Reptile Farm

A while back when I got rid of nibbles I visited this Reptile Farm in Stanton, MO on highway 44. It dosn't look like much from the outside but there is alot more than meets the eye. Inside they have lions, alligators and tigers. They also have a wide range of snakes found all over the world. This is where I ended up sending Nibbles so he could live out the rest of his days. I feel like he would really fit in here.

Over the weekend of 9/18-9/22/09 I went to Southern IL to visit family and do a little fishing.  Well a lot of fishing.  There are really good catfish at this lake where we fished.  I tried to catch some big ones but they got away.  What else is new?  It was a lot of fun though.

 The family and I went to a coal miners parade in downtown West Frankfort.  West Frankfort is a small town in southern IL with a deep rooted heritage in coal mining.  Generations of coal miners have lived here and worked in the mines.  The parade celebrates these workers and the sacrifices they have made.

We also went to the Garden of the Gods where we did a little bit of climbing on natural rock formations made millions of years ago.  It is not uncommon to see small children wondering dangerously close to the edge of deadly cliff faces.

Before we left we stopped at Aunt Virginia's house and chatted before the long ride home.

(Port+) Portrait Blog Post

This photo was taken by Preston Guerra of lead singer Frankie Muriel.

I think this photo shows the singers personality because he is hitting a high note and putting his heart into his performance.  

This photo was taken under a red stage light at 1/350 @ f/4.5.

Dr.Zhivegas in Downtown Columbia

Only a couple hundred people showed up for this free concert in front of The Blue Note in downtown Columbia, MO. All demographics were there to enjoy the show. For those who don't know Dr.Zhivegas is a cover band that plays hits from the 70's with a modern touch.
I got there late with a low battery on my camera but I decided to take pictures and see how far I could get. It wasn't more then 10 frames before my camera was completely dead. I was shit out of luck and really bummed I was going to miss this opportunity. Luckily a fellow photographer found me and lent me a battery I could use for the night. He pretty much saved my life. Thanks. With my fully charged battery I was good to go for the rest of the concert. I alternated between a telephoto and wide angle lenses to get a range of different shots. I had to find something that was fast enough to capture some of the low light situations that are presented with all the changing lights. I shot manually and was constantly adjusting shutter speed. I found that 350 to 500 was the lowest I could go without getting a blurry image. The only problem is that my lenses are not top of the line and have high F-stops. I either had to wait for the lights to get bright and snap some pictures or lower the shutter speed and settle for a slightly blurry image. After all the troubles I got some pretty good shots. The lead singer Frankie Muriel even took a picture with me. I will be a life long fan for sure. Thanks guys. YOU ROCK!!!

Copying/Meter Testing

The purpose of the meter testing was to take a picture of a white piece of wallpaper with a stamped pattern in it and make the paper appear white while maintaining as much detail as possible.  First I started by setting my camera to f/11 @ 1/45.  For each frame I stepped the aperture down until I reached f/4.  This is the lowest aperture setting for the lens I was using.  It is a 28-70mm Sigma.  For the meter testing all frames were taken a 57.0 mm. 

Click here to view Copying/Metering Test

The tungsten and daylight exploration portion of the assignment was to go out and shoot 30 frames under different white balances.  I shot some frames at the Panera Bread Co. in downtown Columbia.  I set my camera to the tungsten setting and started shooting.  Even though it was a little dark inside the combination of tungsten light and daylight from windows made a soft environment for the camera.  I did not use any of these photos for the assignment but it was nice learning and observing the light.  Over Labor Day weekend I visited a reptile and exotic animal park in Missouri near Meramec Caverns.  I took pictures of lizards snakes lions and tigers. For the Daylight photo requirement I choose a picture of a dog inside a jail cell at the reptile park.  The dog was just inside the door getting mostly daylight and some tungsten light.  For the Tungsten photo I used a picture of my friend and my dog at my house.  There are four different kinds of light falling on the subject daylight from the windows, Tungsten light, neon light from a Chicago Blackhawks neon and light from a flat panel TV.  All these light sources give their own highlights and shadows that make an interesting photo.

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Free Nibbles

I got Nibbles for a zoology class in high-school and decided to raise him as a pet.  He was six inches when I bought from a small pet store in Valley Park, MO called Andy's Pets.  In his first few months of life he lived at the school in an aquarium I built for him fully loaded with a dry area, wet area, live plants, soil, rocks, a heated rock, and a full spectrum aquarium light.  On the weekends I would carry him to and from school in a kangaroo pocket of a hooded sweatshirt.  Over his lifetime he would live in all kinds of enclosures including a fish-tank coffee table in my living room and a 200 gallon custom enclosure I built for him in the basement.  I wish I could have kept him.  He was a good pet.

Click Here for more photos of Nibbles.

Click Here for more photos of Nibbles.