It’s October again, and time for some fun. The Arkell family, good friends of ours, invited us to their annual Hallowe’en party. The weather was very threatening but held off just long enough for everyone to enjoy the Bald Lake waterfront they had to offer. Good eats, good company, good games and good times were had! Thank you guys for a great party!

The kids came running up to me the other day, early in the morning and said “Dad, come quick and bring your camera”. So I grabbed the camera and they took me to the patio door. This was our backyard at that early morning moment. The dew in the air and the frost on the trees and ground were creating this surreal sunlight effect. Because of the strong contrast difference from the dark yard and the sun and sky in the back, I leaned against the patio door and held the camera as steady as I could and took a bracketed group of shots, total of 5, one stop apart. So in one second I took 5 shots (as the D200 does 5 FPS) and then let Photomatix merge them to give an image with a greater dynamic range (HDR). You will see this from time to time in my images as I enjoy the results. There was also some junk on the picnic table, so I ‘photo-chopped’ it out. Till next time …

The other week I had the pleasure of doing the engagement shoot for a 2009 wedding I have. Erin and Kevin are a great, down-to-earth couple who’s wedding date I am looking forward to. We went to Millbrook and painted the town! Well … not quite, but it was lots of fun. Here are my fav’s from our time together. And no … that is not their jeep. It was hard to pass by without grabbing a couple pic’s at it. And the beer bottle … we found it on the front seat! I don’t know about these Millbrook folk …