Grab a shot of Global Warming

We've been having such a beautiful snow lately that I had to grab a shot. So, late last night I grabbed by Nikon D300 with Nikon 35-70mm f/2.8 lens (@ 35mm) on it and walked over to the church across the street. I've always liked the shape of this tree and with the snow on it and the light from the parking lot, it looked great. I goosed up the ISO to 3200 in order to get 1/25 second shutter speed (lens wide open at f/2.8). I put the camera on high-speed and shot 3 or 4 on auto fire. This third one was about as sharp as I would get without using a tripod -- yes I was lazy. At 1/25 second, note the snowflakes flying, bottom left and top right.

Straight from the camera. No editing... and if you click on the hyperlink to a larger view of the image, you'll see that it's soft. So don't look! ;-)

Portraits with Flash

Here are two of three images that I entered in the NCCC "Projected Images" competition category. Don't know how many entries there were, but the first one below took second. My granddaughter was sitting on the couch; I set the SB600 flash on a chair to her left, remote wireless mode. Using my D300 in commander mode, no flash, I took this shot among several. Nikon 18-70 lens @ 70, f/4.5 (wide open!) for 1/60s. I used Photoshop Elements 7 to light the near side of her face. I liked the glint of her earring and that its color matched her sweater (of course!) She's a sweetheart!
This one was taken in Orlando after a dip in the pool. I used exposure compensation on the D300 -0.7, the external flash SB600 again, above and behind her. Don't remember the settings on the flash, but it looks like I under-exposed it a bit. Same lens as above (my travel lens), same aperture and shutter speed.

Heinz Field and the Steelers Romp!

Great Day in the Steel City. Parked at my daughter's in Mount Washington. The four of us took in the Incline and the T to Gateway Center and walked over the bridge to the Stadium. Lots of fun at the game. Even though the Steelers dominated, it was fun to be there and see it. (Big Ben's concussion was the downside.)
(Never saw so much Steelers apparel in my life!) We ate at Houlihan's at Station Square after the game.