Christmas Eve Service

I did learn something on Christmas Eve, either shoot stills, or shoot video, but not both at the same time. The tallest girl on the left in the back is mine. She's great dancer and very happy to be dancing at church.

Happy Holidays to all.

The Christmas Giveaway!

The winner of the Christmas Giveaway has been selected. Here's what there nomination said:

I would like to nominate the Cathcarts. They are a very busy family with a great love for their children. Larry uses coaching as a way to keep involve in the lives of his children. There no limit to their love for their children, they spend many hours on the road in order to be by their daughter's sporting events, win or loose. I personally enjoy spending time with them, and their children.... I see a great love not just for their children but also for all of God's, Wendy also volunteer to serve with the kids in Kidzone at Syracuse Alliance Church, not too mention their unmeasurable support to our student ministry there as well.

They would be a great family to receive this blessed gift. So I recommend to you Larry, Wendy, Matt, Mell, Michelle, and Mike Cathcart.

Merry Christmas to the Cathcarts and we'll soon be seeing you in pictures.

Christmas Give Away!

Christmas is the season of giving. So here's the contest. We are giving away a portrait package to a deserving family or individual on Christmas. The person who submits the winning nomination wins too!
Write to us and tell us who you think should win. Please send us an email of 500 words or less who and why they should win by December 23rd deadline is midnight. We'll pick the best and announce it on Christmas morning.

The Grand prize: Digital images free for the winners personal download plus four 5x7 prints, an 8x10 print, and a set of wallets from a portrait session.
The Runner Up prize: Four 5x7 prints and an 8x10 print in a free portrait session.

Write to oracleondelhistudios[at]gmail[dot]com.

The winner has to be in the Syracuse, NY area or can get to Syracuse, NY.

Long time no post

It's been a long time since a post. We've been busy on numerous fronts. Just finished the first two energy product shots for the Energy Wright. I still need a hand model for this product for additional shots. If you're interested let me know.
I've been concentrating on taking energy related pictures for my day job, as I am developing curriculum. I still have a long way to go there. I am also dabbling in video from a DSLR as well. One of the fun things that I get to do is photograph the graduating class from Weatherization Boot Camp. Boot Camp Gallery.  We've been having a problem with the host of our NYSWDA site, so if the link doesn't work, check back a little later.
We are working on an exciting new project. I think that when we launch it in early January you will really like it.

Christmas Portraits

Now is the time to get your Christmas portraits booked. For the next two weeks, you can receive two complimentary 5x7 prints with your order.
We will deliver your prints by December 1st, so make your appointment soon.

Mundane Monday October 12, 2009

Been busy over the weekend pulling the last of the vegetables from the garden. We picked about 1 1/2 dozen pumpkins and squash. This was a bumper crop and if we had growing weather for a few more weeks, we might almost double the crop! Snipped off the dahlia blossom too, and that's where we find ourselves with a camera.

The first shot is P mode, no flash, nice diffused light from behind. It's a little dark, but not bad. I popped the flash, full power but I underexposed the shot -.7 stops. It's washed out, just too bright for a great composition.

 

There's also annoying reflection from the flash off the window on the right. Flash diffusion may help us out. Since I was using the pop-up flash, and I couldn't find any old film cans, I resorted to a translucent caontainer lid. I think it worked great.

A soup container lid from the Chinese restaurant saved the dahlia photo from ruin. 

Mundane Monday October 5, 2009

Almost missed, it's been a busy day. But it is important to stop and smell the flowers along the way. This shot is okay. The flowers got lost in the middle, so how about another take.

Here, I've framed the flowers with the hose and zoomed in to really show the detail in the flowers. Don't forget the rule: Get close and then get even closer.

Mundane Monday Sept 28, 2009

What could be more cliche than an apple on a cutting board? A picture of a camera perhaps. Overall not an exciting photo. I thought I would take a strobist approach to reshoot the apple.

Looks better. It has a little more pizzazz with the black background and the top light. You could do this with a flashlight and a point and shoot if you got a little creative.

By the way the girls enjoyed the apple.

Mundane Monday Sept 21, 2009

Next to our door is a great big 6 ft tall clump of Canadian Goldenrod. It's beautiful. It's maligned. It does grow with ragweed which is allergenic in most people, but goldenrod is often identified as the ragweed itself. Two separate plants here, folks.
What's our typical first picture of a flower? Something like this?

Doesn't do a lot for me, the poor goldenrod has been beat down by the rain. It's real smart looking at full height. The rule of thumb is always move in. Let's try getting closer.

Better, but there's that blue wheel from something in the yard. That's gotta go. There is also a web in the flower. Is anybody home? I think we need to dive in a little deeper and try for one more shot.

Here we go, popped a flash, slightly underexposed (-0.3) and zoomed in. I let the camera do the heavy lifting in PROGRAM mode and then I make minor adjustments in aperature for depth of field, exposure to bring out the details and in this case, popped the contrast in post production.
I'm kind of liking the mundane Canadian Goldenrod on the day before the Autumn Equinox. The leaves will be changing soon so charge up the camera batteries and be ready.

Mundane Mondays are Coming!

On Mondays I will be posting a picture of the mundane, but it won't be a boring photo, I hope. This is a challenge to take up and I'll going to set the first round of it to last until November 2. That'll give me plenty of time to see if I can keep up.
Here's a pic I pulled out of the archives of a farm's grain storage.

Click on the image to see it full size. I hope to see you all back on Monday. In the meantime I've got pictures to make.

Gift Certificates

Just a word about Gift Certificates.
You can apply them up to 25% of the cost of the order or if you have a $25 gift certificate that can be used on any order over $50.

I hope this clears up any questions about gift certificates.

Back to School!

Back to School means school photos.

Are you satisfied with the quality of those, drop $100 and get 4 5x7's, an 8x10 and 52 micro-wallets? What do you do with those postage size pictures?

There's a better solution. You buy only the pictures that you want. What size and how many do you want is up to you. You'll get an hour behind the camera with wardrobe changes and friends and family if you want them. We'll even come to you, so you can look like you just came from the stylist, instead of rolling out of bed, matching the clothes in the dark and hoping the pictures come out ok, proofs unseen.

Studio portraits at $20 for the retainer anywhere in the greater Syracuse area. You can't beat that. We'll even apply the $20 back into your print order.

This offer is good if you book your photo shoot by September 30th. The phone operators are standing by!

3rd Largest Water Tanks in the World

You read that title right. The third largest in the world. 32,000,000 gallons each! Here's the first one that will go online in late fall.

 

Here's the second one under construction. over 1,000,000 square feet of space, all concrete under compression, solar panels are going on the roof to power all the electrical needs of the system.

We had a unprecendented opportunity for a tour. This is the only time the public will see this. Our tour guide was the Water Commissioner himself! We walked up into the old resevoir which they had to drain and dig a road through. Then we stopped at several points along the way to see the process and the method to put it all together.

Here's the newspaper article: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/huge_tanks_at_westcott_reservo.html

Win a Trip to NC - Don't enter I want to win it!

I want to win this trip so here's a blog about the contest! Please don't enter it, because you don't want to go and spend 2 days on the NC coast. Thanks for not entering to increase my chances of winning.

 original post: http://tinyurl.com/nf3gyn

Ocean Isle Inn Weekend at the Beach Giveaway

July 5, 2009 by Crafty Mama  
Filed under Reviews & Giveaways

89 Comments

Going to the beach is a tradition in our family we have been going just about every summer for the last 20 years or so. We usually go to Ocean City, MD, stay on the boardwalk, soak up some sun and spend lots of money!
This year we considered going to the Outer Banks, we even went so far as to look at houses on the beach that would fit the extended family for a great getaway. I couldn’t believe how much more space you can get in NC as opposed to the small condo we usually rent in OC. Just when we were ready to make all the plans, we found out my cousin was going to be having a baby in August, right when everyone was able to go. So, we pretty much axed the beach plans for this year. Needless to say my kids were pretty bummed (and so was I!).
Just when I had given up all hope of going to the beach this year I met Lee on Twitter. Lee is the general manager of the Ocean Isle Inn in North Carolina. We got to talking and Lee mentioned that he enjoys inviting bloggers to theOcean Isle Inn to experience the beauty and fun first hand. He offered me a weekend trip to NC with my family and we couldn’t be more excited! Up till now only bloggers from the area had made the trip to Ocean Isle I am pleased to be the first non-local blogger to be offered the opportunity to make the trip.


We will visiting Ocean Isle Inn in the middle of August and I am very excited to make some new family memories with my kids at the beach. To add to the excitement I found out Monica (MommyBrain) and her family will be there at the same time as us. After being in all the hustle bustle of Ocean City for so many years, I can’t wait to sit back and relax at Ocean Isle’s “Uncrowded, Unhurried, and Unforgettable” beach.

Here is a little bit of info on Ocean Isle Inn taken from their website:
Gaze at the beautiful Atlantic from your private balcony or experience an impressive view of the Intercoastal Waterway and scenic marshlands. The Ocean Isle Inn offers Oceanfront or Soundview rooms with a Polynesian flair.
All our rooms are air-conditioned and non-smoking, with either two queens or a single king bed with quilted-top plush mattresses. Tastefully decorated with hand-made teak wood furniture, our rooms also feature beautifully tiled floors, in-room coffee service, refrigerator, microwave, wetbar, hairdryer, color cable television, and data port phones with voice mail.
Daily housekeeping service, complimentary deluxe continental breakfast, heated indoor pool and ocean side pool, Jacuzzi spa, and private beach access will make your stay relaxing. Ocean Isle Inn’s friendly, professional staff is available twenty-four hours to ensure our guests a vacation to remember.


If you don’t just want to hang out at the beach while you are at Ocean Isle Inn you can also go turtle watching, visit the Museum of Coastal Carolina, take a tour of the states oldest remaining lighthouse Old Baldy, visit the Orton Plantation, check out the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial, or take short a drive south and visit Myrtle Beach.  You can find out more about all these cool attractions here.
Now for the BEST PART!!!!!! Not only do I have the chance to visit Ocean Isle Inn but so do 2 of my readers!!! I will be giving away one 2 night weekend stay on Sunday, July 26th and another 2 night weekend stay on Sunday, August 16th while I am in Ocean Isle. (prize includes 2 nights hotel accommodations only, dates to be chosen by the winner)
Main Entry
~ Subscribe to my blog, visit the Ocean Isle Inn site then leave me a comment telling me why you want to visit Ocean Isle Inn .
Bonus Entries (lots of chances to enter here!)
~1 bonus entry~ Follow Ocean Isle Inn on Twitter here
~1 bonus entry~ Become a fan of Ocean Isle Inn on Facebook here
~1 bonus entry~ Follow me on Twitter here
~1 bonus entry~ Become a fan of Crafty Mama of 4 on Facebook here
~2 bonus entries~ Put my button on your blog (2 entries for each blog you post my button on)
~2 bonus entries~ Did I meet you at Blogher and give you one of my cards? Let me know that here.
~5 bonus entries~ Sign up for the Ocean Isle Newsletter here
~10 bonus entries~ Blog about this contest and link back to CraftyMamaof4 and Ocean Isle Inn. Leave the post URL in your comment.
~daily entry~ Tweet about this contest by pasting this tweet “Win a family weekend stay @oceanisleinn in NC from @craftymamaof4. Two winners http://bit.ly/N5kYh” leave a link to your tweet in your comment.

The Nina, the Pinta and no Santa Maria

                                                     The Pinta
On Friday we went up to Oswego Port to see the Nina and the Pinta. They are exact replicas of the ships hand made in Brazil by Portugese shipwrights. I was surprised to see how small they were and how open the rear forecastles were to the weather. The captain had a private room with 4 foot of headroom, but that is the only private space on the ship. The men slept anywhere they could. The animals and supplies rode below deck in the cargo hold.
Of course we took pictures. Here's our gallery of photos.

Wide Angle Astro-photography

I had to wait a whole week for a clear sky with no moon. It was worth it, I'm pretty happy with the results. I set the camera up in the middle of the yard, next time I get all the way out back, more open sky. This is pretty simple to shoot. It takes a little trial and error, but as long as you can get the shutter to stay open long enough you can shoot the stars. You'll need a camera and a tripod, a dark field or yard and of course spectacular skies.

You might think that I posted the same image twice, but the second one I shut the camera off and skipped the high pass that the D50 does to cancel out the hot pixels. Can't tell the difference, don't worry most people won't. Never let them tell you "you can't do it". These are 30 second exposures at f/4.5 at 1600 ISO.

Update:

You can pick out the constellations Corona and Bootes. If your really sharp you'll spot Virgo and Serpens Caput as well.

There are still some places in the world where it is really dark at night. Check out this great video from William Castleman. This is worth seeing at full screen.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Old School Portraits

I've got a stockpile of real film. Time to clear it out. Here's the scoop: Get your portraits taken on real film, and we're offering 5x7's and 8x10 prints. The sitting fee is $20 and the prints will be, $12 for a 5x7 and $18 for a 8x10. If you're interested, give us a call 315-663-1094. I'm cleaning out the closet.

Dance School Portraits

I had a lot of fun at a local dance school tonight. We did quite a few portraits. Here's teaser shot from tonight.

There are plenty more frames and dancers to process. I'm not sure that this one's even quite finished, but I like it so far.

Wow! Contest!

Scott Bourne is giving away stuff all the time!
Tomorrow I'll be giving away $500 gift certificate to ScanCafe.com. Here's more info - http://bit.ly/f6mnU
Easy enough to enter. 


from my Twitter feed: http://www.twitter.com/oracleondelhi

Syracusian Evening

We joined Syracuse Photographers for a Meetup and wandered around downtown one evening. We wandered from the Delavan center through Armory Square, over to Columbus Circle and back to the Armory Square area.

 

Pretty cool old gate at Armory Square. This made some great portraits of the girls. 

This is the top of the courthouse. The copper roof is already developing a patina. They just put the roof on a few months ago. We topped off the night with coffee from Starbucks and an ice cream cone from our little ice cream shop near home.

DOE NE WAP Conference

I was the official photographer for the Department of Energy North East Weatherization Assistance Program. Clicked off a 1000+ frames on four days! The hotel even wanted them for their marketing! Pretty cool stuff for a part-time photographer.

The picture is Thursday morning sunrise. Unfortunately, there's an exetremely complicated line of ownership on the conference pics. I might be able to post a few more and definitely post a link when we get them on the NYSWDA website.

Shoot for the moon!

My company just bought a new Nikon 90. I got to bring it home over the weekend and on Friday night just an hour before the full moon (12:01 AM Sat) I was out in the back yard with a hand-held D90 and 18-105mm VR kit lens. Here's the result:

Looks pretty good, for winging the settings. Here they are:

What do we know? Some cameras have great high ISO characteristics and we should use them. Shooting the moon is hard, because the exposure is all about the balance of the dark sky and the bright moon. Only 26 more days till the next full moon, so get ready to shoot the moon.

Digicam Portraits

 

Here's a little shot taken outside with no flash. If the shadows under the face are little dark and you lose detail, theirs a quick trick to fix it. Flip the camera upside down and turn on the flash. Here's the result:

It's a little more washed out than I would like, but I brought out the detail hidden in the shadows. This trick is very effective inside with overhead lighting. If I had more time, I would have turned the flash down and reshot it. I had about 5 minutes to get head shots of two people.
There you go, a quick tip to get better pictures.

What is it winners!

Thanks to all who participated in our contest. I hope that you had fun. I leave you with this parting shot. The answer will be at the very end of the post.
I'll be getting the gift certificates out to our winners this coming week. If you made the list 3 times that's one gift certificate.

No one won the grand prize of a portrait session. Here's our winners:

Day	Winner
1	Zach Rall
2	Brenda Courtright
3	Chris Goldman
4	mightyhunter1
5	Wendy Cathcart
6	Brenda Courtright
7	Jeffery Quance
8	WendyCathcart
9	Chris Goldman
10	Brenda Courtright
11	Brenda Courtright
12	Brenda Courtright
13	Brenda Courtright
14	Brenda Courtright
15	Chris Goldman
16	Chris Goldman
17	Chris Goldman
18	Brenda Courtright
19	Wendy Cathcart
20	Chris Goldman
21
22
23
24	Brenda Courtright
25	Kathie Baldwin
26	Brenda Courtright
27	Pete Knodel
28	Kathie Baldwin
29	Goof
30	Brenda Courtright

Brenda won 3 $10 gift certificates, Chris won 2 $10 gift certificates and Wendy rounded out the month for one gift certificate, catching 3 days in a row at the end of the contest.


If you couldn't figure out what our parting shot is, it is a lily stamen.

What is it Update

One sunny day in Kansas City, Mo.

I hope that you've enjoyed the contest. This is the last day in a mostly rainy, stormy Kansas City, Mo. I've had very slow internet all week. I'll be back home on Friday and I'll try to compile all the winners from the month tomorrow. If you still want to win then take a look at Day 21, 22, 23, and 24.

What is it? Day 30

What is it?
You simply enter the contest by commenting. The first person to guess what the picture is wins for the day. If you win the contest for three days out of the month, you will receive a $10 coupon towards a portrait session. Every 3 days you can win a $10 coupon. If you win 20 days, we will give you a Free Portrait Session.
This contest is open to anyone within the greater Syracuse area.

What is it? Day 29

What is it?
You simply enter the contest by commenting. The first person to guess what the picture is wins for the day. If you win the contest for three days out of the month, you will receive a $10 coupon towards a portrait session. Every 3 days you can win a $10 coupon. If you win 20 days, we will give you a Free Portrait Session.
This contest is open to anyone within the greater Syracuse area.

What is it? Day 28

What is it?
You simply enter the contest by commenting. The first person to guess what the picture is wins for the day. If you win the contest for three days out of the month, you will receive a $10 coupon towards a portrait session. Every 3 days you can win a $10 coupon. If you win 20 days, we will give you a Free Portrait Session.
This contest is open to anyone within the greater Syracuse area.

What is it? Day 27

What is it?
You simply enter the contest by commenting. The first person to guess what the picture is wins for the day. If you win the contest for three days out of the month, you will receive a $10 coupon towards a portrait session. Every 3 days you can win a $10 coupon. If you win 20 days, we will give you a Free Portrait Session.
This contest is open to anyone within the greater Syracuse area.

What is it? Day 26

What is it?
You simply enter the contest by commenting. The first person to guess what the picture is wins for the day. If you win the contest for three days out of the month, you will receive a $10 coupon towards a portrait session. Every 3 days you can win a $10 coupon. If you win 20 days, we will give you a Free Portrait Session.
This contest is open to anyone within the greater Syracuse area.

What is it? Day 25

What is it?
You simply enter the contest by commenting. The first person to guess what the picture is wins for the day. If you win the contest for three days out of the month, you will receive a $10 coupon towards a portrait session. Every 3 days you can win a $10 coupon. If you win 20 days, we will give you a Free Portrait Session.
This contest is open to anyone within the greater Syracuse area.

What is it? Day 24

What is it?
You simply enter the contest by commenting. The first person to guess what the picture is wins for the day. If you win the contest for three days out of the month, you will receive a $10 coupon towards a portrait session. Every 3 days you can win a $10 coupon. If you win 20 days, we will give you a Free Portrait Session.
This contest is open to anyone within the greater Syracuse area.

What is it? Day 23

What is it?
You simply enter the contest by commenting. The first person to guess what the picture is wins for the day. If you win the contest for three days out of the month, you will receive a $10 coupon towards a portrait session. Every 3 days you can win a $10 coupon. If you win 20 days, we will give you a Free Portrait Session.
This contest is open to anyone within the greater Syracuse area.

What is it? Day 22

What is it?
You simply enter the contest by commenting. The first person to guess what the picture is wins for the day. If you win the contest for three days out of the month, you will receive a $10 coupon towards a portrait session. Every 3 days you can win a $10 coupon. If you win 20 days, we will give you a Free Portrait Session.
This contest is open to anyone within the greater Syracuse area.

What is it? Day 21

What is it?
You simply enter the contest by commenting. The first person to guess what the picture is wins for the day. If you win the contest for three days out of the month, you will receive a $10 coupon towards a portrait session. Every 3 days you can win a $10 coupon. If you win 20 days, we will give you a Free Portrait Session.
This contest is open to anyone within the greater Syracuse area.

 

Here's another shot of the same thing. What is it?