My good friend Mike, who is in the Coast Guard, is stationed there, so myself and a few other friends made the two hour trek there.

I used the opportunity to try a few new things…

On Saturday, we went to Dorney Park, located in Allentown, Pennsylvania.  As I was planning on going on rides, both wet and extreme, I decided against bringing a DSLR to the park.  Just in case I saw a shot I did not want to miss, I brought a point and shoot with Manual and Aperture Priority options (a Canon PowerShot A509 IS) and realized that even with a camera no bigger than one of my hands in hand, I can still nail a few actual photographs, and not just snapshots.

On Sunday, we did a bit of surveying the nearby coastline, and I had my DSLR in hand.

The first thing we did was we make a trip to the Quick Stop, the well known location that the movie Clerks was shot at.  It’s only about 15 minutes from Mike’s house, and he hadn’t been there yet himself.  We went into the store itself, and it smelled pretty bad.  Also, the video store had closed down, but still stored many VHS tapes.

After that, we started exploring the nearby high grounds; mainly because I wanted to, and I was driving, so my friends were stuck coming along.

While in one of the spots, I had Mike pose for me a bit.  One of the photos I took of him was pretty good, but I wanted to make it better, and spent a little time in Photoshop touching him up.  Hover the following image to see the original; brace yourself, its not pretty.

Scroll over for original:

And a few more from the trip to the higher areas around:

The next day we continued to crave our Frisbee addiction while at the beach.  Mike got really into it.

Perhaps too into it.  But that’s just how he is.

And we ate soft pretzel rods.  Lots of soft pretzels.

So, anyway, last week I was at Lido Beach with two of my good buddies:

Ercan:

and Kyle:

It was a jolly time.  When we went down to the actual beach, the life guards wouldn’t let us in the water, because of the hurricane that was nearby, the waves were totally narly.  This caused some of the beach to crack and crumble away:

And some birds to make baths out of little ponds on the still available land:

As I’m sure you can tell by now, I brought my camera with me (as I do everywhere.)

Once 6pm hit, the lifeguards were no longer on duty, and it became a free for all.  Surfers tore up the waves, getting tossed back and forth.  Unfortunately, at only 300mm max zoom on my Sigma 70-300, I didn’t get any shots of the surfers that I’m really satisfied with.  I did however get some decent views of the skyline per say of the beach:

But overall, I learned two things; one: Av is awesome, and I would of accidentally over/under exposed many shots if I didn’t use it instead of M and two: SPF50 sunblock is not enough for my skin.  Damn my Irishness. One last one photo for giggles:

Why exactly?  Because clouds have numerous uses, aside from when you look up at them, making you go, “yeah man, when you think about it, life is just, so, you know, small, man”.  Some of those uses include:

1. Light Diffusion: the way a large cloud on a bright sunny day can diffuse the light coming from the sun is nothing less of perfect.  When using a flash with a stofen or what have you, the overall “goal” is to nail an effect that looks similar to what this type of light looks like.

My kitchen shot by placing the SB-900 outside the window to the left, and allowing the light from the flash mix with the late afternoon light to create a look of early morning daylight.

2.  Interesting backgrounds: when you take a picture with a lot of focus on the sky, where you don’t particularly have the option/want to fill the frame with the subject, clouds can add a lot to a background; a lot more than a plain blue (or in the case of today, gray) sky can.

Pictured: a blank sky making a concept less interesting than it could be.

3. Neat: clouds are just overall so neat.  When you do fall to your back and just stare at them as they float along (or the earth rotates, I honestly don’t remember earth science as well as I should)

Clouds looking awesome.

So, why the sudden interest in clouds?

Well, both this post from Digital Photography School (a website I visit and read daily) and a bit of passing through the images I took when I had the 24-70 2.8 that I rented.

Speaking of the 24-70 2.8, I had it for two weeks, and felt a little underwhelmed.  Is it sharp?  Sure.  But did it feel like it was worth $1800?  Not really.  I plan on renting the 70-200 2.8 next to see what it does for me.

In the meantime, here is a picture of my cat, taken with the 24-70.  Look, he thinks he’s people:

No kitty, you will hunt for your dinner, like your ancestors before you.