Photos of the sky with my new lens

In the fall, I finally got my brand new Bower 650-1300mm lens. Did some photos with it but really got some great photos during the full moon that I was really shocked with. Also I got some nice photos of the night sky with my Tamron 70-300 lens. I thought since it was the end of 2012, now would be a great time so share these photos.

 This was a great photo of the moon. I was able to photograph this shoot from my patio. I of course was on a tripod since the lens was so long and since I was shoot long exposure, I need a nice tripod to hold everything steady.

This photo here was of a plane as it was flying across the sky. Don't know why the lights of the plane are so in the shape of a "Y"

I like this photo since it shows a lot of the stars in the night sky out here where I live. There are times that living in the country does in turn pay off for certain times during the year. Hope come 2013 I can get a photo of the moon with ring around it indicating snow on the way Wishing you all a happy new year

Shuttle Fly Over

      During the early Spring, this year people in the New York/New Jersey were treated to a special event. All of us in that area were treated to the Shuttle flying over the Hudson River. Since this was such an historic event, I could not pass it up, so I drove to Liberty State Park and searched out for what I believed was the best spot and I found that right next to the docks for the ferries.

     While I was testing different spot I happened to be looking at the skyline of downtown Manhattan, and decided to get a nice Panoramic of it with the sun rising behind the new Freedom Tower (file is too big to upload but it is a nice photo). Well I also took some photos of Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and the Freedom Towers

    

       Here is a photo of the lovely Lady Liberty during the morning. I couldn't go to this and not take her photo even if it is from of to the side. (on a sidenote there was a professional there that had a very nice lens that  got so close to the statue that you could see each rivet)


   Focus Length-->300mm
   Aperture--> F/5.6
   Shutter Speed-> 1/1600sec

    Here is the brand new Freedom Tower as it still is being built. I can not wait to go back and see the building is completed standing there in its glory telling the world that we can and will rebuild. Focus Length-116mm Aperture-F/10 Shutter Speed--1/200

    Of course here is Ellis Island. This building was the start of a new life for many people who came to this country. Of course when people take this photo is it usually in color but I wanted to go unique so I have a photo in Sepia tone to give it that old style look. But the one I'm using here is the Black and White style since I feel that this is a great style to use. It still gives that old style look

   Focus Length-170mm
  Aperture-F/5.6
  Shutter Speed-1/2000sec

 Then it was time for the shuttle to start its flyover of the Hudson River. The only problem was the shuttle couldn't be as low as it was planned due to the wind that was coming off the river. But I was still able to get a lot of good photos.

Focal Length-300mm
Aperture-F/11
Shutter Speed-1/500sec

   This shot was great since the Shuttle had almost fully leveled itself out to fly up the Hudson. Also the way the clouds are wispy.

 Focal length-300mm
Aperture-F/11
Shutter Speed-1/500sec

 The Final picture of day came as the shuttle was making its final run towards the airport to be unloaded and moved to the Intrepid Museum. I like this since you get some nice buildings in it which shows how low the ship was flying. Also this was a picture I sent into News12 and they showed it in their news broadcast from 7:30PM till 11:30PM. It was awesome to see that they liked the photo to use it on the broadcast.
 Focal Length-170mm Aperture- F/11 Shutter Speed--1/500sec

Unique Photo's Camera show from the summer

       Over the summer Unique Photo which is located in Fairfield, NJ is a great place to go for any camera gear. But they are not only just camera gear, they also host classes to better expand one's knowledge of photography. During the summer Unique hosted a major camera show where many people and vendors showed up. They also had a bunch of classes and workshop for a very reasonable price.

      I went and did one workshop because to me it was interesting to do and of course since I'm a guy, it had some beautiful models. It was all about getting the right kind of photographs with women in bikinis. This workshop was taught by Lou Freeman and she gave some great advice on how to get the best photo with different lighting and also backgrounds to use.

    First photo is showing where the event was and also it has Lou Freeman in it getting ready to start her class.

 This whole event was set up outside so we could use natural lighting (basically the sun). They even set up a small pool to use too. Here was the one model who was in the pool. She was a great one to work with and very easy going.

shot this at  a focal length of 55mm F-stop of 8 with shutter speed of 1/200sec

     One of the background that Lou was having us use was basically the wall of the store which had a great texture to it. Everyone though was shooting it straight on and I looked and said lets go on an angel to photograph this. I am actually glad that I went and did that since these two photos came out really well.

  The photo on the right was a focal length of 34mm F-stop of 7.1 with shutter speed of 1/200sec

   The bottom photo was focal length of 5mm F-stop of 7.1 shutter speed of 1/200sec

 Focal length 38mm
F-stop was 10
shutter speed 1/200sec

 This was a blast to work with...her personality was one of the best and she was really easy going. The top photo was her against the building while using a reflector shield to get the light to bounce around her giving such a great aurora.

Random photos of animals

         This post will all be about some animals that I have come across. A lot of times you can get a great photo from an animal but since most are wild, one would need to be very careful when photographing certain ones. If the animal is your pet then it won't be that bad, but if you are in the plains of Africa getting close to animals would not be the best of an idea.

       This is a great close up of a grasshopper. I had just gotten my new Tamron 70-300mm lens and was excited to try it out. I was walking around the parking lot when I noticed this grasshopper and felt compelled to take a photo.
      I shot this photo at 300m with an F-stop of 5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/500sec. I think seeing the pebbles of the pavement gives a nice contrast.

The next couple of photos show a life in a deer.

      This was a great time. Where I live is basically a walkway for the animals to go from the wildlife preserve to the lake. So I get to see a variety of animals at any given time. But by far the best would have to be the deer that walk through the yard. 

 Here is two from different angles of 2 different bucks that came in our backyard. Both of these shots were taken at 300mm with an F-stop of 5.6. The bottom one actually blurred out the background which made it more like a portraits.

 Here is a fawn that was running around the yard during the late spring to early summer. this was also shot at 300mm since i was on my back patio, with an F-stop of  5.6 with shutter speed of 1/400sec

 Late in the summer to early spring, the buck has his antlers growing in but the fuzz is still attached to them. As you look at this buck when the fuzz finally fell off he was a 7 point buck. Focus Length was 300mm F-stop was 5.6 with shutter speed of  1/320sec

      Here is a photo of the shadow that my cat had on the door. It was very late afternoon and I felt like this could be a cool photo to show a shadow. Focus Length was 48mm F-stop of 5.3 and shutter speed of 1/2000.

NASCAR Preseason Thunder

          In just a couple of weeks all the NASCAR teams and even the fans will descend upon Daytona International Speedway for testing the new "Gen6" cars at a plate track. The last couple years I have been attending this wonderful event, and have been able to get many autographs.

        The last couple years Teams have been allowed to test of the track since NASCAR started to loosen on its strict hold of where teams were allowed to test. Below are some photos that I have from last years testing. I used my Nikon D3100 with a Tamron 70-300mm lens and I set it up on a monopod to steady myself

         During the start of the 2012 Season, AJ Allmendinger was the driver for Roger Penske's #22 Shell Dodge. Here is a photo of AJ out on the track doing some single car runs.

        I took this photo at a focal length of 195mm with an aperture of F/5 with shutter speed of 1/1250sec which frozen everything.

 Since the testing started early in the morning most drivers had to run and eat their breakfast. Case in point with Clint Bowyer walking to his garage stall with a cup of coffee.

     The plus side that makes Daytona worth wild to head to for most fans is not only that it starts the season off with the most prestigious race of the year but that all the teams and drivers are easily accessible in the garage.

    As in case here is Danica Patrick's ride easily seen from the window that looks into her garage. Sorry for the reflection.

 These couple of photos are of more cars on the track doing single car runs to see how fast they are so they will have a baseline setup for when the teams come back in February. The one thing about Daytona is that single car runs are not the norm for the track but it works in qualifying.

 Of course included had to be two of my favorite drivers since I'm a huge fan of Hendrick Motorsports. Top photo is Jeff Gordon with his new sponsor and Jummie Johnson

 During the testing teams basically will try to get all of the haulers they bring to be lined up next to each other so it will be easier to discuss certain setups with out having to walk to different sections. This photos shows that with all the Joe Gibbs Racing haulers sitting next to each other

 New drivers with their new teams. The top photo is Kasey Kahne driving now for Hendrick Motorsports with Farmers Insurance as his primary sponsor. Below is Ricky Stenhouse Jr. making his first start in the Sprint Cup series in the #6 car with Ford as his sponsorship

This last photo shows the cars working on the as people called it "2-car Tango" 

Rutgers Scarlett Knight vs. Louisville Cardinals (BCS implications)

College Football at its finest in the BIG EAST CONFERENCE.

       On a cold November day, two powerhouses in the Big East went to battle. The teams were Rutgers Scarlett Knights and the Louisville Cardinals, and this was a prime time game that would decide who would get the BIG EAST BCS BERTH.

     I went to the game with Unique Photo and was able to photograph the pregame warm-up from the field which was a great feeling. But even before we were led down to the field there was a lot of pre-game activity happening.

 Of course when you go to most sporting events, one of the first photos to do is get the panoramic photo or even a fisheye of where you are at

 As stated earlier in the blog, this game was broadcast on ESPN so all of the USA was able to watch these two teams that never get any respect

 The student section as the fans slowly file into the stadium for what they were hoping would be a great night. What is great about these two photos is the way some fans were dressed for the weathers and others were not.

 Of course when you go to a sporting event one of the photos that need to be taken is to show who is playing. (depending on sport it could be anything from hats to uniform to mascots)

Louisville Players doing a light jog.

 Here is a wide out from the Rutgers team during the warmups trying to get the fans to be louder then they were already at that point. He wanted the stadium to bounce

 When Rutgers scores a Touchdown and at the start of a home game they will light the cannon to have it go off. The top picture was just after National Anthem and I missed that flames but after the only touchdown that Rutgers really scored was the perfect opportunity and i was able to get the cannon as the flames erupted from it