Where there's smoke

Cory used a lot of mesquite chips on the grill tonight, and they were putting off some serious smoke as he lifted the lid!  We experimented with different rates of lid lift, with some interesting results.  I liked this one the best.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

52mm - ISO 400

1/60s - f/5

Nikon SB900

TTL

Bounced up to sky

Pretty pony

Remember when I said to always reset your settings back to a normal range at the end of a shoot, because you never know what is coming tomorrow?  Well, today is a good example of that.  We came upon a beautiful vintage Mustang today, in front of a crappy background, and I brought a small aperture to the party.  I'm kicking myself because I even thought about putting my 50mm f/1.8 on the camera before we headed over, but didn't.  I could have killed a lot of that background by opening up my aperture and speeding up my shutter.  F/11 was just a ridiculous choice, but I was trying to be fast (because the owner was trying to leave!) and didn't take the time to adjust.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

42mm - ISO 400

1/500s - f/11

Snow control

Today we worked on installing climate-control curtains on my mom's front porch.  It will help block the wind and rain and keep a lot of the snow off her porch this winter.  It was my job to document the process.  Here is one of the curtains in its tied-down state.

Canon 5D Mark II
24-105mm f/4
58mm - ISO 200
1/160s - f/7.1

Honoring all who served

Veterans, thank you.

This is a neat collection of official Veteran's Day posters.

Nikon D90

Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

50mm - ISO 400

1/200s - f/11

Nikon SB900

1/8 power

50mm zoom f/11

Bounced to camera right

A little crabby

Today's lesson: never buy canned crab!  These crab cakes look better than they tasted.  They held together nicely, but the crab just wasn't very good.  I wish I could have eliminated the highlight on the middle of the plate, but couldn't figure out how to get the direct overhead light without it.

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

26mm - ISO 400

1/200s - f/11

Nikon SB900

1/8 power

Zoomed to 200mm

Bounced straight overhead

"Harvest"

I know this is a weird picture.  But it is an example of the principle of "with enough light I can turn a black wall white."  Or, the black cutting board nearly white, as the case may be.  This is one of two similar tomatoes that are the sum total of my first attempt at a vegetable garden.  Sad, I know. 

Nikon D90

Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6

105mm - ISO 400

1/160s - f/5.6

Nikon SB900

1/4 power

105mm zoom

Pointed 90 degrees above the lens

And now for something completely different

This, believe it or not, is an omelette.  And a darn good one too!  Start a small saucepan of water boiling.  Then drop two eggs and a variety of your favorite toppings (chopped mushrooms, green onions, tomatoes, ham, grated Parmesan were my choices tonight) into a quart-size Ziploc bag, zip it, and set it inside the pot of boiling water for 10 minutes.  When time is up, simply empty the bag onto your plate, and enjoy!  No muss, no fuss, and no skillet to clean up!

Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
75mm - ISO 400
1/160s - f/5.3

Nikon SB900
1/8 power
Bounced up and back