I almost didn’t show this picture. Really, there isn’t anything close to remarkable about its composition, lighting, etc. But, like many photos that are true ‘keepers’, it has a certain honesty to it and has a fun memory for me.

While writing this post (I often write the night before and set them to post the following day), I heard my son (the same in the photo) fall out of bed, still fairly soundly asleep. After making sure he was okay and tucking him back in, I decided I had to show this picture from a few weeks ago. He was so excited to go out with my family one day, he got his coat on and while waiting, fell sound asleep.

I love ya Zach!

A little nostalgia for this week’s image. It is a picture of our first daughter (she’s now 5). Click the photo for a larger view. This was shot in all natural light, with a 5MP point and shoot (5 years ago, that was a fairly pricey camera!).

Searching for landscape photos seems to be a theme for me recently. This is another locale I’d really like to shoot at – the slot canyons just outside Page, Arizona. Click the image for the full shot at Flickr.

Not suprisingly, this week’s image is of our new daughter, Isabelle. We were working on trying to place her in a situation that shows how small she is – in this case, in a doll basonet, among other dolls (belonging to our older daughters). Click on the image for a larger view.

Shot Specs

Canon 40D, 70-200 2.8L lens at 90 mm, ISO 100, f11, 1/60 sec. Main flash camera left. Second, fill flash above and to right. I desaturated the dolls a bit to help create focus on Isabelle and added a vignette around the edges.

This week’s favorite Flickr photo is courtesy of my own images on Flickr. I don’t think it’s one of the best shots I’ve ever taken, but I really like it for one reason.

I marked its location with a GPS and geotagged the photo (see a more in-depth post on mapping geotagged photos here). If you click on the photo, or click here, you’ll see the photo placed on the map at the exact location I took it. Or, if you click here, you can see my photo, with other geotagged photos taken in the same area. For travel or landscape photographers, this is a very cool feature!

This week’s image is of one of my favorite pastimes, Legos! It is meant primarily as an example/answer to some questions I’ve received recently.

When I sent the photo of my new daughter out (this one here), I’ve had more than 1 person comment about how good I’m getting with Photoshop. My answer? I didn’t use Photoshop for anything but adding the text. The same goes for this helicopter. With the exception of a slight crop, this had ZERO post-processing work done. The pure white background and reflection were done in the camera. I used a white paper background with a flash pointed at it and set the helicopter on top of a piece of plexiglass, which was sitting on top of a black matboard.

While Photoshop is an amazing tool – and while I use it very regularly – I’d MUCH rather get it right in the camera. Removing backgrounds and other similar tasks can be time consuming when done after the shot. In the time it took me to set up the shot of my daughter, or this helicopter, I could have removed one background. In both cases, though, I was able to take many pictures, all with the background just the way I wanted them.

So, the point I’m trying to make is: Get it as close as you can in the camera. Photoshop should be used for doing things that couldn’t be easily done in camera.

Picture details: Canon 40D, 70-200 2.8L lens at 135mm, f8, 1/60sec, 100ISO