by kriggins on July 2, 2011
by kriggins on June 17, 2011
I had my wellness screening at work yesterday. I have been eagerly awaiting this day. I made some changes almost exactly one year ago because I hit that last notch on my belt and even that wasn’t quite enough. Ahem, tight pants not attractive. That coupled with some very unimpressive, or impressive in a bad way, numbers in my last wellness screening finally convinced me that I needed to make some changes.
So I did.
I started doing Crossfit and then started making some changes to my diet. At the six month mark I wrote this. At that time, I had made what I considered some pretty good progress and was very happy.
There have been some setbacks and challenges along the way so I was a bit concerned going into the test yesterday.
There was no need.
My Results
Total Cholesterol (lower is better) Year ago 249 – Now 171
LDL Cholesterol (bad kind, lower is better) Year ago 151 – Now 85
HDL Choesterol (good kind, higher is better) Year ago 25 – Now 43
Triglycerides (lower is better) Year ago 365 – Now 170
Total Cholesteral/HDL Ration (lower is better) Year ago 9.8 – Now 3.8
Every one of those numbers was in the ‘really bad’ range and is now either in the normal or optimal range….All without drugs.
Woot!
by kriggins on January 15, 2011
Just had to post this shot from my 365 session yesterday too. Lots of fun I think.
Camera: Nikon D7000
Lens/Exposure: 50mm / ISO 400 / f/1.8 / 1/40sec / Handheld
Lighting: Available light
Post: Nothing beyond white balance tweaking and sharpening.
by kriggins on January 9, 2011
I am reading a book written by Tom Ang called “Digital Photography Masterclass.” It has an assignment for each chapter. I decided to go ahead and post my attempts at the assignments here. They will all be in the set Digital Photography Masterclass This is the first one.
The assignment was to take of picture of city lights, but I cheated a little and took a shot of the Christmas lights on the bushes in front of our house shining through the snow.
Nikon D7000 / ISO 3200 / 18-105m@52mm / f/6.3 / 1/25sec / Handheld
by kriggins on January 6, 2011
More playing with light. These are three sculptures that we have that we really like. I wanted them to look like they were floating in space. They actually rest on three stands that you can see sticking out of their foreheads. This time I used the umbrella in a shoot through configuration to get a softer light.
Camera and Exposure: Nikon D7000 / IO100 / 38mm / f/22 / 1/200s / handheld
Strobist: SB600 @ 1//1 through 60″ umbrella camera left aimed slightly in front.
by kriggins on January 5, 2011
A quick pre-sunrise shot as I was headed into work. Not real happy with it, but it counts 
Wednesday shots are likely to be like this. Wednesdays tend to be a very busy day for me.
Camera: Droid X
Exposure: Doesn’t really matter
by kriggins on January 4, 2011
Just for Marisa
Jack the Corgi was waiting for me to quit pestering him so he could take a nap. You can tell he is just about out here
Camera: Nikon D7000
Exposure: ISO3200 / 105mm / f5.6 / 1/15s / Handheld. I did bump exposure .75 stops in post.
by kriggins on January 3, 2011
Well, I did it. I picked up a 60″ umbrella and light stand today. This is my first attempt at using it. I am sure you will see much more of it
Camera: Nikon D7000
Exposure: ISO 100 / 80mm / f16 / 1/125s
Lighting: SB600 @ 1/1.3 into 60″ umbrella
by kriggins on January 2, 2011
Nikon D7000 / ISO 100 / 98mm / f5.6 / 1/125s
Decided to try a little off-camera flash with a homemade snoot. I taped a piece of typing paper around the flash. Also used the on-camera flash for little bit of fill. Key light is firing from camera left.
I am really looking forward to picking up some better light management tools like a stand and umbrella.
by kriggins on January 1, 2011
Project 365
So what is this Project 365 thing all about.
It’s about taking at least one picture every day for a year.
It’s about becoming a better photographer by doing the one thing you absolutely have to do to become a better photographer…take pictures.
Some have wrapped a bunch of rules around how they go about their Project 365s, but I am going to keep it simple.
- Take a picture every day. It may be taken with my DSLR, it may be taken with my compact, or it may be with my phone. Doesn’t matter, I just have to take at least one picture a day.
- Post’em everydayish.
That’s it. Rule #1 is unbreakable unless I am deathly ill or otherwise unable to take a picture.
I will do my best to keep Rule #2 also, but there will be days where I will not have internet access and other situations that might preclude me from posting. It shouldn’t be often and it shouldn’t be more than a day or two when it happens.
This project will have its own home in the very near future. Until that is up and running though, you can follow here or you can keep track using my Flickr Project 365 set.
-Kevin
This is the first photo in my Project 365. I happened to be letting Jack the Corgi out when I notice this hawk in a tree in the back yard. This was the first time I have seen a hawk in one of our trees. I grabbed the camera and snapped this shot. It is significantly cropped, but I thought it quite auspicious.
