Life's A Beach

A triptych in celebration of the last days of fantastic sunsets from an all too short summer season.

[ Sunset at Montemar Beach Club in Bataan. ]

Happy summer, everyone!

Shattered Glass

It happened in slow motion. One errant swing from my not-yet-one-year-old's hand sent my camera bag tetering on the edge of the dining table. It backflipped off the edge and struggled in midair to rotate back into an upright position. Physics would dictate otherwise. With just one meter to cover, it hardly had a chance, landing on hard tile at a tilt. It was a painful sight, much like watching some doomed Olympic diver headed for a concussion and an inevitable set of zeros from the judges.

[ The Nikon cap had one side stuck in the filter's frame.
Goodbye Hoya Super HMC UV optic! ]

[ The filter did not go to its grave in vain.
The Nikon 18-135/3.5-5.6 it was attached to survived.
It took a lot of dusting to get all the glass bits off the front element. ]

On Sick Leave

Sick Days

[ Nikon D50 and Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 ]
[ 1/60s f/5.6 ISO200 46mm ]

No worries, the little one's already back in good spirits. Andy had us out for a few days, as it's a full-time job watching over a baby with an I.V. in her hand, even if it is wrapped in a diaper.

Some more cheery pictures of her are in this gallery of my own 'life project'. 

Happy Birthday Irene!

Birthday Surprised

Nikon D50 and AF Nikkor 50mm f1.4
1/40s f/2 ISO800 50mm

Happy Birthday, dear wife! One month in the planning, I could not have pulled it off without help from a bunch of accomplices. Good food, good people, good times, and some good photos I hope. :)

More snapshots here. I think I'm over-using the tilted angle perspective. At some point I brought out the Siggy for the wide shots, but the prime produced some good portraits. My Buyer's Remorse demon says: "It's expensive glass, so it should."

Macdaddy has some snaps here entirely with the more reasonable 50mm f1.8, and he got in some great group shots (yes, it's possible if you stand/sit far enough). 

Happy Birthday Andy!

Birthday Girl

[ Nikon D50 and Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D AF ]
[ 1/50s f/2.2 ISO1600 50mm ]

I didn't shoot this one. Props to my Nikon broodah for getting this shot!

More photos here at GerrySnaps.Fotopic.net. MacDaddy has a bunch of snaps here.

They do grow up fast!

First Birthday

Tricks Are For Kids

[ Nikon D50 and Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D AF ]
[ 1/50s f/2 ISO1600 50mm ]

More photos of Andy's first birthday to come.

Hy-Photo-Chondriac

The Dirty Dresser

[ Nikon D50 and Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC ]
[ 1/30s f/5.6 ISO 200 50mm ]
[ Bounced Flash with Vivitar V2000 ]

I'm back-tracking on my 'first D50 photos' here. Later in the day I got some sleep and was ready to do some more test shots. I was pretty pleased with myself for about ten seconds. Then my eyes drifted to the lower left and looked upon ... some dust!

Dust is the enemy to SLR shooters. Clever, this whole interchangeable lens SLR concept. Every lens change is an accident waiting to happen. Entire businesses have thrived on this fear of dust. We are talking two hundred of your American dollars for a pack of Q-tips, a makeup brush, and a solution that's mostly water.

It hasn't been with me for 24 hours and dust is already friends with my sensor, I thought, and here I was without my extra-special dust-busting Q-tips and makeup brush. It's a dilemma fit for an all-girl high school. Except imagine all the schoolgirls are in fact heavyset, bearded men sweating profusely under their vests of many pockets.

Luckily what I missed, as usual, was the obvious: there really is dust on our not-so-well-kept wall, and none on the sensor.

Moral: Clean your room, then clean your sensor.