This is where you come in.  I need votes for the People’s Choice award!!  So… if you have a moment to check out the six photos I’ve submitted, please choose your favorite and vote!!  I would really appreciate it.  I hope you enjoy them. *Click on the thumbnail image to go to the voting page, and on the voting page you can scroll your mouse over the image for a larger version.

You can take pictures in six different resolutions (2,048×1,536, 1,600×1,200, 1,280×960, 640×480, and 320×240 pixels), five white balance presets, and five color effects. It also has three focusing modes: autofocus, macro mode, or manual mode, the last of which lets you pick one of seven points on the screen to focus in on. You can toggle the flash on or off, adjust a self timer if you want, or select one of three shutter sounds (there’s also a silent option).

The camera also has a few special shot modes: Smile shot, which automatically takes a picture when a person smiles; Panorama, which stitches together five photos shot from left to right; Intelligent shot, which automatically adjusts the white balance and color saturation based on the surrounding environment; and Facial Makeover mode, which removes all blemishes and unsightly marks from a person’s face. There’s also a name card reader mode that is specially tuned to take pictures of business cards and then extracts the contact information and saves it in your phone. I don’t really get a lot of business cards, but I think I’m going to start asking people for them all the time now.

I’ve been using my camera phone more than my beloved Canon Digital Rebel XTi (although I plan on carrying it around a lot this weekend when I’m in downtown Boston). I upgraded the phone about a week ago and have since taken a lot of random photos playing with the various features. It’s been a bit of a learning process but I’m having fun and some of the result photos have been a bit surprising and unexpected. Also, none of these photos have been altered in any way, shape or form. They are coming to you straight from my cell phone to the internet.

Self Portrait: Cloves, Car rides and friends

Buddha the Cat: Living on the Edge

You can practically feel the WHOOSH as they skate around the rink.

Panorama of Venice Beach with San Gabriel fire smoke in the background.

Fear. Can you smell it?

Sleep with your eyes open.

There's nothing quite like getting up close and personal with creepy crawlies.

Happy dogs mean happy people.

Lynch Park, Beverly, MA

Panorama of the rocky Beverly coast: Lynch Park, Beverly, MA

Peace and serenity where the sea meets the green and the trees. Lynch Park, Beverly, MA

Danvers State Insane Asylum was built in 1878 on top of Hawthorne Hill. The property, having been abandoned for almost 30 years and right after the psychological indie thriller Session 9 was filmed there, the whole estate was recently converted into an apartment complex, leaving the main Kirkbride building intact. In the initial stages of refurbishing the inside of the building, there was a fire that destroyed much of the new construction. The damage has since been fixed and the apartments are now inhabited. Was the fire a coincidence? I'll let you be the judge of that.

to read more on Danvers State Insane Asylum

Danvers State in the afternoon sun. Danvers, MA

The dog days of Summer.

It's always good to be prepared.

Having grown up in a small-ish coastal New England town, big Hollywood-type events still leave me in a bit of shock and awe.  I had no idea what to expect from my new Seat Filling obligations.  Would I end up seat-less, standing in the back of a dark theater or worse, in some holding room waiting for a bladder engorged teeny bopper to pee so I could catch 30 second glimpses of the show?  I was overcome with scenerios of the situation to which I was entering. It was exciting.

Before the show, we were placed in the first 5 rows. As ticket holders arrived, we were moved around, each time to a new empty seat.  It was like playing the lottery. Would your seat holder arrive or would you end up with one of the best seats in the house?  I was moved about 5 times before settling about 15 rows back from the stage in an aisle seat next to what I believe was some actress who has been on TV. She looked so familiar.  Anyway, it was a solo seat so I prayed it’s occupant got held up at the office and couldn’t make it to the show. As luck would have it, the occupant of Seat 110, Row AA never made it to the Idol finale. I got to see the whole show from 15 rows away.  Never in a million years would have imagined myself in that position, in that very moment/ It was surreal. And thanks to FOX for putting on a truly fantastic show. Fireworks? KISS?  Free giveaways to the audience?  It was awesome.

Now I will leave you with the Photograph-of-the-Day: Sedona Vortex.  This is a little fun photoshop project I worked on from an original photo taken of me in Sedona, AZ.  I experimented with different filters, brushes and filter styles.  I hope you like it.

This is the original:

Meet Little Caesar. Caesar likes to run, jump, bark and eat milk bones like it’s his job. He is a very energetic little puppy who, after a solid four times around the block pulling me on my rollarblades, enjoys passing out on the couch with his tongue hanging low like a continental soldier. He has a good life.

The effects for this photograph were added using a wonderful web service that adds  cool camera effect to your picture on the fly. It’s called TiltShiftGenerator, and in order to use it, you must Adobe AIR installed on your computer.  You can find the Adobe AIR download on the TiltShiftGenerator website.

One does not except to find such spiritual and religious symbology when in Las Vegas, so you can imagine I was in awe when I looked out of my hotel window and saw this cross lit up by the setting desert sun.   I grabbed my digital rebel xti and snapped away.  I love situations like this where the lighting is so dramatic and I can experiment with my camera by playing with aperture, ISO, f-stop, black and white, color and so many other great settings that come with a digital SLR.  The image above was the image I finally settled on and I simply added a soft vignette fade to embrace the dramatic nature of the scene.  To me, this photo speaks volumes of the irony of being in a city that thrives on materialism when there is so much simplistic beauty all around. I love how life throws you those amazing little reminders when you least expect it. It was a great trip and of course, Las Vegas is always a photographer’s playground so I had a great time.  Stay tuned for more from the Vegas chapter, coming soon.