The blog of Nathan Hunstad » Photography http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog The blog of Nathan Hunstad, covering topics like photography, computers, politics, Minneapolis, and more Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:35:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 New photos up: Christmas http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2012/01/new-photos-up-christmas/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2012/01/new-photos-up-christmas/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:34:35 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=612 I’ve uploaded a few photos from our trip to Omaha for Christmas. A couple samples below the fold.

Sasha peeking out from the presents:

Sasha

Ornaments on the tree:

Ornaments

]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2012/01/new-photos-up-christmas/feed/ 0 New photos: North Shore Vacation http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/10/new-photos-north-shore-vacation/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/10/new-photos-north-shore-vacation/#comments Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:20:54 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=566 Last weekend Julia and I went up to the North Shore of Lake Superior to celebrate our first anniversary. We stayed at the very lovely Bluefin Bay Resort. Below the jump are some pictures of the trip.

Our condo was right on the lake with lovely views of the fall color:

 

Lake Superior

We went hiking along the Temperance River and saw more fall color:

 

Temperance River

What’s a trip up north without a visit to Split Rock Lighthouse?

Split Rock Lighthouse

And, of course, a visit to Gooseberry Falls:

Gooseberry Falls

]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/10/new-photos-north-shore-vacation/feed/ 0 New photos up: Apple Picking http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/09/new-photos-up-apple-picking/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/09/new-photos-up-apple-picking/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:59:46 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=557 I’ve put up new photos from our apple-picking trip to Afton Apple Orchard this past weekend here. Samples below the jump.

The pumpkin patch:Looking down the row of pumpkins at the Afton Apple Orchard

Julia picking apples:

Action shot of Julia Miller picking apples at the Afton Apple Or

A tractor giving hay rides:

Enjoying the hayride at the Afton Apple Orchard

]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/09/new-photos-up-apple-picking/feed/ 0 New photos up: University of Minnesota http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/09/new-photos-up-university-of-minnesota/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/09/new-photos-up-university-of-minnesota/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 01:40:29 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=549 About a week ago I spent the morning taking photos around the University of Minnesota. I don’t know what it is about the U, but I feel the need to excessively process the photos I take there. Hopefully, they aren’t too overdone. A few samples below the jump.

I like the perspective on this one:

Parabola

This one kind of pops:

Scholars Walk

The McNamara Alumni Center, already looking otherworldly, lends itself to nice filtering:

McNamara Alumni Center

  • Current Mood: Full
]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/09/new-photos-up-university-of-minnesota/feed/ 0 New Photos Up: Arizona Vacation http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/08/new-photos-up-arizona-vacation/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/08/new-photos-up-arizona-vacation/#comments Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:50:54 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=517 I’ve posted the photos from our Arizona vacation here. Samples below the jump…

Here’s a long-duration exposure by the pool:

Arizona Night

While there, we visited Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s compound:

Taliesin West Pool

We also paid a visit to the Pima Air and Space Museum:

SR-71 Blackbird

The view was spectacular…

Santa Catalina Mountains

]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/08/new-photos-up-arizona-vacation/feed/ 0 Geosetter and GPS Logger http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/07/geosetter-and-gps-logger/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/07/geosetter-and-gps-logger/#comments Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:31:18 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=505 A while back I blogged about Geosetter, a tool used for geotagging digital photos. In the past, I’ve used it to manually assign locations to photos I’ve taken. This isn’t much fun, and it is easy to forget where I’ve taken a photo before I get a chance to geotag them. Thanks to Reddit, though, I’ve discovered a much better way to do it automatically by using GPSLogger on my phone. I run it on my phone while I’m taking pictures, then Geosetter can take the .GPS file that GPSLogger exports and automatically tag all of the photos by matching the time it was taken to where you were based on the log file. Neat! I used it for my Twin Cities Pride album, and despite the noisiness inherent in consumer-grade GPS, it worked very well.

]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/07/geosetter-and-gps-logger/feed/ 0 Twin Cities Pride Photos http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/06/twin-cities-pride-photos/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/06/twin-cities-pride-photos/#comments Tue, 28 Jun 2011 02:57:06 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=500 On Sunday, Julia and I went to the Twin Cities Pride Parade, where I took a bunch of pictures. Some samples are below the jump.

The DFL truck was full of elected officials:

Another view of the DFL truck at Twin Cities Pride.

You can’t go wrong with an MG, or rather, two MGs welded together:

Brian Shekleton drives the Marion Greene MG car at Twin Cities Pride.

A picture of Julia with Rep. Erin Murphy, mighty legislator from St. Paul:

Erin and Julia

Finally, what’s a Pride parade without Gay 90s?

Outside the Gay 90s at Twin Cities Pride.

]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2011/06/twin-cities-pride-photos/feed/ 0 Using fill flash and Lightroom presets http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2010/10/using-fill-flash-and-lightroom-presets/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2010/10/using-fill-flash-and-lightroom-presets/#comments Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:21:38 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=404 Julia and I walked along the Root River Trail in Lanesboro on Friday, and I of course brought my camera. I took the opportunity to experiment with fill flash for lightening the subject (in this case, Julia) in front of a brightly-lit background. I also had some fun with some effects presets in Lightroom when I was doing the post-processing. Examples under the jump…

I found that the best way to use the fill flash was to put my 430EX II flash into manual mode and set it to 1/4 to 1/8 full power. I tried using Aperture-Priority mode, which is supposed to automatically use fill flash with E-TTL, but I just didn’t like it as much. Here’s an example of a picture of Julia that used some fill flash:

Pretty picture of Julia Miller

The flash helped lighten the shadows on her face, without becoming too overpowering. Here’s another example:

More Fill Flash

Contrast that with a picture of her that doesn’t have any fill flash, just natural light:

Julia Miller among the corn

I also had fun with some Lightroom presets for special effects. This photo of a sign and bridge has an old-fashioned, grainy look:

Old-Time Root River

This one is almost, but not quite, like a toned black-and-white print:

Postprocessing Fun

Both fill flash and presets can come in very handy. I’ll definitely play with them some more in the future.

]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2010/10/using-fill-flash-and-lightroom-presets/feed/ 0 Moving from Smugmug to Zenphoto http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2010/07/moving-from-smugmug-to-zenphoto/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2010/07/moving-from-smugmug-to-zenphoto/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:08:16 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=330 I’ve had my photo gallery at SmugMug for a couple of years now. SmugMug is a great site, but a couple of things have made me look for an alternative. First, the price: the pro level is a bit spendy, at $150 a year. For people who make a living at photography, this is a great deal, providing a lot of shopping cart options. For me, though, it’s a bit of overkill. The other issue is that I’ve never really been happy with the search visibility of the site, given its reliance on Flash. Images I put on my blog get indexed by Google Image Search, but images on my SmugMug site have never really been picked up.

Since I already have a website, I figured why not host the photos myself? So that’s exactly what I’ve done. My photos are now here, powered by ZenPhoto. It’s not quite as feature-filled as SmugMug, but it works well enough for what I need. Since I’m hosting it, I can customize everything. It’s also very easy to sync my Lightroom catalog with the albums on the site using the Publishing function of Lightroom 3.

SmugMug is a good site for pros, but I’m hoping that ZenPhoto will work for me for a while.

]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2010/07/moving-from-smugmug-to-zenphoto/feed/ 0 Easter photos http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2010/04/easter-photos/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2010/04/easter-photos/#comments Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:36:27 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=306 I took a few photos on Easter at my brother’s house, they are in my random gallery. Here’s one of his dog Sophia:

My brother's dog Sophia

]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2010/04/easter-photos/feed/ 0