Scott O. Smith Photoblog

A couple of weeks ago I surprised my wife with an early birthday trip to Clearwater Florida to go see William Joseph in concert. The concert was held at the Ruth Eckert Hall and was fantastic.  My wife was able to get his autograph and chat one-on-one after the concert.  Other than the concert it was the kind of getaway where we didn’t make any plans prior to going.

Our hotel was right on the beach so it wasn’t too hard to imagine what my wife wanted to do.  We spent time on the beach, driving down the coast in a red convertible beetle, swimming in the pool and eating good food.  We had an absolute blast and the timing turned out for the better for my wife, she had just buried her mother the week before from a sudden loss just after Christmas.
Today is her Birthday,  Happy Birthday Karyn
-s

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 125 * 1/1250 second * f/4.0

Canon XTi * EF-70-200mm f/4L * ISO 100 * 1/800 second * f/4.5

While spending some time in Wyoming last fall I couldn’t help but capture this image as I was drving down the highway.  The sun peaked from behind a cloud and light up the golden field of grass.  I decided to crop this more than usual to give the illusion of a pano shot.  In hindsight, I wish I had actually taken a pano to show more of the golden field.  This is one of my favorites taken that day, I have a couple others that I will be sharing.

Canon 40D * EF-50mm f/1.8 II * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/3.2

I spent a good portion of my December scanning slides from my dad’s youth that were taken in the early 60′s.  He hasn’t seen them in years so I wanted to get them in a format where he could look and share with family and friends easily.  I decided a photo book would be the best solution.  I I tried several online photo book sites and ended up using Apple’s iPhoto photo book software.  I’m very happy with the quality of the book.  The book is a hardcover, the pictures are crisp and the paper is high quality.  The software was very easy to use, I wish it gave me a bit more control for cropping and resizing photos, the hardest part of the process for me was figuring out where to place the photos on the pages.

The book came in a self contained box with Apple’s logo on it.  I’ve included a few samples below of the book.  I’m planning on putting together more books and using other services.  If you have a recommendation on a site feel free to leave a comment.

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/4.0

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/4.0

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/4.0

Canon 40D * EF-24-105mm f/4.0L * ISO 100 * 1/200 second * f/10