Khürt Williams Imagery

Week 49 – Drink Like a Pirate Day

Khürt Williams — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 23:00:13 +0000

On Facebook today is International Drink Like a Pirate Day. I like the caramel colored drink. It’s great straight or mixed with fruit. My favorite rum drinks are the mojito and the caipirinha. Maybe I just like limes.

Rum has a long history in the West Indies. I would venture to say rum is synonymous with the West Indies.

Some of the many other names for rum are Nelson’s blood, kill-devil, demon water, pirate’s drink, navy neaters, and Barbados water.¹

Barbados water? Yes, Barbados lays claim to being the oldest rum producing country in the Americas.

So what am I, a man from the West Indies – the place where rum was first distilled from cane sugar and molasses² – to do on International Drink Like a Pirate Day?

For my birthday my sister-in-law and her husband bought me the rock glass and ice ball. It’s the perfect glass for drinking fine rums and scotch. A small amount of the best I have available – Mount Gay 1703 – swirled around an ice sphere in a glass designed to evenly chill that liquid seemed just the way to celebrate. Don’t mix this rum with fruit juice on penalty of being made to walk the plank over shark infested waters. Mount Gay claims to be the oldest rum distiller in the world with production going back to 1703. My friend +Mohit picked some up for me on a trip to Bermuda. Thank you, Mohit.

But before I could sip my libation I remembered that I needed a photo for my 52 week project. I also needed some practice with my strobes. I’m doing an action and portrait shoot for some martial arts – Tae Kwon Do – black belts next weekend and I know I need to get more experience with the lights.

I found a white sheet of craft board, placed it on a chair, positioned my subjects, and started firing away. It took me a few shots to get the lighting to something that felt good enough. Good enough for me anyway. I still need a lot of practice.

I downloaded the images to my iPad and did some minor post processing in Snapseed. I used the auto correct and cropping features. I like the result.

Now back ta enjoyin’ me rum, aaaarr! What is your favorite alcoholic drink?

Camera: Nikon D40 Lens: AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR Software : Snapseed for iPad

Wikipedia entry on the Etymology of Rum ↩
There is evidence that something like rum — a sugar wine — was distilled in Asia. Check out The Tradition of Rum and the Sea on the Ministry of Rum website. ↩

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Week 48

Khürt Williams — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 01:47:42 +0000

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Week 47: Risk taking

Khürt Williams — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 11:53:46 +0000

I feel that my photography has become boring. I still enjoy capturing images but the results no longer delight me. I’ve played it safe; only doing things that I feel I’m good at. I look at the work on 500px and I think to myself, “Why didn’t I think of doing that?”

It’s time I started taking some risks. Perhaps I’ve been afraid that my images will be terrible if I try something I’ve never tried before. I think I am. But if I don’t continue to try new things, to take risks, my photography will stagnate. My skills will remain at the level they are. I have to remind myself that I started taking photographs because I enjoyed the activity and I bought the DSLR because I wanted to learn how to product better images.

I’m ready to make some changes. I’m ready to take some risks.

I’ve had Pixelmator for some time but never really used it except for minor layering altering. I have a photo shoot coming up — a martial arts event — and the client wants to do some work with a green screen. He loaned me the screen he has so I set it up in the basement and got my son to model for me. I used Pixelmator to remove the green background and layered the images of my son onto another background. I didn’t do a stellar job. You can still see some of the green around the edges and the background is kind of lame. But I now know what I can do. I just need to hone my technique.

Where are you in your photography and how do you intend to grow?

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Week 46 – Diwali

Khürt Williams — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 13:27:40 +0000

This week I’ve celebrated Diwali with Bhavna’s family. It felt a little hectic this year. Last year Diwali was in October. The only event we had to contend with was Halloween. We also celebrated my sister-in-laws birthday two days before. This weekend is my birthday and next week we’re hosting Thanksgiving. Whew!

As a family we are normally surrounded by the rest of the USA going about their preparations for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. As the kids got older we wanted to celebrate their mother’s culture. For a few years we’ve created a tradition around Diwali that involves making rangoli. The craft material is purchased form Michael’s. Bhavna’s friend Ami — we consider and extended family member — has been helpful in finding creative ways to make rangoli. This year she helped the kids create a Diwali scrapbook. She wanted them to have something they could look back on when they are older. Next year my son will be in high-school. It’s often a time when kids have trouble finding their identity. I hope it will help him stay grounded.

Ami had the steps to her home decorated with diya. Traditionally these are oil lamps that are left lit all night to help guide the gods to your home and to bring blessings upon the home. For safety reasons we used tea lights that we extinguished before going to bed. We also have electric tea lights.

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Week 45 – Snow on the ground

Khürt Williams — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 17:11:05 +0000

Early morning after the snow fall. I was on my way to an employer hosted innovation conference. I realized I had time and opportunity to capture some images of Carnegie Lake from the Princeton side. I drove down Route 27 but I couldn’t find my way into the parking area along the lake. The snow was deep and had no been plowed. Fortunately I could still get into the area near Eno Terra in Kingston. The snow wasn’t as deep here. I got a few quick shots off before I had to leave.

I was both an attendee and a photographer at the event. I was one of four employees who volunteered. I used the best equipment I had — my Nikon D40, kit lens, and a $20 flash diffuser. I sometimes feel inadequate when I see the photography equipment of others. I get that feeling of want that I often struggle to avoid. So here’s what I want or put another way, what I think I need in my basic photography kit.

A new camera body capable of at least 10MP so that I sell my images on 500px.
a 24-70mmm f/2.8 ( or faster ) zoom lens (35mm equivalent). This would be my landscape and family photography lens.
70-200mm f/2.8 lens. This would be my sport, street and nature photography lens.
A TTL flash unit.
A sturdy tripod with a ball head.

I’m not sure what camera body I want. I love the more compact form factor of the micro four thirds format but I also want to retain an APS-C sensor. Time to make some money from this hobby so that I can pay for my “wants”.

The image was post processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photomatix Pro. Photomatix Pro is used for HDR photography. I only had one image but I liked how the result produced by opening this single image and applying my filters.

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Week 44 – After the storm …

Khürt Williams — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:46:29 +0000

I fell behind in posting my images for my Project 52. Time to catch up.

It’s the morning after the storm (Hurricane Sandy). The air is cold. I’ve never heard such quiet inside and outside the house. We are still without power. It seems the AT&T cell tower has gone offline. My phone has a no service sign. It’s still dark in the house but I’m well rested and can’t sleep anymore. Shaan is up as well. Time to make the coffee. Are we in the eye of the storm or is it really over?

A large tree has fallen across River Road ( near Blue Spring Road ). The tree has brought down the power lines. I’m not sure if these are the lines supplying power to our neighborhood.

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Week 43 – Fall is ending …

Khürt Williams — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 20:19:55 +0000

Fall is almost over in New Jersey but there are still a many trees around the area with beautiful yellow, orange and red leaves. This might be your last chance for fall photography in New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy is predicted to hit Central New Jersey head on Monday night. Winds are expected to be between 45 and 75 MPH. I doubt the trees will have any leaves after that.

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Week 42 : Just for fun

Khürt Williams — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 01:59:41 +0000

I had fun today. My friend, Prasanna Sãrma and I took a walk around the “blue” trail of Mercer Park in West Windsor. Last week I walked the same route with a group of local photographers for the Scott Kelby World Wide Photowalk. My friend could not make it that day so this was an opportunity for him to experience the trails. We got there around 9 AM and proceeded along the trail stopping to capture images of various spider webs. It’s interested how varied spider webs can be. I saw the “ordinary” spoke and hub style of web and webs that looks like large puffy cotton balls. These webs were built by very tiny spiders. Too tiny for my camera to focus clearly. I hope Prasanna got better close ups with his Sony NEX-5.

We proceeded along the path toward the water and over a small foot bridge. I love the reflection of the sun and the colored leaves in the water. We stopped to admire the “red carpet” of leaves just under our shoes and captured some photos of mushrooms on fallen tree branches and logs.

Prasanna has visited the park before from the other side of the lake. We saw a man in a row boat he was too far away for my AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm zoom to capture him. I concentrated instead on the trees that had fallen into the lake. The light was reflected off the water onto the golden leaves of one tree that had fallen over into the look. The waves cause the reflected light to flicker against the tree branches. I don’t think my photography accurately captured what I saw.

1/125 s at f/8, ISO 200, 18mm

It had rained the night before. Parts of the trail were muddy and in some areas shallow wide puddles had formed. We proceeded slowly. We found our way deeper into the forest and among a canopy of bright yellow, orange and read leaves. Prasanna loved it when the wind blew leaves from the trees. We both tried to capture photographs of falling leaves but I don’t think we were successful. I wasn’t.

On our way back across the foot bridge we saw a large bird standing in the water. I don’t know what sort of bird it was but we got a few good shots. While attempting to get a close shot I accidentally scared it off. I did not get any photos of the bird taking off. My camera was set in aperture priority mode. Great for shooing leaves but not great for action shots.

We learned a great deal about the limitations and strengths of each our cameras. The NEX-5 has a very high ISO — 12,800 — while my 7 year-old Nikon D40 is limited to ISO 1600. Prasanna discovered some of the manual modes of his NEX-5 while I decided I wanted a new camera body. I’m not sure I want a Nikon. I like the retro look of some of the newer third generation cameras, like the Fuji X-Pro 1 and the Olympus OM-D M5. However, I want a full sensor camera and the Nikon D600 would do nicely.

Prasanna and I also learned much about the limitation of our lenses. I have a few primes — 35mm and 50mm — but on the DX body the are 52mm and 75mm. These make for great general purpose or portrait photography but are not well suited to landscape photography. If I had budget to start over I think I might buy a Nikon D600 body and just three lenses — a Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 for landscape and daily photography, a Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 for sports photography and a 50mm f/1.8.

We finished up around 11:30PM and headed on home. It was a great day. You can more of the images in my photo gallery. Prasanna and I agreed to return in the winter after the snow falls. I wonder what the lake will look like then?

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Week 41 : Into the woods

Khürt Williams — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 01:53:59 +0000

I went for a walk in Mercer County Park today. I wasn’t alone. I walked with a small group of local photographers — amateurs and pros. We were participating in the 5th Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk. Our walk leader was Alina Bilach a well known and respected local photographer.

I attend these photos walks because I love meeting and chatting with other photographers. The social aspect of photography is important to me. I talked to an elderly woman who told me about her son and grandchildren and shooting with wide format film cameras. I talked to a woman who had bought a new camera and needed some help learning to use it. Later at Brother’s Pizza we found out we both had Type 1 diabetes. I think she is the only adult with Type 1 that I know in the area.

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