Ryan Miller Photography Blog

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2010
- April
  - Portrait of a Lawyer
    04/01/10
    
    Nikon D200 50MM at f/4 for 1/100 Sec
    
    Couple weeks back I shot some images of this very cool guy who happens to be a lawyer. He hired me to create a portrait for his new book on its way out. I really enjoyed the outcome.
- January
  - Home Made Butterfly
    01/15/10
    
    Nikon D200 35mm & 50mm ISO400 for 1/45 sec
    
    This beauty (Gulf Fritillary) exited out of its chrysalis in my son's bug cage.
    We promptly opened the container up and allowed the butterfly to dry out and get some sun. As soon as the sun hit it, the wings began to open and
2009
- August
  - Station Fire near Los Angeles
    08/31/09
    
    Nikon D200 165mm at f/5 HDR
    
    This is an HDR composite image of the massive smoke plume. I took this shot from the roof of my house. The fire is a good twenty miles away. Towards the bottom of the image you can see what I think is Mount Wilson where the many of the local TV and radi
- June
  - Civil War Reenactment
    06/24/09
    
    Nikon D200 200mm at f/9 for 1/320 second
    
    Couple of weeks ago in Long Beach, CA my family and I visited a Civil War Reenactment. Lots of fun. Post processed this image in Lightroom with a special preset.
- February
  - Calla Lily
    02/23/09
    An early photo with my SB800 Speedlight. I placed the flash somewhere below and behind the lily. The most difficult portion of this shot was reducing the light. The flash is so strong I had to stop it down very low and stop down my aperture.
    
    Nikon D200 50mm at f/11 for 1/60 second
  - Blurry Backgrounds
    02/09/09
    This article is related to my last writing titled "What are these letters on my camera?". There I threw out some technical information but did not mention how to actually apply any of that information. So lets get to it.
    
    How do I make sure my background is blurry?
    
    O
- January
  - What are these letters on my camera?
    01/28/09
    In these uncertain times I believe family and friends are more important than ever before, at least in our life time. One of many ways to bring us closer is with the camera. How else can we easily share our memories than with a digital camera and Facebook! In fact, as of October 31st, 2008, Faceb
  - Mona Lisa Smile
    01/06/09
    Laurel insisted on showing me the flowers she had recently pulled from a nearby plant. At first, I acknowledged how pretty the flowers were and kept shooting. Suddenly it hit me and I asked for the flowers and promptly placed them above her ear.
    
    When I told her I was going to take a pic
2008
- December
  - Snow & Cloud
    12/22/08
    The location is Lake Arrowhead, CA. I lived here for several years back in the 90's. Great to live here during the summer, awesome to visit during the winter!
    
    This image was taken around noon while the clouds were breaking up and making way for sun shine. This cloud was creeping u
  - I shot a band!
    12/01/08
    On Sunday the 22nd I had the opportunity to shoot this excellent band. The band's name is Zhono and their myspace page is available here. Zhono
    
    This brick backdrop is part of the building where they practice. The band members are standing a landing and I am several steps up shooti
- October
  - Insane Parking Structure
    10/28/08
    Here is a capture of the Mickey & Friends parking structure adjacent to the Disneyland resort in Anaheim, CA. Rarely do you get to see a bridge network like this. Couldn't resist. This shot was obviously taken at night. I used the railing as a support for the camera.
    
    Click on
  - Super cool
    10/01/08
    My family and I were visiting relatives in Lake Arrowhead, California. There is an outdoor shoping mall by the name of Lake Arrowhead Village, I know very creative. Anyways, walking along the main stretch and my sister-in-law Jonie spots this super cool dog. Very well behaved as well!
- September
  - Another jab at HDR
    09/10/08
    Click on the image to view large size
    
    Nikon D200 - HDR processing removes camera data.
    
    Here is an attempt using two separate methods to obtain a nicely exposed (hopefully composed) image. First I set out to take a few HDR shots. I will explain HDR in a minute. Secondly
- August
  - Joshua Tree
    08/21/08
    Finally posting an entry! I know it has been quite a while. I haven't been shooting anywhere as much as I should.
    
    The image I have here was shot back on the 24th of July. I was in a desert city named Hesperia in California. Along with my wife and kids, I was visiting my in-laws f
  - Bloomn' Hollyhocks
    08/02/08
    On July 27th, I was visiting family in the High Desert of California. I know, the High Desert isn't exactly the place you would think of for flowers such as these. However, my wife's parents have managed to grow a garden where previously there was nothing but sand and rocks.
    
    I
- July
  - Getty Villa
    07/20/08
    Here is a link to the event
    http://whittierphotography.com/getty
    
    On Saturday the 19th of July I visited the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California. The drive is around forty-five minutes from Whittier, Ca without traffic. I know, when is Southern California without traffic
  - Walkn Hollywood Blvd.
    07/17/08
    Here is the link to some of the images taken.
    http://www.whittierphotography.com/viewer.php?gal=1012
    
    On Wednesday the 16th I decided that normal was just too, well normal. I packed up my camera gear and drove thirty miles to Hollywood.
    
    First, I'd like to thank Ga
  - Aztec Dancer
    07/13/08
    Little while ago I was in downtown Los Angeles. To be specific, the famous Olvera street. This is an area where the Hispanic culture is quite strong. Many great photo opportunities. The following image shows a lady practicing an Aztec dance. The name of this group is Iztac Cuauhtli (translates Aguil
  - Seal Beach
    07/09/08
    Couple nights back I was at the beach with my son Justin shooting pictures. Justin was armed with my Nikon D70 and I with my D200. Most of our images were taken while walking along the pier at Seal Beach in Southern California. These were images I made while leaning on different rails. Converted to
  - Orange Picking
    07/06/08
    Several days ago, my family was picking oranges from a neighbors tree which has yielded hundreds of oranges. Unfortunately our neighbor is quite elderly and cannot pick them himself. Therefore my wife offered to pick several and take them off his hands. You may think that was cold to just take th
  - Panning images
    07/01/08
    Recently I was at a local "car show" called Cars & Coffee. I was standing by the side of the road shooting some images as the beautiful cars and bikes sped by. First is an Aprillia motorcycle, next is a Ferrari.
    
    Notice how the background is racing by and the especially the
- June
  - Black & White Conversion
    06/23/08
    Thought I'd post an example of the capability to convert a color image to B&W via the computer. As a rule I always shoot in color with my Nikon D200. My camera does have the option of capturing the image in B&W. However, I am simply not using every pixel available. This camera wasn&
  - New web server
    06/20/08
    Howdy visitors
    
    I just finished building and configuring a web server which happens to host whittierphotography.com. The previous server was a Dell dual Xeon at 400MHz each and around a 1GB of ram. Was purchased in early 2000.
    
    This new server is a Dual Quad Core Xeon at 2GHz a
  - Cream Rose
    06/11/08
    This is an early photo from a few years ago. Bought this rose from a girl in a parking lot. Brought the rose home and it sat by the kitchen window for a day or so. From what I have seen, near perfect roses are difficult to come by. They often have at least one problem petal. This one was great.
  - Hiking through burn area
    06/08/08
    Today I hiked along a trail in an area called Round Canyon within the Irvine, CA city limits. I was in a group of fifteen people and a guide. This is the first time I have been in this area, however the conservancy has been hosting these photography hikes since December of last year. Just two mon
  - All Aboard!
    06/06/08
    This is an image I took just last weekend. I like the lines and of course the colors. Added some more contrast.
    
    Taken with Nikon D200
    70-200mm at 70mm f/8
  - L.A. Union Station Protest
    06/05/08
    Hi All,
    
    I will have a few blog entries regarding last Sunday. I attended a small photographers protest at Union Station in LA. You might be asking yourself why would photographers create a protest. Quite often, photographers are harassed for taking pictures in public places. Honestly,
- May
  - Repeatable Pattern
    05/31/08
    This genre image is called repeatable pattern for obvious reasons. The original image is color and I converted to black & white via PS CS3 with their B&W adjustments. I removed some light peeking in between a few of the logs. Was very distracting. Hope you like it!
    
    <
  - Our dogs
    05/30/08
    Thought I would show off my talent with animals. ;-)
    
    In the foreground is Padawan and in Oreo in the background.
    Shot a while back with my Nikon D70 18-70mm at 70mm F/4.5 Shutter speed unknown.
    
    Padawan is a border collie/sheltie. Oreo is a Labra-dane.
  - Memorial Day
    05/26/08
    This is my first entry and as the title implies, this entry has something to do with Memorial day. I figured an image I captured today in my neighborhood would be appropriate.
    
    This image was taken at the front of a house a couple of streets to the north. Rather than just capture the fl