Don McLaughlin, one of my contacts on Flickr, encouraged me to attend this event. I was only able to make it to the Friday evening opening ceremonies, but I managed to get some great shots. Next year, I think I’ll try to spend more time at the event. For more information, please visit the White Eagle Pow Wow Web site.

Please check out the Des Moines Flickr Friend Photowalk Group for more photos from this event and other Photowalks by this group. And, as always, be sure to check out the slideshow and set on Flickr for more of my photos from this event.


Hand painted tipi

Hand Painted Tipi

Grand Entry Dancers

Grand Entry Dancers

Grand Entry Dancers

Grand Entry Dancers

Grand Entry Dancers

Grand Entry Dancers

Des Moines Eagle Claw Acrobalance Team

Des Moines Eagle Claw Acrobalance Team

Here’s a selection of photos from my visit to the Des Moines Farmers’ Market on July 9th. My wife and I have discovered that it pays to go early — both for shopping and making photos. Later in the day, the crowd gets a bit thick and it gets more difficult to move about and get a clear shot.

As always, please visit the set on Flickr or view the slideshow for more photos!

Mime Time 1

Tatouage

Mime Time 3

Taking a Break

Jazzy Flute

Once again, I spent some time visiting with my parents over Memorial Day weekend. Mom just got a new camera from Dad for their 40th anniversary, and I chipped in with some accessories and an afternoon tutorial as an early birthday gift. After waiting as long as we could stand for the battery to charge, we took a miniature photo walk around her garden/yard. The following are a few of my photos from that session.

As always, be sure to click through on any images you like to see the larger size on Flickr.com, or view the slide show here.


Tiny Pink Flowers

Pink Flowers

Green Star

Green Star from the Side

Green Star Pattern

Green Star Pattern

Pink and White Flower

Green Star Pattern

My wife and I took a mini vacation to Chicago last weekend. This was our second trip to Chicago, the previous being way back in 2003. Back then, we visited both the (then) Sears Tower (now, Willis Tower) Skydeck and the John Hancock Observatory. While the Skydeck is definitely taller, you simply cannot beat the view from the Hancock Observatory. The John Hancock Center tower is much closer to Lake Michigan (see this map), therefore you get a better mix of lake and city views. This time around, we skipped the Skydeck and opted instead for the more scenic JHO. Here are a few photos from that excursion.


Chicago Hancock Observation Deck North Shore

Chicago Hancock Observation Deck North Shore

Chicago Hancock Observation Deck 900 N Michigan Ave

Chicago Hancock Observation Deck 900 N Michigan Ave

Chicago Hancock Observation Deck South Shore

Chicago Hancock Observation Deck South Shore


My wife and I both agree. Unless you have a compelling reason to say you’ve “been there,” skip the taller Willis Tower Skydeck in favor of spending more time at the John Hancock Observatory. You won’t regret it!

After studying many photos from Valery Titievsky’s Photostream on Flickr over the past few weeks, I decided I would need to set a limit on the number of photos to include in this post or risk mirroring most of that stream here. Three is just not enough, so please click through each photo on Flickr and explore the other photos. I think you’ll find yourself, as I have, spending a lot of time there.

First, let’s start off with the photograph which first drew me in:

Coffee & ...

This is part of a subset of photos within the set “The life in Black & White” simply titled “Coffee & …”. There is a sense of motion which he captured well here by tracking the waitress as she hurried by while using a slower shutter speed to blur the background.

Here is another photo entitled “Coffee & … (Street Life)”:

Coffee & ... (Street Life)

Here we see a good use of bokeh with the string of lights out of focus in front of the subject, but what really draws you in is the emotion captured in this moment. Is this despair or simply fatigue? Did she discover her wallet is empty after having finished her meal? There is a story here, but it is incomplete, thus the photo holds your attention.

Although I was tempted to pick yet another of the excellent “Coffee & …” photos, I forced myself to pick more of a street photo. This one is called “Old Man”:

Old man

Digging into the exif information for this image reveals that the flash did not fire, yet we see some quite dramatic lighting here. There is an excellent contrast between the dark, almost ominous, sky in the background and the brightly lit face of the man. His age and hair bring complex textures into the mix. What is the story here? Is this a street corner preacher, giving his sermon to all who pass, hoping some will stop to listen for awhile?

I have yet to make it through all 1600+ photos in Mr. Titievsky’s photostream, but I have subscribed to the RSS feed from his Flickr page so I can keep up to date on his work. I encourage you to do the same.

Let me take a moment to promote my Wife’s new food blog, Girl Meets Oven. She has spent a lot of time and effort getting this blog started, and we hope it becomes a smash hit. We’ve also joked (more seriously than joking, though) that we will need to get a treadmill and start working out more with all these yummy baked goods around.

As always, there is a full set of these photos available on my Flickr Photostream. Please take a moment after reading this post to explore them (or just jump right there). Every one of these photos was taken with a very basic setup consisting of my Canon 50D with a Bower SFD 52C flash on top, typically pointed at 60 to 90 degrees from the focal plane. All were taken with my new favorite lens for use around the house, my Sigma 50 mm f2.8 macro lens. I played with adjusting my flash exposure compensation a bit, and found that backing it off by 1/3rd to 2/3rds of a stop sometimes gave a bit better result, depending on where the flash was bouncing.

First off, we’ll start with our busy worker bee, who found herself the subject of my photo while concentrating on composing her own photo.

Photographer as Subject

Next, let’s take a close up look at some of the key ingredients of the cookies she was baking. Here are some cherry and chocolate chips, mixed together in a bowl:

Cherry and Chocolate Chips

And another macro shot of some ground cinnamon and nutmeg (I think):

Grated Nutmeg and What

Here’s another ingredients shot. We’ve got a mix of walnuts, dried cherries and chocolate chips in a coffee mug:

Cherries Walnuts Chocolate Chips

And finally, a few images of the finished product:

Cookies to Cool

Cooling More Cookies

Cooling Cookie

And again, there are more photos in this set, so hop on over to my Flickr page to check them out! No, I didn’t help much with the preparation and baking of the cookies. In fact, I probably got in the way a lot. But when it came time to eat these tasty cookies, I was more than ready to offer my taste buds up for the challenge!

Now, on to shopping for a treadmill. . .

Another really simple post this time. Just wandered around the house and grabbed these images.

Here are two variations on the same photo of our cockatiel, Birdie.

Birdie Two

Birdie One

I like the top version better because I think the colors pop. Lori likes the bottom version better because she says it is softer. The bottom one is pretty much exactly as it came off the camera, after a bit of cropping.

Birdie was a “rescue” from a friend. Birdie had a run-in with one of their cats and was injured, so they decided she needed a new home. She has since fully recovered and can fly around just fine.

Here’s a photo of Lori preparing the evening meal. Red potatoes are my favorite, but I’m not a big fan of how she handles that knife.

Lori in the kitchen