Jan 31 - Sweetheart

Someone Emily knows gave us a bag of conversation hearts. I thought they might make a good subject.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor Micro 60
60mm FL
F/11
Shutter 0.6 Sec

Jan 30 - Flat Stanley Helps Out at the Fish Market

My niece from TN sent us a Flat Stanley to take around town and take pictures. Even though this one is more of a snap shot and less planned, I wanted to include it because the guys at the Fish Market were really enthusiastic at helping us out.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85mm
32mm FL
F/16
Shutter 1/4 sec

Jan 29 - Candice Gets Punchy

I busted out the camera when my friend Candice was over. She got all punchy at the thought of being photographed.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
75mm FL
F/7.1
Shutter 1/3 sec

Jan 28 - Office Duck Checks Himself Out

There are a pair of ducks that do the rounds at our office. They show up every week or so for part of the morning then take off. I am pretty sure they just rotate building to building looking for handouts. When anyone comes out of the doors the waddle up and stand in front of them quacking, until they realize that they aren't getting anything, then they waddle away.

I caught the mallard checking himself out in the reflection of the window.

Two alternates on Flickr

Stas:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 70-300 VR
180mm FL
F/7.1
1/25 Shutter

Jan 27 - Buddhafest!

I wasn't able to put a lot of thought and effort into the photo as I'm pretty incoherent due to my lack of sleep. However, the idea jumped out to me to do a shot of some of my Buddha collection. I used our woven Indian table runner for a backdrop.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
48mm FL
f/18
Shutter 20 sec

Jan 26 - Who Needs Sleep?

I have not been able to sleep for going on 4 days now. I've been subsisting on a buffet of pills and bad food. This sparked me to use this as a subject for one of the photos.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
85mm FL
F/10
Shutter 1/3 Sec

Jan 25 - Gravestone - Black and White

There's a tiny old graveyard near my house in Redmond. What's drawn my attention is it's the only one nearby that has standing stones. I was surprised at how old some of them were. I took this with the sun coming from behind the stone with a plan to convert to black and white.

I assure you this isn't a morbid trend :)

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
30mm FL
F/9
Shutter 1/60

Jan 24 - Salvadore - Black and White

A few years back my good friends Brian and Candice got me this Dia del los Muertos mariachi figure. I have since named him Salvadore. I thought I'd play around with different lighting, so I went into a dark room and used two candles for a main and side light. After converting it to black and white, I really liked the thin light "halo" around the side of his head and brim of his hat on the shadow side.

An alternate color pic from the set is on Flickr.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
56mm FL
F/7.1
Shutter 2 seconds

Jan 23 - Alixavia

This is a picture I took of my goddaughter Alixavia when we met her and her parents Kristeanna and Jennine for dinner. I really liked the warm tone I got on this one due to the lights at our table. I decided not to change the white balance on it.

3 more up on Flickr.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
75MM FL
F/5
Shutter 1/25

Jan 22 - Piano

I took this photo of my wife's piano with the intention of converting it to black and white.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
56mm FL
F/8
Shutter 1/2 second

Jan 21 - Guinness

I was out to dinner with my wife and we went to a local Irish pub style joint in Redmond. I had myself a Guinness and since we were sitting at a smaller table, it had a built in checkerboard. I thought I'd take advantage of it to get a cool reflection in the glass.


There is an alternate Black and White version on the Flickr site.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
50mm FL
F/3.5
Shutter 1/10

Jan 20 - Campus Trees

I wasn't terribly inspired but I took a walk since we were having a nice sunny day. I took this shot in a preserved wooded section of our work campus. I like how the sun through the trees turned out.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
24mm FL
F/8
Shutter 1/100

Jan 19 - Go

I set up my Go board to play around with Macro, Depth of Field, and White Balance. I liked the disorienting nature of the in focus and out of focus portions on this one.

Two more are on the Flickr site.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor Micro 60mm
60mm FL
F/9
Shutter 1.3

Jan 18 - Larsen Lake Blueberry Farm

We had a rare clear day and I took a drive out to a local u-pick blueberry farm in Bellevue. The ground was a little too marshy to make it near the lake, but I did get a few nice shots of the bushes starting to come back to life with the greenery in the background.

There's an alternate shot up on Flickr.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85mm + Circular Polarizer
32mm FL
f/8
Shutter 1/80

Jan 17 - Totem Pole at Beaver Lake

Another park near my house in Sammamish (Beaver Lake) had this great totem pole. I tried to do it justice with the angles I used. I liked the grey skies in the background but may try again when we have a little more blue, like in May.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
24mm FL
F/6.3
Shutter 1/100

Jan 16 - Brian

Every year my friend Brian has his birthday at a local Mexican place. They always bring out a sombrero for him. I thought I'd snap a little candid shot of him while we were enjoying the festivities.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
66mm FL
f/4
Shutter 1/200

Jan 15 - Bar in Seattle

My friends John and Aine took me out to a tiny neighborhood bar near their place around Broadway. It was pretty small but had a great vibe. The place was pretty much full of locals only. I tried to capture a bit of the feeling with the colors and the mood of the photo.

Another photo up on Flickr of John and Aine.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
28mm FL
F/4
Shutter 1/20

Jan 14 - Driving

My commute on a typical rainy Washington afternoon. Don't worry I wasn't driving that fast, the longer shutter speed and wide apeture makes it look more impressive than it is.

I have 3 more up on the Flickr site.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
FL 24mm
f/22
Shutter 1/5

Jan 13 - Brewster and Harvey

I figure I need to get a photo of the dogs in here eventually. I promise I won't overuse them as models. Brewster is the darker brown dog and Harvey is the tan. Both are rescues and are Shar Pei mixes. Nearest we can figure, Harvey is a Lab mix and Brewster is a Chow mix. I under exposed this one a little bit on purpose.

Up on Flickr I also have another shot of Harvey, and a shot I took of a neighbor's treehouse but I didn't like how it turned out enough to use it as this day's post.
Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
85mm FL
f/8
Shutter 1/60

Jan 12 - Teacup

I thought I'd do some macro practice. My mom used to collect teacups and my sister and I split them after she passed away. I took this one using a fleece hoodie as the backdrop. There's a second one with a less artsy angle on the Flickr site.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor Micro 60mm
60mm FL
f/16
Shutter 6

Jan 11 - Rope Bridge

This is a rope bridge from a play structure I shot at a local park in Bellevue, WA. I shot this for an online photo assignment from Nikonians (the subject was Symmetry). I really liked how the colors and DOF turned out on this one.

I also have one alternate up on Flickr of another climbing structure.


Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
34mm FL
F/5.6
Shutter 1/30

Jan 10 - Pine Lake Panorama

You may want to click the flickr link below to see a larger size.



Larger: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhelgren/4281509513/sizes/o/in/set-72157623228380462/

This was my first attempt at a panoramic shot. I did this at Pine Lake park near my house in Sammamish, WA. When shooting I panned about 15 degrees between each shot and pieced it together in Photoshop Elements. The colors aren't quite what I'd like them to be as it was a bit of an overcast morning.

Stats
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
75mm FL
F/10
Shutter 1/80

Jan 9 - Ariana at a Park

This is a shot of one of the girls that my wife nannys (is that a real verb?). We had taken them to a play area at a local mall and I did some candid portraits of them. I had 3 I really liked this day of her and her sister. The rest are up on the Flickr site.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
80mm FL
F/4
Shutter 1/400

Jan 8 - Pool Table in the Commons

There is an area at my job that has restaraunts, activites and other amusements called The Commons. This is a shot taken of one of the pool tables there. The red felt grabbed my eye as I was waiting for a friend to join me for lunch.

Stats:
Nikon D700
Nikkor 24-85
85mm FL
F/4
Shutter 1/4

Procrastination

So I planned to start my photo a day on Jan 1 but I got wrapped up in life as we all do. I finally got rolling on Jan 8th, so I will end up 1 week into the New Year when I finish up.

I'm only picking one photo per day, but I will post any extra photos from that day I really liked on my Flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhelgren/sets/72157623228380462/

Not every photo will be an attempt at something art worthy. Some will just be shots of my daily life. I hope you enjoy these (and sorry to any friends who end up in here :) )