Day 273 of 365 - Nothing's On

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

Day 21 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

I haven't done much playing with my flashes lately so I thought I would give this a shot tonight. I really like how it turned out (aside from my lousy posterboard which had a big crease.. but oh well I still ike it)

Lighting:
580exii 1/128th aiming at subject very close)
Vivitar 285hv 1/16 gelled red aiming at background
Triggered by Cybersync

Day 272 of 365 - Round and Round

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 400

Day 20 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

Day 271 of 365 - Lights Spinning In His Eyes

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.067 sec (1/15)
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200

Day 19 of 50 (50mm for 50days)
Macro Monday 09/28/09 - The child within us

This photo is serving tripple duty today. It is my photo of the day, my 50mm for 50 day photo and my first ever entry into the Maco Monday Group (Thanks for the encouragement Lynn). I am not 100% sure this qualifies for Macro Monday as it is more of a closeup than a macro shot but I still liked it :) Trevor and I are going to do some light painting with it later and I will probably post one of those as well.

The device is the one used for this photo.

Day 270 of 365 - Stamps

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 800

Day 18 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

This is something from my wife's scrap booking kit. A bunch of letter stamps. I thought they looked sort of neat in their case and thought I would make a photo of them. I am also including a version that is out of focus I kind of liked in this posting.

Kind of an abstract take on it.

Day 269 of 365 - The Only Way I Make Dinner

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 400

Day 17 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

My wife was out of town overnight on a scrapbooking retreat. I don't cook. Hence the delivery pizza and a hiatus of a day or so for my diet. Back to the plan tomorrow :=)

Day 268 of 365 - A Sign We Can Get Behind

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

Large on Black
Day 16 of 50 (50mm for 50days)


My sister saw this sign and sent me an MMS picture of it and suggested I shoot it for a photo of the day. I thought it wasn't a half bad idea so I did jsut that :) Happy weekend folks.

Day 267 of 365 - Toys

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 1 sec
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100
Day 15 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

My wife brought home this little light toy for my Autistic son; He loves it. But, the first thing I said to her when I saw it was "Picture of The Day". The next was "Why didn't you buy me one", once I realized Jeffrey wasn't keen on giving it up long :). So it has been a few days and he finally relinquished it long enough for a first photo. It won't be the last with this, it is too cool not to use more than once.

Posted to give you an idea of what the toy looks like:

Day 266 of 365 - Bricks & Bokeh

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200

Not much to say about this one :) It's pretty random.

Edit: I retitled this shortly after posting it.

Day 265 of 365 - Cloudy Day

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

Day 13 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

This is not my normal kind of subject but I thought I would give it a shot. Processed in Nik Silver Efex Pro, Photoshop (perspective and little cloning) and Nik Define. I may go back to this location with a different lens to try to get more of the building though the security goons were looking funny at me so I may not....

Day 264 of 365 - Blue Light Special

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 400

Day 12 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

The overhead lights in my office jazzed up a bit. It's a bit of an experiement :) Not 100% sure about this one.

Day 263 of 365 - Watering Can

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 400

Day 11 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

I spent the afternoon at my parents house working on their computer. Hard drive crash, complete reinstall of windows. Pretty ugly stuff. But the change of venue did give me a chance to find some other things to shoot around their house. I kind of liked this watering can they had sitting on their front porch.

And it's a twofer today :) Here's another

Day 262 of 365 - Cloudscape

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 1/4000 sec
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 400

Day 10 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

I don't do cloudscapes all that often but I sort of liked how this looked. And, I couldn't come up with much else for today :P

Day 261 of 365 - Intersections

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 400

Day 9 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

Happy Friday Folks :)

How To Get Moneydance to Work With UMB Bank

First of all I know this is completely off topic for this blog, please bear with me if you don't care about this. Secondly I know this is  probably a pretty obscure problem.  But I searched high and low for the answer and never found it all in one place.   So I thought I would share it here for anyone who is having the same issue.

The first step is that you have to trick UMB into thinking that Moneydance is actually Quicken.   For Mac (and probably linux -- for windows I dunno how to do this, maybe the registry?) you do this by adding the following:

  "ofx.app_id" = "QWIN"
  "ofx.app_version" = "1100"

To ~/.moneydance/config.dict just before the final curly brace "}" character in the file.  This must be done while moneydance is closed.

References: http://www.nabble.com/how-to-diagnose-OFX-problems--td19205356.html, http://osdir.com/ml/finance.moneydance.general/2003-12/msg00115.html

The next step is to go into moneydance in your check register and under the online menu choose "Set Up Online Banking"

For this use the following settings:

  Name: UMB (this is just your own thing so name it what you want)
  OFX Institution Org: UMBOFX
  OFX Institution ID: UMB
  OFX Connection URL: https://ofx.umb.com

References: http://ofxblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/17/ofx-fi-details-for-umb-bank/


I hope this is helpful to some other people out there who like moneydance and don't want to change banks or software. Oh and if this breaks your computer or messes up your online banking or anything I am not responsible, yada yada yada... I did the above and things seem to work for me. Your mileage may vary.

Day 260 of 365 - Fountain

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 400

Day 8 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

Summer is almost over :( Before we know it the fountains will stop and the snow will fall.

Day 259 of 365 - Silly Self Portrait

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 800

Day 7 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

My creative juices still aren't quite all there so you get a silly self portrait of yours truly today :)

Canon Service

My 70-200 f2.8 IS recently had to be serviced. Here is the timeline of events. Being a very impatient person I wish that I had seen something like this on the internets when I was waiting for my repair so I thought I would do one....

9/1/2009 I dropped the lens off at a local UPS store. Insurance and shipping, through the UPS store, is highway robbery. I think I ended up paying close to $70 for ground shipping to the New Jersey Canon Service Center. I know now there are better ways to do this but at the time I thought that is what it cost for a consumer to ship an insured item of this value.

9/4/2009 The lens was delivered to Canon Service center in NJ. There was no change on canon's repair tracking website, or emails from canon, on 9/4. It would have been nice to have seen something on the website confirming receipt of the lens, regardless of if it had been looked at; just to assure customers that the lens made it into the system and hadn't walked off. Perhaps I am just paranoid.

9/5/2009 - 9/7/2009 I live in the US, obviously given where I sent the lens, and there is a national holiday so there was no change on Canon's repair tracking website, or emails from canon, for these days.

9/10/2009 - At approximately 4:20 central time I checked the status website and the status had changed to Accepted. Earlier in this day the status was still the same as before I shipped the lens. With the description "We have received your equipment for evaluation and repair. Based on initial examination, the necessary repairs will be performed at no charge to you"

9/12/2009 - I checked the status page several times yesterday and did not get any updates, also checked a couple of times this morning with no change. But I checked again at 6:49pm central, and the status had changed to completed (Unit will be delivered to you within approximately 4 business days). Shipping says not yet shipped.

9/15/2009 - I got an email from canon this morning indicating that the lens had been shipped via fedex 2 day shipping on 9/14. No information was provided about what was repaired. I checked the Fedex tracking site and confirmed that the lens is scheduled for delivery on 9/16/2009.

9/16/2009 - Checked Fedex status and confirmed shipment was on time. Received the unit around noon. Looking at the documentation that was returned with it the following was noted as the service details:
"We have examined the product according to your request, and, it was found that the part was bent the camera shake prevention feature did not function. Replaced 3rd & IS lens ass'y and zoom unit. Checked all, adjusted Center/Tilt/Focus, cleaned all factory specs. *IF SAME PROBLEM OCCUR, PLS SEND US WITH BODY."

So all and all about 7 business days from the day they received it until the day I received it. I have checked it and the repair appears to have fixed the issue. The lens is as sharp as ever, at first glance. Overall I am very happy with the service I received from Canon Service NJ. The only complaint I would have is taking so long to confirm that they have received it from the time the carrier drops it off with them. That was a bit concerning. But beyond that, great service through and through.

Day 258 of 365 - Creativity Running Cold

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

Day 6 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

Lighting: Camera left handheld gelled cto 1/32 power
I may have had an extension tube on for this. Some shots had it some didn't I can't remember for this specific one.

Tonight when I got home and started trying to come up with an idea for my daily photo I was completely a blank. It took longer to come up with something than pretty much any other time in my 365 project so far. I sure hope my creativity runs a little warmer tomorrow. That said I am not entirely unsatisfied with this :)

Day 257 of 365 - Loopy

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 6 sec
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

Day 5 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

Still on my 50mm + Kenko kick :)

Day 256 of 365 - Into the Light

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 400

Day 4 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

I have been on a bit of a down the road through the windshield kick as of late. Not sure why. I think I like the color version a bit more but I have included both in this posting.

Day 255 of 365 - Have A Sip

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 20 sec
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

Day 3 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

Having a bit of fun with Macro photography using my kenko extension tubes and 50mm lens.

Processing with Nik Color Efex and Aperture.

Day 254 of 365 - Untitled

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 1/6400 sec
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

Day 2 of 50 (50mm for 50days)

I am not 100% sure I love this but I at least like it. I can't think of what to call it but I submit it to you, my flickr, blog and facebook friends, for your consideration :) Happy Friday

Into The Sunset

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO: 400

This is through the windshield... (my wife was driving). It wasn't quite this warm in reality but I liked it warmed up. Processed with Nik Color Efex Pro and photoshop.

The last of the shots from the photo drive the other night :)

Day 253 of 365 - Knot in My Back yard

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

Day 1 of 50 (50mm for 50days)


OK this, I know is kind of goofy, but the corny sense of humor I have along with the complete lack of any real inspiration is driving me to post it :)

Day 252 of 365 - Me And The Boy

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/9.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

A self portrait with my youngest son. Playing with combining off camera lighting with tethered shooting.

Lighting: 580exii in inflatable opteka softbox camera high right 1/8 power
Vivitar 285hv bare 1/16 high camera left.

Converted with Nik Silver Efex Pro (I love this plugin sooo much!)

Down on the Farm

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 1/6400 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO: 400

I shot this during what my family and I affectionally refer to as a photo drive yesterday. We tried to find some back roads where we could stop the car and get out, or at least stop to shoot out the window, if we didn't have room to stop on the road. This happened to be one shot from the passenger window. I liked how the two buildings 'fit together'. I would have given a lot to have lost the third, more modern building on the left but I didn't want to crop in and lose that much of the barn. Processing was done in nik silver efex pro using the cyanotype setting with some tweaks.

Day 251 of 365 - Bowl Me Over

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

Still on my random macro kick it seems. This is kind of silly, I know, but I have been thinking of photographing these since my kids got them. They are part of a toy bowling set. The pins stand about 1" high.

Lighting: Canon 580exii 1/16 - 0.7 through Opteka Inflatable Soft Box (yes, really) Triggered by Cybersync.

Cliche

(one for the blog, this one's not on flickr)

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 1/1600 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO: 400

Day 250 of 365 - Lonely

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 1/8000 sec
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 33 mm
ISO: 400

A Tractor, A Boy and A Dog

An extra shot from today I thought I would post here :)

Though not a technically perfect shot, there is something I liked about this one.

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO: 100

Day 249 of 365 - Yet Another Flower Shot

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO: 100

Dont have a lot to say about these. They are pink :)

Day 248 of 365 - Happy Birthday

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.04 sec (1/25)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO: 400

My Mom and Dad recently returned from a cruise, during which both of them had a birthday. We had a little get together today for them. This is a snapshot of my dad reading a card he received. I didn't get any great shots today just snapshots but that is ok by me :) Happy Birthday to both of you if you read this Mom & Dad.

Lighting: Bounced flash off ceiling
Processing: Played around in photoshop trying to turn this snapshot into something a bit more... didn't work too well :P

Day 247 of 365 - Another Shot Of Trevor... again or "The Thinker"

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 1600

On Black

I know it seems like every other day is a picture of Trevor. I apologize for that. I wasn't planning on this for today but this shot was a happy accident and I wanted to post it. Sorry if I bore you guys with these :)

Converted with Nik Silver Efex Pro

Day 246 of 365 - Eggsellent

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

On Black


I am on a bit of a random macro/closeup kick over the last couple of days.

Lighting: Vivitar 285hv (forgot power) behind the eggs. Triggered by cybersync. Warmed up the tones in photoshop.

Day 245 of 365 - Revising

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/10.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 100

Should be easy to figure out from the title :)

50 Millimeters for 50 Days

My photo a day project is getting tougher. It is getting harder and harder to find interesting things to photograph; well that isn't entirely true... it is getting harder and harder to find interesting things to photograph that don't require me to move my fat a** very far ;). Additionally the motivation and creativity factor is lacking a bit as of late.

So, to that end, I am starting a new sub-project. My photo a day will be running in conjunction with this project and will, more often than not, share the same photo with the new project. The project is known as 50-50. The idea is that your post one photo a day done with your 50mm prime lens for 50 days.

I have joined a flickr group, 50 for 50, that will being getting moving on September 10th with members uploading a 50mm image each day until October 29th.

I may, will for sure one day as I am shooting a weeding on October 10th, post images that are not from my 50mm lens from time to time for my photo a day project or possibly just post other images.  But I am going to attempt to do the projects in conjunction with each other as much as possible.

Day 244 of 365 - Portrait of My Pup

Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO: 200

Well I guess it's kinda obvious he isn't much of a puppy. His name is Snyder and he is a Shepard Mix we have had him for about 9 years. He normally doesn't like his photo taken, runs off and hides when he see's my camera, but tonight he was being very cooperative.