Hello My Chicadee

Ok, I know, enough of the birds already right? Well, I couldn't resist. This little girl was feeding her chicks in a birdhouse down on our Cherry tree. Again, shot with the wonderful Nikon 70-200 2.8 ED lens...such magnificent glass, and the clarity and color are great. Not too bad for hand holding without a tripod! And if you have ever watched these little creatures...wow are they fast...you'd better have a fast lens..
J

And a Wren I found pecking around on a dead Pine tree...hopefully eating termites.. :)

Happy Easter!! It's Resurrection Sunday

After church this morning we headed to my wifes families Easter get together. Once we finished there we went and ate supper with my in laws and I snapped a picture of this Cardinal as she looked to be watching the setting sun. I hope she enjoyed her day as much as we did! A copy may also be found on our web page at.. http://johnarnoldphotography.zenfolio.com/p756507911/h3922861e#h3922861e

Shot with D90 and a Nikon 70-200 2.8 ED lens; 

settings.. 200mm, F4.0, 1/60th shutter and ISO 640

Here's another... just above the feeder. Looks to be a finch? 

Shot with the D90 and 70-200;

settings.. 145mm, F3.2, 1/640th shutter and ISO 320

Ok....so here's some of the pictures from Spring Picture Day at MCCS...

Thank you so much to the parents who allowed us to not only capture their childs images, but also for letting us use them here!!

Did another panorama today

it was a good day for doing absolutely nothing...so I took 21 pictures and stitched them all together to make a backyard panorama.

A little wet spring day 'snapshot'...

You ever wonder as you sit and plan your day what others are actually doing? I mean, this little fella probably doesn't have a lot on his agenda today... just make sure he has food and thats about it. Wow, do we really have too much or what?

Ok, so here is a little bit about the 'Spring Picture Day" we did......

       I felt like I (John) had to write a little bit of how we did the photo shoot at out Church/Christian School...Mt. Calvary Baptist Church and Christian Day School, in Archdale, NC. I don't think some folks really realize all the work that had gone in to taking over 400 pictures, of which 100+ had to be usable for print. We started at 7am, or at least I did, Amy didn't arrive until around 8. I had some retakes of some of the kids that were sick when we did the first 'school pictures', and some of the teachers/coaches. Then it was on to the barrage of outside, naturally-lit, portrait style pictures. My wife, Amy, is very creative and came up with a spot literally right outside the church doors. She used some Dogwood 'clippings' to give highlights to the background and we fill lighted with a golden 42" reflector as needed. At certain times when the sun would peek out, we used a 42" sheer scrim disc to filter out the bright lights. When possible, most shot were taken at a wide open f2.8 to give a greater depth of field. Almost all shots were taken using the Nikon D90 hitched up to the Nikon 80-200 f2.8 beast that I have. All I can say is what a wonderful portrait lens that has turned out to be!
      We had to make just about every shot count as time was extremely limited and Amy wanted to get at least two poses from each of the 74 kids that were there that day. I free handed some, tripod the rest and flashed some with the Nikon SB800. When I get consent, I will try and post some of the kids, that aren't mine here for some examples.
God-Bless,
John and Amy
 

Mt. Calvary Christian School Spring pictures are coming....

Well, it's been a looooong time since our last post, but what free time I do have lately has been used on photo editing and producing. Here's one of our oldest son that we took during the Spring Picture Day at his school, Mt. Calvary Christian School.

I walked out back the other day and heard a hawk 'screaming' and looked up and noticed a pair in a Gum tree and they were eying a nest just over one of our out buildings. Then, in an instance the male hawk leaped down to the nest and seemed to be inspecting and preparing it for the female. It will be interesting to see how this plays out this summer. 

Scroll down for a low resolution video...

This series was shot with the Nikon 80-200 at the full 200mm,  f7.0, ISO 320, 1/1000 sec

VIDEO:

Spring is upon us....

Spring is about here, as you can tell with the hustle and bustle of the birds. I caught a glimpse of this woodpecker  on the Cedar tree the other day..

A well fought battle

Just a 'snap' from our game last Tuesday night against Shining Light Academy in Greensboro. We were on our way to a comeback, scoring 20+ points in the third quarter. Tough game though. Sorry for the lack of photos. It has been so busy, the flu bug has hit, Nicolas has had pink eye, our heat pump went out...and on and on..

Thats 8th grade Daniel Law trying to hit an almost three pointer....and playing on the varsity team!

God's everlasting word

Well, it's been a while to say the least, but I thought I would share a little off subject again. We have had a houseful of sick ones in our home this last week, and had faced adversity in several other ways also. But, I was reminded today in my daily devotion of God's word in just how faithful God is to meet our needs. It took me back to the day I was saved, how God relieved me of my burdens. God wants us to shed our troubles on him. So often I ask myself if the cross I carry is as heavy as the one He bore for all of us? I thought I would snap a picture of what it looks like from my perspective when I take time with God..... Is it ever any wonder at how technology has changed to allow us to preserve images, yet nothing is needed but God himself to preserve His word!

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1



Happy New Year 2011

Well, it's has been SO busy for the Arnold clan. First the holidays, then I had jury duty, then back to a busy work week! We will try and get some more pictures up in the next few days. have a great new year!!

Winter Lake Panoramic

Here is a shot of the lake that is across the street from our Pastors house. It is a compilation of eight images stitched together in Giga Pano( a program for creating panoramic pictures). The images were photographed rather quickly, from our Suburban window. I had to 'retouch' some areas with Adobe Photoshop CS. But what a beautiful day!

**CLICK ON PHOTO FOR LARGER VIEW**

A white Christmas... almost..

Well, it started snowing last night around 7. By the time we awoke this morning we had around six inches! What a winter wonderland...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Merry Christmas to All!!!

Look at the wonderful bokeh of this Nikkor 50mm 1.4 AF lens!! Absolutely amazing.

ISO 1000 1/50 f/2.5 50mm

ISO 1000 1/10 f/2.5 50mm

A little Christmas eve bird-watching.

We spent the night at Amy's mom and dads house last night and slept in a little. While drinking a cup of coffee and looking through my morning devotion, I spotted a few wonderful birds outside on the feeders. I 'snuck'( is this even a word?) outside and sat on the stairs and it was as if they were flying in to let me take their pictures. What a great time. Well, now it's back to the hustle and bustle of last minute Christmas shopping... enjoy once again.

Christmas is soon to be here....

Just a few days before Christmas and everyone around the Arnold house is getting excited! Friends are traveling and families are gathering. We pray that everyone would enjoy this Christmas for what it was meant to be enjoyed... the birth of our saviour Jesus Christ our Lord..... for He reigneth forever and ever, AMEN!!

Also, please pray for our friend, Derrick Johnson. He asked Christ to save him at 5 am yesterday morning! The day before was his birthday, and now he can celebrate another birthday, the day he was born again! God is so good...

Early morning nut gathering

Just looked out the bedroom window and saw this guy nibbling nuts..acorns to be exact. So I loaded the Nikon 80-200 AF-D ED lens onto the D90 and snapped a few. He didn't stay long, and neither did I. The wind was a little frosty this morning! I barely had time to setup my tripod... the Slick 700DX Pro .

** Please be sure to visit these links. They are very informative about the equipment. Plus, it takes a little time to link to them, but a lot less time than it would to write about them myself.

Tried getting a shot of the moon tonight...

It's a lot harder than you think. The trusty Nikon D90 does quite well, but not so good when leaning on the hood of a Suburban thats running and has five kids in it! :) . Next on the list is a 1.4x teleconvertor. I hear Kenko is making the best one, and it enables you to retain your autofocus/metering capabilities, unlike the Nikon version. Enjoy.....

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