5 seconds or 15 seconds.......it makes a difference

 5 seconds  F8  ISO 200

15 seconds  F8  ISO 200 +  2stops of digital neutral density

I shot both of these shots while I was out shooting with my Advanced Photography Students.  I used a Canon G11 p&s camera and its cool digital neutral density filter.  I love how the light sources star out with the smaller aperture and the extra 10 seconds did make a bigger difference in the water smoothness than I thought it would.

Just for fun I grunged out a b&w version with the Snapseed App on my computer.  I also use the iPhone version of Snapseed.

Sun, Flowers, and Friends

Early Tuesday morning, I had to go over to the kids school to shoot a quick job before school started. As I walked across the street, I greeted Mr. Gary the HU security officer that stopped the traffic for me. I couldn't help but smile as I soaked up the sun for the first time in several days. Arkansas and the south have been beaten up with tornadoes, severe thunder storms and major flooding rains over the past week.
As I left the building I walked by the Ruthann Corbin Garden. Mrs. Corbin passed away unexpectedly back in 2003 and her family dedicated this beautiful fountain and garden to her memory. The fountain was gurgling and the warm early morning light on these purple pin cushion flowers was just perfect.

As I was leaving I ran into LouElla from the HU grounds crew who was coming to pull out the winter pansies and get the beds ready for summer flowers. I love running into LouElla because she is passionate about flowers and the way campus looks. The ground keepers work hard to make the place beautiful and that makes my job of photographing campus easy. LouElla shares that passion for a beautiful campus with her former boss Johnny Ferguson. I say former boss because my friend Johnny retired today. I was privileged to go to his retirement lunch. I have an open invitation to go trout fishing with Johnny and I hope its not long before I get to spend a day with him on the Little Red River.

Jay Maisel says "If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you’re not out there, you’ll only hear about it." Jay also encourages photographers to do "visual push-ups" everyday. I have to say this was a fun visual workout. All of these photos were taken with my Canon G11 point and shoot camera. I must also confess that I jacked up the color saturation to look like Fujichrome Velvia in Adobe Lightroom.

Cameras are Cameras

I shot this photo with a camera that was made in 2002. That thing is 9 years old and it is still awesome. The camera is the Nikon Coolpix 5700. It was the first Nikon P&S camera to shoot Raw files. This is just a straight up medium compression jpeg. Now my current P&S is a Canon G11 and it will shoot circles around the old Nikon but today it is stormy and rainy and I don't care if the Nikon gets a little wet. The Nikon might spend the day rolling around on the floorboard of my car and I don't mind that either. Dave Ramsey is always talking about driving a beater car, I think of this old Nikon as my beater camera. The whole point is taking photos that make you happy and this photo makes me happy. On my lunch break today, I shot a Harding Magazine photo assignment for the summer issue with my old beater Nikon and I bet you want know which one it is.

I'm thinking Josie

Whenever I see a Lady Bug I think of Josie. If there is a Lady Bug anywhere around Josie can find it. Julie told me that Monday Josie came to the door and asked for a box to hold her Lady Bugs. Julie brought her a box and she said she was stunned to see Josie's hand covered with about 20 Lady Bugs. So you see, when I see a Lady Bug I am always thinking Josie.

Quiet on Campus

It was so quiet on campus Wednesday afternoon of Thanksgiving Break I spent part of the afternoon out photographing. I think I was the first person this squirrel had seen all day.

Campus is Blooming

All good things come to an end, even the lilies wilt after a while. But don't worry there are plenty of other flowers to take the place of the wilted ones. I took all these photos with my Canon G11 P&S camera. Check out the macro function on your P&S camera and go exploring you will be surprised at what these little cameras can do. Remember that clicking on the photos makes them larger.

I love the grasshopper hiding in this flower.

I am not sure what you call these flowers but they are lovely as well.

School Closing Snow

While I was shooting this photo on Monday the University closed. Got this photo with my Canon G11 P&S camera. The original raw file has very little color but I much prefer it with a sepia tone. Hence another desktop image is created.

Sunsets Never Get Old and a Photo Lesson

I was driving to jail tonight to get things ready for church and I saw this beautiful sunset. Lucky for me I had my P&S camera with me and my iPhone. As Jay Maisel would say, “Carry a camera. It’s tough to take pictures without one.”


Picture #2 is a wide shot of the previous sunset. I tell my class all the time, there are more pictures out there you just have to find them. This one was easy. When I ask my class for Nick Kelsh Rule #3 they all chant in unison "take more pictures." I took about twenty photos of this sunset before it slipped away. Sometimes you have to work fast.


Now,I know your thinking I have lost all sense of taste with this image, but let me explain. I have been telling my class that you have to develop the ability to see the world in 3D. I mean you have to imagine what the subject might look like from a different place. I mentioned that I was driving to jail when I saw the sunset and the beautiful tree skeletons. I had to drive a ways before I could pull off the road and the parking lot was the wrong angle. I headed out into the field because that is where my 3D radar told me I needed to be to get the trees and the sunset to line up. This really ugly photo shows how far out in the field I had to go to get things to line up. This 3D idea is not rocket science. Sometimes you just have to keep moving around your subject or move until your subject lines up like you want it to.


Remember I mentioned that there are always more pictures to take. Hello, I was standing in the middle of a field of tall grass. Pay attention to whats around you.

I am sorry this post seems like a little rant. I just get frustrated when people don't try to make their pictures more interesting. The world is filled with wonder and with a little effort great photos can be had.

Thanks for reading.

Canon G11

Greetings to my faithful readers, thanks for sticking around even though I am posting very sparingly these days. I just replaced my P&S camera at the office with the brand new Canon G11. My previous P&S was the Canon Powershot S5. I loved that camera and would still be using it but someone stole it. I was truly excited to see the G11 announced because it was only a 10MP camera which is going backwards in resolution for Canon. I think it was a great trade off because the G11 has much less noise at high ISOs than its predecessor the G10. The G11 is the top of the line Canon P&S camera and it is built for professionals. Major controls like ISO, and exposure compensation are controlled by dials on the top of the camera and it can shoot raw files. The G11 also brought back a feature I think is a must for P&S cameras, the flip out monitor. The flip out monitor is essential for shoot low angles and the Hail Mary angle as well. Oh I almost forgot that one of the best features of P&S cameras in general is their awesome macro ability.
Here are a couple of photos from the past weekends football game in Monticello. We got whipped but I did get a few good images with the G11.

UAM has a beautiful pond right beside the football stadium and the color was excellent. I fell in love many years ago with Cypress balls while visiting the University Photographer at Mississippi State. My friend Marco provided some great insight to me as we were beginning our transition to digital imaging here at Harding.

And yes, I got to fly to the game. I have lucked out and been able to fly to all the away games this year.