Engagement Ring

I spent some time today practicing for pictures to take at my brother's wedding in a couple months.  I really love close up photography and I finally took some time to work on my manual focus skills.  Live view works wonders for seeing where you're focusing!

Fetch

I'm giving myself a bit of a homework assignment today.  I'm searching the house looking for pictures to take and I decided to start with my puppy, Dash.  Here's a few of us playing fetch and him relaxing afterward :)

Centennial Olympic Park

I walked through Centennial Olympic Park on my way back from the Hilton.  These pictures were taken at the fountain as a bunch of kids and couples were having a blast getting wet on a very warm Atlanta night.

The fountains come out of the shape of the olympic rings in the middle of the park.  The colors were really cool and everyone there was loving them.  This photo is a 6 second exposure.  

I actually took this picture on accident.  I hit my remote shutter release right as I picked up my tripod to change locations and I didn't notice until I got to my next spot.  I thought the lights turned out really cool!  After that I practiced a bunch with purposefully moving the camera or zooming in/out over long shutter speeds.  I still think this one turned out the best.  

Atlanta Skyline

On Cinco de Mayo several of the companies at my conference hosted parties around the city.  They were basically trying to impress us in hopes of getting a few military engineers to jump ship and move over to the civilian world.  The night was unreal as I visited about 6 different bars with live bands, open bars, amazing menus including tuna sashimi, filet, etc. and breathtaking views.  The two pictures below were from the rooftop bar (Vandana's) at the Hilton Garden Inn.  The people at the Hilton were kind enough to allow me up on the roof last night so that I could take some pictures by myself.  

This picture was taken just as the sun was setting behind me.  I was about 15 stories up, just above the aquarium and Centennial Olympic Park.  I was actually inside the bar and I used my polarizing filter to cut through the reflections in the glass.

I was so excited about this picture.  I have read many, many times in books from Scott Kelby and Bryan Peterson about taking pictures about a half hour after sunset.  This is the first time I've ever been able to practice the effect.  I set up my camera and tripod and framed the shot, then waited for the sky to go dark.  It was actually nearly black out but there was just enough light let for me to get this brilliant shade of blue over a 13 second exposure.  I kept the camera at ISO 200 to reduce the effect of noise and I was at an aperture of 11.  I also used a remote release to ensure the camera moved as little as possible.  I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!  

Hangin' in Hotlanta

I just got back from an incredible week in Atlanta!  The Air Force sent me to a Society of American Military Engineers conference downtown and I was fortunate enough to have some time to get out and take pictures.  Atlanta really is beautiful and the people were as friendly as they come.  The food wasn't too shabby either :)

I took this picture of a jellyfish at the Georgia Aquarium.  Everyone kept talking about how it's supposed to be the best in the world, but I'm not going to lie, it was nowhere near as good as the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.  No dolphins, only one penguin... it's not even close.  We did have our ice breaker event there though with free food and drinks so I can't complain.

Not really a fantastic image but I just loved this bus.  I took this in a poorer area of town and it's great to see the neighborhood fired up over Jesus.