This is one of my favorite summer activities. My parents had a couple of people over last weekend to drink and play cornhole. As the sun was setting, it was really hard to resist bringing out the camera for at least one good shot. The boards were just about put away when I dragged the other one back out in the lawn and threw some bags to stage it look as if we were in the middle of a game. These boards have been through a lot. My dad and I built these about four years ago and use them extensively throughout the summer. They aren’t in the best shape, but I prefer these over any store-bought cornhole game out there.

No this isn’t a secret post asking my Fiance to marry me! The question has already been asked. I just wanted share with everyone how I proposed to her. When I was brainstorming ideas on how to go about asking the question, I kept coming back to photography. I wanted to incorporate something that was special to both her and me. When I came up with this idea, I figured it would be something we would have forever. I presented this to her as a wrapped gift to open. When she opened it and read it, I was there with the ring!

Each photo is a pseudo HDR. I was initially going to just do standard black-and-white, but I also wanted to incorporate something that is special to me as well- HDR. So I ran each photo through Photomatix to give it that tone-mapped look, carefully edited each one, and then ran it through Silver Efex Pro- a great black-and-white Photoshop Plug-in.

On my quest searching for Batman, the closest I came to a celebrity sighting was the director, Christopher Nolan.

After work one day, I walked down a few blocks to see what the buzz was about on the set of the film. I noticed they were filming a chase scene with the new Bat Wing. It was a really cool sight to watch them film. Off in the distance, was Christopher Nolan hopping into the camera vehicle. It was the first time I had seen a “celebrity” since the beginning of my quest. Only I did not have my camera with me! I learned my lesson that day to ALWAYS have it with while the filming was taking place.

This shot was taken a different day. It was the last time I went down to watch the filming and Nolan was closer than the last few times I had spotted him. I was readily armed with my camera and telephoto lens. No HDR done here.

No HDR on today’s post, despite my blog’s title. For the last week, I went on a journey to capture some the action happening in downtown Pittsburgh. Christopher Nolan’s latest Batman film, “The Dark Knight Rises”, is being filmed in Pittsburgh. I have never seen a movie being filmed before, so it was quite an experience. Public Assistants stand at every block, every sidewalk, and road that was blocked off for the filming to make sure people were not sneaking through. It was really hard to get a glimpse of the action. Luckily, I found this spot where the Tumblers were being chased by the new Bat mobile…The Bat wing (photo coming soon!)

My award came on Friday! The Magazine got to keep the original plaque from the awards ceremony but the art director was kind enough to order a second plaque for me to keep. It was very thoughtful of him to do so! Just thought I would share it with all of you.

I haven’t posted in some time because of computer problems where Photoshop would just run really slow, crash, erase hours of work etc. It made editing photos a task/chore, not fun. Now, I have an iMac…and it is great.

On another note, remember the cover/article I shot for Pittsburgh Magazine last year? If not, I have written an article about the experience. Last Monday, I was invited to attend the 47th Annual Golden Quill Awards for a nomination in Feature Photography. I was nominated for the shots that appeared in the 2010 City Guide. I was a finalist up against two other photographers for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. That night, I took away my first award for photography. It was a truly awesome experience.

I snapped these five exposures off on my deck on this rainy, foggy night. Pittsburgh weather has been extraordinarily awful as of late, and I am hoping for a change. I guess I will have to embrace the crap weather and use at as opportunity for photography.

This is spike…She is a pretty awesome cat. And yes, she is a girl lol. I just got my new camera Friday! I decided to go with the Nikon D7000. It is a spectacular camera. The ISO capabilities are incredible. This was shot at ISO 800. I did no noise reduction and no sharpening, just some curve and color adjustments. I can’t wait to do some HDR with this bad boy!

To go along with my new camera, I’ve decided to start a blog. I have wanted to start one for a really long time now but have not had the time to learn and figure it out. I am still in the process of figuring this all out but it is a good starting point.

I found this lurking around in the archives and I’m not really sure why I’ve never posted it. It’s probably up there as one of the coolest sunsets I have witnessed since the birth of my photography passion. Here is my Dad’s garden during the summer months on a warm evening. Enjoy!

This was one of the coolest sunsets I have ever seen. I took this on the last day of September and never got around to processing it. I was eating dinner and looked out the window to see this. I was thinking, I don’t care where I take this photo, I have to capture this sunset. So here is my backyard with an awesome sunset.

A bit of a break from HDR today. I have been meaning to post this for some time now but just kept forgetting. I took this at Pen’s training camp before the season started. My girlfriend and I were 2 rows back from the ice and I took a ton of pictures…this being the best.