Evony

This has nothing to do with photography but you have to try this game. I am so addicted to it now. Here is the site. It has my name as a referral http://kirkgrove.evony.com/

Smoke photography

Talking about the previous post on smoke photography.I will post a link at the end of this post. I never heard of smoke photography until I came across this site when looking for ideas and this seems like a pretty cool idea. There is a lot of editing involved. Generally, I'm not a big fan of editing,however, lately I've been seeing some of the very creative and cool stuff that can be done with editing(If done right of course). Here is the link to smoke photography, you have to check this out it is really cool stuff. Here are examples. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/10/05/celebration-of-smoke-photography-and-smoke-art/

Here are techniques http://digital-photography-school.com/smoking-allowed-investigating-smoke-art-photography and here is another one http://photocritic.org/artsmoke-photographing-smoke/.

Home all week

Well, since I am laid off from work this week I get to spend some quality time home alone with my son. Hopefully I get some creative ideas for photos. Maybe we'll go out somewhere. Or I have been contemplating some smoke photography. Who knows maybe I'll come up with something.

Lightning

Maybe I will get lucky and have a lot of lightning and get some good shots.

Rainy Day

I had high hopes about going out on a hike today. I was looking forward to taking some photos. But the darn rain has ruined my plans for today. Oh well there is always next week.

Sorry

I apologize for the long delay in posting. It has been a real busy summer thus far and I assure you that I will have a new post either tonight or by the end of the weekend. I thank everyone who has visited my blog and I hope you enjoy the photos.

Starved Rock

I'm going to be camping at Starved Rock state park next week for a couple of days. I'm hoping to get some awesome shots.Wish me luck.

Articles

Here are some great articles that were sent to me on taking photos of space. I hope everyone enjoys them.If you come across any spam or pop ups please let me know and I will take the link out. http://www.photography-colleges.org/100-free-online-tools-and-resources-to-take-pictures-of-space/

Fire got me into trouble

The infamous backyard fire.

The trees are on fire!

Well I was sitting in my grandmas back yard playing with matches and before you know it the little brush that I was playing with turned into a big fire. By the time the fire department got there the whole back yard was up in flames and I was scared to death.

So if any kids are reading this remember playing with fire is bad.

Missing shots

I missed some great shots this past weekend but they were uncontrollable circumstances.

Holiday weekend

I hope everyone had a great Memorial day weekend.

SLR vs. Point and shoot

 Well I've finally got my first SLR camera and I have a great point and shoot as well. Lets start with the point and shoot.

 The point and shoot I have is the Fujifilm s1000fd which has some great features. It has manual controls but not really full manual controls like an SLR. The picture quality with this camera is excellent. It has a 12 times zoom and the macro feature is pretty good for not being a true macro. 

 Problems with this camera are very long shutter lag, no image stabilization,can't shoot in raw and not many accessories for the camera,like filters which would be a big plus for the camera.

 Now moving onto the SLR. I bought the Sony A200, the camera so far is great the features are better then the Canon XS which I did a comparison between the two. There is virtually no shutter lag on this camera at all. It has a 9 point auto focus,it has face detection eye focus. The camera takes excellent photos in raw and has great manual features as all SLR cameras should. 

 The only downsides that I have found with the SLR is that it is much larger than my point and shoot which I don't mind that. And dust dust dust is a problem. I have had it for about 2 weeks and I have already had some dust on the sensor which was easily blown off but still a pain. 

 I highly recommend buying an SLR over a point and shoot.

This is by no means a complete list of pros and cons for both cameras.

Sorry

I apologize for no new posts lately.I've been very busy . I got my new DSLR a few days ago and I'm playing around. Hopefully this weekend I will have some new photos to post.Just bare with me.And thank you for visiting my blog.

SLR

 Well the SLR is on it's way. I can't wait for this thing to get here. I didn't go with the big boy but instead I got the cheaper model.

 I was going to buy the Canon XS but after doing countless hours of research I chose to get the Sony A200. The features are better and I like the way the camera looks and Sony is having a credit deal right now. The only thing it lacks is the live view but who cares about that.The image stabilization is built into the camera which I hope I like that. 

All and all I can't wait to get this.

COCO Keys wasn't as fun as you'd think

Unbelievable, my wife and 3 year old and I go to COCO Keys water park this past weekend. We get there,now mind you this is an indoor water park,it's raining outside like cats and dogs and a little lightning,well they tell us it will be a hour or an hour and a half before we can get in the water because of lightning. What the heck I thought the purpose of going to an indoor water park was to have fun in crappy weather.

So finally, we got to get in the water and I wanted to send my son down one of the four water slides they had. Come to find out they are only aloud to open one slide at a time because of safety reasons. Now I am so damn furious at this point but we continue to play in the water and go in the lazy river. Well, 20 minutes later everyone has to get out of the pools again because of lightning. RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR So we left.

We paid 25 dollars a person to get in this place and what a terrible time. My wife is supposed to call and try to get our money back. We'll see!!!!!

Saving

 I've been saving and selling some unused items so I can get my new SLR. I am so exited,I can't wait to get this thing. Not to much longer to go now. 

This WII is just taking up space

And the wife is right again

Here ( Wii ) Go

I would have to say the most useless thing in my house would have to be the WII that I insisted my wife and I buy. We rarely play it.

What a waste of money. It looks fun on TV but most of the games are just boring. And yet again the wife is right.HA HA

One day I'll roll in a new Camaro

The dream car.

Camaro Concept

Most would say Lamborghini,Bentley, maybe even Porsche.

I live right by Ogden Avenue In Illinois and you can find every car dealer imaginable down this little stretch of road.

The other day I was driving past the good old Chevy dealer and I see this beautiful black shiny new Camaro.This car had my mouth down to the floor and wishing and trying at the same time to talk my wife into letting me buy it. Well needless to say I am still driving the same old vehicle I have been for the past two years.

If pot is legalized, I expect increases in tax revenue

Although, it will never happen but if it were to the government would make so much revenue in taxes we might pull ourselves out of this economic turmoil. MAYBE.

Lyman woods in Downers Grove Illinois is lovely this time of year

My favorite outdoor spot.

This is a little forest preserve that I like to go to. It's nice and quiet and there aren't many people. There is a good abundance of wildlife as well, the wildlife includes deer,coyotes,owls,hawks,ducks,geese, and many different species of birds.

What to use to clean lenses and LCD screens.

 I have found in my experience the best thing to clean lenses, is the lens pen. I highly recommend this product. You can use it on point and shoot cameras as well. I use the lens pen on my camera  as well as my telescope eyepieces and I am just amazed at how clean it gets them especially after a good night of dew. Here is a website to check out the lens pen. http://www.lenspen.com/

 Now to clean LCD screens I recommend a soft micro cloth. You usually do not need and kind of solution but if you do only use a little bit. You can usually buy micro cloths at any local store. But I'm going to recommend a site here of a telescope dealer because his service is just outstanding. The name of the company is Camera Concepts. http://www.cameraconcepts.com/store/

Oh, to be in Hawaii

My vacation-honeymoon

It was actually our honeymoon, but it was a vacation as well.We stayed in Maui.

The weather is beautiful there, everyone was friendly and the food for the most part was great.

If you go there do not go to any fancy restaurants, the dive places were the best. We went to a couple of fancy restaurants spent about a hundred dollars at each one and the food was terrible.

If you ever go take the road to Hana trip you will love it.The waterfalls were great the air even had a different smell to it.

My money's on the pack of hyenas

Although gorillas are very strong, I think hyenas are little more agile and they are very efficient predators.If the pack were large enough I don't think the gorilla would stand a chance.

I can hear them laughing as you are reading this post.

Which is better?

 Everyone who owns a camera probably knows what image stabilization is. So you understand the concept. 

      Well the big question is for SLR cameras, is internal or lens image stabilization better?

 If you have a standard point and shoot camera you probably have some sort of image stabilization. Now your camera may have what is called picture stabilization which is not the same thing. What picture stabilization does, it turns the ISO speed of your camera up to compensate; now in turn that degrades the picture quality, the higher the ISO speed the worse the picture. I don't recommend using this feature.

 Now the big debate in SLR cameras is whether or not the image stabilization is better inside the camera or inside of the lens. Personally I think the lens should have the image stabilization. Why you might ask. Well if you were to buy another camera and it doesn't have image stabilization built in then your saved.

Solar Observing and photography

To begin, when solar observing do not and I repeat do not look directly into the sun and defiantly do not look at the sun with a telescope without a proper solar filter. A proper filter will fit in the front of your telescope. Now the best time to view the sun is when there is activity on the sun aka sun spots or solar flares. Now solar flares require a special filter(H-alpha) that we will not discuss here but here is a website for more info  http://www.thousandoaksoptical.com/.

 Now solar photography is basically the same as moon photography but you have to be a little more careful when observing and photographing. You will need a tripod and a little Patience. Now your photos will not give you true color because you are using a filter but they will look cool. Especially if you have a H-alpha filter that can view solar flares. Here are several websites with more info. 

 http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/sun/3304286.html   http://sungazer.net/photo.html   http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/01/amazon-solar-ph.html  http://www.daystarfilters.com/

I don't dress to impress sorry.

I'm not dressing to impress.

red, white, and bluejeans

Well i don't dress to impress. I wear bluejeans and a t-shirt of some sort. And no this is not a picture of me.

Suggestions

 If anyone has any suggestions for this blog please feel free to either comment here or e-mail me. I have nothing but open ears. Whether good or bad. 

Keeping in touch from Indiana to Illinois

My long commute to Illinois got me the girl.

Well, I no longer live in Indiana but when I did I was dating my present wife. It was pretty tough, I was driving back and forth from Indiana to Chicago just about every weekend. It was about a 2 hour drive and if you add Chicago construction it was even longer sometimes. However, we made it work out and no we're happily married. Sometimes.LOL

Selling photos

 Selling photos can be a real bare especially if all you want to do is get your photos out into the public via paper not the Internet.

 Well I've found a few ways to do this. For starters you can start a blog like the one I have here and try to sell them using Paypal. I recommend Paypal because it is a secure transaction but they do charge a percentage. With little or no problems. If you've used EBay then you've probably used Paypal.

 Your second choice is to try stock photos. Now a lot of stock photo sites require you to be a professional or have almost flawless photos. However, I have found a few sites that do accept amateurs. I will list them after the post. 

 Well if all you want to do is get your photos into the hands of the public ,here are a few options to try. Don't get frustrated, if you don't sell photos right away. Remember Ansel Adams didn't start out being a professional.  Visit these sites for more info. https://www.123rf.com/    http://www.istockphoto.com/

Growing up may not happen according to my wife.

Well I don't plan on growing up so it looks like I screwed.

Over editing

When is a photo over edited?

 Well when it takes you longer to edit the photo then it did to go on your photography trip, it might be over edited.

 If the photo looks nothing like the original that you took, it might be over edited.

Editing photos can be fun and be a very creative procedure. However if your trying to improve your photo through editing and it takes you hours upon hours then maybe the photo just isn't worthy.

I'm in the ansel adams Hall of Fame

Well thank you Mr. Warhol

Well thank you for the 15 minutes of fame Mr.Warhol. I would definatly promote my photos to the world.

When do the 15 minutes start Mr. Warhol?

5 awsome photos

Here are five photos I found over the Internet that I think are really cool. I hope you agree with me,just click the link to go directly to the photo.1.http://www.k-director.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/windowslivewritertop10blackwhitephotographsbywired.com-1466811.jpg 2.http://www.k-director.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/windowslivewritertop10blackwhitephotographsbywired.com-1466821.jpg3.http://www.k-director.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/windowslivewritertop10blackwhitephotographsbywired.com-1466841.jpg 4.http://www.k-director.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/windowslivewritertop10blackwhitephotographsbywired.com-1466871.jpg 5.http://www.k-director.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/windowslivewritertop10blackwhitephotographsbywired.com-14668101.jpg

Please get these songs out of my head before I shoot myself.

And the worst songs ever are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

womanizer by Britney Spears

The song is the most annoying thing i've ever heard.

ice ice baby by vanilla ice

Does it need an explanation, listen to the song.

Rico Suave by GERARDO

Is it really a song?

Portflio website

If your an amateur photographer like me and want a simple website to advertise your portfolio Figdig is right for you. I recommend this site because it's easy to manage and it's free. So if you want a way to get some free exposure for your work try it out and while your there check out my free portfolio.http://figdig.com/ , www.figdig.com/portfolio/kirkgrove/

Stuck in an elevator with jennifer aniston

jennifer aniston
I don't think I need to explain.

2009 Internet Fools' Day

As much as I would like to answer this I can't because I haven't seen any pranks online. SORRY.

The infamous owl

Well I wake up this morning and my wife goes to work and I'm sitting at the computer and what do I hear (an owl). So I go outside and look around thinking I might be able to get a shot of this thing. I really like owls I think they're cool. Anyway, I look around and I don't hear him anymore, so I go back inside and I can hear him again.
I stick my head by my chimney and I can hear him plain as day. How funny is this I'm always trying to get a photo of owls and I can't. Now I have one so close to home and I still can't.
No the owl is not in the chimney,he is just by it. Well wish me luck maybe he'll land on my patio.

I could eat nothing but steak for a year

If there's no known region I'll make one up

Japanese Steak House Master Chef Overseeing Student

Well I don't know what category steak would fall in but I think I could handle eating it for a year.If anyone knows what region this falls in let me know.

I get my news from the Internet

Taking photos of the moon

I use my telescope to take photos of the moon like the one I posted in my slide show. You must have a lot of Patience when using a telescope, especially one of a large aperture. The moon or any other object moves quickly even at a low magnification. It's best to use a tripod and you may have to pan a little as well.
The best kind of telescope to use in astrophotography is a self tracking telescope. A ccd camera will give you better pictures as well but you can use a normal point and shoot.
Here are a few websites on ccd cameras and telescopes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge-coupled_device http://www.telescopes.com/telescopes/catadioptric-telescopes/celestron8inchcpcschmidtcassegrainwithstarbrightxltcoatings.cfm

Why take long exposures?

Well long exposure photos can be very cool. A lot of times they are taken at night. You Don't have to take them at night as long as you use a filter. You will need a tripod to take long exposure shots.Taking long exposure shots will give you the sense of motion in your photos. You can get shots of star trails ;moving cars look really cool as well. It is a lot of fun to do and experiment with. Here are a few websites with photos of long exposures.http://digital-photography-school.com/long-exposure-photography http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/long-exposure.html

What I would do with my million dollar giveaway.

I would give $500,000 to a childrens hospital, to help kids with diseases. I would give $498,000 to stem cell research. And I would give the rest of it to my bank account to buy an SLR and some accessories.

Why I gave up on "Atlas Shrugged"

The phone book is more entertaining.

This book bored me to death. I read about half of it and had to put it down. I haven't picked it up since. I think I would rather read the phone book.

My trip from Bremen Indiana to Woodstock New York

My long trip to New York

My best friend and I took a trip to New York to visit his family. Not only was it him and I ,we also took his two children along. It took us about fourteen hours to get there.
We had such a great time once we got there and I never felt more relaxed in my life.

Photo ideas

Well if you've run out of things to shoot,here is a great website with plenty of ideas.http://www.jwrider.com/photo/ideas.htm Some of them are kind of goofy but they will get you started.
If worse comes to worse do what I do and grab your trusty backpack and take a hike. Who cares where you go on a hike as long as you get out.

Infrared photos

Shooting IR photos is a fun and exiting way to experiment with photography. You can either have a dedicated camera for this or you can by a filter. Here are a few websites to get you started and a few sample photos as well. The first website shows photos and techniques http://discoversomething.com/digital_infrared_photography the second shows you how to make a filter on your own.http://photocritic.org/create-your-own-ir-filter/ I do not recommend modifying a camera it can be done but do it at your own risk. Have fun and enjoy.

What I will do if zombies come.

Join them.

Rain Rain

Very crummy day here in Illinois . It is supposed to rain and thunder storm most of the day. It doesn't look like I will be taking many photos. Tomorrow is looking a little more promising, a little colder but promising.
I'll probably go on a short hike in the morning.

My bucket list

Sell some photos LOL

Visit Yellowstone national park

Take a trip to Antarctica
There isn't a single person there.

Ride cross country on a Harley.

Travel the world

Making black and white photos with color.

Have you ever seen those black and white photos with a little color, maybe a rose or some other object standing out and wondered how they do it. Well here is a website and a free program to get you started .
The program you need is called Gimpshophttp://www.gimpshop.com/( you don't need this program as long as you have a program that can layer). The reason I recommend Gimpshop is because it is free and easy to use.
The website to get simple instruction on how to do this is http://herselfswebtools.com/2007/06/.
It may seem like a lot at first but it really isn't, it is very simple to do and it will give you several ideas as far as taking pictures go.
Have fun and enjoy.

The gadget that is at the top of my list is the Canon XS or XSI camera.

Things to bring on a hike

When going hiking you must take your trusty backpack if you don't have one any bag will do. You'll defiantly need water. You can go days without food but not without water. I would recommend bringing a compass as well, and maybe a couple of granola bars, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR CAMERA.
If it is cold outside defiantly wear warm clothes but most importantly warm comfortable waterproof boots.
I don't take a hiking stick if I need one that bad I will find one in the woods. But I'm not going hiking in the mountains either.Although I would love to.
If you don't know of a place to go hiking do a search of your local forest preserves.

Shooting

When taking photographs look everywhere, up down side to side, you never know what you will discover. Sometimes you'll have some luck if you don't have anything in particular to shoot.
Try to Previsualise your shots before leaving the house. Sometimes this can be hard to do especially if you've never been to the location your are going to be shooting. And most of all have fun.

Photos

I took a trip to Chicago today,I have added a few new photos to my slideshow. Enjoy.

Gloomy Day

Today is a very gloomy day here in Illinois but that is a good time to go out and try to take some black and white photos. Most people who take color photos prefer a bright sunshiny day however, when taking black and white photos overcast is great. Just remember to bring something to cover your camera up with in case it rains.
So I'm going to give it a go. Wish me luck.

'Surely your joking MR. Feynman' will make you LOL

You wouldn't expect a physics book to be on the funny side but this one is. Richard Feynman one of the greatest physicist to walk the earth will have you sitting on the edge of your seat with laughter , the book not only tells a story it gives you an inside look into Feynman's life and some of the quarks he had.

Best photo sharing sites

Of course you have Flickr and photobucket but I have come across a few better photo sharing sites that are a lot of fun and you can meet some good people. One of the sites is called Viewbug http://www.viewbug.com/, you can post all of your photos for free and it gets better, you can enter monthly photo contests for free and they have weekly winners as well. You can actually win some money just for taking great photos.
Another good site is called Deviant Art http://www.deviantart.com/ where you can post photos for free or pay for a better account. You can sell prints if someone wants to buy them and everyone gets a free print account.
So enjoy the sites and have fun.

I'll spend my golden years in Maui

The weather is perfect there, when it rains it only rains for a short time. The beaches are great , the food is great and the wildlife is wonderful. I would have plenty of opportunities to take photos. The only problem is money would definitely have to be no object because it is expensive there.

HDR is it worth the time?

Although HDR images can be beautiful they can also take a lot of time to compose and edit. You can spend more time at the computer than taking photos. Now I'm not saying don't give it a shot but don't get caught up in it to much. Unless you would rather sit at your computer all day than taking pictures. If done right HDR photos can look great ,however, if done wrong they can look terrible. Black and white images can look absolutely amazing if done right.
If you would like to give HDR a go there is a free program called Picturnaut that will get you started. It's a very simple program to use.
Remember the key is to take photos not spend hours upon hours at the computer.

'Dirty Deeds done dirt cheap' will help you through a break-up

Dirty Deeds done dirt cheap by AC/DC

How do you like me now by Toby Keith

The End by The Doors

Golden Hour does it exist?

It's said in photography that there is a golden hour which is usually around sunrise and sunset and the light tends to shine just right over objects. I have seen this and I do believe it, however, I believe that the golden hour is anytime you can go outside and take photos. Ansel Adams used to shoot a lot of shots in the harshest light of the day. What does that tell you?

New

New photos have been added in my slide show. They were taken today. I'm kind of disappointed with the day I had. It was very windy and cold. But I got some OK shots.

Black and white

The best time to take black and white photos is on a gloomy day with a little overcast.Check out Ansel Adams gallery.http://www.anseladams.com/

Sunny

Well no more rain here but it is a little colder. I think I may go out and take some photos today.I am going to try and put new photos on every week.
Please comment on any of my posts or in the chat bar. It's only a quick guestbook.

Recommended reading

http://www.bandwmag.com/ Today's recommended reading for photography is , B&W magazine and Outdoor Photographer.

Cheap Stuff

Well, I have never purchased anything from an infomercial.I know people that have and everything looks very cheap. However, for mothers day my wife wants a Snuggie. So it looks like this will be my first purchase from an infomercial.

March 10 2009

Another rainy and gloomy day here in Illinois. Probably not a good day to take photos. Everything is flooded around here, it stinks.

My money's on the shark

No chance

Well of course it would depend on what kind of shark. But im going to have to assume that we are dealing with a great white. I believe that if a bear were to get in a great whites territory that he would be to slow compared to the sharks agility in the water. One large chomp of the jaws and the bear would be gone.

Couldn't wait to get home

My wife and I went to the taste of Chicago. There were so many people I couldn't wait to get home.

Let me tell you what I do

I work in an assembly plant. I ,being the assembler build large molding machines for the iron foundry industry. I start a job with nothing but a frame. Like everything else I work my way from the ground up. It takes about 3 months to build one machine. There is a lot of fine tuning and troubleshooting that is involved in my everyday job.

When shooting black and white photos ,it's best to shoot in color then convert to grayscale once you get home. Most cameras offer a black and white feature but if there is any noise it will show up more using that feature.

Lets talk about some photo ideas while your here. Maybe some rainy day photo ideas. Macro or anything.

For information on prints please e-mail me at kirkgrove1@sbcglobal.net.

The site is still in the process of being built but feel free to browse the photos and post a blog.

Hello

Hello, and welcome to my blog. I Love to take photos, I really love black and white photos, I hope you do to. If you would like to order prints please e-mail me at kirkgrove1@sbcglobal.net. Please leave any feedback good or bad.