Sunday Stills Horses

I have to apologize for not keeping up with my photo blog in awhile. As a professional magician, the month of October is crazy for me. I do a ton of Halloween shows and ran out of time for my blog. I hope to do better.

As a city boy, I don't get to see many horses but I do get to travel a bit and see some great specimens. The shot I included for this subject was from the Renaissance fair and is one of my favorite photos.

The horse is a Percheron and is saddled (pun intended) with the task of carrying a knight in full armor. I love the highlights and look of the photo.

Sunday Stills Photoshop

This weeks challenge is Photoshop or it's equivalent to alter your photos.

I own the Adobe CS3 master suite with Photoshop and I normally only use it to convert RAW files or to crop and tweak levels. I haven't really had a chance to play with the filters and now that I have, I have a ton of playing around to do with my program.

I used a filter called film grain to tweak this photo. I put the original next to it for comparison.

Be sure to check out my wife's blog, http://www.andreabakerdesigns.com/

Sunday Stills, The next Challenge: Signs of Fall

The signs of fall... Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the color changes we get in Ohio but most of all , I love Halloween!

As a magician, Halloween is my busy time. I get more booking every fall and love every minute of it.

I also love pumpkins and Jack-o-laterns!

Enjoy the season change!

Be sure to check out my wifes blog as well! http://www.andreabakerdesigns.com/

Sunday Stills Purple

This week I had to hit the archive. I have been swamped with shows and my magic classes started again!

The photo is of my youngest, Elise, from Easter 08. She is wearing a purple fairy costume and loved the purple plastic eggs....

Check out Andrea's blog as well. http://www.andreabakerdesigns.com/

Sunday Stills Four Elements!

The challenge this week was the four elements.... Fire, Earth, Air, Water and a fifth element if you could think of one. Many suggested Love as the 5th element. The challenge was an extra challenge for me as I have been swamped with shows and teaching my Magic Camps.

Andrea had a great idea for the challenge and set up a couple of bowls with water, some rocks (earth), a candle (fire) and feathers (air). Great idea and setup. I took a few shots and then added my passion (Magic).

The dove flapped her wings and blew out the candle....so much for fire...LOL

Make sure you check out Andrea's blog as well. http://www.andreabakerdesigns.com/

Sunday stills - Nuts....

This weeks Sunday Stills challenge was "Nuts". This wasn't too tough to figure out for me. As a magician, I am fascinated by the old scam or con called the "3 Shell game". One of the oldest cons around, the shells are made of walnut shells and you have to guess which nut shell is hiding the little pea. I have a large collection of the different walnut shells that have been made just for the purpose of separating some fool and his money.... My favorite set are the ones pictured here. This set is made from black Walnut shells (some of the hardest shells to get perfect when making your set). Andrea bought me a set for Christmas one year that are made to look like turtle shells and are a damn good replica even though they are made from a wood resin.

Be sure to check out Andrea's blog as well. http://www.andreabakerdesigns.com/

Sunday Stills - Wild Flowers

This week has been crazy, I ordered a new Iphone 3 Gs (32 gig) and it came in about a week before it was supposed too. So of course, I had to sync it to my outlook calendar and contacts (I have a ton!) and I had to check out all the apps that I could...lol. To say the least,I almost missed posting this weeks photos.

This weeks challenge for the Sunday Stills was a little tough. It was for "Wild Flowers" and not for garden shots. I only have a few that I would consider to post and have included a decent shot, even though it is more "weed" than Wild Flower.

I love all the color that we get in the spring here in Ohio. Most of the Wild Flowers that I see are in my un-mowed back yard... My yard as a 45* incline and is a bear to mow. I have a friend do it for me once a month from a landscape company that he owns. The price is great and I get to keep the city man off my back...lol

Be sure to check out my wife's blog as well! http://www.andreabakerdesigns.com/

Sunday Stills - Things with Wings!

The challenge this week was "Things with Wings!"

This challenge was a blast as I already a big fan of the Raptors.... the birds, not the team.

I love the eyes and different textures of feathers that each bird has.

I had the chance to shot some close up shots after the "Birds of Prey" show at the Columbus Zoo and loved every minute of it.

The choices were too numerous for me to pick but I decided on these two shots.

The looks they have are so impressive and to see them fly, unbeliveable!

Be sure to check out my wife, Andrea Baker's photo blog at http://www.andreabakerdesigns.com/

Sunday Stills - tri-color

This weeks sunday stills challenge was tri-color. The more color the better. The shot that I am submitting was shot last week in the Outer Banks in North Carolina. The town i was staying in was called Avon. It is just south of Rodanthe and North of Hatteras.

I hadn't been to the Outer Banks since I was a kid and didn't remember just how cool the area was. There isn't a "fast food" place in 35 miles of Kitty hawk. No McDonald's, no Wendy's and no Burger King. I did find a Subway but chose not to stop... There are no street lights and everyone is so laid back and never in a hurry.

I will be posting other photos from the area I was in, So be sure to stop back and take a look!

Also, stop by and check out my wife's photo blog! http://www.andreabakerdesigns.com/

Sunday Stills - Silhouettes

Silhouettes are always fun to shoot but a pain if you forget to turn off your fill flash...

This weeks challenge was pretty cool to try to shoot. I decided to go out in the late evening sun to try to get my shots. We drove over to an area park and waited for the sun to get a little lower in the sky.

Andrea (my beautiful wife) was my choice for my subject and was easy to shoot.

I also saw a flag pole that was flying our flag and waited for the sun to be just right. It didn't happen, so I had to lay down in the grass to take the shot (I normally wouldn't as I am allergic to the stuff).

Even with the sun directly behind for the shot, The colors still shined through!

I love our Flag!

Sunday Stills Power lines and Landscapes!

This weeks assignment was to shoot a cool landscape or sky scape and include those pesky power lines.

As a photographer, you learn to compose carefully so that you can leave out the distracting things that would mar an otherwise gorgeous shot like a stray branch that looks like it is protruding out of your models head or those power lines that are flippin' everywhere.

It was tough for me to even include the power lines but I even managed to throw in a few cars as well as light posts.

This was probably the toughest assignment for me so far. I'm not complaining but man was this one tough...LOL

I have included a couple of other shots as well from the area in which we went to feed the geese. They can be a bunch of nasty buggers. They hiss and try to run you off.


Be Sure to check out my wife's {Andrea Baker} photo blog at Http://www.andreabakerdesigns.com/

Sunday Stills Yellow!

The challenge this week on my favorite blog was "yellow". You could choose anything yelow to shoot. I have a couple of old shots and a couple of new for you to peruse. These will have a distracting watermark (sorry) because I have found do to the large sizes that I shoot and post. Anyone can download the images (I haven't found a way to keep that from happening as of yet).

The first two are older shots from the Good Guy Car show that was held here in Columbus a year or two ago. I love the abstract lines and chrome from the grill of this custom car.

The Second shot from the car show is of a tail fin from a '55 (if I remember correctly) custom car. The thin pin stripe really sets of the bright yellow in the shot.

The other shots are from my favorite place to shoot Macro. The Franklin Park Conservatory has a "Blooms & Butterfly" exhibit every year from April until about September. They release the Butterflies twice daily.

I really love the colors and the way the delicate butterflies do their thing. Flittering and fluttering about.

The last shot is of a piece on display from the Chihuly exhibit. They have several wonderful pieces on display that show some real talent. Enjoy the "Yellow", I know I did.

Sunday Stills B & W with a twist Challenge

This weeks challenge was to look back at some of the other challenges and pick two and then take new photos. I am a newbie to the challenges so I picked a couple of subjects that I hadn't taken shots for and went out.

I decided to shoot my shots at night to get richer and darker shadows and crisper "whites".

I chose to do the "lines" challenge and the "landscape" challenge and the shots turned out well.

The shot of the landscape and lines were both taken along the Creekside area in Gahanna, Ohio at night with my new versa-pod.

The "landscape" was taken along the creek and I have included the originals as well for comparison.

The shot of the "line" is of the footbridge across the waterfall portion of the creek.

I perform Magic at the Old Bag of Nails in Gahanna every Tuesday night. The view is fantastic and I like to listen to the water as it goes over the rocks. The Bag has two patios and the upper patio looks over the whole creekside area.

Conservatory at Night

As I was driving by the Franklin Park Conservatory after work one night, I noticed that the Palm house was lit by bright lights and thought to myself, "I need to get a shot of that". I drove by the following week and had forgotten my camera but noticed the building was a different color.... Now I had to get a shot. This week I remembered my camera and tripod and took the following shots. The colors cycled every 10 minutes and went from purple to red to the green and red in this shot.

The last shot is of some stainless steel art in the garden courtyard that looked really cool in the light and turned out well for my first night shots.

Our local Ritz camera is going out of business and is having a clearance sale. I purchased a new Mono-pod that has a section of legs that convert to make it a tri-pod... I know, what's the point of a mono-pod if it is actually a tri-pod? It takes up a lot less room in crowded areas and has a magnet lock for the mount. I love it!

Sunday Stills Barn Challenge

My Sunday stills posting this week was a real treat. We didn't have to drive far to find several good spots to take photos. I had my girls in tow, my wife Andrea with her camera, my 12 yr old and my 3 yr old.

We found a few good spots but I knew that I had seen a really good one on my way back from a show not to long ago. Andrea and I got some similar shots but with different cameras and eyes for composition. We posted the same shot...

I haven't used Photoshop much (I have CS3) and decided to convert a couple to black & white. I posted one of my favorites here.

Not bad for "city folk" ... Okay, not real city folk... I lived on a mountain farm in Southwestern WV for a couple of years.

I enjoyed my time on the farm and learned a ton. We live on the edge of the Columbus City limits or the "burbs" as my friends call it so we aren't real far from the "country".

I am looking forward to the next challenge.

what a week!

I started my week on a bad note. I went to use my Canon 1:4 70-210 Macro Zoom EF lens and noticed it had a small fleck in between the filter and lens. I unscrewed the filter and cleaned the lens and couldn't see anything wrong with the lens. I took a few shots and notices a halo and flares in the LCD after each photo. I pulled the lens and looked closer... I found a small chip in the edge of the lens that was almost undetectable. It was like a small windshield chip would look like and totally ruined the lens. My favorite and oldest. I still have the lens on my shelf and look at it like an old friend... I can't seem to throw it away....sad isn't it... I have had this lens for about 12 years or so and was my main film lens before I bit the bullet and went digital. The beach scene was taken with this lens.

I did get a great deal on a Canon EF 1:4-5.6 lens and use it but still like and miss my old friend...

Here are some photos on my Flickr from our recent zoo trip using the new lens. It seems to work okay...lol

I have always been a big fan (but have a healthy respect) of Reptiles and have a couple of shots of some of my favorites. http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrollbaker/

Enjoy the photos and let me know what you think.

May your Tri-pod always be level...

Sunday Stills - Religion

The new challenge theme this week on Sunday Stills was Religion. I knew that we have a large collection of some of the coolest churches for architecture in the mid-west.

I took my wife Andrea out on a crappy day and struck gold at our first stop. We decided to go to St. Joseph Cathederal in Downtown Columbus. The church was built in 1866 and is the oldest standing church in our fair city.

When we pulled up, we were also right in the middle of a TEA party parade to bring notice that Americans are sick of being taxed to death on of all days... IRS tax deadline, April 15th! I snapped a few shots of the crowd as well.

It was a true blessing to be able to see the church in all of its glory and from what I could tell, the way it has been seen for over 130 years.


Here are more shots from the church.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrollbaker/

Wow! How time flies...

I can't beleive that we are at Mid-April already...

The assignment for sunday stills this week was "Red". I was torn between two shots, the first is from a classic car show from August and from a new shot from the Butterfly exhibit at the Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio. so I am posting both.

The dark butterfly wasn't supposed to be in the shot but he flew in last minute....

Sunday Stills

I have recentley subscribed to a group called "Sunday Stills" and each week they provide a challenge to go out and take photos of whatever the challenge is that week. This week it is "animals of Husbandry" like cows , horses etc. I think I did well at getting the right feel for the photo assignment.
Here is the link to my submission for the group.

Confessions of a blogger newbie...

Hello and welcome to my Blog. I am new to blogging and hope to get better at it as I go along.

I am a professional Magician by trade and take photos as a hobby. I get to travel quite a bit and love to take my Canon 20D on the road with me.

I studied Commercial Art and Photography in school many moons ago and have only switched to digital in the last few years. I learned to crop in-camera and in a dark room.

With Photo shop CS3, I am learning to add some flare to my work. I try not to edit my photos much as I still swear by capturing what the camera and your eye sees.

I love Macro and Nature photos and my favorite memories are from Carnivals and Fairs and you can tell from the photos of Carousel horses and rides.

I will occasionally throw in some photos from the magic world with props and events.

I hope you all enjoy my work.