Are You Ready for Spring?

I'm getting tired of this cold weather and can't wait till Spring gets here and to make things worse even the winter weather isn't cooperating with the winter photo shoots. I was supposed to go to the Sled Dog Classic this weekend but it got postponed due to bad trail conditions. So what did I do all weekend? I edited some of my Pictured Rocks photos, here are a few that I did yesterday. As you can see my Shadow really enjoyed Twelve Mile Beach in the UP of Michigan.






and here's one of my feet enjoying the beach!!!






Instead of sitting at the computer I would rather be out taking photos somewhere, I was thinking of going back to East 72nd Street and getting some sunset shots of the Seagulls, but once again the weather isn't cooperating, the skies are overcast and it's snowing again so there's not much chance of getting a good sunset shot and besides I'm not even sure if the Seagulls are still hanging around down there in large numbers anymore.

Anyway Spring is only about a month away (3/20/09)!!!!

Go here to see more Pictured Rocks Photos

Photographer Busted By Amtrak

This is a pretty funny video from Comedy Central. Here's what happened

1. Amtrak invites photographers to enter photo contest

2. Photographer takes photos of the trains

3. Photographer gets arrested

Check out the video its pretty funny:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Amtrak Photographer

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Stupid Photographer Tricks

Am I the only photographer that does dumb stuff on photo shoots? Here are some of the dumb things I've done:

1. Accidentally turned on auto exposure bracketting. I did this recently at the zoo. I was taking photos in manual mode, I would look at the photo and histogram and it would be over or underexposed I would then change my aperture to compensate for either the under or overexposed photo and take another shot and the exposure still wasn't right. This went on for four or five shots and it was driving me crazy, I was beginning to think something was wrong with the camera or metering system. So this time I paid attention to the settings as I looked through the viewfinder, I had the camera set to f8 and 1/250 of a second, I took a shot and all of a sudden I noticed it now said 1/500 of a second, then another and it changed to 1/1000 of a second. Huh? I was in manual mode why was my shutter speed changing? Then it hit me the camera was bracketting my shots! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I had accidentally turned on auto exposure bracketting!!!

2. Taken photos at the wrong ISO. I was out taking photos in the Cuyahoga Valley NP and had taken about 15 - 20 shots before I noticed that my ISO was set to ISO 800. I had been taking low light shots the day before and forgot to reset my ISO!!!! What a dummy!!!

3. Got out of the car and start walking to the Beaver Marsh, got half way there and then it hit me - my tripod was still in the car!!! DOH!

4. Was taking photos and wondering why the photos looked so dark? I had forgotten to take off my sunglasses!!!! Another time I was looking through the viewfinder and everything looked weird with strange looking colors I had left my sunglasses on and had a polarizer on the lens!!!

5. Back in the film days I accidentally opened the back without rewinding the film!!! What a dope!!!

Have any of you done anything dumb while out taking photos? If you have click on "comment" below and let me know what dumb things you've done, it'll make me feel better knowing that I'm not the only one that does stupid stuff!!!

Kendall Ledges Photo Walk 1/31/09

It was a cold day on Saturday January 31 when a group of photographers from the Cuyahoga Valley Photo Society hiked Kendall Ledges. It was fun going on a winter hike but it was also tiring trudging through the deep snow wearing heavy insulated boots and snow pants and lugging way to much camera equipment. I had too take a break every once in awhile on one of the snow covered benches.

If you'd like to see where the photos were taken, go here: Kendall Ledges Photo Map

The Cuyahoga Valley Photo Society has Photo Walks six times a year, they also have Photo Workshops a couple of times a year and they meet once a month at the Happy Days Visitor's Center. Go here to find out more Cuyahoga Valley Photo Society