Some of My Favorite Shots, And the Stories Behind Them

As I have taken MANY shots over the years, especially since going digital in 2003 (in earnest in late 2004), it's hard to narrow down a list of favorites and "greatest hits," and this post is NOT meant to do that. This is just a post of some of my noteworthy shots, most of them relatively recent, and the stories behind them. I chose 5.

You can click on any image to view it more full-sized.

My Best Shot Ever, Flagstaff AZ, October 2nd 2005

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It's an older shot (October 2005, 6½ years ago at the time I'm posting this) but I included it because I consider this the best shot I've ever taken in my entire life, and because I had to be a bit persistent, maybe even ugly, to my own mother in order to get it.

It was the last months of our time in Tucson Arizona. I had just purchased a Nikon D50 DSLR kit 2 weeks earlier, having sold my 1st DSLR the Canon Digital Rebel. My mother was visiting, and we went on a tour of northern Arizona--Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, and Sedona.

This was somewhere near Flagstaff, we just ran into this particular area. You drove off the road down this path to go to a hiking park from where you would then check out the facilities. While driving down the path, I saw this--and IMMEDIATELY ordered my mother to pull over, I saw a killer shot. She did not want to (she's never really supported my photo-taking endeavors, but I won't elaborate on that for now), she insisted that once we parked we could take plenty of photos there. My reply: "me myself, I'm here to take photos, that's the whole PURPOSE of this trip--well, I just saw a photo." Besides, we weren't holding anyone up behind us.

She pulled over.

I snapped this, 1/90 second f/11 ISO 200, in Fine-Large JPEG (I only had two 512 megabyte cards at the time and no laptop, and we were on the road). I did absolutely no edits to the shot at all. I nailed it--composition, the horizon wasn't crooked, the colors were perfect. This was only the 2nd shot I took from that vantage point, in a matter of a few seconds.

I've gone through too much (elaborated on my personal story page) to let anything stop me when I see a shot. Sometimes, you've just got to scream at your parents even if they are the ones driving, they're bossy and you're 6 hours from home. This photo hangs in our house as a 13x19, and deservedly so. For a long time, in fact, I wasn't satisfied with any other images I was taking, because I felt as if I had "peaked too early" with this shot & could never again match it. I may not have, but I've come close, and besides, I live to try again another day.

Never Leave Your Camera at Home--The Cliffs, Lindale TX, August 2011

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Last year a new place called "The Cliffs" in Lindale Texas, a cliff-diving swimming hole, opened to the public. My brother-in-law & I, both of us watersports fanatics, are absolutely enamored with the place.

At this time, our "everyday" camera, the camera we always took with us, was a Nikon D3000 10mp dSLR with an 18-105 lens. We took with us almost everywhere, and we had it with us today.

Good thing.

We were at the "second hole," with me on a flat area, with the other side well above me, and we had been there quite awhile and were packing to leave. I was very ready to go. I was putting away my camera and grabbing wads of clothes etc, totally in "let's go" mode, when I looked up and saw this.

We didn't leave quite just yet, as I started putting things down to free my arms up to quickly pull the camera out & put the settings in RAW mode (normally that camera was in Normal-Large JPEG since it was used more "everyday"). I fired off several shots, this was the best one (I believe it was the last one). I edited it in Nikon View NX2 and Photoshop CS, 1/40 second f/8 ISO 200 (how did I prevent blur at 1/40 second when I was zoomed-in to 150mm?).

I've since sold the D3000/18-105 kit for an Olympus E-PL1 that's even smaller & even more capable (if you can work with its non-DSLR type of body), which leads to shots such as this next one....

The Everyday Becomes Transformed By a Fog Outbreak, Feb 14th 2012

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Fog shots have always fascinated me somewhat. On this day, a day when my daughter Helen had to be awoken by 6:40 a.m. to get aboard the bus taking her to school, the crisp autumn foggy atmosphere beckoned me to board my bicycle with my newly reacquired Olympus E-PL1, my "mini DSLR" as I call it, to see what awaited me.

I had to work fast, as my wife would be leaving for work within an hour & I'd then be "home-bound" with the kids. I pedaled down CR 138, which is within ½ a mile of my house, with my Olympus E-PL1 strapped to my shoulder to see what awaited me. Down "Reid Switch Road" (basically CR 138 "continued") near CR 136 intersects is a railroad track & a small marshy pond-like body of water which I figured would be very photogenic what with the fog surrounding it.

Turns out the railroad track was, to me anyway, the most photogenic of them all.

I worked as fast as I could while trying to prevent a sense of urgency from surrounding this shoot, which was a delicate and calm of an environment as one could ask for, and I wanted to capture the essence of it as such.

I must've--many people who've seen this call it one of their favorites.

Shot in RAW+ JPEG, processed the RAW file in Lightroom 3 & Photoshop CS. Used the "original" 14-42mm kit lens (at 15mm) before I upgraded it to the 14-42mm II MSC. 1/30 second at f/11, ISO 640. (Pretty good ISO 640 noise characteristics from this sensor--not as good as the D5100 I now own, but about as good as the D5000 I owned at the time.)

Letting a Child BE A Child, & Have your Camera With You--March 26th 2012

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My kids & I often-times go for walks in the woods around our place, especially since a nearby neighbor allows me to swim in their pond & will watch our 2 kids for me while I do so.

When I photograph my kids, despite the advice of others where they often-times advice you to just "let your child be themselves" & you photograph them as they are basically being themselves, I tend to try & coax a particular pose out of them of some sort. I guess I don't consider myself talented enough & creative enough to get an "artistic" shot of them just being themselves.

On this day, thanks to me having my "mini DSLR" Olympus E-PL1 with me, and taking advantage of my boy's current fascination with dandelion flowers (and his laughter when the spores are blown about), I managed to get such a shot.

The day before, he had picked a dandelion & laughed when I showed him how to blow the spores, yet I had left my camera, even this "mini DSLR" meant to accompany me almost everywhere, at the house. So, on this day, remembering that, I tried again.

He shoots--he scores!

I shot it in Superfine-Large JPEG & edited the shot in Adobe Lightroom 3.5 & Photoshop CS. This is one of the first shots, also, where I learned how to moderate the strength ("opacity") of the LR "Oh So Posh" presets I often-times use (I find them often-times to be too strong with Olympus JPEGs, they're more on-target with Nikon NEF RAW files, maybe because the shooter uses a Nikon D700).  You do so by "exporting" 2 versions of the file in LR3--one with the action, one without. You then open up the 2 files in Photoshop CS, you select and copy the edited shot and paste it on top of the original, which causes "layers" to materialize at which time you can vary the "opacity" before "flattening" the image to finalize it that way.

Shot at 1/200 second f/5.6 with the 14-42mm II MSC at 37mm, ISO 640.

My New D5100 and (From Last Year) 50mm 1.8 G

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Last year Nikon finally introduced an updated 50mm 1.8 lens that was compatible autofocus-wise with their "AF-S" only bodies like the D5000 I owned at the time, the D40/D40x/D60/D3000 I had owned before, and the D5100 I now own. I got it hoping to capture some great "bokeh" portraits with it, and it has not disappointed.

Meanwhile, for tax refund 2012, I had updated my D5000 to the D5100 (passing on the D90 to get the newer sensor, passing on the D7000 because I didn't really need its load of features, although it tempted me & I certainly had the money for it). Naturally, I was anxious to really give it a spin.

This was a shot I took at the Tyler Rose Garden, our 1st time there, with our kids. I wanted to get a shot of either of them smelling the rose. I was trying to get one where they smell the rose NOT looking at the camera, where they're "lost in their own world," to play along with the "capture them just being kids" theme. I didn't QUITE do that, but I nonetheless got this keeper, one of my favorites.

Shot in RAW+Basic/Small JPEG, edited the RAW in Lightroom 3.5 & then Photoshop CS. 1/80 second at f/5 ISO 100.