Magic @ Wizards Nov. 27, 2010

Well, these shots are pretty disappointing. The lighting isn't great in the arena, and even though I was closer than I was for the hockey game, I could not get focused on the players as well as I wanted to. I am going to a Florida game on Dec. 5th and I will be sitting much lower and closer to the action, so hopefully I'll have much better game photos from that.

Thanksgiving Eve

I got off work early last Wednesday, and I brought my camera to get some photos of downtown and the Capitol. It was a bright, clear day. Good for pictures. 

I took the Metro to Metro Center, and from there I walked toward the Capitol building, then on to the Museum of Natural History. I got a few good shots but not really anything spectacular. I am having trouble getting pictures of buildings and the fore and backgrounds as crisp and clear as I would like. I'm not sure if it is the camera or something that I could be doing better. I will have to consult my book.

I bought Canon Rebel T1i/500D: From Snapshots to Great Shots. It has been very helpful so far, but I haven't opened it in a few weeks. I need to get back at it.

The Old Post Office Building

Pre-Thanksgiving 2010

So to continue our tradition started by Carrie and her friends in college, we had a bunch of friends over on the Sunday before Thanksgiving for a Pre-Thanksgiving potluck. I was in charge of making the turkey, so I had a lot of pressure on me not to ruin the dinner for everybody. I have much more respect for moms everywhere.

I did not get many pictures, and most of the ones I did take were not very good quality. I had intended on getting more shots of the food and people eating, but I was busy hosting and talking and getting stuff ready that I didn't really get a chance. Although, as you can see, I made a pretty kick-ass turkey. It was very juicy and not over-done.

Everyone had a great time, so I guess it is ok that there weren't many photos.

Veteran's Day 2010

Halloween/Nov 2

I haven't had much time or opportunity to take any photos lately, so I don't have much to talk about or to show. I was hoping I could get some good Halloween photos but we got rushed to get stuff done so I didn't get many. I need to hurry up and take advantage of the fall colors because they wont be around for much longer.

After work yesterday, I walked to the White House to take a few pictures. I think I got 1 pretty good one, but the lighting outside was not great. That is one thing I am a little worried about with winter coming around. The light is kind of bland because of the overcast skies. It makes the background a little boring. I tried to edit the pictures a bit to give them a little more color.

Billy Goat Trail

So yesterday, Carrie, Burns and I went out for a hike at the Billy Goat Trail. It is a fairly intense, very rocky path along the Potomac River that requires some climbing, but its a fun trail to hike. The scenery is always nice, but fall is probably better than any other time of year. Unfortunately we were probably 2 or 3 weeks early for really bright oranges, reds and yellows, but there were some trees starting to turn.

This was the first time I really got to bust out the Canon in a nature setting. I didn't really have any idea what kinds of pictures I was going to take, and I didn't want to slow us down by taking pictures every few minutes so I mostly only got shot when we were stopped taking a rest. The other thing preventing me from taking spontaneous photos was that I could not keep the camera out around my neck because of the climbing of rocks and jumping off them and branches everywhere, I did not want to damage my camera. A lot of the pictures this day were taken while we were stopped for our little picnic.

The sun was very bright and I could not see the photos that I was taking on the lcd very well because of how bright it was. Therefore I couldn't see what I needed to do to adjust the settings. Because of this, a lot of the landscapes are very bright with too much sunlight. I mostly used my 55-250mm lens as everything was pretty far away from me.

I got some pretty good shots and more importantly, I had a lot of fun climbing and hiking and the weather was amazing (last time we did this hike it was 98 degrees), so I'd say this day was pretty successful.

Caps-Bruins 10/19

Brendon and his friend from Boston asked me if I wanted to go with them to a Capitals game against the Boston Bruins. I haven't been to an NHL game since 2004 when I saw the Lightning beat the Maple Leafs in the Playoffs, so I was looking forward to seeing hockey for the first time in a long time and a chance to take some live sports photos. Earlier in the day, I had received the 55-250mm telephoto zoom lens in the mail. There was no way I would have been able to get any good shots with the 17-55mm lens that came with my camera. I was a bit worried the lighting inside the arena would make it difficult to take pictures, especially considering how high up we were sitting. The bright ice seemed to provide enough lighting for the photos, but I still needed to slightly edit the pictures to make them a little brighter. I wish I could have gotten a little closer to the action because even when I was zoomed all the way in, peoples faces were a little grainy and not very clear. I think the new lens worked pretty well, especially for it being my first time using it.

It was a fun game and the Bruins won 3-1. I didn't really care who won, but Brendon and Chris are Boston fans so I guess I was rooting for them a little bit. We also saw two fights, so It was an entertaining game and a successful photo shoot.

Tim Thomas

Ovechkin