Well, now we're in for it.

This is from the wedding Juliette and I attended back in October, a couple of close friends from our college days. Each table had a different theme taken from a story that was meaningful to the couple. Ours was "Rivendell," which I imagine most of my readers will recognize from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. As you can see, it all came together beautifully.

Looking over the shots I got that day made me think it would be a lot of fun to shoot weddings. Stressful, but fun.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/60 sec, ISO 800. Post-processing in Aperture 3: slight curve for highlight recovery and constrast.

This is what Jason looked like on Christmas morning while his Nana pushed him around the kitchen on his new tricycle. You may draw your own conclusions.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, and Vivitar DF-383 flash (in Gary Fong Lightsphere). Aperture-priority exposure mode, TTL flash mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/60, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: flash WB preset; curves to bring up exposure and add contrast.

Sometimes Jason falls asleep when we're driving somewhere. This can be problematic because if it's before his nap then he most likely won't take one later. Even if he's already had a nap, he still usually wakes up grumpy. So, if he hasn't woken up by the time we've reached our destination and we're not pressed for time, sometimes we just sit around, try not to make any noise, and wait for him to wake up on his own. This can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to over an hour.

As you can see, this eventually leads to me getting bored.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/8, shutter 1/30 sec, ISO 800. No post-processing.

Thoughts for improvement: Well, it's neither particularly interesting nor well-composed, so there's a lot of room for improvement as an image. But it does work pretty well as an example of the way I see and think, which is why I picked it.

The first pass I took when editing this photo I used a much tighter crop, focusing just on the poster in the center. That was what had initially caught my eye, the poster, and the way the woman's hands and head were framed by the windows across the street. The common wisdom is that composition is as much about what you leave out as what you include, hence the tight crop. Still, something about that framing didn't work quite right for me--it just seemed incomplete. When I added back most of the original image, it struck me that not only did I like the couch, the vases, and the additional buildings in the reflection, but I also liked including myself. I like the idea of making the photographer's relationship with the image explicit.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/4, shutter 1/60 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: cropped to 4x5; curves for highlight recovery and contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: The only thing that's bugging me about this one is the way that the neon sign's pull-cord intersects the wine glass on the poster.

I mentioned Boone in Friday's post. As you can see, he was quite a character up-close. Turned out that he was pretty good with that harmonica, as well. I wonder what he's up to right now.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in aperture-priority exposure mode. Aperture f/1.4, shutter 1/1000 sec (0 EV), ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: curves for highlight recovery; levels to darken blacks and brighten midtones; dodged over the subject; burned over the background.

Thoughts for improvement: I would have liked to be half a step back so as not to clip the brim of his hat off. Also, this probably would have been better stopped down to f/1.8 or f/2.

Just before I got back to my car on my last photowalk, I heard the sound of a ukulele coming from across the street. I stopped and turned, and saw this guy waiting for the bus. (Oddly, this was actually the second ukulele player I ran into that morning, but that's another story.) He saw me raise the camera to my eye and struck a pose, then shouted something as I started to leave.

We yelled at each other across the street for a minute, but the traffic was just too loud, so I ran across. Turned out that he was trying to give me his email address to send him the photo. I introduced myself. He said his name was Boone, and he told me about his ukulele, which he said he found in a dumpster and fixed up himself. I took a few closer shots, then we shook hands and parted ways.

I sent him the photos the next day, but I never heard back from him.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/8, shutter 1/400 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: cropped; exposure +1; levels to brighten highlights and midtones.

Thoughts for improvement: This shot was taken from really far away, so I ended up having to crop out a lot, which, combined with the fact that I underexposed due to being in a hurry, meant a lot of extra noise and softness. I would have liked more contrast and sharpness.

(Excuse the pun. I couldn't help myself.)

Toward the end of my photowalk a couple of weeks ago I passed by a fast-food restaurant. Peeking in through the window, I was struck by the way the light wrapped around this guy--it almost looked like a painting.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/8, shutter 1/400 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: straightened and cropped; curves for exposure adjustment and contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: The outside of the building may be a little hot--I can't quite make up my mind about that. I'm also not sure whether a horizontal crop might work better.

I mentioned this on Monday, but Jason really loved that bus. He kept trying to climb in during the middle of other kids' rides, and even after I made him quit doing that, he still hung around and peeked in the window.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/125 sec, ISO 800. Post-processing in Aperture 3: curves for highlight recovery and contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: I'm pretty happy with this one, actually.

Chuck E. Cheese's has changed a bit over the twenty-odd years since I last went there--there's no more ball pit, for example--but one thing that's still the same is the skee-ball. I was hoping that Jason would have fun with that game, but it ended up being a little discouraging for him, as he wasn't strong enough to roll the ball all the way up to the target. Later on I saw a bunch of his toddler friends walking up the ramp and putting the balls right into the holes, but by that time Jason had already moved on to greener pastures.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/125 sec, ISO 800. Post-processing in Aperture 3: straightened; retouched a dust spot; dodged over Jason's head and shirt.

Thoughts for improvement: I'd like to have gotten a bit better angle, to get the whole target in the frame.