BioLab

Holly needed to go to her lab to set up some samples before dinner.

I started looking for interesting angles.

They say to get a better shot to go in closer so I tried and I agree, sometimes...

I thought this vacuum thing looked cool

This was actually the first image I saw but took the others first.

I thought these hoses would make for a better image. Not bad I suppose.

Holly doing her thing

This is great. I went across the shelf and focused through the containers and shot just as she looked up at me.

Then I was asked to take a few shots of the experiment so I did.

Check out the full Flickr set for a few additional pictures.

Portfolio

Here's a first look at my portfolio. I joined 500px because they now have a portfolio service/section. I uploaded some photos. I need to make it better but check it out while it's in it's infancy. jal316.500px.com

I may also move my domain to the portfolio once I have it setup and link this blog from there.

Rock Climbing

I went rock climbing at The Edge Rock Gym on Saturday. They have a few routes to climb at various levels of difficulty. I hadn't been rock climbing since a cruise I went on last year and that didn't turn out as well as I had hoped but I've lost some weight and I'm possibly in better shape and thought it'd be fun.

We got a day pass and did the instructional safety video. Once they did their safety check to confirm we could clip in to the auto-belay, we were on our own. I didn't have my camera but toward the end of the climbing day, I decided to get some pictures with my cell phone.

 Holly chalking up on the intermediate route

 This was one of the beginner routes but the overhang and small holds made it difficult for me.

We'll be going back again. It's a fun way to spend the day and a pretty good workout as well.

Beach walk. Is there a possible contest winner here?

I went to the beach with my girlfriend to walk her dog. I took my camera since it was a nice day. There were a lot of people by the area where we parked so I didn't want to be a creeper. A few blocks down, the beach cleared up and and we came across a nice sand castle.

One side had an Angry Birds scene

After I took a few shots of the sand castle, she let Jake, the dog, off the leash to run around.

Leash not on dog

I really like this image. I think I'm going to make a large print of it. 

There weren't many photos. I entered the last two in the FroKnowsPhoto photo of the month contest. The theme is "reflection" so let's hope they're chosen. 

See the entire 15 photo set on Flickr

Ellen's Graduation

Today I went to a friends graduation and a celebration dinner afterward. The ceremony was at the Veterans Memorial Arena so I didn't want to hassle with my camera bag. I decided to take my camera with my Sigma 17-50mm f2.8. It clearly wasn't long enough from where we were sitting. Examples in a bit..

Before arriving, I read on the FSCJ website that they had a city bus listing all the names of the graduates as a congratulations. I wanted to see it and it was pretty difficult to miss.

City bus wrapped with names of graduates

Close up of city bus names

Test shot of arena as graduates entered. I ended up liking it with this black and white edit.

An example of having the wrong lens. I used the big screen to take a closer picture of my friend as she walked on stage.

This was shot at 50mm from a long distance and cropped over 100%.

We trekked across the arena to meet the graduates as they left so Elin could give Ellen her flowers. The moment was captured but the shot was missed in my opinion. Two things went wrong. The hand in the way which I had some control over, and the focus mode was on single instead of servo or continuous.

After the ceremony, waiting for dinner, a little nap time.

Still napping. I tried to get the dogs eyes closed. Converted to B&W. I dropped the clarity to make it look slightly dreamy.

My lovely girlfriend relaxing under a blanket on the couch.

Gift time. It's not easy to shoot Ellen with a smile.

Another smile with her gift.

Arwen, an older cat didn't get along with the new kitties too well.

Final image of Ellen with her four foster kittens.

Although most images were posted, check out the full set over on Flickr

Golden Hour Ducks

AdoramaPix.com has a deal running through Sunday, May 5th for 25% off their aluminyzed metal prints. I ordered one of these for a gift and they are spectacular. While looking through my photos to choose another one to print, I found a set from November which I'd like to share.

I went the the park near my house just as the sun was starting to set. I found some ducks swimming in the lake/pond and followed them for about 30 mins just shooting and watching them.

Cropped panorama

I'm not sure if this is my favorite of the next one.

Duck silhouettes or Ducklhouettes

Ducks at the park pond

I also shot a few photos of what I intended to shoot that day, the sunset over the water. I see why it's called golden hour.

Check out the full set on Flickr Golden Hour at the park with friendly ducks

Miami Heat vs Chicago Bulls 4/14/2013

The Miami Heat second round playoff tickets went on sale yesterday. The first game is Monday so I won't be able to go even if I had some tickets magically appear. However, the event prompted me to share my experience from a few weeks ago when I went to a game.

We drove down to Miami Saturday morning and arrived in the early evening. We drove down to South Beach for dinner. We walked around and decided to eat at this place, which I don't know what it's called.

View from nameless eatery

The meals were good: 

After dinner we walked around and found a huge stage setup on the beach with music. It turned out there was a Gay Pride Parade the next day and this was the pregame. We had to check it out so we went in and got some pictures and a video. It was quite dark though so the results weren't great.

Gay Pride Event

We didn't stay long. We walked around for a while and I shot some photos. We found an artist selling really nice pieces made of palm.. leaves? Anyway, he had a dog that was pretty cool.

Dog

Mc Alpin Hotel

End Homelessness parking meter

On Sunday we drove down to the American Airlines Arena and walked over to Bayside for some breakfast/lunch. We had an expensive burger that wasn't all that good but it did the trick. We walked back to the AAArena and waited for my uncle who was meeting us there. When he arrived, we rushed in and were walking across the arena while the National Anthem was sung. We got to our seats just in time to watch the player introductions.

The game was fun. My uncle was shown on the big screen during one of the timeouts. Fortunately, I was recording the only video I shot all day on my phone at the time. Unfortunately, I got excited and didn't record the big screen.

Heat Game

I couldn't take my camera so I don't have any photos other than this one of the American Airlines Arena from the parking lot.

Kittens!

Sunday was game day at my friends Joanna and Jacob's apartment. I bought Jenga to play. Ellen took her 4 week old kittens that she's fostering so we mostly just played with them all day.

Kittens!

This kitten was playing but it looks like he was angry

The circle of life?

Full Kitten Flickr Set