Rose 3 [Set 2]

Rose 3 [Set 2], originally uploaded by RMStringer.

New Rose Set Taken today.

I got the idea for this from a photo from a group that i belong to. I got down very low to shoot the sun going down behind the rose. I like the effect that it made.

Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Neat Monument...

I took several pictures of the structure. Here are a few of them...
The last one is in a 16:9 HD Aspect Ratio.

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Neat Signs...

Most of the signs at the Convention Center were back lite. I took several and i wanted to show them to yall as the were really neat IMO. I took them in various camera modes as well as focal lengths.




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Final Destination Cheer Competition...

We went to Final Destination yesterday at VA Beach. It was built up by most of the competitions that we have attended. There were over 500 teams in the competition. It was held at the VA Beach Convention Center. It is a really neat structure and very modern looking. In my opinion, it was ill-suited for this competition. We have been to several of the contests around the country and they have always had a good stage set-up for the contest. The arena did not have a stage that was high off the ground and the lighting in the arena was very bad. The seating was low and limited and priority seating was to far away for most parents to get good pictures of their children.

I for one, was not impressed with the set-up of the competition at all and i get that was the tone from other people that i spoke to as well. Here is a picture of the Convention Center:











Our team did well and we placed 2nd in our division! We were very happy with these results. It was a long day and i took many pictures that i will be posting soon

Have a good day!

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Mountain Biking Today!!

I went with Jeff today to Powhite Park for a nice ride today. We meat at 2.0pm and started on the trails. It was a windy day at 85 degrees and sunny! We had a good ride and rode 4.5 miles, not really hardcore today just getting in a good cardio work-out! Powhite is really hilly, not many lat trails and they are in really good shape given all the rain that we had in the last 9 weeks. Some of the obstacles have been taken out due to they want the trails to be more hiker friendly because of the condos that are being built next to the park. In my opinion, they could have cut a trail to the side of the obstacle and let it in. We will see what happens to the park after all the people move in.

Laters...


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Rose 3

Rose 3, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

These are some of the first blooms from my roses. I have been waiting for them to start blooming. I hope to have several more blooms open on some of the other roses in my backyard. I thought that this was a very nice shot.

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Concert Tonight!

Antiflag & Street Dogs at The National 6.30pm
From RMStringer

Powhite Park-Richmond VA

Taken with my LGVX8600 phone.
From RMStringer

Waterfall Revisited...

Waterfall Revisited..., originally uploaded by RMStringer.

I went back and wanted to do the "waterfall" thing again after knowing a little bit more about my camera. I used the same waterfall that i located in the fron of my neighborhood. I shot the photo in Shutter Priority this time. The results were amazing. I achieved the desired effect that is wanted when shooting waterfalls. The water is slowed down and it gives a milky look with the surrounding area in sharp focus. It had just finished raining and was overcast with some breaks in the clouds.

Exposure: 0.25 sec (1/4)
Aperture: f/36
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Mack re NPR

Thanks to Mac for letting me post this.

 

You'll Never Hear This on NPR

In an unsettled time when some discount stores will sell a customer only 100 pounds of rice a week (Oh, no!  How will we survive the coming winter?), one is strangely comforted by the eternal 1968-ness of National Public Radio.  Here are some observations that will never be heard on NPR:

 

We've polled everyone who works for the station, and no one here knows what "Hegelian dialectic" means.

 

Food prices are skyrocketing, huh?  Does this mean we have to scratch our files of stories about greedy, overweight Americans?

 

We really are being just a little too, too precious by bragging about how we don't have advertising but then really do have advertising anyway, and then spend hours and hours of air time begging for money because we don't have advertising.  We also receive hundreds of millions of your dollars in tax support every year, and voluntary donations are tax-deductible.  This message is sponsored by the Calvin and Ethel Plonk Foundation for a Greener and More Diverse Recycled America.

 

Have you noticed how cleverly we phased out global warming in favor of climate change?  Clearly the planet, which has been cooling and warming in cycles for millions of years, is little influenced by your lawnmower.  However, if today there is rain and tomorrow there is sunshine we can call it climate change and still blame it on your lawnmower.  Climate change – formerly known as weather.

 

Today on All Things Considered we're not going to feature a single story about some lazy oaf in New Orleans who can't be bothered to clean up his own front yard while whining about how the rest of you aren't sending him enough money.

 

Following All Things Considered we'll have Car Talk and then Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, known to radio professionals as dead-air time.

 

And now an interview with AlleeSHEyah von O'Hara y Gomez d'Raheem, the daughter of a Chinese-Irish father and a Spanish-Moroccan mother whose parents were persecuted everywhere else and who then came to America and received lots of freebies but were snubbed by a grocery-store carryout which is why AlleeSHEyah hates America and wrote an award-winning book of I, I, I, me, me, me poetry that doesn't scan detailing her existential angst. And, honestly, her book stinks. 

 

In the next hour we'll feature an award-winning musician, Friedrich "Stubby" Hamncheese who plays fusion Afro-German-Suomi on an Indian sitar hand-made by unemployed Sherpa draft evaders in Toronto, and, really, that doesn't make any sense at all.

 

You people need to get real about fair-trade coffee.  If some grocery chain re-labels a can of coffee with pictures of happy Colombians holding hands and dancing barefoot in the rain forest, and charges you two more dollars for it, are you stupid or something?

 

We use words like existential, ethnic, fusion, diversity, and fair-trade a great deal because that makes us sound, like, you know, smart and stuff.

 

And now, commentary by grumpy old Daniel Schorr, who disapproves of everyone.

 

In the end, we at NPR are just a bunch of otherwise unemployable white liberal arts graduates who play old records and subtly sneer at people who have real jobs and love America.  We even think Al Franken is an intellectual. So why would you send us money?

 

-30-

 

Prom night -- tattoos, cell 'phones, and rented clothing. Why?

Good Place To Purchase Books!

I know that many of you read books and novels from many of the big name authors.  I like as much as any to read them as well.  If you go to Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, or even Wall-Mart you can pick them up in hardcover for a premium price.  If you wait for a little bit, you might be able to get them at your local Goodwill outlet.  We went there and have bought several books for a little money. They price hardcover books at $3 and paperbacks at $1!  I purchased a coffee table book that retails for well over $60 at the local goodwill for $3!  They are all donated to the stores and they resell them for profit to help the needy. We have found all the big name authors and the books are in good condition; most of the at least.

 

I read a book by Brad Meltzer about 6 months ago called “The Book Of Fate” that I purchased at Wall-Mart.  I found his first book  “The Tenth Justice” and I got it for $3!  It is in excellent shape and in hardcover.  So if you are looking for some bargain priced books, Goodwill is a great place to go look and it is for a good cause.

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You have no conscience and it seems you never will - Cyberaktif

 

More Rain...

More Rain..., originally uploaded by RMStringer.

This was taken at 7.27pm and it is another installment of my "Rain Project" It was raining this evening and i used my camera to try to get individual drops of rain falling. I opened the door to our deck just big enough to get my lens out and keep it dry. I used the flash and it worked better. I tried many Exposure settings and 1/60 was the best for this instance.

Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Flash: Flash fired, red-eye reduction

Sitting Goose...

Sitting Goose..., originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Waterford Business Park

I was about 3 feet from the bird. If you blow up the size, you can see water drops on the front of the chest. It looked at me but never got really scared with me that close. I was able to shoot about 5 other pics of the goose.

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Warning Me...

Warning Me..., originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Waterford Business Park

You can see the goose opening its mouth telling me to stay away and not get to close to the babies. I was about 6 feet from them. It would look away and then i would move closer, it would turn and look at me and open its mouth again.

Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/9
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Clematis

Clematis, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Clematis I was fortunate enough that my neighbor let me take these photos of their flower. I saw it yesterday and i thought that it was fake so curiosity was killing me. This is what you get to see. I have several more of the flowers that i might post at a later date.

Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Clematis Macro

Clematis Macro, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

Clematis, Taken in Apature Priority. As up close as i could get and still be a good photo.

Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 100

Beach at Night...

Beach at Night..., originally uploaded by RMStringer.

I took this at Myrtle Beach while were down for cheer comp. I wanted to try Black and White at night so that is how it came out. It is a little grainy because of the high ISO speed. I had never shot a B&W photo at night so this is a first attempt. At the time this photo was taken, i had the camera for about 2 full weeks. It was really cold that night and the wind was really blowing. We stayed at the Embassy Suites @ Kingston Plantation.

Exposure: 30 sec (30)
Aperture: f/22
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 3200

Shooting Range...

Well as you might have looked at the last few pictures that were posted and saw that they were of guns. I went with a few friends of mine today to the range and i brought my camera (Sony a200)

They took a complete assortment of guns and pistols. We did not get to fire and of the big guns, only the pistols and that was fine. We do plan to go back at a latter date when the main firing range is open.

I learned that it is really hard to capture pictures like i did in the bright day and i got lucky on what i was able to capture. I have had no formal training with my camera and i love to try anything that i can with it, having said that i was really lucky! The milk carton exploding like it does on several photos is really cool and i see that the camera is fast enough to get it. The only thing was that it did not like the blast from the gun. I would be shooting and when the boom hit it would stop shooting. Very Strange!

I guess that you live and learn. It was really nice of my friends to take me and let me shoot pictures as well as their pistols. We had a good time!



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A Little Fire!!!

A Little Fire!!!, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

I was standing near the shooter and i was able to get a little muzzle flash!!! 45Mag FMJ (Full Metal Jacket) bluets. This was pure luck to be able to capture this flash from the pistol. I am very greatful for my friends letting me go to the shooting range and do this with them.

Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 320

Boom!!!

Boom!!!, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

This was a 45Mag with Hollow point bullets. We walked with 15 feet of the target on this shot. I was lucky to get this photo as it turned out to be very good. The hollow-points made more destruction than did the full metal jacketed bullets.

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/10
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 400