Rolling Right Along

It's a new year, I'm learning the ins and outs of a new camera, and there is always something new to photograph. New, new new. Or in the case of today's subject, old. I have some used stuff I want to sell. What better way to break in the new camera? Hmmm. Break is a poor choice of words. There will be no breaking involved.

Techie Corner
I always struggle with lighting, but I think I did a pretty good job this time. I have to get creative since I'm dealing with hot shoe flash and slave lights instead of honest to goodness studio lights. It took several tries to get the shot just the way I wanted it. I especially like the highlights on the brake and tubing in the foreground.

Below is a quick picture of the setup. I have two slaves pointing toward the background. I have a hot shoe flash working as a slave in front of the subject. The slave flash is pointed straight at the ceiling and bouncing back down again via the light disk and the strategically hung tablecloth. The main flash is mounted on a Stroboframe bracket above my camera and I think the flash was angled at 45 degrees.

One thing to remember, be sure to take the light disk off the boom arm before taking the sand weights off the legs. Don't ask me how I know this. And don't ask me if there is a hole in my white seamless paper. Because the evidence will be gone as soon as I cut that part off. No one will ever know.

St. Paul Cathedral

I braved gale force winds today in an attempt to get some nice photos. This was quite a challenge, considering I needed a steady tripod to get nice crisp shots and the wind was threatening to blow me over along with the tripod!

I fought a losing battle in the "crisp shots" department, but I still like this image of the St. Paul Cathedral.

Extreme Makeover

The crew for Extreme Makeover Home Edition have been working all week on a home in West St. Paul. I figured I'd better get over there today since this was the last day. The house was done when I got there around 12:30pm. They were just doing a little bit of clean up inside the house. I and my fellow spectators were crammed in behind barricades along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. This was the best picture I got of the spunky host, Ty Pennington (second from the right.)

The style of the new house fits in so well, that I wouldn't have known it was a new house if I had just been driving through the neighborhood.

Here people are practicing for "Move that bus!" Everything had to be practiced several times. We had to practice cheering and chanting. The bus had to take off and back up several times. The limo for the family had to practice driving up and out several times. Then we had to wait for it to go pick up the family. Ty and the builders had to come out of the house several times. Even the family had to walk up to the door and back down to the street several times before they could go in the house. It all happens so quickly on television, but there is nothing quick about it in person.

Even Santa was there! He works for the Ramsey County Sheriff's Dept in the off season.

I'll end with a shot of the family going up to the door of their new home. The first time, anyway. I stayed long enough to actually see them enter their new home. What an exciting day for the Morris family!

Baby Bunnies Revisited

Over a year ago, I blogged about a nest of baby bunnies I found in the front yard. It didn't happen this spring, even though we have plenty of bunnies roaming the yard. I've been busy lately and haven't gotten a chance to mow the yard for awhile. Rain is in the forecast for the next couple of days, so I thought I'd better get out there and do it. While mowing the front yard, I happened to notice the telltale pile of dried grass and tufts of fur. (Mama bunny pulls out her own fur to cover the nest and keep the babies warm.) Baby Bunnieeeeeeeeeeeeees! I left a wide berth in my mowing so I wouldn't scare them. Then I went and got my camera and carefully pulled back the covering with a dried plant stalk. I couldn't uncover them too much because they were scared and squeaked at me. Looks like there are three again this year and they also look old enough to be leaving the nest soon. (There were three last year too, but one met with an untimely death.) I wasn't expecting them at this time of year, but they sure are cute!

Sunshine on a Stalk

This is a Nyjer flower, an annual herb that originated in Ethiopia. It's grown for it's oil and seed, kinda like a sunflower is. They import it here as bird seed for Goldfinches, and they sure love it!

Only one problem, the seeds aren't supposed to sprout. They are heat sterilized before entering the country to keep it from being introduced as an invasive species. Oh really? Check out the picture below to see how well that works. Maybe they should re-think those sterilization procedures.