My Niece's Picnic Table

Storm Clouds Approaching

A Leaf in the Wind

Green Leaves

Leaves Backlit by the Sun

Dogwood Tree

When I was growing up in Brooklyn, my family lived in a house. My father, my brother and I spent alot of time tending to the plants and flowers around our house. Last weekend, I saw a dogwood tree and it reminded me of the large dogwood tree we had in our back yard.

Treetops

Flowers From the Backyard

Pink Flowers

Plants in My Sister-In-Law's Backyard

I love shooting with a shallow depth of field. There are some pictures taken with an aperture of f/1.2. The area in focus is only a few centimeters deep.

Canon 5D with 85mm f/1.2L II lens, 1/1000 sec., f/1.2, ISO 100
Canon 5D with 85mm f/1.2L II lens, 1/1250 sec., f/1.2, ISO 100

Canon 5D with 85mm f/1.2L II lens, 1/400 sec., f/1.2, ISO 100

Canon 5D with 85mm f/1.2L II lens, 1/400 sec., f/1.2, ISO 100

Random shots with my new pocket camera

Several months ago, I was looking for a good digital compact camera that I could easily carry around in a jacket pocket. After doing a little research I decided upon the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. There are so many good things about this camera. Rather than go through all the details, just check out out this excellent review at dpreview.com if you are interested.

What I love most about this camera is that is has a super fast f/2.0 maximum aperture at its widest focal length (equivalent to 24mm on a 35mm camera).

Here are some random pictures I took with the LX3.


1/8 sec., f/2.0, ISO 400
1/100 sec., f/2.0, ISO 80

1/30 sec., f/2.0, ISO 160

1/30 sec., f/2.0, ISO 250

1/25 sec., f/2.0, ISO 400

1/30 sec., f/2.0, ISO 200

1/30 sec., f/2.0, ISO 160

1/800 sec., f/6.3, ISO 80

1/100 sec., f/2.0, ISO 80

Fall Foliage

My favorite part of the Fall season is when the foliage changes color.

Seagulls at Rockaway Beach

Aruba Vacation - Day 3

Day 3 in Aruba brought us to a wonderful spot known as Baby Beach. Baby Beach is a shallow lagoon on the southeast end of the island. The gentle waves are great for children and the water is shallow enough for most adults to stand in even far from shore.

These first two pictures really show how calm the waters are and how far out you can walk.






The water level is generally about waist high in the lagoon, but deepens significantly towards the inlet to the ocean. The inlet is teeming with marine life and is a good place for snorkeling. If you don't have your own snorkeling gear, you can rent some from the snack shack on the beach.

I borrowed an underwater housing for my small digital point-and-shoot camera from my fiancee's cousin and was able to take some pictures of the fish I came across in the inlet. A nearby snorkeler had a small bag of bread so the fish really swarmed around us.






I took this picture just before we left the beach to go back to the resort. This is a good example of what the landscape looks like near Baby Beach.




Later in the evening, we had dinner at Papiamento, a terrific restaurant which specializes in Caribbean seafood dishes. There is seating inside the manor house and outside by the pool. Some of the steak, lamb, lobster, shrimp and fish dishes are served on a super-heated stone for guests to finish cooking at the table. Personally, I would stay away from the "on the stone" dishes unless you enjoy that sort of participation. I had the grouper covered with shrimp and scallops. It was delicious.

Besides the excellent food, the best quality of Papiamento is their outstanding service. The staff made sure we were well taken care of, but in an unobtrusive way. Our water glasses never ran empty and we never waited too long between courses. I was a bit clumsy that night and dropped my fork off the table two times. Before I had a chance to pick up the fork, a waiter was there to pick it up and offer me a new one.

Everyone in my party thoroughly enjoyed their meals. I highly recommend Papiamento.

This picture of the front of the restaurant gives little indication of the wonderful dining experience to be had inside. I enjoyed my meal so much, I forgot to take pictures inside!

Aruba Vacation - Day 2

After a good night's sleep, I was ready to enjoy my first full day in Aruba. The plan was to explore the grounds of the resort and relax by the pool. We spent most of the late morning and early afternoon alternating between dips in the pool and naps under the umbrellas.




There are lots of iguanas in Aruba. This large one seemed to like to hang out by the edge of the pool. I don't know much about iguanas so I didn't try to touch it. However, I swam to within a couple of feet of it and it didn't seem to mind me getting close.




In addition to the iguanas, we frequently saw smaller lizards around the grounds. They are harmless and usually run away if you get too close. This one was right next to my sun umbrella.





The sunsets in Aruba are so beautiful that I couldn't help but take pictures whenever I could.



It was New Years' Eve and the entire island seemed to be setting off fireworks. People in Aruba really like their fireworks. There were fireworks every night that we were there.

I didn't bring my tripod on this trip because I wanted to travel relatively light. I took this picture hand held at a slow shutter speed - about 2 seconds. As much as I tried to hold the camera still, there is noticeable camera shake. In order to get crisp fireworks shots, you MUST use a tripod. Shooting at a slow shutter speed allows you to capture the trails of light. I would recommend setting your shutter speed to at least 4 seconds or slower and shooting in manual mode. Once you set the shutter speed, set the aperture to f/11 or f/13. Adjust the shutter speed or the aperture accordingly until you reach a proper exposure.

This is my fireworks picture taken hand held:



My next post will be about Day 3. We went swimming and snorkeling at Baby Beach on the south end of the island.

Duck in Washington D.C.

Birds at the Queens Zoo

I recently took my 2 year old nephew to the Queens Zoo, a 5 acre zoo located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, in Queens, New York. The zoo is home mostly to animals native to North America. Here are a few pictures of some of the birds that can be found there.

Whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium

My fiancee and I love going to baseball games. She is a die-hard New York Mets fan and still won't talk about their late season collapse of last year. Every year we plan a short trip where we go to see a Mets game at a stadium we have yet to visit. In the last few years we have been to Wrigley Field in Chicago, PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Camden Yards in Baltimore, RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., and most recently, Turner Field in Atlanta.

One of the reasons we like to go on these baseball trips is because we get the opportunity to visit a U.S. city we might normally never go to see. Atlanta is a good example. It's a fine city, but I never really considered taking a trip there.

What I discovered is that Atlanta features the world's largest aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium, which opened in 2005 and was funded mostly by a $250 million donation from the founder of Home Depot. Also, the Georgia Aquarium is one of the few aquariums in the world to feature whale sharks.

As a kid, I was fascinated by sharks and loved to visit the New York Aquarium in Coney Island to see them. The whale shark is interesting because it is the largest living fish species and can grow to 40 - 60 feet long. As we might never get the opportunity to see a whale shark up close, we decided to visit the Georgia Aquarium. They had about 4 whale sharks on exhibit, but none of them approached the 40-60 foot range. Nonetheless, they were very impressive.

I write about our trip to the Atlanta and their aquarium because yesterday was the first time I checked out my pictures from that trip and came across one I found interesting. Sitting in front of the huge shark tank was a father and his baby as a whale shark swam by.