Depth-of-Field

I did a small study in Depth-of-Field with my new camera.  By changing the emphasis on one of the objects in these pictures, the other two objects go out of focus.  The object on the left is in focus in the first picture.  The object in the middle is in focus in the second picture and the object on the right is in focus in the last picture.

   

Pretty simple little test, but fun to do.  Notice the camera even picked up the dust on the chess board in the lower left corner in the second picture.

Morgan Movies

This week has been very busy at work so I didn't have a lot of blog time, but today Dayna and I had some downtime to really enjoy Morgan.  I've added some new pictures to the Morgan Page and took some time to catch some video of her.  I really like this picture of Morgan and Dayna. We'll be producing a quality video from the original tape, but for now I've added a few links to short clips we caught through the TV.  It was quite a nice surprise to catch Morgan's first real unexpected squeal on video.  Enjoy!!!

Morgan's First Surprise Squeal
Cooing
More Cooing

Tulsa Sunset

We had a really nice rain this evening and the sunset was phenomenal.  I need to photoshop the powerlines out of one of these shots, but I thought they were worth posting here regardless.  Enjoy.

 

I'm a realist...

This is a good article but, contains bad news.  I like to consider myself a "realist" and not a "pessimist", but I seem to be harping a lot on this savings/investing thing.  I'm really concerned.  I'm just not convinced that the government can just leave it completely up to people to diligently save/invest.  I think the old pension plans were good for our country in many ways and I really think there is a sizeable number of households that need this taken care of for them.  I don't think it's realistic to expect the vast majority of our population to have the savvy to invest wisely on their own.  I certainly hope I'm wrong and we don't see a crisis in the future of substantial numbers of elderly people unable to take care of themselves financially.

Images For The Gallery

Dayna, Morgan and I had a really fun evening.  We had dinner at Bourbon Street Restaurant on Cherry Street and then made our way around town a bit to practice with our new camera.  I actually shot the majority of pictures on Manual Mode tonight to continue to get better with taking pictures.  This was by far the best picture taking journey we've had so far.  I hope you enjoy these images.

   

   

Tank Fire

We had some excitement today in the neighborhood.  Another tank was struck by lightening and ignited.  This is the second time in two years this has occurred.  The story made the national news on CNN.  I could have taken a much better picture from Hwy 75, but police were there keeping people from stopping.  The tank is just about one mile from our house.  We're in Jenks and the explosion took place just south of us near the border of Jenks and Glenpool.

 

Local KTUL Story

By the way, I've updated the Morgan Growth Tracker with month two picture and milestones.  We will find out Morgan's weight this Friday and I will update the page at that time.

The Gallery

I wanted a home for what Dayna and I think are some of our better shots so I created the Gallery.  You can enjoy these pictures from the link in today's blog entry.  As we become more experienced with the camera, we'll add those pics we feel standout from the rest.  Enjoy!!!

A Real Opportunity

Just a couple weeks ago I refered to the slide in market value.  You can see from my overall return graph that value has fallen pretty sharply for myself ( and lots of others as well ).  But again, try to look at this drop as a real opportunity to purchase some investments at a reduced cost.

Man, I've been having a blast with our new digital SLR camera.

I think I'll add a section to the blog for computer backgrounds/wallpaper for folks to download.  Here is my first attempt.  I grabbed some pretty cool shots of Dayna's autographed OU football.  Dayna had Jamal Holloway and Billy Sims sign it here in Tulsa.

Of course, this does NOT mean I have gone over to the darkside and become a Sooner fan.  I still bleed maroon for A&M.  I'll have plenty of A&M wallpaper later on the blog.

Oklahoma Sooners Football

Good Luck Brett!

Congratulations to my buddy Gregg Sinkbeil and his son Brett.  Brett was the 19th player overall drafted in the Major League Baseball draft on Tuesday.  The Florida Marlins picked Brett during the first round.  Brett was a standout right-handed pitcher at Missouri State University for three years after completing a successful career at Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.  Brett is an impressive looking competitor at 6-foot-3 and 195 lbs with a 94 mph fastball and solid slider.  I look forward to following Brett's career.

Florida Marlins Interview
Missouri State Athletics Article
Missouri State Baseball Profile

Good Luck Brett!

My first shots with our new Canon EOS Rebel XT...

     
     

Our new camera will arrive tomorrow!

We're set to have our Canon Rebel XT delivered tomorrow, but Dayna caught some great shots of Morgan's expressions today using our PowerShot camera.  As you can see from these pictures, Morgan is really starting to develop a personality.

     
     

Garage Sale

We had a garage sale today to get rid of a bunch of stuff cluttering up the house.  We made about $320 which made all the work worthwhile.  Morgan made an appearance with her shades and helped woo the crowd into buying stuff.  Morgan, you did one fine job with those customers.