James Berghout

Taken with the Nikon D90 and the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8. Edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Today’s photo is another one that I took at the recent iStock event. This is the same model as yesterday’s photo, and probably my favorite photo from the trip.

I took this just as the sun was going down. The light was great, but there just wasn’t enough of it. I used a slightly higher ISO to compensate.

Every day I’m just trying to take steps in the right direction. The progress may seem to be slow, but each step forward takes me closer to my goals. And it’s important to remember that we must learn to walk before we can run.

Taken with the Nikon D90 and the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8. Edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

My 365 project is evolving again. My project began October 16 with a plan to just use my iPhone for all photos. While it lasted, it was a great learning tool, but I grew out of it and found that I needed to focus on the capabilities of my DSLR.

My life, needs and focus has changed again. I’ve been struggling with keeping my 365 going because it seems to be conflicting with my other objectives, specifically that of making a living. I’m trying to make photography a key part of my future income by building an iStock portfolio. So each day I try to work on the photography for my portfolio, while trying to keep in mind that I have a 365 photo due.

From here on out I plan on trying to combine these two objectives into one. Why haven’t I don’t this earlier?…the main reason is that the photos in my portfolio are for sale and I hesitate to put large version of these photos on my website.

This photo was taken at the iStock event I attended in early May. I finished the processing of it today. I feel like a major part of the photography process is the processing portion, so I may include photos from either of these two categories in my future 365.

Taken with the Nikon D90 and the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8. Edited in Lightroom.

Taken with the Nikon D90 and the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8. Edited in Lightroom.

Today was national take your camera to the grocery store day…didn’t you know? Just kidding. I was struggling for ideas today, so I decided to take the camera with me to the grocery story. My wife graciously modeled for me. It’s not easy taking photos in a story. It takes a lot of nerve. So it was a good exercise for me to get out of my comfort zone…if only for a moment.

Taken with the Nikon D90 and the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8. Edited in Lightroom.

Every year my honeysuckle bush gets attacked by aphids, and every year I spray it and they go away…until the next year. They don’t seem to attack anything else…just the honeysuckle. You can’t see them on this photo…I prefer to not show them.

Taken with iPhone camera.

Have you ever wanted to do this to wind chimes? As much as I love the nice soothing sound of a good wind chime, sometimes it can be just too much, especially with the 55 mph wind gusts we had today. It was a windy morning…I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.

Kind of a dumb picture, but I didn’t know what else to photograph, and this really tells the story for the day. It was either this or a picture of me fixing the leaky washing machine.

Taken with the Nikon D90 and the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8. Edited in Lightroom.

Last day of having the cousins here visiting. Today they played dress-up and came to me to have their picture taken.

Taken with the iPhone camera. Edited in Lightroom.

My niece and nephew are spending a few days at our house while their parents vacation. They are so cute and have so much energy.

Taken with the iPhone Camera.

I have spearmint in one of my flowerbeds. It’s grows out of control. I rip it out by the hand fulls, but it just keeps coming back. I love the stuff really. It smells so good. But if I let it…it will take over everything.

Taken with the Nikon D90 and the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8. Edited in Lightroom.

I heard a statistic the other day that said that kids get an average of 7 hours of screen time (TV, computers etc) and about 25 min of reading per day. It’s the beginning of summer vacation, and were going to see to it that those numbers are better balanced.