Loving Hands

We are spending time with our new granddaughter. There isn't a much happier time that I can imagine.

Debbie was holding the baby in the light of the front window. The light on her hands tells the story.

The Bulldogs are Hot !!

After several weeks we had another opportunity to go to see the McPherson College Bulldogs play basketball. This past Saturday the 'Dogs played their in-county rivals the Swedes of Bethany College.

The Bulldog Men's team have gotten hot at the right time of the season. After a slow start they have won eight straight games, include Saturday night's contest, an 81 - 68 victory.

These photos are from Saturday's action

The team is playing with speed and control. They made the extra pass to get the open look all night. They have developed good depth in their bench rotation as well. The 'Dogs have set themselves up to have a first round home game in the KCAC post-season tourney.

These images are from my new D7000. All were shot with the 70-200 f/2.8 VR I lens. These were all shot at 3200 ISO and 1/350s. You can see more images in the Sports gallery on my website.

There is still some noise in the background of these images, but within the plane of the depth of field you can get great sharpness. These were post-processed in ACR, including white balance, noise reduction and the first pass of sharpening. I have shot white balance reference photos at several points on the court and I have put together a processing preset for this gym.

Where Have You Been ?

The shooting around the neighborhood has been pretty nondescript recently. The winter weather has left the local surroundings pretty drab. I've missed the new snow falls with being on the road for the day job. Most of my camera time has been doing various "exercises" with the new camera, trying to learn it's settings and tricks.

My "fun photo" time has been spent organizing and evaluating my portfolio. I've been receiving encouragement to submit an application to the local arts commission for a gallery show. Each year the arts commission chooses five artists to hold shows at the local community center. Each artist has a one-person show, with their materials on display for six weeks. The commission reserves a sixth event for a group show of art from students of the four local high schools.

I've been reviewing photos, and doing test prints. My early reaction to my first attemps at serious photo printing: MPIX Rocks ! I know there are many good photo labs, but I have been extremely satisfied with the speed and quality of the prints I've had made through MPIX. I submit the digital files on Sunday night and the prints have usually shipped by Monday afternoon !

I am very happy with the images I've printed so far. Of course most are the cream of the crop, but I've also printed some images that I would consider "second tier" and they still look nice. We have have been updating room colors and accents in the house. We are excited about matching prints to the rooms and getting the final product hung.

The next step in the prep process for the show is the gallery mounting for the prints. My neighbor has a contact for the complete mounting package: mat, framed, glass, sealed backing. The workmanship is excellent, and archival quality. But that could prove expensive when you need 25 to 30 items for a one-person show. But for what we want to display at home we probably need to bite the bullet. And that will mean the entire show should be done the same.

We were out shooting this weekend with some promising results. And we will keep you updated on the progress as we apply for the possible show.