BlackBerry Flipping

While at the park today I was inspired by a photo made by Chase Jarvis. (web)  It was made on his iPhone and looks to me like he flipped the phone as the shutter clicked.  (link)  I thought, my BlackBerry takes really crappy photos and has a long delay between hitting the button and the shutter actually going. My idea was to hit the button and flip the phone to see what I could get.  After a couple tries I got two that are interesting.  Both have my girls in them.  The first is Olivia chasing Lily, running from the photo's right to left.  The purple blob is Mia.

The next has Olivia & Mia standing in front of a pine tree with leaves all around on the ground.  So what do you think?  Add your thoughts in the comments.

Photo Of The Day 01/02/09

My photo of the day today was taken while on a walk with Lily and the girls.  Mia loves the park, so we had to stop and play for a little.  I took a number of photos during the walk and while at the park.  I even tried to go a little artsy and made a kind of cool photo of some tree branches (link) but I really prefer the pure joy captured on Mia's face while she was swinging. Nothing fancy in the photo set up.  I shot aperture priority and used a couple previous swings to get the focus down.  I then locked the focus and waited for Mia to swing back.  Snap and I was lucky she was smiling and her hair was all over the place.

Camera:  Pentax K20 50mm prime lens  ISO 200 Aperture f/3.5  Exposure 1/1000

My New Year's Goal: Photo of the Day 01/01/09

I was asked if I had any new year's resolutions today.  I rarely do, so my first instinct was to say "no."  But then I paused and thought.  "Is there anything I want to be different a year from today?"

I want to be a better photographer.

The only way to make that happen is practice, practice, practice.  Stealing a page from a whole lot of different people, I wondered if I could make one photograph every day in 2009.  To be honest, probably not.  But why not give it a shot?  What if I could hit 300 days?  That is a solid 82%.  Perhaps not the loftiest of goals, but pretty realistic.  To add a little excitement and consistency, I plan on only using my Pentax-FA 1.4 50mm.

So here I go, my first Photo Of The Day (POTD) for January 1, 2009.

By the time I came up with this goal, the only thing I could think to photograph was the pizza I had in the oven.  I decided to add a little interest with some side lighting and not just the oven light.

To me this photo is just so-so.  The photo I pictured in my mind as I was getting my camera out, is great.  But I guess that is the whole point, learning to make better photographs.

Anyone interested in the photo details and settings, scroll down.

Light is from a hand held Nikon SB-25 at camera left. (pretty obvious)  The flash was zoomed to 85mm and light was still spilling all over the place.  I needed some type of gobo.  The cardboard disc the pizza came on should work.  I held that on top of the flash and it did a fair job of stopping the light from spilling out onto the oven knobs.  I found that the angle I held the flash with the gobo made the biggest difference. (again, pretty obvious)  The camera also had a difficult time finding a focus.  My quick fix was to turn on the oven light, focus, turn off the light and switch to manual focus.  I think I got me close, but the focus in the photo is pretty soft.  I did move around a lot adjusting the flash strength after I set the focus.  I played with the settings on the camera and flash until I got something that looked ok on the lcd.  There is very little post processing, a little color balance and sharpening, all done in Lightroom.

Camera:  Pentax K20 50mm prime lens  ISO 200 Aperture f/6.7  Exposure 1/90

Flash:  Nikon SB-25 triggered with AlienBees CyberSync Manual Zoom 85 & Power 1/32

My "Photo Of The Year?"

At the end of the year there are always posts about one's photo of the year.  I have never really thought about having one photo of the year, because almost all of my photos are more for memories then they are for great art.  After all, how is a  dad supposed to decide if the horseback riding photo is better than the sprinkler photo? This year is different, someone else decided.  This year Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri (BBBS) chose one of my photos to use on their annual New Year's Card.  Perhaps you remember this photo?

It is just a lucky shot that I got when my girls and their friends next door were playing in the rain and I was playing with my new camera.  In a lucky turn of events, Britt's mom worked at BBBS and put this image on her computer.  I don't know the exact sequence of events, but I do know they (BBBS) was able to turn my image into an amazing card.  (download pdf version)

For those of you not into downloading a pdf, the front of the card is the photo above with a silver border and the words "GO AHEAD" at the bottom.  On the inside it says, "LIVE A LITTLE in the NEW YEAR." and has the BBBS logo below.  A very well designed card.  Plus on the inside left it says "Britt Vaughn, 6 years old, playing in the rain.  Photograph by Jeffrey Pomranka."

I know many people are very used to having their photos published and used for marketing, but this is a first for me.  Then on top of it, they used the photo to make a big banner for a front window of their office.

Of course BBBS asked my permission to use the photo and rand every proof by me and Britt's mom.  Becky James, the Executive Director of BBBS has been very professional and took great care in making sure I was happy with how my image would be used.  Of course I am just happy to help.  My oldest daughter, Olivia, has a "big" who visits her weekly during her YWCA after care program, so it is even a agency who provides services to our family.

While I doubt that I will have a "Photo Of The Year" in 2009, it is a great feeling to have someone chose one for 2008!  Now I just need to remember to "Live a little in the new year."

To see more photos of the banner, go to my Flickr page and look at the images tagged "bbbs"

The gift of song.

The children at UCCC gave their annual Gift of Song concert last week.  As is typical I was there with my camera, but this time I also brought along a audio recorder.  Throw the photos and a short music clip into Animoto and this is what comes out.

As usual Mr. Z lead the celebration and all the classes had a chance to show off their own vocal talents.  Mia was in quite a mood, posing for me when she saw my camera, but focusing hard most of the time to know when it was the Supernovas' turn to perform.

To see all of the photos from the 2008 Gift of Song, please visit my SmugMug gallery.