Photos Of The Week – March 10

This is how I hopefully catch up on my 365 photos. Second post in 24 hours is my photos of the week for March 10th.

46/365 – Pep’s New Toy
Enjoying some time with an early Easter present from Grandma.

47/365 – It’s Electric!
A busy day that lacked subjects, all I had nearing bedtime was the electric fireplace on the porch.

48/365 – Take Off
Another shot of a Capital Cargo International Airlines 757 as it takes off from runway 22 at ROC.

49/365 – Fire In The Sky
The sun sets on yet another day I’ve spent at the ROC. I’m starting to notice a trend.

50/365 – Sunset Delivery
A Fed Ex MD-10 taxies after landing at the Greater Rochester International Airport.

51/365 – St. Paddy’s Parade
This is a photo of Barnard Fire Department Rescue 228 in the 36th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. Since I used my photo of Quint 560 from the Honeoye Falls Fire Dept. as my cover shot from the parade, I thought I would go with a different shot for my photo of the day.

52/365 – Moving Day
The day after the St. Patrick’s Day parade consisted of moving nearly 800 RAW photos from my memory card to my computer. That was step number 1 as the process of sorting, editing and uploading could only begin once the 13.5 GB of images were transferred. For the non-photographers out there, this is a small glimpse into why photographers charge what they do. The process merely begins when a picture is taken.

Photos of the week – February 24

The February 24th installment of Photos of the Week is only a few weeks late. Things have been staying busy here with not only my ‘day job’ but also home renovations and, perhaps most excitedly, my photography and design business! Tomorrow I will walking around downtown Rochester taking pictures of the St. Patrick’s Day parade and associated festivities. This is the first time in three years that I’ll be here as the last two years I was in Washington, D.C. and Savannah, GA. I’m excited enough that I even designed a business card just for the occasion. If you take part wherever you are, be safe and don’t overdo it (too much).

32/365 – Tomasz
February 24th. Exactly two months since two West Webster firefighters were murdered and two others were shot when they responded to a vehicle and house fire on Christmas Eve morning. This is a photo of the sticker on my firehouse locker honoring FF Tomasz Kaczowka, who was just 19 years old.

33/365 – Cappy 757
A Boeing 757 flown by Capital Cargo International Airlines takes off from ROC on February 25th. This shot was tough to capture given how dark it was but thanks to a great camera (and a timely flash by a nav light) you can see the plane amidst a slight panning effect.

34/365 – Helmet
More experimentation with the in-camera HDR. I have to admit I think it creates a great effect on some photos but its use by everyone with a camera lately turns me off a bit. In order to expand my horizons as a photographer though, I have been ‘cheating’ and playing around with the in-camera settings just to see what I end up with.

35/365 – The Deuce
A 30-second exposure of Rescue 2, a 2009 E-One Typhoon fire engine in service with the Greater Rochester International Airport Fire Department.

36/365 – Feeding Time
I had lunch with my brother on day 36 and since I was in the area, I thought I would check out the old Russell Station Power Plant and adjacent Slater Creek Fishing Access site to try to get my picture of the day. While I did get several of the plant that I felt were upload worthy, this picture of a swan searching for a snack while a bunch of Canada Geese pecked at the grass in the background was the ‘winner’.

37/365 – Flashing
Playing around with my new flash unit. Having never used an adjustable hot shoe flash before, I wanted to see how it would bounce off the side of a fire truck and reflect on bunker gear (anyone who has shot a fire scene before knows how difficult using flash can be with all the reflective material around). These photos were taken with the light in four different positions (L to R – straight on diffused, upper left, lower middle, and lower right) and you can see the different effect each position has. Not a bad introduction for me, now the sky is the limit! I also added the ‘wood’ frame in Photoshop.

38/365 – PFFFT!
Every once in a while when you’re sorting photos, you realize you’ve captured a moment in the heat of the action that you could not have planned. Every photographer possesses this skill (pure unadulterated luck!). I was simply taking some pictures of the girls playing on the patio and managed to catch Pepper taunting Bella a bit. Many of the photos my sweet puppies look absolutely vicious in, but this is too cute to not choose as my photo for day #38. This was a difficult day to properly expose two black dogs as the sun was shining harshly onto a  fresh coating of snow through a thin layer of clouds. Many of the shots were either over or underexposed a touch and required a bit more editing than I typically like to do. (Note: If you don’t see the awesomeness of this shot, look for a tongue)

Project 365 Photos 8-11

8/365 – Party Time!
A nice change of pace came around last week as we celebrated the retirement of a man who spent the last 30 years with the Airport FD after previously serving as a firefighter in the U.S. Air Force. Photo number eight is a collage of iPhone photos taken at his retirement party that shows many of our current members and retirees. This picture is more about the experience of the night than the quality of the snapshots. It was put together using an app called ‘Photo Collage Creator‘ for the iPad.

9/365 – Puppy Love
This is a picture of my two ‘kids’ Pepper and Bella. Bella is a 1½-year-old Rottweiler and Pepper is an almost 10-year-old mix of (we think) lab, border collie, and god knows what else. These two images were combined using an app called ‘Pic Stitch‘ that I purchased a frames upgrade for.

Note; Photos 10 and 11 were both taken on day 11. Sometimes with my schedule, inspiration doesn’t always find me so I may pause the project for a day or take two unrelated photos in a day to catch up.

#10/365 – Baby, It’s Cold Outside!
This one was taken while I was getting ready for work a couple of days ago. The lake effect snow was doing its thing once again and while my neighborhood was getting dumped on, just a half mile away was barely seeing any snow. I have heard meteorologists refer to it as ‘zip code snow’ because conditions can vary drastically from one side of the street to the other – literally. Lot of editing on this one but I like how it turned out.

#11/365 – Snow Cap(py)
Capital Cargo International Airlines (call sign ‘Cappy’) is one of the prominent cargo companies flying in and out of ROC. As they phase out their older aircraft we are seeing them fly their Boeing 757’s in on a regular basis. This particular one had some issues turning around in the snow and had to take a scenic route, but it provided a nice opportunity to get a nice head on shot. I just wish I’d had my Canon with me instead of ‘just’ my phone. Just is in quotes because my current phone has a better camera on it than many of the point and shoots I have owned over the years.