project365 – January 31, 2015 – Snow, snow, and more snow

It was chilly, chilly, chilly, and did I mention chilly up on the mountains today!

project365 – January 30, 2015 – Top of the mountain to ya

Now to enjoy the fruits of my labor! The new chain and cassette brought back the life in my tired old mountain bike, so I dusted off my tired old legs and pushed them up the mountain. It’s such a wonderful feeling reaching the top, sweat dripping like a faucet, lungs tired, legs tired, smiling muscles tired. I love it.

project365 – January 29, 2015 – All geared up!

One of my passions is biking, but I am terrible at maintaining my bikes. I let this one go for sooooo long on a worn out cassette and a stretched out chain that it was driving me crazy. It had begun shifting so poorly that I was finally motivated to make a change. It turns out that new chains and cassettes really aren’t that expensive, and aren’t that difficult to install. I should have done this a long time ago!

project365 – January 28, 2015 – Flower girl

My baby girl loves her some flowers, and today’s harvest did not disappoint!

project365 – January 27, 2015 – My take on turducken

If you have never heard of “Turducken”, look it up immediately. It’s a turkey stuffed with duck which is stuffed with chicken. Fabulous! Here is my take on a multi stuffed meal. I’m calling it Cheebacenus. Cheese wrapped, bacon wrapped, chicken wrapped asparagus. The kids go bonkers over meals like this. They love to cut them in half and see all the layers. In hindsight, I should have taken a picture of that. Next time. Next time.

project365 – January 26, 2015 – Iron defficiency

Is your skin looking a little pale? Do you bruise easily? Are you feeling fatigued? Maybe you just need a little more Iron Man in your diet.

project365 – January 25, 2015 – Small world

It’s so small to us, but imagine how enormous it must be for the microscopic life living on it’s surface. I wish I could fit this thing under the microscope! Just imagine how the spikes must seem like peaky mountain tops, and the holes like never ending caverns to the tiny little microbes that think of this as their home, as their planet.

project365 – January 24, 2015 – run buckley run

I love our little pooper dog, but he is a turd. He is puppy-ish (1 year old), and therefore has a lot of energy. A lot of energy. Did I say a lot of energy? Yes a lot of energy. The only way to keep him satisfied, and to keep our furniture in one piece, is to wake up at the crack of dawn and take him out for a run. This way he gets to burn off some steam, and I get to freeze my face. He also gets to work on his grab and go technique, thus furthering his career in sock theft. What you see above is him running along with a surrogate sock, a pine cone. He can pick them up without slowing his pace, and then happily carries them along for minutes at a time, smiling from ear to ear in amusement. In this instance, I did my best to get along side him with my phone in his face, snapping away and hoping that one of the pictures looks decent enough to post.

project365 – January 23, 2015 – My sunshine

My little sunshine made this for Grandparent’s day. She melted all their hearts with it. Unfortunately there was only one gift, and 5 grandparents. I should have had them arm wrestle for it. Or rock paper scissors. Or a dance off. Hindsight is 20/20.

project365 – January 22, 2015 – Caveman selfie

Continuing the odd selfie series from yesterday, I’m naming this the caveman selfie. This technology predates the iphone, it predates the Sony Ericsson Z1010 (first phone to have a selfie cam?). It’s low resolution, it’s uncomfortable, it’s awesome fun! Who am I kidding, it’s nearly as good as my old samsung galaxy s3 as evidenced by yesterday’s post. I’m really not much of a selfie person, but I guess it would be nice to have a better front facing camera for those moments where nothing else will do. One of these days I’ll update to a super selfie machine like the Galaxy Note 4, or the just announced galaxy S6 (yes I am posting this way late). My phone is going on 3 years old now, and still kickin’, although just barely. I didn’t help it along any when I dropped it on the sidewalk this morning. It was 6:30am or so, so I was tired. It was 49 degrees out, so I was cold. 49 is cold cold cold for us southern californian-ers. I was headed out for a run with my dog, who was neither tired nor cold, so he was anxious to get a move on. With my hands tucked into my sleeves my phone just slipped and slammed down into the pavement with a loud crack, like the sound of the cue ball breaking a fresh racked game of eight-ball. Luckily it survived the impact with only a single battle wound in the corner, no crack to be found on the screen. It will live to selfie another day!

This photo was taken with the Nikon, with the camera flagged and bounced camera left such that it didn’t spill into the room behind.

project365 – January 21, 2015 – Mountain selfie

Here I am, looking very serious, when in actuality I am just very tired. I had just climbed a cat 3 hill on my mountain bike, ascending nearly 1000 ft at 14% average grade. It’s not my first time up this particular hill, but it is always a rush, and always rewarding. It’s hard, it’s tiring, and it’s a remarkable test of will power and determination. It is totally worth it. The view from the top is astounding, and the feeling of accomplishment is always overwhelming. My secondary goal was to take a few pictures of the fabulous view. I took a fair number of shots, but I wasn’t happy with the results from my puny little phone camera. I fully believe in the saying that the best camera is the one you have with you, but sometimes it does disappoint. Out of all my choices, I opted for this selfie. I like the sun’s starburst coming in from the bottom right. It helps wash out the contrast on my face (I’ll take all of that I can get!), and I’d say it gives an interesting look to a rather boring cell phone selfie.

project365 – January 20, 2015 – Garlic makes the world go round

This is a simple meal but if you look closely you will see bits of the magic ingredient resting atop the green beans. Garlic! My favorite way to cook just about any veggie lately is sautéed in a little extra virgin olive oil (otherwise known as EVOO to the foodies in the audience) infused with an ample helping of crushed and diced garlic. I like how they turn into little crunchy bits of garlicy goodness, adding texture, and delivering the ultimate batman-esque POW as they smack your taste buds square in the …umm… buds.

project365 – January 19, 2015 – Take the blue pill

project365 – January 18, 2015 – The reason we hike

project365 – January 17, 2015 – Homemade rainbows

In the early afternoon the sun shines through our fish tank which acts like a prism and spreads a beautiful rainbow across the couch!

project365 – January 16, 2015 – Light painting with toothbrushes

I enlisted my two little helpers for this photographic experiment. This experiment has scientifically proven with absolute certainty that 1) The kids aren’t afraid of the dark. 2) Photography is fun. 3) Brushing teeth is fun. and 4) We need a towel rack in this bathroom. My technique for this photo was simple. I set the camera to manual mode, 10 second exposure, f3.5, iso 200. The speedlight flash was set to fire rear curtain. While I don’t think it technically matters if the flash fires at the beginning or the end of the exposure, I wanted to capture their faces and expressions as they were dancing around in the dark, so rear curtain worked best. I set the camera down on the counter top, prefocused, and turned the lights off and shut the door. Then we turned on the flashing lights on their toothbrushes and I told them to dance, wiggle, wave it around, whatever they wanted. We tried a few times and this was my top pick of the bunch. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved seeing the results!

project365 – January 15, 2015 – Be there, and be square

Besides the creativity on display here, I thought I would post this to bring some attention to a detail that I failed to remember when shooting this image. I used the wide angle lens at 10mm because I had to stand very close. Here is where some of the difficulty with a wide angle lens can rear it’s ugly head, and why practice makes perfect is the most applicable idiom in this instance. I thought I had the camera square to the wall, it seemed so in the viewfinder. Much to my dismay I found that I was most certainly not perfectly centered or squared, in any direction! The result is a parallelogram shaped piece of art when it should be perfectly rectangular. Being so close to the subject with a wide angle lens makes even the slightest rotation from perpendicular glaringly obvious. I suppose it takes a trained eye, and absolute attention to detail to keep things looking square. At minimum, at least thinking about it ahead of time and trying to check the angles will help. I will try again and report back my results. Until then, stay square out there.

project365 – January 14, 2015 – I Mustache you a question

These little babies are proudly displayed on my dash in my car above my glove box, glowing like beacons, representing the fun times that the kids and I like to have together. We donned these specific mustaches all through the airport where we waited at the terminal with large flamboyant signs, welcoming my (then) fiance home from her trip. We posed for many a strangers, for many a pictures, because everyone got a kick out of my two little fun loving lip toupee wearing love bugs. Nobody could resist how absolutely adorable they looked holding their signs and sporting their huge furry colorful moustaches. Of course I was wearing a stache too, but I was chopped liver next to those two little mustachio’d giggle machines.

project365 – January 13, 2015 – Automated beef tenderizing juicinator

It’s been a long day at work. You’re tired. You’re hungry. You hit all the red lights on the way home. You walk in the door and suddenly anything that was bothering you melts away as you’re enveloped in the sweet juicy smell of that tender slow cooked chuck roast that’s been braising in the crock pot all day. It’s hot and it’s ready to be plated and devoured immediately. So go ahead, sit back, relax, and enjoy it, you deserve it. Click like if you’re hungry now. I am!

project365 – January 12, 2015 – Time is of the essence

As my head embeds itself into the soft fluff of my pho down pillow, I’m often left wondering where all the time in the day went. It goes by so fast sometimes. I could use just a little more of it. What would I do with an extra hour per day? Perhaps I would actually post the photos that I’ve been taking! Or play with the kids a little longer. Or enjoy a little more fun time or romantic time with my wife. Maybe I would make more elaborate meals. Or exercise more. I might take more pictures. Maybe keep the house a little cleaner. Or walk the dog more. Maybe I would work a little more. Or read more. Or meditate. Perhaps I would paint. Or write. Or spend more time with my family and friends. I might tackle projects on my honey-do list a little sooner. Or go to bed earlier. What would you do?

project365 – January 11, 2015 – This is not the macro you are looking for. Or is it?

This was taken on my Galaxy S3 using one of those clip on macro lens attachments. I was very pleased with the results, all things considered. The kit was actually a birthday gift for my sister, which I then promptly borrowed and explored the yard looking for a worthy subject. I later discovered that said sister also took a macro picture of a flower back in her neck of the woods, and it was fantastic! Certainly better than mine. I am humbled, and always in awe of her artistic talent. I’ll see if I can dig up a link to her version and I’ll update this post when I do.

The macro lens kit used for this is made by Camkix, you can find it here (direct link, no affiliation): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CSJ50HY

Edit: Here is a link to my sister’s photo: https://instagram.com/p/xsS5cnENxG/

project365 – January 10, 2015 – Smells fishy

You will probably see many more fishy pictures as the year goes on. It turns out to be pretty challenging to take a great photo of a fish tank. Things like white balance, reflection, and refraction when working at any angle relative to the glass can make it quite a challenge. Nuisance algae doesn’t help either… I’ll be working on both fronts. I’m not particularly proud of this photo, but here it is, it’s a start. This is a wide angle, shot at 10mm on my D300, with the flash pointed straight up at the ceiling and flagged to keep it from spilling forward directly.

project365 – January 9, 2015 – Eat your veggies

I prefer the salmon, yet this is the photo that ended up on my phone…

project365 – January 8, 2015 – Fun dad?

I don’t think it takes any extra effort to be a fun parent. Ok sure, maybe an extra pinch of time management helps. Beyond that, all it takes is the willingness to let go a little, and laugh, and be silly, and not worry about what anyone else thinks even if you’re neck deep in the ball pit with a bunch of toddlers. I suppose it is probably easier for some people than for others, but having fun is something everyone can do, and “being” fun is simply a natural extension of having fun. I guess it comes naturally for me because I hardly give a second thought to it. This morning one of the moms at Kindergarten drop off told me that I was the “fun dad” of the class. I don’t exactly know if it was intended as a compliment but I think it was. It made me smile from ear to ear. So if you’re reading this and you have kids, go home and let them jump off the couch in honor of fun parents day. Make sure to take your turn jumping, and don’t forget to giggle!

This photo was taken on the mighty D300 and my wide angle lens at the widest setting, 10mm. This equates to roughly 15mm in full frame equivalent. I used a fairly slow shutter speed and a cranked up ISO so that the lights in the room looked, umm, lit. I bounced the flash off the wall on camera right to help freeze the action. It was probably too high an ISO for my 8 year old camera as you can see fairly significant noise in the darker areas, and in turn the fairly heavy noise reduction I applied in lightroom. That being said, I really didn’t worry about my settings all that much. I did all of this fairly quickly, because it was my turn to jump next!

project365 – January 7, 2015 – Color

Do you remember Color Me Badd? Me too. I wanna sex you up was the bomb yo. Stay tuned for more play on colors.

project365 – January 6, 2015 – Fish out of water

project365 – January 5, 2015 – Smile

Smile while you eat it.

project365 – January 4, 2015 – Naked and frolicking

Another dog inspired post here. He’s been frolicking about the house completely naked since his last bath. It’s time to get him dressed again, but first a photo. Today I let my shabby little S3 rest and used my old relic but still functional fossil of a camera, my Nikon D300. It’s old and outdated, but it still does the job. A little bounced and flagged flash and a few touches in Lightroom and viola. If you need any lightroom tips, or have any lightroom tips, post below.

project365 – January 3, 2015 – A boy and his dog

Meet our 10 month old Battle dog. Half basset hound, half cattle dog, half sweet heart, half shit head. He loves the kids soooo soooo much. He is so sweet with them. He loves to play, and loves to cuddle, and loves to chomp anything he can get his mouth on when we’re not home. He’s our pooper dog, and we love him. I put him up on the top bunk in the mornings sometimes because Zack just love love loves having a doggy alarm clock to cuddle with in the morning. I took a few photos of this adorable moment with my frail old Samsung Galaxy S3, then edited them a tiny bit with the picsay pro android app, and then put them into the final collage with the android app named photo grid from cheetah mobile. These apps all seem to work pretty good, and I prefer the picsay pro menu system over something like snapseed (which hasn’t been updated since 2013 despite google purchasing it), but if you have any better suggestions for these please let me know in the comments.

project365 – January 2, 2015 – Stirred crazy

The best part of waking up, is getting dizzy in a tea cup! Thank you Disneyland for verifying that our inner ears are still functional…

project365 – January 1, 2015 – A new chest hair or two in 2015

Gooooooood morning two thousand fifteen! I’m back and I’m excited to start another project365. 2015 got off to a good start with a piping hot cup of C8H10N4O2. For the new year I decided to try something new today, black. I feel so manly now. I bet I grew a new chest hair or two this morning.