c.o.l.l.a.b.o.r.a.t.i.n.g...p.i.x.e.l.s

And we're off...

2006-05-19T11:21:00.000-05:00

The walls aren't fully painted yet and I still have some furniture to move around a bit, but we've moved on over to www.ryandlee.com/blog. I still need to connect it up with the rest of my site, but that is where I will be posting photos from now on.

We'll be moving soon

2006-05-15T15:51:00.000-05:00

I haven't been posting as much in the past week or so for a couple reasons. 1. It has been raining for about a week straight. 2. I am working on moving this blog to my server and using a different format. This was a quick and easy tool to get me up and running but I'd like the blog to mimic my website and be more a part of it. I've had my work online as more of a "permament collection" for a while now at ryandlee.com and I am working to incorporate my blog life into that website. Right now I am doing dual updates as I work out the kinks but you can expect a move within a week or so tops... hopefully.

Baby Robins

2006-05-15T15:47:00.000-05:00

These Robin chicks are in a nest on my brother's boat trailer. The mother was in a nearby tree, worm in mouth when I shot this photo. She started squawking at me so I went and sat in my car and watched her feed them. I didn't have my D70s with me, so I couldn't capture the feeding.

Dancing Grass

2006-05-08T08:28:00.000-05:00

It's still cold at night sometimes around these parts and that makes for some nice dewy grass in the morning.

Whale Week

2006-05-05T08:53:00.000-05:00

What better way to draw Whale Week to a close than with the classic flukes shot? The underside of the humpback whale tail carries a distinct white pattern, and can be used to identify them the same as human fingerprints. I am kind of bummed that Whale Week draws to a close today. This has been a fun week, posting these photos that I am really excited about having shot. The whole "theme week" isn't something I really thought much about when i started this blog, but I might do something like this again in the near future. It's nice to see a progression, and not post everything in one day like i have in weeks past.

Whale Week

2006-05-04T08:31:00.000-05:00

It looks like a smile to me. The shiny black skin is typical to baleen whales.

Whale Week

2006-05-03T12:17:00.000-05:00

It is an amazing feeding synergy that has evolved between the seagulls and humpback whales. Mostly benefitting from the relationship are the seagulls, of course, but their interaction and lack of fear of each other is astonishing.

Whale Week

2006-05-02T12:17:00.000-05:00

As the bubble cloud reaches the surface, the humpback whale appears from below, collecting water in it's mouth during its ascent to feed on the krill and other tiny food. Seagulls swarm the area, hoping to snatch some unlucky fish off the surface of the water as this giant creature forces the water back out through its baleen, filtering out its meal.

Whale Week

2006-05-01T11:16:00.000-05:00

Nicole and I went on a whale watch yesterday as part of a grad class she is just finishing up. So, this is going to be Whale Week here at Collaborating Pixels. As an opening shot for the week-long event, I thought it fitting to post this photo of a "bubble cloud" that the humpback whales send up from below, forcing their meal to the surface where they can rise up and gobble it up.

Grace Defined

2006-04-28T11:21:00.000-05:00

The swans were back again this morning and I have learned to bring my camera with me when I walk Guinness in the morning just in case... I really enjoy photographing these creatures and they don't seem to mind posing for me. I actually got to see three of them take off this morning after swimming around for a while and nibbling on some seaweed. I'm going on a whale watch on Sunday so we'll see if I can get anything good there.

Bad Hair Day

2006-04-27T09:26:00.000-05:00

I learned while photographing these swans yesterday that my telephoto lens is not, shall I say, a top of the line lens. I mean I knew that already but I normally don't take a lot of pictures of moving things with this lens, or at all really. I also don't usually shoot a lot of photos of the same thing without moving myself or my camera very much. Anyway, it took forever to focus and was too loud. But patience paid off and after being squaked at twice, we found a common ground where the swans could go about their business while I observed and recorded their movements.

Swan Lake... er, River

2006-04-26T09:38:00.000-05:00

Guinness and I found two swans in the river this morning. I have been waiting for this to happen and was so psyched to have my camera with me. Usually they congregate further up the river where they are more out of harm's way. But today this couple was milling around in a cove that Guinness and I walk past frequently, and so I jumped at the opportunity. By that, I mean I shot 181 photos of them in a 45-minute span. I loved every second of it and Guinness enjoyed being off-leash on the beach. And no, he had no interest in chasing the swans. I'll probably post another of this series tomorrow.

Apocalyptic Sunrise

2006-04-25T11:21:00.000-05:00

This is not a good omen.

Quaint New England Neighborhood

2006-04-24T11:51:00.000-05:00

This little community is tucked away on the Niantic River. My aunt and uncle live in the blue house on the right.

Niantic River

2006-04-21T12:25:00.000-05:00

The river by my house had some beautiful light reflecting on it yesterday. It's great living near water because it looks different every day. I think I am done posting goose photos. I only have one of the father and it isn't very good, so I think I'll move on. Unless that egg (currently only protected by a ratty old t-shirt and the parents are nowhere in sight) hatches...

Mother Goose

2006-04-20T08:20:00.000-05:00

This is the mother of the eggs I have posted for the past two days. This is a sequence of her coming over to check me out since I was near her egg, and then when she realized I was harmless, going back to whatever she was doing. I hope to have a photo of the father for tomorrow.

Goose Egg, Part II

2006-04-19T06:13:00.000-05:00

As promised yesterday, here is the second egg that the geese laid on the dock. The first one rolled off into the water and this one will hopefully avoid the same fate. They are not very good parents, though do come and yell at me sometimes when I am down there taking photos. Tomorrow I will post a photo of mother goose.

Goose Egg, Part I

2006-04-18T11:58:00.000-05:00

This pair of Canada Geese laid an egg on a dock that floats around on a piece of property my wife and I share with eleven other families. It was originally in a nest on the dock, but the nest was basically a circle of leaves and an old t-shirt. Well, this egg rolled off the dock I guess. Another egg has since appeared in the nest and I will post a photo of that one tomorrow. These geese are not very good nest-makers. I checked the other day and half their nest had blown away. I had to put the egg back in what remained because it was about to roll off the dock like the first one...

Before the Rains Came

2006-04-17T12:25:00.000-05:00

I kept my eye on this fantastic cloud formation during my entire drive home from work last Thursday. It was one of those gigantic cottonball-type clouds with lots of great details. By the time I arrived home, got my camera and hopped on my bike to head for the trails, the rainclouds had moved in and covered the cotton-puff. Dammit. I stopped anyway and snapped some photos of the seagulls flying around, for the first time playing with the continuous autofocus on my D70s to get the photo above. After that I headed into the woods on my mountain bike and I kid you not, the moment I got to the far end of the trail, at the farthest point I had planned on riding from my house that day, the sky opened up and I was caught in a torrential downpour, complete with lightening bolts flying everywhere. Luckily I had brought my Lowepro bag with me and the camera stayed dry as I pedaled my ass off down the dirt path that instantly became a muddy river. The joke was on me though, by the time I got to the beginning of the trail, the sun was back out, the clouds were gone, and a glorious rainbow filled the sky. Unfortunately my entire body was caked in mud, so I chose not to extract my camera from its safe lodging inside my mud-covered bag, to snap a photo.

Seagull

2006-04-13T09:35:00.000-05:00

Sure it's just a seagull and I was able to get this close with a 300mm on my D70s... but it's still nice to try something different and shoot some wildlife--not literally.

Olin Library

2006-04-13T09:07:00.000-05:00

This is another one I shot here on campus at Wesleyan University with my friend's Nikon 12-24mm lens that I wish I owned.

The Brightwings

2006-04-11T15:29:00.000-05:00

My friend Matt, of The Brightwings, gets the crowd into it at their concert this past Saturday night.

The Cosmos on the Wall

2006-04-10T11:42:00.000-05:00

There's not much to say about this one. Our back door creates some startling patterns of light in the sunroom and since we've painted the room orange, it's even more exciting. We've done a lot of work on our house, actually, and you can see some of what we've done here.

Early Morning Light

2006-04-07T09:03:00.000-05:00

I shot this this morning while I was walking my dog. The morning light this time of year is spectacular when the sun rises and first starts to hit the other side of the river across from my house.

A Worm's Perspective

2006-04-06T11:27:00.000-05:00

"A cold and frosty morning there's not a lot to say, about the things caught in my mind..." - Oasis

Chain

2006-04-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

Take any object and half-submerge it in the river with that wonderful gravel, and I find it beautiful. Ok maybe not ANY object, but some half-submerged things lend well to being photographed. I'll post two photos today because I haven't bee as good about updating this as I intend to be. By the way, a fellow photoblogger Jason posted an absolutely stunning photo of a goose caught in an April snowstorm yesterday. You need to check it out.

Goldsworthy

2006-04-04T12:01:00.000-05:00

One of the grad classes I am taking required going into the woods and creating something like Andy Goldsworthy would create. I certainly didn't take this photo today (note the snow), but it might snow tomorrow so I thought it was kind of fitting to post this. My wife and I had a great time ripping vines out of the trees to create this work of art.

Skeleton Hand

2006-03-31T12:29:00.000-05:00

This photo in no way reflects the beautiful weather we have had the past couple of days. But this is New England and it can snow in April. I like how this one plays with the idea of photography compressing dimensions. I think there is a technical term for that but I am drawing a blank on it at the moment.

Zelnick Pavilion

2006-03-30T13:30:00.000-05:00

I'm not too sure about this photo. I shot it with a borrowed Nikon 12-24mm lens and was just sort of playing around. This building is on the campus of Wesleyan University, where I work, and frankly it is photographed far too often and if you ask me it looks like a sore thumb in the row of brownstone buildings built in the 1800's. But that's beside the point. I guess I just liked how the clouds reflected in the windows. I straightened the heck out of this using the lens correction filter in Photoshop CS2. Excellent tool. And that lens is awesome, by the way. Shooting with a D70s, I lose a lot on the wide-angle end of the spectrum, and this lens opens your view right up.

Serpent

2006-03-29T14:16:00.000-05:00

Like some sci-fi creature, this flexible pipe snakes its way into the river...

Deck Railing After a Light Rain

2006-03-28T12:27:00.000-05:00

I love simplicity in imagery. I love negative space. I love the little details that you only notice if you pay attention. For me, photography is about finding beauty in my surroundings, no matter what those surroundings may be. Here, it is a couple of drops of water clinging to a deck railing after falling from the sky the night before.

Two Geese and a Seagull

2006-03-27T23:10:00.000-05:00

A cold and foggy day on the Niantic River in March.

Fort Griswold

2006-03-26T22:46:00.000-05:00

I finally had a chance to check out this Civil War fort next to the Thames River in Groton, CT. It is very well preserved and further restorations are underway. Kinda creepy to walk the grounds, knowing that a lot of people died there. The same can be said for so many locations in the world I suppose.