Two:Thirty AM

This weeks photopost comes to you thanks to a new software package that I have fallen in love with! The software comes from Nik Software. They make these plugins for both Aperture and LightRoom. I personally use Aperture and love it! The particular plugin I used for this image was SilverEfexPro. A fantastic little plugin, and at the $199 price point you would hope so! The good news is that Nik offers a “Complete Collection” for $299 that includes five of their plugins that separately would come to a grand total of $750! So needless to say, go for the $299 Complete Collection. I can’t wait to work with all the plugins more!

This photo was taken during the Worldwide Photo Walk on July 18, 2009 in San Jose, CA.

This past saturday was the Second Annual Worldwide Photowalk! I had an absolute blast going out with the group of 50 people and taking amazing photos. My photowalk location was San Jose, CA. A great time was had by all. I shot around 300 or so photos and exported around 150 out of Aperture and uploaded to my SmugMug in the following gallery 2009 Worldwide Photowalk – San Jose, CA.

Along with this photowalk there is a contest that goes along with it. Each walker can upload 2 of their photos to the pool, and from the pool they will pick one grand prize winner and 10 runner-up prizes, and I must say the prize packages are amazing!

There are my two photos that I picked for submission. Fingers crossed! :)

I will absolutely be going to the photowalk next year, and highly recommend you do the same. Oh and it’s free, so you really have no excuse not to go! :)

It has often been said that Apple hardware is a thing of beauty, and I have to agree. Just look at this Apple Xserve RAID array, stunning!

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 35
Camera Body: Nikon D40
Camera Lens: Nikon 18-55

This week’s photo comes from our Mexico trip as well. This was from the day we went out to look at some California Gray Whales. It was a fantastic trip, and we saw a pretty good amount of whales. :)

Click the image to see larger

Here is a link to the whole trip gallery. Mexico Trip Feb2009 – Whale Watching

Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 85mm
Camera Body: Nikon D40
Camera Lens: Nikon 55-200

Photography is really starting to become a passion of mine in my life, and because of this I am starting a new weekly post segment where I will be posting 1 of my original photos each week with a short write up and some picture background info. The format might change a little from week to week but eventually I think it will level out. As always, let me know what you think, and feel free to leave comments, feedback, and critiques!

This weeks photo “Mexican Sunrise” was taken in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico while we were on vacation there in Feb 2009. It was taken from the balcony of the condo we were renting.

Click photo for larger view

Photo Info
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/2000
ISO: 320
Focal Length: 200
Camera Body: Nikon D40
Camera Lens: Nikon 55-200