Site Updates & News

I added some site design changes with a new template to kick off Summer! Hopefully you like this one as well. If not, please send me your comments so I can adjust accordingly. Also, added are some news feeds in regards to digital photography. This is a new Google News features so I figured I would test drive it and see how it works.

We didn't get any winners for the Mystery Picture either so I've published the answer and will post another one shortly. The closest we received was from Beth in CT which commented it was an animal from the circus we previously went to and published pictures on. This was very close! It was an animal but from our Bronx Zoo trip. Take a look at it and you'll see the answer. Thanks Beth for the guess!

Monthly Readers Photo - June Submissions

If you're interested in having your photo published on this site for the Monthly Reader Photo for June, please send those submissions in now. I'll select one and post it the 1st week of June along with your initials and your State.

Send submissions here.

CONTEST: Water Reflection!

WATER REFLECTIONS CONTEST:
I'll be personally sponsoring our first 'Water Reflection Contest'!

If you have some shots of water and reflection, please send them in for this contest. If I receive enough of them (5 or more from different individuals), I'll be posting a special post specifically about 'Water Reflection' from our readers and will include some of the pictures received along with the winner by the end of August 2007.

CONTEST DETAILS:
This contest will run until the middle of next month (August 15, 2007) where I'll announce the winner via a blog post shortly thereafter. The winner will be selected by me based upon water reflection and some other qualifiers I'll keep a surprise.

The Prize? The winner will receive a $25.00 (twenty-five dollar) Online Wal-Mart Gift card! I'll be sending this directly to the email address of the winner so make sure your submission comes from YOUR email address and is valid. Any returned emails will be void and removed from this contest.

What do you need to do and who qualifies?

• Amateurs / Hobbyists Only: ANY AGE can participate as long as you took the picture and are NOT a professional photographer or do photography for a living. I hold the right to exclude people from this competition. This contest is strictly for amateurs and photography enthusiasts and/or hobbyists.
• Deadline for all submissions is Sunday, August 15th, 2007 @ 11:59PM.
  
• Format: digital only - .jpg or .gif.
  (The picture can be modified or unmodified but MUST be from a photo and not digitally designed art)
• Limit: 5 submissions per person
  
• Along with email send the following details:
  (If any details below are missing, your submissions will not be included in this contest)
  
• Your FULL Name (initials will be used for privacy when posted on this blog)
• Your City/State
• Valid Email Address
• Name of your Picture
• Picture Location
• Camera Make/Model

Dig through your collection and email them in!
If you have any questions, please contact me at anytime.

Happy shooting and best of luck!

Reversed Reflection

After several days of really heavy rain it's good to see the sun again! An amazing thing happens though when it rains. Bodies of water form in various places! What's so amazing about that? Well, these bodies of water cast reflections which make great pictures!

For instance, in our backyard we have an above ground pool which was covered for the season. After some heavy rains a small body of water collected on top of the cover. While outside the next day, the reflection caught my eye and I had to take a few shots. The reflection was casted of a nearby tree upside down! Here are a few shots of that day and notice some of the effects I applied to them. One is simply desaturated to appear black & white while the other has hue and saturation (color/brightness) changes to make it almost abstract looking.

Have fun and take pictures of everything! Everything you take can be either altered or adjusted to be unique even from it's original form... experiment...

Pleasantly Beautiful

In today's world with so much going on, we need to find time to sometimes slow down a bit and find a place that makes us smile. Remember too, this place doesn't have to be far. In this case, it was located in Danielson, CT off Peeptoad Road and YES!, I had my camera with me.

This little spot on the road was truly beautiful with it's reflection, color, and singing of a slow waterfall.

Tornado Damages Area!

Yesterday's tornado that ripped through areas of Pomfret have left quite a few without power including us in the Putnam area bordering Pomfret. We lost power last evening as a tree snapped and kindly laid across several power lines bursting the transformer like a firecracker! Needless to say it was exciting but more importantly, no one got hurt in the area and today we woke up to power. Amazing the strength of nature!

Did anyone get any pictures? I know there were quite a few posted on the Norwich Bulletin site that show some of the damages. I'm not one for storms so we stayed indoors!

Reference: Norwich Bulletin Pictures

Beneath the Waters!

Last year while we were swimming, my son rushed to me and told me there was a big spider at the bottom of the pool. Arching a brow and wondering first if it was a water spider of sorts, I gave a quick glance over the waters but noticed nothing. Now for one, I'm deathly afraid of spiders! Snakes, lizards, insects, etc I can handle... but not spiders for some reason.

So the adventure started. I slowly put on my goggles, as I started to itch all over (I'm sure some people know what I'm talking about here) and slowly swam to the bottom of the pool. Looking around, I didn't at first see anything. The pool was crystal clear so visibility extended from one end to the other. There was something though at the other side. I thought it was was a bunch of leaves at the bottom of the pool. As I moved closer to inspect and remove the debris, I noticed this!!! (see pictures) Needless to say I immediately lost all my air and not just swam to the surface but leaped out of the pool as if jumping over the moon!

Even though it was dead, I used the 25' pool net we have to lift it out of the water and place it 25' away from me! *laughs* After that, I carefully took some pictures... Yes, this was with my zoom lens from quite a distance as well.

So, as we're all anticipating opening pools if we have them, what's Beneath the Waters?? *cringes*

Greatest Show On Earth...

This past Saturday, my family and I travelled up to Worcester, MA to watch the circus! The local Worcester DCU Center featured the "Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Circus"! It was a great 2 hours of local entertainment. The kids loved it and there was SO MUCH going on at once it didn't matter where you were looking, there was action and stuff going on.

We all stared with wide eyes as the acrobats flied through the air, the snow leopards performed tricks, elephants danced, clowns amused, mini-cars raced, whistles blew, confetti flew, and more!

If you never experienced a circus, you have to go to at least one! Don't forget your camera!

Here are a few pictures I managed to take without flash (a feat by itself)! I took over 300 shots and will have fun sifting through them all and putting them on DVD for future viewing. Have you been to one recently? Send in your pictures! We want to hear from you.

White Wonder Yawns (Ursus maritimus)

One of our favorite animals at the zoo is the Polar Bear. They are just massive but look so soft and cuddly like a stuffed animal that would be lying at the end of your bed like a protector. Well this one, was located at the Bronx Zoo in NY. I took so many pictures there, I'll be publishing a few over the next week or so.

Because of the distance between us and him, a distance I'm happy to have had, I used a 300mm lens to get close. I set the camera to focus on the smallest object (him) and continuously refocus as I moved and the bear moved. This way, the main subject was always in focus and didn't get missed by accidentally focusing on the background from the bears movements. Check your camera and see if you have these settings.

Factoids:

• Polar bears rank with the Kodiak bear as among the largest living land carnivores
• Most adult males weigh 660-1320 lbs
• Adult females are roughly half the size of males and normally weigh 330-660 lbs
• The raccoon and bear families are believed to have diverged about 30 million years ago
  

Referenced Facts: Wikipedia

New Mystery Picture!

A new Mystery Picture has been posted so start sending in your submissions right away if you'd like to guess the answer. You can find this in the right column of this page.

Once the answer is received, we'll publish the full picture and the winner's name. This one might be a little easier than the first one... we'll see!!

Monthly Readers Photo Published for May

With the emphasis of May's reader photo being around florals and the rebirth of Spring's beauty, we selected Jackie S. from CT! Congrats Jackie and thank you for reading and submitting your photo. You can see her photo in the right column under the title she calls "Magnificent Magnolia".

Photo location: Boggy Hole Road in Old Lyme, CT

If you would like to start sending in submissions for June - please click HERE and attach your photo. With the photo, please remember to send in your first name and last initial as well as a title for the photo and where it was taken.