Wind gusts were hitting 30 mph, so the game plan at the Hoffmann house was to weather out the storm and start shoveling after the snow stopped falling. Activities turned to indoors. My wife made brownies and bread and the kids rolled out a long sheet of paper and created some artwork.

Finally around 1p, the snow stopped, and the work could begin on shoveling out.

It’s now Sunday morning, and we are still waiting for the snow plow to clear the roads. No big deal, today is the Super Bowl, and we will all be huddled around the television.

Five (5) stints of shoveling has done a number on my back. It may be time to invest in a snowblower.

Based on the temperature forecast, we are guaranteed to have a white Christmas.

PHOTO TIP:
When taking photographs of snow, it’s a good idea to adjust your exposure correction to about +2/3 to avoid having the snow look gray.

On our last full day, we packed a lunch and headed off to Sun Splash, a local waterpark, located in Cape Coral, Florida. As luck would have it, thunderstorms rolled in 30 minutes after the park opened. The park decided to close until 2:00p. Luckily for us, the park is only 5 minutes from my parent’s home, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle.

Because we were flying out the next day, we decided to use the rain checks they gave us to go back at 2:00p. The upside to this was the park was nearly empty. We had a troop of about 15 people, and that probably was about a quarter of all patrons in the park for the rest of the day. No lines, no waiting, no problems.

Once unloaded, I went and had 2 cubic yards of mulch loaded into the back of the truck, to finish my landscaping project I have been working on.

After countless trips with the wheelbarrow, loading it with mulch, and then spreading it out in the proper areas, my energy was depleting.

Finally, after cutting the lawn and cleaning up inside the shed, I called it quits. Well actually my back made that decision for me.

As I was sitting on the deck taking a rest, I looked up at the mid-day sun and immediately had a vision of a picture I wanted to create. I went inside, grabbed my camera, lightstand, two pocket wizards and a flash.

I first dialed in the exposure on the sky I wanted to achieve to get the starburst and keep my shutter speed at sync speed, which was ISO 50; 1/200; f/16. Next, I setup my flash on the lightstand, set it to 1/4 power and took some test shots, moving the light to produce the proper exposure of my hand.

The hardest part was trying to get my finger positioned on the sun without blinding myself in the process. Yes, it’s a goofy picture, but it was much more fun to do that than put down mulch.

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Today my 7-year old daughter Keely, tried her hand at doing face painting … on my 2-year old son, Henry.

I happened to be setting up for headshots I’m doing on Tuesday, and my daughter decided now that she has mastered the art of painting on faces, to try her hand at doing photography. She gave Henry explicit directions on how to pose (which of course went on deaf ears), and then manned the camera (with my careful eyes on her making sure she wouldn’t break anyting) and snapped off a few shots. I was able to salvage a few somewhat usable images. I think it’s time for me to spend some time now educating Keely on the art of photography. I think she is showing a liking to it.

Today I awoke to a gray, dreary, rainy day and thought, “I think today I’ll buy a new set of tires.”

I’ve owned my Honda Element for just over three years now, and have 66,155 miles on it. I’ve been driving on the original tires, rotating them twice over the years. The tread was getting almost non-existent on the edges, so it was time to head on over to BJ’s, crack open the wallet and help the economy (and my safety) buy purchasing four new tires.

BJ’s is a great place to get tires, for as you are waiting the 35-45 minutes for your tires to be installed, you can browse around the store (and spend more money), rather than sit in a boring waiting room, reading magazines that are months old.

Tires ain’t pretty, but boy what a great feeling driving on brand new rubber. It’s at this time you realize the difference between tires with 60K miles on them, and tires that still have those little rubber spikie things still attached to them.

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You’ve got to listen to WonderPets without outside noise distractions.

Mother Nature brought us some snow on Tuesday and freezing rain on Wednesday. The roads in the morning were covered with a nice layer of ice — too bad I don’t have any ice skates any longer. I could have skated around the neighborhood. Schools were closed, many people stayed home, or went in late to work. I slid off my deck to snap a few pictures.

I’m bored.  What to do? I know, take some pictures of the Christmas ornaments on the tree we recently put up.

These shots were taken on a tripod with my 135 f/2.0 lens. ISO 200 and a tungsten WB. The average shutter speed was about a third of a second.

Then I grabbed the nutcracker on the end table, and set him in front of the tree, put a 1/2 CTO gel on my flash and manually fired the flash at the his face while the shutter was open.

Ok, that little project is over, what can I get into now … ?

Unfortunately, I’m not a kid anymore and those days of three months of vacation are only a memory.  However, I can relive those moments watching my kids experience it as I once did.

No matter what type of camera you own, keep it handy, and take photographs of your family.   You, your family, and future family members will appreciate it in the future.

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I admit it, I am not an auto detail freak. I have neighbors and friends that wash their cars all the time, keeping them looking their best. I probably wash my car on average 8 times a year — and rarely between December and March.

Today was my Honda Element’s lucky day (Friday the 13th no less), for the old gal was getting a spring cleaning. I usually let Mother Nature do my dirty work, but with the windshield covered with bug guts and dust forming on my dashboard, I thought it was time to spruce her up a bit.

I’ve had this Element for just under 2 1/2 years, and I hit 50,000 miles on her last month. I really like this car and probably will buy another when this one is ready for retirement (around 150,000 miles). Many think it is ugly looking, but for hauling around photo equipment, it’s awesome. The fact that it does not have carpet is perfect for a non-auto detail person like myself. Just vacuum and wipe down with a wet towel. Good as new.

Photo Information: ISO 200; 1/125; f/4

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The ceremony started with a slideshow showing pictures throughout the year, of course to music that really moved you, as the kids walked in and up on to the stage. That was just the teaser to get the tear machine warmed up, for a bit later, up came another slideshow with music titled, “Let Them Be Little”, and showed pictures of each individual graduate, then a baby picture, followed with pictures of child and mom, plus child and dad. During this time, each child, one-by-one, met mom at the center of the the room, presenting her with a yellow rose. Boy, this was when the waterworks really was flowing.

Keely did a bit of a Michael Jordan impersonation, by sticking out her tongue when receiving her diploma. Making sure to shake with the right hand and accept the diploma with your left takes a lot of concentration, especially for a 6-year old.

Following the ceremony, refreshments were given and good-byes were spoken.

Keely made many good friends this past school year. With her best friend Kayla going onto her new school for first grade and Keely starting homeschool next year, they unfortunately will see much less of each other in the future.

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In looking down the fence and knowing I had my 135 f/2.0L lens on my camera, I thought I’d take a very low depth of field picture on a long fence railing — and see what sort of an image would come of it.

I focused down the fence about 4 feet away and snapped this shot. You can see very clearly what a narrow depth of field produces. The depth of field at f/2.0 from 4 feet away is only about 1/8″ in front and behind the focus point. The small area in-focus looks more like stitches rather than wood.

This narrow depth of field is really great when taking portraits, for you can focus on the eyes and have the entire background blurred out to not distract from the subject. This blurring of the image produced by the lens is called bokeh. If taking a group of people, a very narrow depth of field is not what you will want to achieve, for one person may be in focus, but the other subject will be blurry.

For those that haven’t been watching the show or hearing the reports on local radio, 14-year old Bel Air native and Harford Christian student, Julienne Irwin, is one of four finalists for the $1 million first place prize.

Julienne, who has never had a singing lesson and only sang in her bedroom prior to the trying out for the show, has a phenomenal voice. If you close your eyes when listening to her, you would swear it was not coming out of the mouth of a 14-year old.

Tonight we will all learn if she is the winner. Whether she is the winner or not, there is no doubt in my mind that this girl is going to make it big in the future.

I just purchased a new Sigma 14mm f/2.8 lens and had it along with me, so grabbed this quick shot of Brian and his booth setup.

Brian took first place and the blue ribbon in the photographers category — Congratulations Brian!

That morning it was still drizzling when we arrived, and when I came upon a Boumi Temple CLOWNS sign, I could see an interesting photo coming from it. The colors and water droplets adding some texture called to me to capture it.

I kind of like it.

After completing the job I decided to play with a couple strobes when taking an “After” shot. I placed one strobe on a lightstand and bounced it off the ceiling at 1/8 power. A second strobe at 1/32 power was placed on the floor with a snoot attached and aimed it to hit the lower edge of the dresser and the closet doors. I shot it from the point of view of Henry (9 months).

Painting is not one of my most favorite chores, but when the job is finished, it is rewarding.

I processed the image using Nicole V’s actions and was extremely pleased with the outcome.

One night before the official full-moon I ventured outside to capture the moon. Most people think you need a long exposure for this, but that’s not the way to do it. The moon is being illuminated by the sun and even though the sky is dark, the moon is quite bright. Here are the settings used for this photo:

Canon 70-200L w/1.4X
ISO 200; f/5.6; 1/800