Since acquiring my Tokina 11-16mm lens last month I’ve been waiting for a moonless, clear evening to see if I could capture a piece of the Milky Way. While I still have a ways to go to come up with the image in my head, today’s photo is a first attempt.

I took this in my backyard, while in house slippers, standing in an inch or two of snow. My house looked completely dark to my eyes. However, when reviewing this image I went to find the source of blue light. It turns out that one little blue light on a power cord for a netbook was all it took to cause the room to glow like this with a 25 second exposure.

Posted on February 17th, 2012 under places. Tags: night photography, nikon d7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX Autofocus Lens for Nikon. Comments: 1

Beatriz Abella

One of my students sang for her Junior Recital this past weekend. No, I don’t teach music or give voice lessons. (Those that have heard my voice should be laughing right now.) She is a double major and wants to become a CPA. I teach accounting and tax.

Beatriz has won a number of awards for her voice. She has been a part of several musical theater productions as well. She has also sung in Carnegie Hall–twice!

Today’s photo is a frame I extracted from a video I took at her recital. I didn’t take any stills, but since I was recording at 1080 pixels, the image isn’t too bad.

Here is a short video from her performance which I took on my Nikon D7000, with Nikkor 70-200mm VR II f/2.8 lens, and Sennheiser MKE 400 external mic.

If you’d like to watch and listen to her entire recital (in order) click here.

Posted on February 16th, 2012 under only in ashland, people. Tags: music, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000, sennheiser mke 400 external microphone, sou performances, Southern Oregon University, video. Comments Off on Beatriz Abella

Posted on February 15th, 2012 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: landscape, nikon d7000, sunset, Tamron 10-24mm lens. Comments Off on Ashland sunset

Forest between "Lake of the Woods" and Brown Mountain - Southern Oregon

Today’s photo is from late summer of last year when I did the Brown Mountain Trail–a trail which doesn’t actually go up Brown Mountain at all.

Posted on February 14th, 2012 under nature, outside of ashland, places. Tags: hike, nikon d7000, Tamron 10-24mm lens, trails, trees. Comments Off on Near Brown Mountain

Zoe Jakes

This photo of Zoe Jakes is from the RAW image. I uploaded the jpg version here but found it a bit too purpley.

Posted on February 13th, 2012 under only in ashland, people. Tags: beats antique, concert photography, Historic Ashland Armory, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens, nikon d7000. Comments Off on Zoe Jakes of Beats Antique

We’ve been having some great skies the past few days. I love February’s annual false spring.

Posted on February 12th, 2012 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: nikon d7000, rainbow, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX Autofocus Lens for Nikon. Comments: 2

Jeff Bush

Last night the Southern Oregon University Men’s Basketball team hosted conference leader Northwest University in Ashland.

SOU students

Eric Thompson

Eric Thompson set the SOU freshman record for most points in a season on this evening (even though more than a few games remain).

The game was exciting. SOU never led in the second half. However, a last second offensive rebound (off a free throw no less) and shot by Eric Thompson tied the game to send it into overtime against the heavily favored Eagles.

SOU had a one-point lead with just one second remaining in OT. However, with time expiring, Northwest University’s Michael Greene banked this shot to win the game for the visitors.

Michael Greene hits this shot in OT to give Northwest University a one-point victory

Posted on February 11th, 2012 under only in ashland, people. Tags: basketball, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000, Southern Oregon University. Comments Off on SOU Men’s Basketball takes 24-2 Northwest University into OT

JPEG version

I always process my .jpg image file separately from my RAW image of the same scene. Usually I delete the version I don’t like as much. With this photo, I couldn’t decide. Which do you like better?

RAW version

Posted on February 10th, 2012 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: clouds, nikon d7000, raw vs. jpg jpeg, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX Autofocus Lens for Nikon. Comments: 3

David Satori of Beats Antique @ The Historic Ashland Armory, Oregon

I’ve been shooting in RAW + jpeg for the past month or so. For most photos, I can’t get the RAW files to look as good as the jpegs even though the RAW files are about five times as large and take several times longer to process. However, when the lighting is really poor, when the jpeg photo shows lots of noise, or when the lighting is just funky the RAW processing can yield superior results.

Same photo as above, processed from RAW file instead of jpg

Posted on February 9th, 2012 under people. Tags: beats antique, Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens, nikon d7000, raw vs. jpg jpeg. Comments Off on David Satori of Beats Antique