I’m the sort of person that gets mired in the technical details of something. I like to know how each small detail affects everything around it. With the huge amount of options available for processing raw files it took me almost a year to start producing something I can say I really really like. That’s just the colors though.

I think I’m finally where I want to be with regards to processing. I can still find a special photo and make further adjustments so it stands out as a background for my PC, but as photos that we print and hang on our walls I can finally say these are where I like them.

The meerkats came right up to us and stared back at us. They were so close, what a treat!

Playing with all the big statues they had.

We went to the petting area and Phoebe wandered away from us over to the pigs. She got more than she bargained for when she walked up to a very large pink pig who was being kept behind not much of a cage. She was very intimidated and freaked out, to say the least, and came running back over to me moaning.

She was also scared by the monkeys. One area of their habitat was behind a large glass wall so you could walk right up to it and be very close to them. Phoebe did just that, but when there were NO monkeys near it. One came walking up right next to the glass, and therefore her, and she once again, very intimidated and freaked out came running over to me for safety.

Sophia really impressed me with her memory. It was MONTHS ago that we were last at the zoo, but as soon as we were in the children’s area she asked to go pet the animals and ride the pony. The pony rides weren’t going on at the time but she really liked petting the gueina pig and rabbit. Phoebe wouldn’t DARE touch them, but she sure liked standing on the stool and looking at them.

Granny gave each of the girls $3 to spend on what they wanted at the Zoo. Sophia was all excited about her special money and we kept it safe on the fridge until the day of the Zoo. Every time she saw it she would say it was her money for the Zoo. They both chose the same kind of toy from the gift shop: a hand held plastic puppet of sorts. Sophia got a tiger and Phoebe, the giraffe. For the most part there has been fighting and hitting with these toys. *Sigh*

We love the Zoo and can’t wait to return!

Sophia has also posed very well for pictures.

She’s so used to her picture being taken that she EXPECTS it.

Phoebe plays with daddy’s mouth while Sophia brushes his hair.

She likes to get dizzy and swish her hair about.

There won’t be enough room in her post to show all of these pictures so I’ll try and share some highlights.

Just fyi, I wasn’t the primary picture taker. Unknown to me There were at least 4 Nikon DSLRs there. These were all informal and taken quickly. Setup was two sb-28s on radio triggers bounced in to umbrellas to camera left

All your photos are up.

I’ll have them on smugmug shortly. Here’s the link to the album. Just click on the thumbnail below.

I have all my equipment now, and purchased a bat bag to carry it all. I’ll post some shots with the different lenses when I get a chance. I’ll probably take a ton of extraneous photos since I can only keep the rental equipment until the 8th. I’ll find an excuse to use the 3 extra lenses.

Here are some photo picks from the last few weeks. Oh and in case you haven’t noticed there is a new link to the left. Click on it and you’ll be taken to an album of our latest 120 photos.

It focuses really close and get wide enough for my need when I’m taking shots of the girls. It’s now my default short portrait lens, and luckily I got one that is really sharp wide open and has no focus issues, which are common problems with off-brand lenses. Here’s the test shots I took. Stuffed animal for sharpness, close up of sleeping daughter for focus, and a shot of phoebe to see how the bokeh looks.

My light stands should be coming in today. The radio triggers will probably be another week. I’ll have some two light shots when the stands come in and then try and incorporate 3 when I get the triggers in as well.

Portraits were taken with sb-600 and shoot through umbrella at camera left. Hibiscus pic was taken with Spencer hand holding the shoot through and flash high camera right.

Post processing was done in Adobe Lightroom, D2X Mode 2 color for all pics, then ran through noise ninja in PS CS3 and then sharpened with softlight high pass and converted to sRGB.

I got a flash for my camera and have some lighting equipment coming in this week. I’ll get to try it all out at Jo Ellen’s reception.

Some of the following pictures are HDR pics, but I’ve tried to be a little more subtle about them than others you might find on the web.

Also, the hotel was supposed to be haunted, so I took some long exposures to see if I could catch anything. You’ll have to look close and probably turn up your brightness a bit, but I think I see something by the window…