Photos by Brian Gaideski

Another Winter Panorama

2011-02-06T17:49:00.001-05:00

I was at the Holland State Park Beach this weekend with a couple of friends, and despite the -20 or colder wind chill, we managed to get a few photos of the sunset. As we were on our way back to the car I took 17 pictures that I combined to create the panorama below. Please click the image to see it in larger detail.

Holland, MI - February 4, 2011.

[Original Size]

Winter Panorama

2010-12-10T18:45:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since I uploaded anything here. I have been taking pictures regularly, but have been lacking posts. I will try to get on that more now that the months are colder.

Dowagiac, MI - December 10, 2010.

[Original Size]

Night Experiments

2010-09-16T18:20:00.001-04:00

Long time exposures can be difficult, especially when you are working with people, or any object that can move. Sometimes the elements that cause some of the worst flaws in one picture, can look quite amazing in a different picture. Recently I have been experimenting with taking pictures in the dark. All of the following pictures were taken at night without the use of a flash. Some of these have been cropped, none of them have been post processed.

Equipment:
Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera

Macro Spider and Yucca Seeds

2010-09-10T21:01:00.000-04:00

I was harvesting some seeds of a plant that grows behind my parents house and happened to notice a very small spider. He was doing all sorts of poses for me. After watching him work for about 15 minutes I soon realized he was actually trying to catch the breeze and move around from place to place. Pretty amazing all the things that happen in the world that no one ever really sees.

Equipment Used:
Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera
Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras
Nikon BR-2A - Reverse ring Nikon F - 52 mm thread

Macro Flower 2

2010-04-08T00:18:00.002-04:00

It's been raining here for the past two days, but today there was some sun in a break between the clouds. There was just enough time for some of the water to soak into the ground. It's amazing how much has changed in the past couple of days. Flowers are peaking their petals out, the grass is green, and almost all the trees are covered with buds.

I got out today during that break in the clouds and took some more macro flower shots. These images are mostly raw from the camera, with some cropping but no tweaks.

For more macro flowers, check out this page: Macro Flower

Equipment Used:
Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera
Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras
Nikon BR-2A - Reverse ring Nikon F - 52 mm thread

Photo Recap

2010-04-01T10:22:00.010-04:00

I have been posting my photography on this blog for about 4 months now, and I decided it was time that I put together a categorized list of all my posts. I'm going to try to do this every few months.

Portraits:


Lola at Six Weeks	Lola Five Days Old


Lola at Christmas	I'm and Uncle!


Dayna's Photoshoot	Dayna's Photoshoot 2

Dayna's Photoshoot 3

Macros:


Macro Flower	The Bees


Macro Cacti	Macro Cacti Part 2

Panoramas:

Valley of the Sun Panorama

Winter Sunset Panorama

Three Panorama Pictures

Others:


Old School RPM	Circumhorizontal Arc


Mas Tequila	Camouflage Bug


Kitties!	Pretty Birds

Macro Flower

2010-03-31T16:08:00.002-04:00

I was watching one of my co-workers pets while he was away on business and he asked me if I would water his plants. I didn't really think much about it at the time, but when I watered them I noticed that a couple of them had some really little flowers. What really drew my attention is the way that the light was reflecting off of the flower petals. I had my D5000 handy so I decided to strap on my 50mm 1.8 with my reversal ring and start shooting. I didn't spend a lot of time on it because I was there to entertain a dog. The 5 minutes I did spend there turned out pretty well though.

None of these photos have been post processed or cropped. These are all straight from the Nikon. I have shrunk them slightly using FastImageResizer.

More Macros:

Macro Cacti

Macro Cacti Part 2

2010-03-23T22:54:00.002-04:00

After a few days of editing I got enough shots to put up another post. These macro shots were taken with my D5000 using a 50mm 1.8 with a reversal ring. This is the second time I have experimented with the cacti in my window. You can check out the first cactus image set here: Macro Cacti

Macro Cacti

Valley of the Sun Panorama

2010-02-25T22:53:00.003-05:00

This week I flew into Tempe, AZ for business. Leaving the fridged 20 degree weather in Michigan and landing in a nice 60 degrees is quite refreshing. It actually felt good to be outside, something that people here tend to forget during the winter months.

I was there for three nights and each night I had a chance to get out and take some pictures. I took about 1000 shots in the few days I was there. I'm in the process of picking the best ones and editing them in photoshop. Here are the first of many shots to come. These two panoramas are from my last night in town, and were taken on the top of a mountain in Papago Park. Well, to a Michigander it was a mountain. I'm sure they would have called it a hill in Ariziona.

I used hugin to create these panoramas.

Winter Sunset Panorama

Three Panorama Pictures

Old School RPM

2010-02-17T14:20:00.000-05:00

I post on the Nikon D5000 forum over at www.dpreview.com. You should check out that site for all your camera information needs. The forums as well as the camera reviews and comparisons are quite helpful... On to the post!

The reason I decided to post these images was because over at the forum they have weekly challenges. This week was ***Challenge #96 - VINTAGE ***

I took these pictures in southwest Michigan a couple of years ago at a car show. The only tweeking that has been done is the change to black and white. I used Picasa for the black and white.

Nikon D60, f/5.3, ISO200, 1/400sec at 35mm

Nikon D60, f/5.3, ISO280, 1/125sec at 38mm

Lola at Six Weeks

2010-02-14T22:09:00.002-05:00

These pictures were taken a couple of weekends back. Lola had just turned 6 weeks a couple of days before this shoot. I didn't try to do anything special with this one, mostly just moved around and took candid shots. These are what I came up with. Enjoy.

Nikon Flashes

2010-02-11T21:55:00.004-05:00

Recently I have been taking more portraits then I ever have in the past. I have known for a while that if I continued to take a lot of portraits that I should probably invest in a flash for my Nikon D5000. What I typically do is find out what I want/need and then I look at my options. When looking through the Nikon products I was presented with a few choices. The reasonable ones seem to be SB-400, SB-600, or SB-900.

I almost instantly decide against theSB-400, maybe someone can convince me otherwise, but being the cheapest Nikon product available for my camera, it is almost guaranteed to be lacking features that I will want to make use of.

TheSB-600 seems to be packed with more features, but is double the cost of the SB-400. This is not out of my price range, but I can't help but look at the next best thing.

The next best thing is theSB-900. The SB-900 appears to be the top of the line product for my camera. It has a bunch of really great features, but it cost double what the SB-600 cost. This could still be in my price range, but it's really hard for me to drop $450.

I'm leaning towards the SB-600. It seems pretty middle of the road, and as I am a beginner it will probably work well for what I need. What do you think?

Circumhorizontal Arc

2010-02-07T14:19:00.002-05:00

After many failed attempts I finally managed to capture a Circumhorizontal Arc. These are somewhat rare to see if you don't know what your looking for. I recommend you check out the wiki for more information, but in short...These occur when the sun is at a specific angle in the sky, and there are also cirrus clouds present.

They are sometimes called fire rainbows. If you can see a circumhorizontal arc where you live all depends on your location and the latitude. Here in the United States it is a relatively common to happen several times each year. Actually seeing them is somewhat tricky. I have read that they are quite rare to see mid-latitude and northern Europe.

Yesterday I helped my dad cut some trees down on his property. As we were cleaning up afterwords I looked up at the sky and noticed the clouds resembled the clouds I had seen when witnessing a circumhorizontal arc. I rushed inside and grabbed my camera, just as I was coming back out I saw it. I ran down to an empty field so I could get a better view. So after a few attempts of trying to get one of these captured in one of my photos... success!

Mas Tequila

2010-02-05T00:56:00.001-05:00

These pictures were taken on a night of fun with my sister. Her husband took the baby for the night, and me and Ginny decided to let loose. We only had half a bottle of Patron left, but it didn't take us long to finish that off. Unfortunately we were out of lemons and were not in the mood to drive to the store so we had to make due with limes.

There is something I noticed about taking pictures while drinking. There seems to be more photos that are out of focus than in focus. Sometimes this isn't bad though and you end up with some really unique shots that you may not have come up with while sober.

My friend Mandy and I were talking about blogs tonight. I think I have decided to do a 'Beer a day' blog, or at least a beer a week blog. I would take pictures of the beer, and then write a detailed review of what I thought, and any interesting story that may go along with acquiring it. I'm eager to hear what my viewers think of this. Would this be something that would be of interest to anyone?

For the time being, please enjoy these Tequila shots. Get it?...Shots... Hardy Har Har!

This first image is the only one that was post processed, all of the rest are straight from the camera. These were taken on a D5000 with a 55-200mm lens.

Winter Sunset Panorama

2010-02-03T00:07:00.002-05:00

I have been editing some of my sunset photos the past couple of days. I wanted to have some more pictures to upload but after making this one in hugin, I couldn't wait to upload it. There are more sunsets where this came from. Expect to see them in the near future.

This panorama consists of 7 images taken on a D5000. Using 55-200mm lens, these were taken at 55mm.

Make sure to click the image, or you won't really get the full effect.

Three More Panoramas

Dayna's Photoshoot 3

2010-01-18T21:10:00.002-05:00

I did some more edits on my photos from the photoshoot with Dayna. I expect that these will probably be the last set of edits from this shoot. I hope you enjoy.

All photos taken on a D5000 with a 18-55mm VR Lens.

Go To: Part 1
Go To: Part 2
Go To: Part 3

Lola Five Days Old

2010-01-16T22:56:00.003-05:00

I took these pictures quite some time ago and never got around to editing them. Ginny and I took some time to edit these tonight and wanted to share them with you.

Dayna's Photoshoot 2

2010-01-08T12:30:00.002-05:00

A few more pictures of my friend Dayna from the photoshoot we did the other day.

Go To: Part 1
Go To: Part 2
Go To: Part 3

Dayna's Photoshoot

2010-01-06T21:18:00.005-05:00

Yesterday my friend Dayna was kind enough to dress up for me and let me take photographs of her. This was the first time I have ever had anyone model for me who wasn't one of my family members. I had a lot of fun and I think Dayna did too. Here are a few from the shoot, I should have more up in the following days.

Nikon D5000 & 18-55mm at 34mm, f/5 1/13 sec, ISO 800, No Flash

Nikon D5000 & 18-55mm at 20mm, f/3.8 1/10 sec, ISO 500, No Flash

Nikon D5000 & 18-55mm at 26mm, f/4.2 1/6 sec, ISO 800, No Flash

Nikon D5000 & 18-55mm at 50mm, f/5.6 1/6 sec, ISO 500, No Flash

Nikon D5000 & 18-55mm at 22mm, f/3.8 1/10 sec, ISO 500, No Flash

Nikon D5000 & 18-55mm at 24mm, f/4 1/5 sec, ISO 500, No Flash

Nikon D5000 & 18-55mm at 18mm, f/3.5 1/8 sec, ISO 800, No Flash

Go To: Part 1
Go To: Part 2
Go To: Part 3

Lola at Christmas

2010-01-05T18:50:00.004-05:00

The other day I switched from Picasa to Photoshop for my photo editing. I'm starting to get the hang of it but still need a lot of work. I wanted to share some of my photos that I have been meaning to upload.

More to come soon!

Nikon D5000 & 18-55mm at 52mm, f/5.6 1/8 sec, ISO 800, No Flash

Nikon D5000 & 18-55mm at 38mm, f/5 1/8 sec, ISO 800, No Flash

Nikon D5000 & 18-55mm at 52mm, f/5.6 1/8 sec, ISO 800, No Flash

2009-12-19T20:31:00.003-05:00

I became an uncle on Wednesday!

My sister Ginny had her daughter Lola at 9:58PM on 12/16/2009. She was born 6lbs 4oz, and 19.5".

I hope you enjoy these pictures. For family and friends: I'm sorry these took so long to get up. More will come I am sure. I haven't yet decided if I want to create a separate site for Lola yet or not. For the time being, I will be uploading the pictures here and to Facebook.

All these photos were taken on my Nikon D5000

Camouflage Bug

2009-12-17T00:25:00.001-05:00

I took this photo last year during the fall. I've had it up on facebook for a while, but now that I have this blog I have an opportunity to show of a larger version of the image.

If anyone knows the name of this bug or flower, I would like to know.

Here is the picture that originally came out of the camera. I didn't even realize there was a bug in the picture until I looked at it on a computer the next day.

Here is the same image, but this one I cropped so that you can get a better look at the bug.

Three Panorama Pictures

2009-12-14T14:41:00.002-05:00

Here are some of my old panorama photos. Each of these pictures is comprised of at least 4 digital photos taken on a Nikon D60. I pieced them together with some software called hugin. It is pretty cool software, these photos took minimal time to create.

I highly recommend clicking them to see the MUCH larger size.

Rainy Pittsburgh - Top Mount Washington

Gallup Park - Ann Arbor, MI

Dads Creek - Niles, MI

Kitties!

2009-12-13T17:55:00.002-05:00

These are some pictures from this summer. One of the strays at my parents house gave birth to them. I hope you enjoy.

The Bees

2009-12-11T13:45:00.004-05:00

Well, I did the birds yesterday. I only thought it logical to do the bees today.

Macro Cacti

2009-12-10T22:14:00.002-05:00

Friends, I think I've decided I am going to use this blog to share larger version of my photos. I have quite a few up on facebook, but it just shrinks them a little bit too much. I'm looking for some feedback here, should I upload even larger images or is this size good enough? Click the image to see the full size.

No EXIF info on these because I have a rigged setup for macro shots. I use a 50mm 1.8 with a reversal ring. For all of you non photogs out there, that basically means I put the lens on backwards to make a magnified image. All taken on a Nikon D5000.

These are all some sort of cactus in my window. Most are from Hens and Chickens. Enjoy.

Macro Cacti Part 2

Pretty Birds

2009-12-10T19:43:00.000-05:00

Here are a few bird shots that I would like to share. Expect cooler features to come soon, such as larger sized images, as well as EXIF information for each photo.

Please click the image for a larger view.

I hope you enjoy.

Welcome

2009-12-10T19:15:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends/Family/Strangers

I decided to start this blog to display my photography. I could use a little work to be honest, but some of the moments in time that are captured here are some of my favorites so far. I will try to update this as much as possible, but no promises.