Way too long!

It's been way too long since I've posted anything here. I just noticed that the last pictures were posted in January! Lots of things going on -- too much to post here -- but I wanted to post this photo of my late Papillon, Mozart. In September, we moved into a new home that we built in Elgin, Illinois. Two weeks after we moved in, Mozart was snatched and killed by a coyote! To say how upsetting it's been for me and the family is an understatement. Now that it's been nearly six weeks since he was killed, the pain is still searing. It's going to be a long time before I get over it. I miss him especially in the evening when he would sit on my lap while I was watching TV or on the computer.

Sunrise photos

I usually try to be at work by 7:00 a.m. During this time of year, that usually means arriving during the dark (and sometimes coming home in the dark). One of the advantages, however, is viewing the sunrise from our part of the office building. The past few days we have witnessed some beautiful sunrises and I took our office camera (Nikon D-70) and snapped several photos. These photos were taken of separate sunrises over the Chicago skyline.

Hosted on Flickr

Christmas Eve

Hosted on Flickr

Photo taken Christmas Eve. I used my company's Nikon D70 and mounted it on my tripod. The light source was a combination of the tree lights, fireplace and candles. No flash was used and the exposure was 0.4 seconds.

First snow

Hosted on Flickr

We had our first snowfall of the season early Friday morning. We eventually received about 11 inches. This photo was taken very early Saturday morning and then manipulated using a Photoshop plug-in.

Halloween in the 'burbs

Hosted on Flickr

My wife gets the credit for decorating our house for Halloween. Every year the display grows. We're almost at the point of needing a separate storage area just for our Halloween and Christmas decorations!

Wings over MB

My department ordered some Nikon cameras and I took one and snapped this shot outside of my building. My office complex is in Rosemont, Illinois -- right near O'Hare Field -- so we see a lot of planes overhead as they make their final landing approach.

Chicago Botanic Garden

I'm taking a few days off and my wife and I decided to visit the Chicago Botanic Garden. I wanted to experiment with the macro setting on my Kodak Z760 and I took a number of photos like this one. The rest of the photos can be found here.

Wrigley Field marquee

Photo of the famous Wrigley Field marquee taken in the summer of 2001. I then manipulated the image in Photoshop to create spot color only on the marquee.

Click here to see how I used another Photoshop filter to reverse the red and replace it with blue. I call it "House of Blues."

Technorati tags: Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs

Summer flowers

Fun photo of some flowers in our garden originally taken in the summer of 2000. Image later manipulated using a Flickr Toy.

As I post this, it's Friday evening in mid-February and the outdoor temperature is hovering near zero! This photo reminds me that it does actually get warm up here.

Sears Tower

Here's a photo I took a couple of summers ago when my son and I were in downtown Chicago. He loves to go to the top of the Sears Tower. Before we went up, I shot some photos looking up from the street. Later I manipulated the photo using a Flickr Toy.

Yahoo! Photos updated

I'm a big fan of Flickr -- the photo-sharing site that's one of the most popular community sites on the web. I joined a year ago and recently upgraded my membership. Yes, I actually paid money! In 2004, Yahoo! bought Flickr and both companies have benefited from the partnership. Flickr got needed investment and an expanded network; Yahoo! got access to the new "Web 2.0" technology. Now comes word that Yahoo's photo site -- Yahoo! Photos -- is undergoing a Flickr-like transition and will be upgraded sometime this spring. As this article mentions, Flickr gets the press and about 2 million monthly visitors while Yahoo! Photos quietly gets 30 million monthly visitors! Yahoo! Photos and Flickr will continue to share access to Target stores for photo printing, something I've used in the past and heartily recommend.

Too cold to smoke

On Saturday evenings during the summer, I like to sit out on the patio and drink a glass of wine (or three) and smoke a cigar. Our house backs up to a forest preserve and it's fun to watch the birds, especially the golden finches and cardinals, fly between the trees. Occasionally, I'll see a hawk in the taller trees. Anyway, Friday evening we received 12 inches of snow. My summer hideaway doesn't look too inviting right now! This photo was taken around 7:00 AM Saturday.

Sunflower mosaic

Here’s a little creativity that I came up with. This is a single photo of a sunflower that I took three years ago when I was visiting my family in southwest Nebraska. I passed a sunflower field and got out and took several pictures. This one of a single sunflower turned out to be the best picture. I then manipulated it using a filter in Paint Shop Pro. The filter (Red Prince Flip ‘n Rolls) basically takes the reds, greens and blues within a color picture and then flips them around.

In the bleak midwinter

Photo of my backyard taken this week. It's the time of year when all of the colors lose their vibrancy and become monochromatic.

It's Christmas time in the city...

Photo of my home with all of the outside lights illuminated. I took advantage of the Wal-Mart "Black Friday" frenzy and bought myself a new digital camera -- a Kodak Easy Share Z760. It has a night setting so the temperature was still warm enough to take it outside with my tripod.

Sunflower

Photo of a sunflower that I took in 2002. The color was manipulated using a Photoshop plug-in.

Sammy Sosa

Here's a photo I took of former Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa when he hit his 61st home run on September 13, 1998 at Wrigley Field off of Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Bronswell Patrick. This photo was taken with my trusty old Canon A-1.

Sosa's feat has subsequently been tarnished by suggestions that he and other major league players used steroids...hence the term "steroid era" has been coined to refer to the late '90s and early '00s.

I applied Photoshop filters to slightly age the photo and to make it appear very old.

Technorati tags: Sammy Sosa, Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs

Snow before Thanksgiving

Black and white rendering of an overnight snowfall the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This picture shows my backyard with the forest preserve behind our yard.