My First Contest

So this week, I will be entering my first art contest.  I'm pretty excited, although I most likely won't win anything as the photos I'm entering are a bit of a stretch for the theme of the contest.  The theme is relating to farms and the photos I'll be submitting are taken at a farm, but not easily recognizable as being farm related in any way.  I've never had my photos displayed in an art gallery of any sort, so this excites me greatly.  Also, maybe someone will be interested in buying one of my photos!  A portion of the proceeds will go towards revitalizing the town in which I grew up, so it's a pretty good cause.

My mom will be entering a couple of her paintings as well, so on top of all the other excitement, it's pretty cool that this is something we can do together.  Anyways, if you happen to be local to the area be sure to stop by and check out all the artwork at Studio B in Boyertown PA on Friday January 21st from 5pm to 8pm.

Here are the two photos I'll be entering:

Winter Wonderland

One of my first "real" shots with my new Pentax FA 100mm f/2.8 Macro. Wanted to capture the tree in forground and in-focus with the lamp bg out of focus. Overall pretty happy. Was shot wide open so I'm hoping that's why there was some serious softness going on with the shot originally.

Pentax K-x and Sigma 10-20mm

Here are some shots taken with my Pentax K-x and Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 EX DC lens.  I haven't had the lens for all that long, so expect to see even better photos as I get better acquainted with this lens' traits.  

Oddities of the internet

I say oddities, but I'm not sure if that's really the best word.  Anyways, one of my most favorited photos on flickr happens to also be one of my favorite photos of my girlfriend.  But the reason this photo has garnered so much attention is not due to my masterful use of lighting or some deep understanding of the relationship between how a viewer sees a photo and the placement of important objects within the composition.  Nope, it comes down simple fetishism, of a sort I never realized existed.  The photo in question can be seen below, but my girlfriend and I had just arrived at Camelback Mountain for some snowtubing and I snapped a photo of her when we got out of the car.  She was freezing, so she had her scarf on and the hood of her jacket up.  Apparently, there are those out there that are really into that sort of thing.  Go figure!  Anyways, if any of you happen to stop by, thanks for the Fav and also for teaching me something new!

Gear and a photo

Thought I'd add another gear item and a photo to go with it.  My first "real" lens (that is to say, something designed within the last 5 years) is the SMC Pentax FA 50mm f/1.4.

This lens has wonderful color rendition and great resolving power.  It's relatively cheap compared to other newer lenses at about $250 used.  Fantastic low-light performance due to it's wide aperture and quick autofocus that I've not had any problems with.  I've used this lens for portraits and general walk-around shooting, doing well in both.  See below for a portrait I took with the lens and see a previous post for my shot of the No. 92 train at Strassburg PA.

Gear

I think maybe mentioning the gear that I use could be beneficial to those of you reading my blog.  My camera is a Pentax K-x.  I bought it used and it's been great.  I used to have a Samsung Gx-1s, so some of the photos I post on here will have been taken with that.  As far as lenses, I've got quite a few.  Most recently, I bought a Pentax FA 100mm F/2.8 Macro lens.  It was expensive (for me at least) but totally worth it.  1:1 magnification and a great wide aperture = heaven.


More gear posts to come when I'm not so tired!

Been a while.

So, of course as life would have it, i've disappeared for a while.  I'm back now and the Zenfolio thing still hasn't changed much from 8 months ago or however long it's been.  Oh well.  It's late and I'm bored so I thought I'd update this site.  I'm going to add a few favorite photos that I've taken recently.  Hope you all enjoy.  Assuming I can once again figure out how to post a photo!

Thanks for stopping by.

Strassburg No. 92 -- Pentax K-x and SMC-P FA 50mm f/1.4

Marsh Creek Sunset -- Pentax K-x and Super Takumar 24mm f/3.5