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Jeremy  > Photo Diary > My 40th Year
This gallery is a complete chronicle of my 40th year, starting on my birthday in 2008. I posted one photo each day for a year. The photo-a-day project continues in this gallery here.
Gallery pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  >  >>
< 5 of 365 >
Jeremy > May 3, 2008; Day 1. Today I turned 40. The entree is haddock with a little butter and Parmesan cheese. It was magnificent. There were no sympathy cards. The one in front with the sliver of bark came from one of my most artistic friends.
Jeremy > May 4, 2008; Day 2. This is Peter and Molly, my favorite weekend guests. Molly is a pug with a swollen fold of skin between her eye and nose, so she is being cleaned and checked for ticks. He took her to the vet today who said she had a bacterial skin condition. She puts on a proud face despite the prognosis.

This shot is in a group of shots I took for an online photography class on composition. In week 1, we’re learning how to fill the frame.
Jeremy > May 5, 2008; Day 3. My kitchen looks east over the Merrimack River valley, which gives me great access to each day’s sunrise. This is particularly true when the leaves are down. Early morning fog and the still-small spring leaves prompted me to try a hand-held HDR shot of the sun burning through the fog.

This wasn’t as good as I had hoped. First, I should have noticed the dead branch. Second, I should have been more careful with the compositional preciseness between each exposure…Photomatix had trouble with the alignment. Despite the flaws, this is very close to capturing the beauty of the scene I saw. It’ll do!
Jeremy > May 6, 2008; Day 4. This is me commuting to work this morning in my Audi TT (seven years old and showing it). This was taken with my widest lens, a Sigma 10-20mm set to 10mm. The dynamic range is a bit more than the camera can handle but I’m not sure HDR is viable from a moving car!

Astute viewers will observe that the tachometer and speedometer are both zero. Trust me, I didn’t Photoshop the motion you see through the window. My instrument cluster is fried and needs replacement!
Jeremy > May 7, 2008; Day 5. The tulips in my front yard are peaking this week, so this morning I dashed out into the golden sunlight with my macro lens. It bothers me when an image looks better as a thumbnail than it does at full size. The histogram on this image looks bizarre to me (the red channel is blowing out and the blue channel is going black). I’ll be practicing macro photography as much as possible before my cherry tree blossoms, perhaps as early as this weekend.
Jeremy > May 8, 2008: Day 6. I was browsing through the Strobist site and found a remarkable gallery of watch photography by Ming Thein. Impressive. Inspiring.

With only an hour of free time tonight, I concocted this setup in my lightbox (thanks Oliver) and fired away. I applied slight saturation and contrast bumps. I have a long way to go before I've got the light down like Ming does, but I enjoyed working this subject. I sure love how much flexibility the D80's commander mode gives me.
Jeremy > May 9, 2008; Day 7. Most people in NH have rhubarb that grows like mad and comes up bigger and better every year. Not me. I’ve been caring for these plants for 7 seasons and I still don’t get enough for a single pie. Bad soil? Bad PH? Bad light? It’s the sunniest spot in my yard, it has good runoff, and I gave it some nice horse manure last year. My sister says that it’s time for a raised bed.

Here I’ve gotten down to the stalks of my largest plant with my Sigma 10-20 lens and captured 6 exposures for another HDR composition. This time the alignment was much better; the camera is sitting on the ground. Somehow the neighbor’s cat managed to stay still throughout…lucky me!

In the central background is my cherry tree with pink blossoms opening…I’ll be doing plenty of photographing this weekend.
Jeremy > May 10, 2008; Day 8.  Here&#8217;s a glimpse at the start of another project of mine: Take 4 pictures at the same location to showcase the 4 seasons of New Hampshire. This project was inspired by Bryan Peterson&#8217;s critique of another photo I took near this location.  I decided that the angle of the original photo didn&#8217;t work because the bridge merged with the fallen tree.  So I&#8217;ve been to this location a half-dozen times trying to find a way to make the tree, bridge, and stream all work together. I am fairly happy with this. There are no spring flowers here, but the small, light green leaves on the trees behind the bridge, as well as the abundance of water in the stream, are just about right for spring. Stay tuned for the remaining 3 seasons!

My Sigma 10-20mm lens is wearing a circular polarizing filter (Lee) for this shot.

I also tried this as an HDR. I love the cartoonish color and the gnarly lines of the tree from this slightly different angle, but it doesn&#8217;t fit the project as well, so I offer it as an alternate daily and yet another fun practice of HDR.
Jeremy > May 11, 2008; Day 9. The cherry tree is in full bloom and the sun is shining. Sunshine is mighty bright and contrasty, probably too much. I'm really enjoying the Tamron 90mm macro lens.
May 7, 2008; Day 5. The tulips in my front yard are peaking this week, so this morning I dashed out into the golden sunlight with my macro lens. It bothers me when an image looks better as a thumbnail than it does at full size. The histogram on this image looks bizarre to me (the red channel is blowing out and the blue channel is going black). I’ll be practicing macro photography as much as possible before my cherry tree blossoms, perhaps as early as this weekend.
 > May 7, 2008; Day 5. The tulips in my front yard are peaking this week, so this morning I dashed out into the golden sunlight with my macro lens. It bothers me when an image looks better as a thumbnail than it does at full size. The histogram on this image looks bizarre to me (the red channel is blowing out and the blue channel is going black). I’ll be practicing macro photography as much as possible before my cherry tree blossoms, perhaps as early as this weekend.
May 7, 2008; Day 5. The tulips in my front yard are peaking this week, so this morning I dashed out into the golden sunlight with my macro lens. It bothers me when an image looks better as a thumbnail than it does at full size. The histogram on this image looks bizarre to me (the red channel is blowing out and the blue channel is going black). I’ll be practicing macro photography as much as possible before my cherry tree blossoms, perhaps as early as this weekend.
Camera: Nikon Corporation (Nikon D80) |
More details: exif |
Original size: 3696px x 2474px |
Current: 400px x 268px |
Other sizes: Small • M • L • O |
Share photo: links, forums, blogs |
Keywords: flora tulips tripod 90mm d80
Gallery pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  >  >>
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