Singh-Ray Blog

Ron NiebruggeAnza-Borrego, California, How to, Photos, Travel 8 Comments

Dry Lake Bed, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

Dry Lake Bed, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

I have been a long time user of Singh-Ray filters, particularly their graduated neutral density filters.  So I must say I was honored when they approached me recently and asked me to contribute to their blog.  In fact, I already had the first post written in my head, as  it was a tip I thought I would post here.  Instead, I shared my discovery of the usefulness of using live-view in the positioning of graduated neutral density filters.  Well I don’t want to spoil the whole post, you can check out the whole story at the Singh-Ray blog. 

As far as my own blog goes, I still may do some fine tuning of the header, photo size etc., so if things look a bit funky from time to time, you will understand.

An Easy to Use WordPress Theme ?!

Ron NiebruggeCalifornia, Miscellaneous, Photos, Travel 22 Comments

A sunset at the Salton Sea California from this past winter.

A sunset at the Salton Sea California from this past winter.

I have received numerous emails and comments over the past year asking me to post bigger photos.  Really, I haven’t been ignoring those requests, it just wasn’t possible because my old theme was so narrow.  It was probably fine in the days of 800 x 600 monitor resolutions, but today, I just ended up with a narrow blog and a bunch of gray space on either side! 

So I had enough of my old theme, and there was no way I was going to try to modify it – heck, just adding the photo to the banner took me a day!    So this past weekend I went on a search for a new theme.  I won’t bore you with the details, but there are thousands and thousands of themes out there – and of course none of them are just right.  That is when I found Thesis;  About Thesis — Find out more about Thesis and the DIYthemes philosophy 

With Thesis, I had total control.  To change to three columns instead of my previous two –  I just selected the 3 column option in the drop down menu.  I wanted an extra wide column for my large photos – all I did was type in the desired width in a little box and bingo, it changes!  Not only does it change, but everything lines up perfectly – something that was a constant battle before.  Would I prefer the side bars on each side, with the content down the middle?  You guessed it, just another click.  Rotating photos at the top of the sidebar – painless!  Supposedly they have great support, fortunately I didn’t need it, but I did drop by the online forum which has almost six thousand users.Read More

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 21 Comments

coyote

Coyote, Exit Glacier Road, Seward, Alaska.

I know, this is just an ordinary snapshot from a point and shoot camera – hey even photographers can take snap shots!  But, check out how close this coyote was from me Monday morning during a long cross-country ski – maybe 20 feet away! But more on that latter.

For exercise, I love to skate ski. It seems like I often see cool stuff, but my main camera and lenses are so darn heavy, they get left behind.  I wanted a little camera that I could throw in my pocket and forget it was even there, but one that captured decent images in raw, and that is how I ended up with the Panasonic DMC-LX3. — Panasonic DMC-LX3K (Black) 

I gotta say, this little camera is a lot of fun to shoot with. It has a wide, really fast Leica lens which is great for low light and indoor photography. Heck, at f/2.0, I don’t even have a 35mm lens nearly that fast! The thing will focus down to a fraction of a inch which makes it fun for messing around with macro stuff as well. It does a great job handling tricky exposures and even has a HD video mode.Read More

Coast Guard Cutter Mustang

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 3 Comments

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mustang leaving Seward, Alaska.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mustang leaving Seward, Alaska.

 There was a humpback whale in front of town just a short time ago.  I didn’t get it photos of the whale, but was on shore for the departure of the Mustang as it passed in front of Mt Alice.

Borrego Springs

Ron NiebruggeAnza-Borrego, California, Photos, Travel 5 Comments

A park in Borrego Springs, California.

A park in Borrego Springs, California.

It seems a bit strange to be inside adjusting sunny warm looking desert photos from our last trip –  then taking a break to shovel snow out of the driveway.  At least the cross-country skiing has been awesome!

Here are more Borrego photos.


Common Redpoll

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Photos, Travel 14 Comments

Common Redpoll
Common Redpoll

These Redpolls are everywhere right now, and they are fearless.  In fact, they start landing and feeding on our feeder before I can even get it hung back up!

The sun was just coming up directly behind the Redpoll.  I added a flash at about a 45 degree angle to the left of the bird.  I think using flash not only fills in the shadows, but can really help in bring out the colors in a subject like this.  I also prefer having the flash off of the camera if possilbe.  On camera flash is better then no flash, but it tends to be a bit of a flat light in my opinion.
Check out more of our bird photos.

Whistler Photos

Ron NiebruggeCanada, Photos, Travel 3 Comments

Whitler Village, British Columbia, Canada.

Whistler Village, British Columbia, Canada.

We now have a new section of Whistler photos.  This is also from our whirlwind 3 day trip to Canada this winter.

I have always enjoyed restaurants that had outdoor seating.  It seems like you usually find these in warm destinations – given the winter weather conditions, I was surprised to see outdoor seating at a number of places in Whistler, like the one pictured above .  They were all crowded and popular.

Vancouver and Whitler will host the Winter Olympics next February.  I gotta say, almost all the venues were complete and functioning, and they were all first class.  I can’t think of a place that is better situated to handle such a huge event, I will be surprised if they aren’t a huge success.

Vancouver Photos

Ron NiebruggeCanada, Photos, Travel 5 Comments

Vancouver Photos

Vancouver Photos

Typically we process all the photos from a trip in one big group, but this time we decided to do our Canadian photos in one batch, and then the rest of the trip in a second batch.  Because of this, we now have a new section on our website of Vancouver photos.