Balboa Park bridge highway at night

I finally got out to do some night shooting around town here and I am very happy with what I came up with. I met some other photographers that were able to instruct me on how to capture the best possible image.

I was able to set my shutter speed on my camera to “bulb” settings in order to manually control when the shutter opens and closes. A tripod was used as well as a remote shutter release. The exposure on these pictures ranges from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
Enjoy and comment!

San Diego Skyline At Night

San Diego Skyline at Night

Airplane taking off from Lineburg Field in San Diego

My Day in London '06

Yes, Yes, I know…It took me two and a half years to get these pictures processed into an album online. But I’m glad I waited! The Lightroom software has these nifty little options for creating quick albums. I had a very long layover in London, England on my way to Entebbe, Uganda and decided to hop on a bus tour to make use of the day. It was an expensive little excursion because just the taxi ride from the airport to the bus stop was $80. In my experience, if you have the chance..take a bus tour in any city you’re in. They are simply the best way to see everything cheap. Here is a nice tour of London via snapshots! Enjoy!

Christmas has been a great holiday at my house. Christmas eve consisted of a HUGE plate of homemade lasagna, fresh bread, and Italian sasauges. Followed by dessert of fresh baked M&M cookies and Buckeye candies. We got to open up one present each on Christmas eve. Christmas morning we woke up and made a big breakfast of scrambled eggs & bacon. The present unwrapping proceeded after breakfast and it was SO much fun. The final gift to me was a treasure hunt of gift cards that my parents funded and my sister and brother-in-law masterminded. It sent me high and low in the house and around the garage looking from clue to clue for a new gift. Quite a nice way to give gift cards.

Hope you all enjoyed your holiday!

Nikon D90

I splurged on myself a little this Christmas and got myself a Nikon D90 DLSR camera. I have been using the Canon EOS Digital Rebel for so long that I decided an upgrade was in order. I got the camera yesterday and have been playing around with it learning the controls all day. One of the most exciting things I’m going to be doing is working on some HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. I’ll post up more about it once I’m able to go out and shoot some of my own to share.

Twilight Movie Banner

My sister and I went to the movies to see Twilight on Thanksgiving evening. I had low expectations because, well, we all know how movies are never anything like the book. I have to admit I was totally wrong! This movie was exactly all that a reader of the book series could hope for. It took what I saw in my mind and put it on the big screen. It is no exaggeration when I say that I haven’t seen a book-turned-movie follow the story so well since Lord of the Rings. My compliments to the director. If you’ve read Twlight by Stephanie Meyer, definately go see this movie.

Twilight Book Series

My friend Marc, knowing how much I like to read, recommended this book series he’d been hearing so much about. I went out and got the first book Twilight and enjoyed the read. It didn’t change my life or anything but it was intriguing enough to make me want to stay in bed and read instead of watch TV. The story got better and better over the length of the 4 books and by the end I was hooked.  The love story was very heart wrenching and the action was very well written. The author did a great job of breaking down the prejudices you would normally have against vampires to make you actually WANT Bella (the main character) to get bit the whole time.

The movie Twilight is coming out on the 21st of Novemeber and I’m worried to see what Hollywood does with the story line. One of the best parts of the books for me was the anguish that Bella and Edward go through because of their love for each other. I don’t see how Hollywood is going to manage portraying that without words.

Some kind of mutant strain of the common cold attacked me Monday in Tampa and I’ve been incapacitated since then. So, I missed out on half my vacation because I was in bed trying not to hack up a lung with every breath. Flying sick is a whole new experience. Upon landing in San Diego, I thought my right eyebrow had split open because I had never had such a sharp pain there before in my life. Its the weirdest sensation and causes one to overreact because unless you get black eyes on a regular basis, most people aren’t used to feeling pain in that part of their body. Slowly I’m recovering, but I’m sorely behind on work and taking care of other things. Isn’t it funny how life goes on even when you aren’t?

I guess I’m a little overly stressed and excited about my trip to Flordia tomorrow. I haven’t quite worked out the logistics of my missing programmer for my newest site build. But I have to remain hopeful or I’d just walk outside in front of a bus. I am very excited about seeing my friend Randie though. It’s been way too long. I also get to meet for the first time the newest addition to the Timko family. My new nephew Max.

Max Jason Timko Born 10/06/08

I think he takes after his daddy a bit. I intend to take a stroll around the Tampa aquarium, so be expecting pics soon.