April 2008 Archives

Headstomp, originally uploaded by stevevoght.

A group of male wild turkeys living in La Conner, WA started brawling as we were walking past them last Sunday. Luckily I had my camera with me, so I was able to get some interesting shots of the action. Click the picture to check out the gallery. (Also, Wild Turkey is a new species for the birdspotting list!)

Designer Impostor, originally uploaded by stevevoght.

Many, many photos to upload in the near future as my backlog grows due to several familial visitations over a short span. Click the image above to see my set from the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.  Coming soon, more Discovery Park adventures, more Montlake Fill adventures, more Commodore Park adventures, Skagit wildlife adventures, Lake Sammamish, some Tacoma adventures...

Born of a fluke occurrence as I was in the process of creating a composite image of Jasper hanging from a power line (in an attempt to spoof a picture I'd seen online... long story)

Behold, Catzilla (click to enlarge):

I'm imagining a photo series theme of "Jasper versus the world" or similar. Stay tuned...

Christmas Cactus macros, originally uploaded by stevevoght.

My Christmas cactus is somewhat confused about the calendar. It regularly blooms every season, and right now is no exception -- there are a good dozen flower buds on the window-facing side of the plant, with one bud that burst into bloom yesterday. This gave me an opportunity to test out my macro set-up before heading out into the field. There's nothing fancy about this rig -- it's just a $10 reversing ring and my regular 50mm lens, my junky old tripod, and the SB-600 flash remotely triggered wirelessly by the nifty built-in features of the D80.

A better tripod (or true macro lens) would probably go a long way toward dealing with some focusing issues I had, but given the cost of those items compared to the minor limitations of a reversing ring (focusing is done entirely by changing the distance between the camera and the subject) things came out decently. Of course, I certainly wouldn't want to photograph moving objects! Check out the full set by clicking the picture.

Tom Brosseau at Sonic Boom on Capitol Hill, originally uploaded by stevevoght.

Tom Brosseau gave a free in-store performance at Sonic Boom Records in Capitol Hill on Friday. Here are a few shots from that event (plus one stray picture from the Matthew Good show), taken from a lousy vantage point with audience members and microphones in the way of many shots. Live and learn, and find a better vantage point next time!

Cherry and path in the Quad, originally uploaded by stevevoght.

The cherries are in blossom in the UW Quad, so there are about ten million photos being taken. Here's my set, taken yesterday. This is the second set to be processed from RAW images, and although I've resolved my issues with the bluish tint, I've still got a little work to do in order to bring out the colors more crisply and robustly. As usual, click the image to go to the gallery at Flickr.