Shannon at the Zoo

Our zoo has a small area where the children can play in water (which is a big deal since we live in the desert and water is a valuable commodity).

Antique Belgian Waffle Maker

About a two years ago Liz and I stopped by a garage sale and found a cool chrome antique toaster/sandwich-melter thingamajig. It was great but didn't come with the antique plug required to use it. So a year or so later, Liz finds this very cool antique Belgian Waffle maker (pictured below) complete with cord (incidently, same cord as required by the toaster thing). So we now own two cool old chrome kitchen appliances that we can only use one-at-a-time (since we only have one cord).



Strobist Info
ISO: 100
Shutter Speed: 30 seconds
Aperture: f11
Flash: SB-800 set to 1/8 power and gelled for incandescent light camera left at 10 o'clock. Long shutter speed set to accomodate the 2 mini-MagLites that were providing a small amount of fill and 'glint' on the chrome.

Newbury Pottery

My Sweetie went out to visit Woods Hole, MA (which is near Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod). There is a very cool pottery shop there called Newbury Potter (www.newburypottery.com) that has all kinds of wonderful ceramic kitchen items. She brought me back an olive oil dispenser (which we use daily). A visit to their website might inspire you to find something your kitchen can't live without. . .



Stobist Info
ISO: 100
Shutter Speed: 3 seconds
Aperture: f16
Flash: Slightly camera left at 1/16 power gelled for incandescent light along with 3 candles camera right and 2 mini-maglights camera left to provide a small amount of fill to remove shadows (hence the long shutter speed).

Kalimba

My sister and her husband make native instruments (mostly African) ranging from Kalimbas and Rainsticks to Congas and Bongos. This is a Kalimba she gave me many years ago made from a coconut shell. It still sounds as sweet as the day it was made.



Strobist Info
ISO: 100
Shutter Speed: 1/200
Aperture: f7.1
Flash: Directly overhead fired into a homemade macro box comprised of a white sheet and printer paper at 1/8 power.

Sedona Is Hard To Photograph

Despite its incredible beauty, Sedona has been a bit of a struggle for me to photograph because a) I want to do the beauty justice, and b) I have seen soooo many photos of Sedona that it has become difficult for me to find a fresh perspective. So, until I can figure out how to overcome this, here is a pic of my sweetie in Sedona . . .

Antelope Canyon, AZ

This past weekend we went to Antelope Canyon which is in Page, Arizona near Lake Powell. There are incredible slot canyons that tower more than 130' overhead in many places. The light does some incredible things inside the canyons which are only shoulder-wide in some sections and over 20' wide in others.









And here we all are at the back entrance to one of the canyons . . .

(from L to R: Deb, Jim, Liz, myself)

Where it all started . . .

So some time ago, we had a pipe in the bathroom burst. Seems innocent enough except for the 'Pandora's Box' affect we didn't anticipate. One burst pipe in the bathroom turned into a 9 month full interior remodel of the house including 18" travertine tile throughout the house, French doors, archways, painting, drywall, can lights, etc. And after all that nonsense, our house is still a one bathroom . . . grrr . . !



Strobist Info
ISO: 100
On-camera flash: 1/2 Power
Off-camera flash in bathtub: 1/8 Power gelled for incandescent light to 'blend' the white-balance with the candles

SB-800 Speedlight Arrives!

So after becoming somewhat obsessed with reading www.strobist.blogspot.com and becoming very unhappy that I didn't have any speedlights, I finally ordered an SB-800 and it arrived yesterday! Yipppeee! I am very excited about exploring all the possibilities of off-camera flash photography. I am already saving up for a second flash . . .



Strobist Info
ISO: 100
Off-camera flash: 1/16 Power