TheFuhrmans  
Family Photos, Video and Computer Advice  
2008 PHOTOS & VIDEO
Jan  Miscellaneous
Feb  Fencing, Las Vegas
Mar  Hawaii
Mar  Australia
Apr  Australia
May  New York, NY
June  Storms
July  Summer fun
Aug  CA, Nags Head
Sep  Fall sports
Oct  More fall sports
Nov  Outdoors
Dec  10K, Christmas

October 2008

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October 4, Saturday

Ryan hit a double over the third baseman's head and got a RBI in his last regular season game.  Way to go Ryan!



We had beautiful weather for Ainsley's soccer game compared to last weekend that was rained out.  Ainsley loves to play and goes after the ball.  There is a noticeable improvement from last year, but she and her teammates still have a hard time spreading out and passing the ball to each other.  I took pictures of the entire team who were split between two adjoining fields.  See more photos.

About the Soccer Photos

Photographing this soccer games was a bit more difficult than expected.  First and foremost, the intense sun made the colors pop out, but it also created harsh backlighting, over exposure on the white jerseys, shadows under the players' eyes, and extreme contrast; not exactly ideal.  It was also a bit harder to frame each shot compared to Ryan's baseball games.  It's easier to predict a play at second or a play at home and have the camera pointed in that direction.  With soccer, the ball is in front of the player in one step and kicked ten feet ahead the next.  I had to widen the shot to make sure to get the player and the ball.  Consequently, each of these photos has been cropped, the exposure corrected, and fill light added in Adobe Lightroom.  I didn't loose any quality since the photos were taken in RAW instead of JPEG.


I set the camera for aperture priority (A on Nikon or Tv on Canon) which is a blessing and a curse.  The backgrounds come out blurry which makes the players stand out, but if the focus isn't dead on, then the subject can be blurry too.  I used single shot focus instead of continuous focus.  With single shot focus, I can control the focus point.  This allows me to have the player off center for a more interesting photo.  With continuous focus, the camera takes an average focus of players in the center of the photo.  As the photos show, the focus is slightly off on some of them.  I'll have to try something different next time.


October 7, Tuesday


Ryan is at third during his post season baseball practice.  This was taken two minutes after sunset and cropped to a 3:10 aspect ratio.  Ainsley and Jeff watched the guys having fun as the temperature dropped.  It's definitely Fall.



Ainsley's silhouette and sunset are reflected in the chrome part of the headlight.  I was in a weird mood looking for strange colors and tight crops.


October 8, Wednesday



It was Ainsley's turn on the EDS fields for soccer practice.  The coach worked on getting the girls to pass the ball to each other among other drills.  It was cool and breezy with an occasional rain drop, so Betsi tried to look cold.  She wins the award for most attractive.


October 10, Friday

Roll your mouse over the photo.

The one with vivid colors was created by changing the color controls in the camera.  Most, if not all SLRs have the ability to change the color saturation, sharpness, contrast and color tone.  You can get some wild colors without disturbing the other colors.  For example, the reds and oranges are exaggerated without making the sky look orange too.  The other photo was automatically adjusted by Adobe Lightroom to create a more natural looking image.  I could not adjust Lightroom to reproduce the original RAW file and had to use the Canon software to show you this picture.

It's that time of year for the warm autumn colors to arrive.  I'm inspired by one of Ken Rockwell's photos of a house (near the bottom of the page).  The first photo is dull and unexciting.  The second photo is colorful and vibrant after changing some of the camera settings.  He recommends changing the exposure compensation first to get a brighter or darker photo.  Then adjust the white balance to make the colors come out the way you want them to, which may exaggerate reality.  Lastly, adjust the contrast and color saturation to fine tune it.  I've been so used to adjusting RAW files on the computer this past year that I've not practiced getting the perfect picture with the camera first.


October 14, Tuesday

I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera to pick up Ryan at baseball practice.  The full moon was rising above the trees and shrouded in lines of clouds.  The sunset was also particularly colorful.  Next time, I won't second guess myself.


Here is a full moon with a few surrounding clouds taken at 1/100s, f/5.6, and ISO 1600.  Another photo was taken ten minutes later when there was a break in the clouds.  The settings followed the moon rule and was taken at 1/400s, f/11, and ISO 400.  The moon is 32 times brighter without the clouds.  I was surprised at the difference.

October 18, Saturday

Our fun day began with a 8:45am soccer game.  Ainsley scored three out of the four goals including one goal that started with a burst of frustration that lead to a sprint up the sideline. She and her teammates played well despite not having enough players for substitutions.  Betsi's Mom tried to stay warm with Ryan by sharing a blanket and drinking hot cocoa.



Ryan's team won their first playoff game.




A 14 acre (57,000 square meters) corn maze in Leesburg was more fun that I thought it would be.  It helps to bring along great friends.  It took about a hour and 15 minutes to complete it and the design changes each year.  There are other activities as well, but we were interested in just the maze.



We joined a nighttime ghost tour of Leesburg after dinner.  The camera set to ISO 1600 and f/2 can make daylight out of night.  It's great.  See more photos.

October 20, Monday



Ainsley's gymnastics class held an open house for the parents to snap a few photos.

October 22, Wednesday


I liked this girl's orange shirt while Ainsley takes a break during soccer practice.


October 23, Thursday


The sunset didn't light up these clouds like I thought they would which means I didn't get any reflections on the pond.  Oh, well.



Ryan's team won their second playoff game and advance to the medal rounds on Saturday night, weather permitting. The pitches to Ryan we all over the place and he walked twice. His teammates were able to make some hits to bring him home twice.  He liked that part.

I'm not sure why half of the photos had orange dirt even though all of the camera settings were identical.  I suspect the filter, but I've never seen this happen before.  I don't know how to Photoshop it out without making all of the other colors look funny.

October 24, Friday

Ainsley and Calliope dressed in costume and were painted by the Girl Scouts at the school's fall festival.  The Girls Scouts included Katie (left), Ellie (right), Melissa I. and Amanda C.

Ainsley stands underneath a tile she decorated in 2004 as the school was under various stages of expansion and remodeling.  We can't find Ryan's tile and suspect it either wasn't added or his initials aren't on it.  To find Ainsley's tile, start at the cafeteria, walk past the bathrooms, and it's 20 feet of the end of the hall.



Rumor has it the fire alarm was pulled by a two year old.  A Dad was holding the toddler in his arms while talking to someone.  The toddler saw the red fire alarm on the wall and just had to touch it.  Opps.

October 25, Saturday



Red Robin always has good burgers and a colorful restaurant.  I decided not to color correct these photos.  The 35mm f/2 lens is tiny and works well for low light photos without a flash.  Although I started wearing reading glasses on my 35th birthday, I've been wearing glasses almost full time these past few months.  I hate getting old.


October 26, Sunday


The kids participated in the 1K Goblin Gallop at Fairfax Circle at 8:45am while the adults ran the 5K at 9:00am.  We ran into Kathryn, Rocky, Hillary and Tucker.  Ryan stayed with Tucker during their run while Ainsley ran with Samantha from her class at school.

Betsi is thinking about the NYC Triathlon in July 2009 consisting of a 1500m swim, a 40k bike, and a 10k run.  She can do any of the three, but has not done all in the same day.

October 31, Friday



Halloween started at Bob and Barbara's, continued for hours through the neighborhood, and ended at our house.  We were only able to spend a short time with Chris and Amy who are former neighbors now living in South Dakota.  See more photos.

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