral science. 

I have NO IDEA where I'm going after this, but at least when I'm ready I can move forward from HERE... Instead of starting my associates 3 years from now with a house payment and whatever else life will ladle all over my mashed potatoes with a big grin on it's face.

     That girl. I'm not sure where she thought she was going, but she's right back where she belongs.

Right there, in one of my many passenger seats to come.

I'm so excited to live my life with her by my side. I'm finding ME, she's finding HER, and we're moving forward in parallel lines.

I could in no way be the person I am striving to be without THIS GIRL. I owe my expanding education, my drive to better myself in every aspect, my ability to even TAKE these pictures, and share them on this blog to her. She's the best girl there can be.

                     


          I love you Jessica!











These most awesome, equally aspiring, equally lost, friends of mine are exactly
who I want to surround myself with.

I'm more than satisfied where this year has led me, and I'm more than excited to share the future years with this same small group of amazing people.

I can't wait to hurry up and become independent and have them over for a cool autumn cook-out to catch up and wish it all would have slowed down.

Happy Halloween!!!

I am so happy it's finally Halloween. Fall is easily (in my opinion) the BEST time of the year! I love the weather, the colors (even though it's not as drastic in Texas as it is further north) :(

I'll still take what I can get! My kind of music even SOUNDS BETTER... The windows down, with that cool breeze ruining my girlfriends hair as we blast some Type O Negative (until about mid March) hahaha.

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween with a picture I took yesterday.


This picture makes for an awesome seasonal background (IT'S MY CURRENT DESKTOP!)

If you're bored enough....

CLICK HERE TO SEE!!! !!!

REMINDER!!!!

Don't forget you can click on the images to view their FULL SIZE!!!

The wonders of White Balance.

     

      These were taken the day I discovered I could get full use out of the older manual lenses.

         I was so excited to see that I now had 4 more lenses in my arsenal, that I forgot how much I was in need of setting my White Balance!!!!!
   
        I was popping of shots of everything in range, while getting used to having to adjust my aperture and shutter speed frequently. Figuring out what aperture is generally best in different lighting situations, just some good ol' "hands on" learning.

      So I set my WB by snapping off a shot of something neutral, took a picture of the same set of knickknacks, and BAM! I was almost in shock that THAT --->
 picture was taken by me.



A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
with one very simple change.

       Since this mermaid figure was in another room, the lighting situation is different. The cupcake, ice cream, etc. was in a bedroom which was lit with the light from the ceiling fan. This mermaid was right next to 3 floor to ceiling windows, so the white balance needed to be re-calibrated.
       I love this example. The mermaid in her true colors is just beautiful.

WHITE BALANCE  IS YOUR BEST FRIEND!!! It's one of the easiest things to really make a picture show what you actually see.