It’s been a while since I posted a plane, so tonight my picture of the day is the Stephens Akro. This is a cool little plane that’s made of wood and was designed and built for aerobatics. Not sure I’d want to loop the loop in a wooden plane but in the late 1960’s this was what all the pilots were after.

I took this shot as the plane is hanging on its side by a balcony overlooking the main exhibit area in the Museum of Flight. From the balcony you get a great shot of the Akro from the top. Anyway I think it’s a cool image.

Looks like we have some nice weather here right now so this weekend I’m heading out with my camera to get some pictures.

I had hoped that my new Nikon D4 would be here by now but they haven’t even shipped it yet, so I have no idea when it will arrive. In the interim I’ll just have to struggle through with my current gear. But when that camera arrives I will tell you all about it.

Lisa went out this evening so I had to provide dinner.   So we had pizza.   I turned my back for five minutes and Carter and Master Chief got in there.

I know I said I was getting bored of these images and was going to try something different tonight, but then I saw this pillow and thought WOW I love the quotation around the edge.  For us Brit’s this is SO true.

“Where there is tea there is hope” – I love that.  We use tea to solve all issues, if something good happens, a baby is born or we get a promotion – we have a cup of tea. If something bad happens, someone is hurt or World War III breaks out – we have a cup of tea.  It’s just like that, so when I saw this slogan I had to capture it.

So this was another light painting picture, just placed the pillow on the sofa, turned off the lights and away I went.  This was my first attempt and I think it caught the subject really well, you can even see the stitches in the material.

I think Carter and Master Chief were were a little thirsty and decided to have some wine.  I thought the way they tried to open the bottle was very interesting.

Continuing my quest for all things Union Jack’ish tonight I found a T-Shirt.  Unfortunately it didn’t fit me so Abi kindly agreed to model the item for a light painting picture.  Now the trouble with light painting is that you have to take a 30 second exposure, and it’s pretty hard to stay still for that length of time. (Go on, try it – no blinking, sniffing, moving – nothing).

Abi did pretty well, she sat there in the dark while I waved a flashlight all over her.  She got about 20 seconds in and started to laugh.  As a result this is definitely not the sharpest image I’ve ever taken, but I’m calling it deliberate soft focus.

Anyway I think she did great and now totally understand why you don’t take light painting pictures of people.

Incidentally I asked Lisa tonight how many things we have that have a Union Jack on them – there are LOADS.  However I’m definitely getting  board of this subject matter, and will possibly try something different tomorrow.

In case you didn’t know, Lisa is into card making and when I got home from work I found the Halo dudes busy at work!  Who knew they were so creative?

My philosophy in life is when I find something that works, keep doing it.  So after light painting a Union Jack guitar last night (and liking the results) I figured I’d keep going.  The goal for the rest of this week I think, is going to be find as many things in the house that have a Union Jack on them and light paint them.  (Actually I could keep this up for a month but I doubt people would keep coming back to the site – so one week it is).

Tonight the “lucky items” are a pair of Dr Martin boots that Lisa owns.  We found these in Nordstrom Rack a couple of years ago.  I think Lisa was feeling a little home sick (or nostalgic, I don’t know) and was super excited and brought them.  Anyway I think she has worn them maybe 10 times (she will tell you different but don’t listen to her).  I actually had to wipe dust of them tonight before I took the picture.

I popped them on a table, put the camera on a tripod and grabbed my flash light (that’s what she said).  I have to say I really like the results you get from light painting and it’s fun too.  However my flash light isn’t big enough (that’s what Lisa said) so I need to go shopping I think.  I wonder what I do tomorrow!

Lisa made some banana bread tonight, ‘nough said!

For those who don’t know, I’ve played the guitar since I was nine years old.  Throughout my life I’ve had times when I’ve played and times when I haven’t.  Right now I’m in a “dry spell” probably because of my photography hobby.

However a couple of years ago I was all about the guitar, I even got hold of a 1952 telecaster (it’s an absolute beauty).  Anyway Lisa was walking through Target around Christmas and saw an electric guitar with a Union Jack body and she brought it for me.  I have a few guitars now (five in total) and hang them on the wall in my den and Lisa thought the flag guitar would look great in my collection.  And it does.

So for tonight’s picture I thought I’d photograph the guitar.

Now at first I placed the guitar on a table, got out some lights and started shooting.  The images were horrible.  Every one was either heavily over exposed or just looked plain bad!  I was getting really frustrated and got a whole new appreciation for photographers who take product shots.

Then I got an idea.  Light painting!

Light painting involves turning off all the lights in the house and setting a long exposure on the camera (something like 30 seconds).  Then you take a picture of a subject and make sure that the image is totally black.  Then you get a flashlight and take another shot, this time shining the flashlight on the subject.  You get to wave the light around for the 30 second exposure and light the subject however you like.

This definitely takes practice and you have to go through the process of shooting an image, looking at areas that are too dark or too light, and then trying again.  I had to shoot the image of the guitar several times and every time got a different image (each one slightly better).

In the end I got a shot I really liked.  So for the rest of this week I’m going to be taking light painting pictures.  Let’s see how things work out.

We are still in “Girl Scout cookie week” so it wasn’t a surprise to find Carter and Master Chief tonight playing Cookie Tic-Tac-Toe.