Car repairs

1/100

f4.5

ISO 400

21mm

RAW

A friend came over yesterday to fix my air conditioner. By the time I thought of taking some photos, he was wrapping up and putting everything back together.

It was a cloudy morning, so I shot this without a flash because the diffused light was doing a great job to evenly illumniate the shot. I wanted the photo to instantly convey "engine repair," so I got in real close and shot at a wide angle. This left only the engine compartment and the mechanic in the photo.

This would make a good stock photo, except for possibly one thing. The dip stick shaft is laying across the top of the engine in the top right corner of the photo. It's something that most people wouldn't notice, but once seen it might have the tendency for the viewer to wonder why it's there. I should have removed it before taking the photo.

And in case you are now wondering, here's what happened. In order to pull out my broken air compressor, he had to squeeze it past the dip stick shaft. The shaft snapped under the pressure.

Dinner date at home

1/15

f4.5

ISO 800

18mm

RAW

My wife and I had a dinner date at home, after the kids went to bed. We grilled up some New York Strip steak, along with some loaded baked potatoes and asparagus.

I shot this with my 18-55mm IS lens, which allowed to go handheld without a flash -- even with such a slow shutter speed. Even with the IS lens, I made sure to hold my elbows in close to my chest, control my breathing, and just squeeze the shutter.

Shooting RAW helped me with the color cast from the indoor lamps. The wide f4.5 aperture helped put the background plate nicely out of focus.

In hindsight, I wish I would have turned the plate so the steak was place in the 12 o'clock to 4 o'clock position (instead of the 8 o'clock to 12 o'clock position it is currently in. This would have made the steak larger in the image instead of the potatoes.

Starting a 365 photo project!

I have really neglected this blog, but have been struggling to figure out what can motivate me to start posting again.

I think I have hit on it. I am going to start a "365" project, where I post one photo that I have taken the previous day. I will also explain what I did to get that photo.