Our latest distractions…

July 10th, 2012

Our latest distractions…

Lately, Sandy and I have been distracted from photography because we have been playing with our new toys.

We brought these in from California, and really luv the way they feel when riding them. They have very wide handlebars, wide comfy seats, 7 speeds for cruising comfort.

We have since added water bottle holders, a rear rack for mine, and we may be adding a front basket to Sandy’s so that we can haul Wilbur with us when we go riding. The last time I went out, he was acting like he EXPECTED me to pick him up and take him with me. No kidding! And he looked disappointed, when I got back and closed the garage door!

We have also found a carrier so that we can take the bikes on a road trip somewhere soon!

OK, back to Photography, LOL!!!!!

Check out other images from this session in my FlickR photo sets here…

Gallatin Concert Series…

May 22nd, 2012

The city we live in is now hosting free concerts on the third Thursday of each month until the fall.

Last week we went to see the “Reggie Wooten Band” and they were simply awesome!

We had a really good time, and the pictures are available in my Flickr sets.

Check out other images from this session in my FlickR photo sets here…

About the phones, and other updates…

April 30th, 2012

I can’t believe it has been another month already! Where does the time go?

I will get to the phones in a minute, but first, I want to share with you all a very interesting thing that happened to me on Saturday. Sandy and I joined up with some fellow photographers to shoot a local car show. I had my usual ton of gear and I took the first image and thought nothing of it.

So, when I went to take the next image a few minutes later, my “Auto focus” on my camera was not working.
I thought to myself, HMMM, what’s up with that? See, I have not taken any pictures since early March, and I was going nuts trying to figure out why it was not working. I struggled for a couple of hours, and finally gave up, and put the gear back in the car, and hung around while Sandy and one her friends went shopping at the Street fair booth’s.

On Sunday, I resolved that I was going to get to the bottom of the crisis, and figure it out or I would send my camera off to Bernie, my repair guy in Kansas, who has repaired my gear for the last 20 years or so.

Well, it turned out that it my own silly mistake after all. When I had my FX or Full Frame camera, a Nikon D700, I had set a button on the back of the camera to only allow auto focus when pressed. A lot of folks will set up this way so that you can “Grab” focus on the subject’s eye, and then recompose without having an adverse focus shift. So, that was my work flow habit carrying over to my present camera.

I simply forgot that I had set that, and of course the auto focus would not budge until the back button was pressed. Makes sense, I had asked it to that, right? Well, now I feel like a complete idiot….

Whatever.

So about the phones? Yeah here is the deal. We have had AT&T as a mobile provider for as long as we have been here in Tennessee. When we moved out here back in 1999, with a job change, my new employer paid for my cell phone. Basically we have stuck with them ever since. Why? I don’t know, we just did.

Well, I had been apologizing to everyone that asked, that we were unable to do text messaging. To us, that was not such a big deal, but I could see it becoming a very useful process. In addition, our little Samsung phones could not handle contacts very well. ( See, I have over 1200! ) And several times I needed a number from Sandy’s phone, and she may have needed one from mine. Not too pretty…

Now, on my PC at home, I maintain a huge contact file in my MS Office, but I can’t use the phone numbers.
So, it was beginning to be a big mess. Also, the little Samsung’s had no web abilities, so we could not surf, or anything. Just call someone after we looked up their number somewhere else. Pretty lame right?

I had been hearing about Straight Talk from Walmart, but did not think it would work for us, because, I did not think we could use iPhone’s on that plan. Well it turns out that you can.

After a prolonged plea on FaceBook for someone to sell us their old iPhones, and a wonderful cell phone shop in Murfreesboro, we now have iPhones on Straight Talk with unlimited everything for about what we were paying AT&T.

Pretty Sweet. And we can now use the “Cloud” for a common contact source. And just last weekend, Sandy is using InstaGram to upload her cute images of our adventures with our grandson, Jace. Of course our remote families enjoy this, and it is after all quite fun and easy.

If you have a contract with a carrier, you may have to wait until you can update or renew, but, I would encourage you to give Straight Talk a try when you can. Fast, friendly and makes life a whole lot sweeter!

Next time, I will fill you all in another fun project, Boxee Box!  Catch ya later!!!

We’re still here…

March 31st, 2012

My gosh, has it been a month already? Yikes…

Anyway, we have been busy with the job search, photography projects, DIY projects, video, and just lately we have taken on 2 new projects…

We finally cut cable TV out. The guy down the street turned me on to this. He says he has never had cable TV, and so our conversation was mostly about his OTA or Over the Air antennae. I’ve seen it several times as Wilbur and I were out and about and wondered… But I never actually stopped to ask him about it. So I did.

He convinced me to get one and drop cable. So, Sandy and I went shopping last weekend, and we settled on one we thought would work for us. Now if you know me at all, I am a tech guy, and I have very high standards when it comes to my entertainment needs. We have always had a big screen TV, and it took a long time before we bought a Blu ray player. And even then we didn’t realize just how good video and TV could be, because we had a 12 year old big screen. It was supposed to be a 1080i, but I think it really was only somewhat less.

Last month, when we replaced that goofy monster with an High Definition LED TV, our world changed, big time…

We were BLOWN AWAY by the resolution of the Blu ray, and hi def TV. It was absolutely amazing!!!

Now, we are talking about cutting cable… How is that gonna look as far as resolution for free?

I must say, that free HD reception with the OTA antennae is as good or better than it was with cable. We are getting the same resolution, but just not as many channels. Which is OK, because we plan on spending less time in front of the tube now that fair weather is here.

In my humble opinion, cutting cable has been the best thing we could have done. We are getting VERY HIGH definition TV for free. My ONLY regret is tat we did not do it years ago. Imagine how much money we could have saved!!!! Can you say a new Nikon 600mm lens? Oh yeah, it was that much!!!!

My next project will be getting rid of our useless, over priced cell phone plan. But more on that later…

Stay tuned y’all!!!!!!

Great Blue Heron…

February 26th, 2012

We had some fun trying to catch these GBH at Drake’s Creek Park, Hendersonville, Tn.

Nikon D7000, 300MM F2.8 with 1.4 TC
Cropped for 11 x 14 print size.

Check out other images from this session in my FlickR photo sets here…

Latest BTSV (Behind the scenes video)…

February 20th, 2012

I recently attended a “Flash Party” with a Boudoir theme.

This BTSV from the “Boudoir Flash Party” at EDSI Group’s studio in Nashville, TN. The video is not rated “R” but it is probably NTSW or “Not safe for Workplaces” So be forewarned.

Thx for Checking it out! Hint: Stay with it thru the credits PLZ! Make sure you crank the volume, and watch it full screen and HD or “High Definition” for best effect! Feel free to leave a comment on the Vimeo page. I would luv to hear your thoughts on the project! Njoy!!!

An update for Y’all…

February 10th, 2012

(Must be in Tennessee, right Y’ALL??? LOL!)

Jan was officially an LED month. Got a LED upgrade for my “Maglite” which I have had since 1976!

Also acquired 4 new LED video lights, bought a new LED TV, because the old one died, but we had to return it to get an even better one. Yeah Baby!!!!

Setting up the Christmas tree…

December 7th, 2011

Setting up the tree, 2011 from Dan Broadrick on Vimeo.


We had a special crew assisting us with setting up our Christmas tree this year.

Troy and Jace did the honors for us.

The time lapse portion has over 1000 frames, is running at 24 FPS, and was shot using
the Nikon D7000 and the 20mm F2.8 lens.

The video clips were using one of my new toys called a “PICO DOLLY”, a very cool little
skater / slider.

Feel free to leave me some comments about this video project on the Vimeo site!!!!

Halloween Flash Party…

October 26th, 2011

This last weekend, I attended another Flash Party, where a lot of creative folks get together and shoot models for fun!

This young lady was playing a gun shot victim, and I think it came out especially well!

PLEASE feel free to check out my other images from the Flash Party at the link below.

Check out other images from this session in my FlickR photo sets here…

Concerned about the Apple upgrade to iOS 5…

October 20th, 2011

Anybody upgraded their iPad to the new iOS 5 yet? If so, what are your reactions to it? Any hiccups, regrets, likes, dislikes, etc…

I was finally able to find the download outside of iTunes. Never did get that to work for me…
I tried for several days to get the file via iTunes. But, it would download all the way, then failed on the final check…? So I kinda gave up, until today.

So, now I have it, but I still think it broke my old iPad that Apple replaced and then I sold it.
Now I am very reluctant to upgrade me new iPad2, I think it will be good to wait a few days, to see what everybody else thinks!!!!

By the way, here is that link to a website that has the links to directly download the ispw files:
http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/12/ios-5-download-available/