A reminder of my garden in the summer of 2007
Friday, March 28, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Car Troubles
We are GLAD to get home safe and sound. Thank the Lord for his care this trip! For this past week, the children had spring break. We therefore traveled back to our parents in Centerville/Numa, Iowa. Spring melt was in full swing. The roads were muddy ruts and would cause your vehicle to lurch one way or the other. On the way to church on Sabbath, our minivan lurched to the side, out of the rut and into the ditch. This left us with the passenger side tires in the ditch and the undercarriage resting on grass.
Becky called her dad who brought his truck to pull us out. In the midst of the soppy muddy muck, I spread hay from the back end of his truck on the ground. I then put my Carhart coat on top of it. I--in my suit--then knelt down and wrapped the chain around my left front tire. In the process of trying to pull out the first time, the chain came undone, slipped off and hooked and broke my brake line. When I knelt done to hook it up again, I noticed a line dripping brake fluid in the mud! Uh oh!
On Monday, I had a local place order the part, which came in on Tuesday. Tony put my van on his lift and changed the brake line for me. Thanks Tony!
On Wednesday morning, I went out to start our truck that we had brought with us. It wouldn't start and come to find out, the alternator had went out. Jason and Keith helped take it off. I ordered a new one which came in Thursday morning and Jason installed it. It worked! Thanks Jason!
On the way home, the trailer that we were using to transport the 4-wheeler blew out on the edge of interstate. So I took the tire off. Fortunately, the Lord provided a place to put on a new tire just a few miles away. Then we were off!
As we pulled into Rochester, I noticed my pickup was overheating. By the time I got home and pulled into the garage, it had boiled over... I think a thermostat or radiator may now be in my future. As I said at the beginning, I'm just happy to be back home and done traveling for a bit!
The lesson that I taught Natalie though was one of optimism. I believe the Lord allowed these things to happen in the most convenient locations. What if we had been on the interstate when my alternator went out? At the beginning of our trip we asked him to give us a safe trip and He did. No photos for this long winded post!
Becky called her dad who brought his truck to pull us out. In the midst of the soppy muddy muck, I spread hay from the back end of his truck on the ground. I then put my Carhart coat on top of it. I--in my suit--then knelt down and wrapped the chain around my left front tire. In the process of trying to pull out the first time, the chain came undone, slipped off and hooked and broke my brake line. When I knelt done to hook it up again, I noticed a line dripping brake fluid in the mud! Uh oh!
On Monday, I had a local place order the part, which came in on Tuesday. Tony put my van on his lift and changed the brake line for me. Thanks Tony!
On Wednesday morning, I went out to start our truck that we had brought with us. It wouldn't start and come to find out, the alternator had went out. Jason and Keith helped take it off. I ordered a new one which came in Thursday morning and Jason installed it. It worked! Thanks Jason!
On the way home, the trailer that we were using to transport the 4-wheeler blew out on the edge of interstate. So I took the tire off. Fortunately, the Lord provided a place to put on a new tire just a few miles away. Then we were off!
As we pulled into Rochester, I noticed my pickup was overheating. By the time I got home and pulled into the garage, it had boiled over... I think a thermostat or radiator may now be in my future. As I said at the beginning, I'm just happy to be back home and done traveling for a bit!
The lesson that I taught Natalie though was one of optimism. I believe the Lord allowed these things to happen in the most convenient locations. What if we had been on the interstate when my alternator went out? At the beginning of our trip we asked him to give us a safe trip and He did. No photos for this long winded post!
Thomasson Sisters 2008
Taken with a Nikon D80.
* Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200) [+]
* Aperture: f/8 [+]
* Focal Length: 50 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 200 [+]
Strobist info: SB-800 (M 1/2) through a shoot through 43" white satin umbrella at camera left. SB-600 (M 1/8) Camera right reflected off ceiling for small amount of fill. Flashes triggered via Nikon CLS/AWS.
I had taken the week of for the kids spring break. We stayed with Tony and Krista Andersen. One day when we were all at Keith and Debbi Thomasson's place, Debbi asked me to photograph all her daughters. It was a good opportunity since it can be hard to get everyone together at once.
I ran back to Tony's place to get my umbrella and flash setup. We positioned in the TV room. A quilt was hung up behind them. I took off my 85mm f/1.4 lens and put on my 50mm f/1.8 lens so I could get everyone in the frame. I set my exposure first for f/8 to try and achieve a deep depth of field focus. I then set my shutter speed to maximum flash synch speed of 1/200 sec. I turned my ISO down to 200 so that the end result was a completely black frame so that ambient light did not contribute to the photo. I then added the flashes to the photo and adjust power output to my desired level.
After a few photos, we decided on this closer crop view. Some manipulation in Photoshop was needed for levels. I also edited out the background quilt and did some small facial retouching. Color balancing as well was carried out.
For a spur of the moment photo, I like the result. I haven't asked any of the sisters yet what they think ... hopefully they will like it too!
Pictured are: (Back Row) Krista Andersen, Julie Abrahamson, Brenda Sleeth. (Front Row) Becky Christensen, Terri Erickson.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Natalie with hair cut
Taken with a Nikon D80.
* Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400) [+]
* Aperture: f/1.4 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 100 [+]
Taken just moments before leaving for church. I had her step in front of the window, and I set up my umbrella on camera left for fill light. Becky had fixed her hair this morning.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Blue Evening Sunset
Tonight the Sun was dancing in and out from behind the clouds. Occasional sprinkles of rain came down. I stepped out for a few minutes and photographed a variety of views including this one. Ugh, I think I mildly burned my right eye from looking through the view finder when taking the pictures. My eye is hurting and aching a bit now... just so you know if you see me walking around with a patch over my eye.
Taken with a Nikon D80.
* Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1600) [+]
* Aperture: f/10 [+]
* Focal Length: 18 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 200 [+]
Maxine and the great-grandkids
When we went to Atlantic, Ia for my Grandma Cora Kaiser's funeral, we stopped by Grandma Maxine's house for the evening. Here the kids sit on the couch for a photo.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
My photogenic wife - Becky
Taken with a Nikon D80.
* Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400) [+]
* Aperture: f/2.8 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 160 [+]
Strobist info: SB-800 into 43' umbrella camera right in shoot-through mode. About 1 1/2 feet away from her face. SB-600 on tripod zoomed at 75mm setting camera left even with her. This is providing the hair/shoulder light.
I like the soft wrap around light from the umbrella in shoot through mode. We spent about an hour taking photographs. This was the one that we both liked the most. I've spent some time using Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop CS3 for editing. I think I'll have 12x18" print made.
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