Nick 365
With the start of the new year, I have decided to make an attempt at my own Project 365. This gallery will exhibit a photograph per day for the next year. The photos will be randomly inspired with varying techniques. My hopes are this will be a fun experience that will broaden my creativity and allow me to learn more to help enhance my photography skills. Hope you enjoy!
32/365 - February 6, 2012 - Fruit of the Wine
After a stressful day and evening, Lisa and I finished off a bottle of Pinot Grigio we opened a couple of nights back. Tonight's photo is the evidence.
31/365 - February 5, 2012 - Don't Fret
Tonight I went to my brother's place to watch the Super Bowl. Prior to settling in to watch the game, I checked out his man cave room and his guitar collection. I spent a few minutes taking some shots before the kickoff. We were both in agreement that I will be revisiting some shots of his guitars at a later date with some lighting, etc. Stay tuned...
30/365 - February 4, 2012 - Boat Friends
This morning as we were having a family cleanup of our kitchen, living and dining rooms, Anna found an empty diaper box and started placing several of her stuffed friends into the box for a "boat" ride. After a few minutes of play, I had to grab the camera after she stuffed herself into the box with her friends. Fortunately I captured this shot before she caused the boat to capsize...
29/365 - February 3, 2012 - Walls for the Bars
I spent the majority of the afternoon at the Campbell Co. Justice Facility in Jacksboro, and just to clarify, I was not there for getting caught making meth. I was attending a progress meeting on the construction of a new addition to the facility in which I am the structural engineer of record. After discussing several structural items with the contractor and his subs, I finally got around to walking the site. At this stage, there are several masonry walls constructed and not much else. This shot is of one of the 12" exterior, fully grouted, heavily reinforced security walls. The steel seen protruding from the wall are eyelets that will anchor the brick veneer to the wall at a later date.
28/365 - February 2, 2012 - Sushi Night
Tonight we had sushi takeout from Nama in Bearden. It was pretty good, but I still prefer Sushi Spot on Emory Road. This was about all the inspiration I could muster this evening. I would have loved to have gotten something outdoors today since it felt more like spring than February, but a busy day at work coupled with an annoying cold just didn't provide an opportunity.
27/365 - February 1, 2012 - Partners in Crime
Tonight I got the camera out with the kids in Nate's room before bedtime. While I got some better close ups of the kids' faces by themselves, I decided to post this one of both kids climbing around Nate's crib. If my flash had fired on the previous shot (battery power low = slow rebound), I would have captured Nate hanging on the rungs while Anna had just started her ascent into the crib. To help lessen the distraction of the surroundings, I applied the charcoal filter in Photoshop with a gradient mask to bring out the life-like portion of the kids in the center of the photo.
26/365 - January 31, 2012 - Evening Commute
Tonight on my drive home, I captured this shot of the long line of traffic waiting to get off the interstate at Emory Road. And no, I did not shoot this as I was moving, I waited until I was stopped to fire a couple of shots. I normally avoid Emory Road and get off at the Callahan Drive exit, but tonight I made the detour to pickup some dinner from a restaurant on Emory.
25/365 - January 30, 2012 - Mini Space Needle
Tonight's shot is a macro photo of a Christmas gift from my brother. The gift is a Lego miniature of Seattle's Space Needle. I actually almost bought this as a souvenir when I visited the Space Needle in 2010. It's only about 7 inches tall, so I captured this shot with my 70-300 mm telephoto lens with my +3 macro filter, which allowed me to get extremely close and still be able to focus.
24/365 - January 29, 2012 - Pancake a la Mickey
I didn't get an opportunity to get the 5D out today, so I had to make do with a cell phone camera shot of Anna and Nathan's lunch at Connie's Kitchen on Chapman Highway in Seymour. We almost ordered each kid their own, since it was $2.95. Thankfully, the waitress clued us in on how big this thing was. It's hard to get a sense of scale in a picture, but to put it in perspective, the plate is probably 12" in diameter. I would hate to see what the adult portion looks like...
23/365 - January 28, 2012 - X-Ray Vision
My goal this morning was to finally finish my repairs to the washing machine. This photo is actually two separate photos, one taken prior to placing the cabinet back on the frame, and the second after the cabinet was in place. In order to achieve the X-ray effect, I inserted the second photo over the first in Photoshop and set the opacity to 50%. Obviously, a tripod was a must.
22/365 - January 27, 2012 - Naked Arches
After leaving work early due to my early start to the day (I was in the office around 5:30 this morning), I made a detour downtown to capture a shot of the on-going construction to the Henley Street Bridge. The spotty cloud cover shielded the direct sunlight and provided a nice background sky. Given the backlit conditions which made it difficult to capture detail in the bridge without blowing out the highlights, I used 3 bracketed exposures, 1-1/3 stops apart to compile an HDR image.HenleyStreetBridgeConstructionKnoxvilleTennesseeRiverFortLoudonLakeNeylandDriveConcreteArch
21/365 - January 26, 2012 - Seven Bars
This morning on my way back to the office from Vonore, I made a quick detour to Fort Loudon State Park. I have driven by several times, but have never taken the time to stop and explore. This shot is of the backside of the barracks and was inspired by the cell phone commercials that depicted every day things as signal bars.
20/365 - January 25, 2012 - Winter's Web
This evening while waiting on dinner to cook, I went outside in the backyard to enjoy what was left of the sunlight and the warm temperatures for a January day in East Tennessee. This photo is of my neighbor's tree that hovers over our fence line. In order to capture detail in both the highlights and shadows, I created an HDR image with three (3) bracketed exposures, 1-1/3 stops apart using Photomatix. I reduced the color values to a level just above black and white to give it a cold, winter feel.
19/365 - January 24, 2012 - Shades
Another night working on the washing machine and some chores around the house left me scrambling for a photo before settling down for the night. This shot is of a set of window blinds with some Photoshop color enhancement.
18/365 - January 23, 2012 - Repair Man
My evening at home tonight consisted of listening to a screaming almost 3-year old and troubleshooting our washing machine that has decided to stop agitating and spinning. After doing a little research, I have narrowed it down to the clutch assembly. Since these two tasks consumed the better part of the evening, I proceeded to take a shot of my trusty Craftsman tools with the clutch and gear box assembly nestled in the background.
17/365 - January 22, 2012 - Me and Chuck E. Cheese
Our final birthday party stop of the weekend was at Chuck E. Cheese in Chattanooga for my nephew Robert's birthday. Just let me say, some of my worst fears as a parent were realized today...Chuck E. Cheese is a venue which has the potential to make parents to go postal. You know it's going to be fun when they have to warn the brave souls who enter to leave their firearms outside. This was my original idea for today's photo, but unfortunately, I used my camera phone and it was very blurry. So instead, I have posted a shot of Anna hanging out with Chuck E. Cheese himself.
16/365 - January 21, 2012 - Happy Birthday Grandpa
Tonight was my father-in-law's birthday get together. Since yesterday's photo included my dad and Nate, I thought it was only fitting today's photo included Lisa's dad and Anna. I got lucky in this shot, as they both just extinguished the candle on the cake.
15/365 - January 20, 2012 - Happy Birthday Papa
Tonight was round 1 of 3 birthday parties we will be attending this weekend. Tonight was my dad's birthday get together at my parent's house. Simple photo of my dad feeding Nate some birthday cake and ice cream. Nate was quite excited. Poor Rudy just drooled...
14/365 - January 19, 2012 - Camera Self Portrait
I have wanted to photograph my camera in my light box, but my brother currently has my older Canon Digital Rebel. So instead, I improvised. This shot is a self portrait of my Canon 5D in my light box, aimed at a mirror with the self-timer activated. I mirrored the photo in Photoshop to make the text readable. To top it off, I used the good ole rule-of-thirds to help add some interest with the cropping.
13/365 - January 18, 2012 - Zulu Time
Today I sat through an all-day earthquake response training seminar in Nashville at the TEMA office. The seminar took place inside the State Emergency Operation Center. Knowing I would not have much of an opportunity for a better shot today with my whole day tied up in the seminar and the drive back to Knoxville, I captured a shot of one of the many clocks in the SEOC with my cell phone that displayed not only Central and Eastern time, but also included Zulu time.
12/365 - January 17, 2012 - Good Night Music City
Tonight's inspiration was easy. I arrived in Nashville this evening for an earthquake response training seminar on Wednesday and decided to make a quick trip downtown before heading to bed to get a shot of the Nashville skyline. After making a lap around LP field, I setup on the north bank of the Cumberland with downtown in my sights. This shot is a compilation of 6 bracketed shots, 1-stop apart, merged together as an HDR image via Photomatix.
11/365 - January 16, 2012 - Bedtime Reading
This is a low-light shot with no flash (no sense in waking Anna after she's fallen asleep), ISO 3200, f/4 at 1/20 second. Its somewhat grainy due to the high ISO, but the subject can't get much better. Capturing your little girl asleep is priceless.
10/365 - January 15, 2012 - Shadows
This afternoon I was outside with Anna, trying to get a good shot of her playing. With the sun low in the sky, I noticed our shadows on the rear of the house. Since I rarely get in one my shots, I took aim at the house and captured our shadows on the wall.
9/365 - January 14, 2012 - Crystal Clear
Tonight I tried some speed photography. I had to improvise somewhat, as my sync chord to connect the camera to the lights was at the office and I did not have any batteries for my wireless remote. In order to capture the shot, I used a 1/2-second exposure on the timer, allowing me to pour the water in the glass and manually fire the lights during the exposure. The hardest part of this shot was trying to disguise the glare of the lights on the wine glass.
8/365 - January 13, 2012 - Farmer Nate
Nate supporting his bib overalls.
7/365 - January 12, 2012 - Colorful Mess
Tonight after getting home for work, I spent some time playing with the kids and their Lego blocks. After getting the kids to bed, this is a glimpse of what was left of our fun...
6/365 - January 11, 2012 - Pipe Comb
My inspiration today came from something I pass numerous times everyday at the office. Our filing area contains over 500 PVC tubes, which we use for filing rolls of drawings. I thought the pattern resembled a honey comb and would create an interesting shot.
3/365 - January 8, 2012 - Happy Nate
This afternoon I had the rare occasion to get some photos of Nathan without Anna trying to hog the camera. Anna went shopping with her Nana and Papa, so Nathan was extremely happy to play all by himself.
2/365 - January 7, 2012 - Light Trails
I decided tonight to have some fun with a flashlight and long exposures. I captured this with the camera sitting on the floor aimed at the ceiling with a Mag-lite on a string.
