Back in February, I snapped this photo from our balcony just before sunrise. The color in the sky was a gorgeous blue and the moon was crisply visible. I knew the cloud definition and colors would be enhanced if I took a multiple exposure shot and post-processed as an HDR, so I flipped my D90 to bracket mode and took three shots. Even though there was a fair amount of light, I decided to use my tripod to avoid any movement between the three pictures. Each one turned out great, but combining them into a singular HDR image really captured that moment well.

Date Taken: February 11th, 2010
Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: 18-200 VR
Focal Length: 18
F number: 3.5
Exposure: 1/10

Yikes - long time since the last post. Here's a photo I took from last year's Chicago Air and Water Show. This picture has been featured here before, but I retouched it using Photomatix HDR software. I think it adds depth to the clouds and makes the image more interesting. Here are the photo's stats:

• Camera: Nikon D90


• Lens: Nikkon VR 18-200mm f/5.6


• Focal Length: 200


• F Number: 5.6


• Exposure: 1/1,250

So this is my cat Boozer. She's a half tortoise shell half tabby mix and she takes wonderful 35mm photos! No post-processing was applied to this photo - my D90 was set to my custom "Vivid" setting to boost the saturation. As mentioned, I used my Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens with my S600 flash attachment. The funny thing is, Boozer and my other cat, Moxie, pretty much overdosed on catnip like 5 minutes before this photo, so she's totally in a haze in this picture.

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikon 35mm f/1.8
Focal Length: 35mm
F number: 3.5
Exposure: 1/60

I was downtown yesterday for an event and took some architectural shots of the Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower. I took all of them with my Tokina 11-16mm - a great super wide angle lens that really captures straight lines well. The picture above, of Tribune tower, was edited in Photoshop. Here is a simple 5-step process to get this type of photo:

This past Labor Day weekend, my family and I went to Lake Gaston. On our last day (Labor Day Monday), the sunset was spectacular. The weather was perfect all weekend, but being on the water during a sunset is hard to replicate. A little boost in contrast and saturation is all this photo needed!

You have to love Wrigley Field, especially the old style billboard. Not only was it a beautiful day, the Cubs actually won yesterday! Here are a couple more pics from the game with my Tokina 11-16mm lens:

The annual Chicago Air and Water show was this last weekend here in Chicago, and I wanted to give a few pointers on capturing jets.

1. If you have a DSLR, rotate your dial to "S" and set the shutter speed anywhere from 2000 to 4000. This will allow you to stop down for clarity and still get crisp images of most planes, even jets.

2. Bump up your ISO to 800 if you have good light - if not, set it to 250 or 300. Remember, when you set your ISO too high, your pictures will turn out noisy - adjust to fit your light!

3. Set your advance mode to Continuous High. This way, when you hold down the shutter button, your camera will take picture after picture - very useful for fast planes.