Manual Focus Made Easy!

Some of you may have already known this little trick but I just discovered it tonight. Put your lens in manual focus mode and then while adjusting the focus ring hold the shutter button down half way. When the image is in focus the viewfinder on your 7D will flash red and you'll hear the focus confirmation beeps.

I'm not sure if this tip works for all Canon cameras but it certainly did on my 7D. If you try it with a different model and it works how about letting me know.

Published!

Not log ago the editor from The Piedmont Virginian magazine contacted me about publishing one of my photos in their magazine. Of course I said yes. Today I received a copy of the magazine. Below are some pictures I took of the magazine, my photo, and of course the photo credit for me! :)

Magazine Cover

My Photo

Photo Credit

WTF?!

I know it's been a very long time since I've posted anything -- I'll do an update with what all has been going on in the next day or so. This morning I was reading about the possibility of an iPad version 2 being announced and I just had to ask myself WTF does that photo have to do with an iPad???

Picture of the Week (POTW) #11

Picture of the week for the period 15 - 21 August 2010. Yours truly hand launching the ultra micro Champ RC airplane last Sunday morning. Donna and I took advantage of there not being any wind and headed out to a large grassy area (which you can see needs to be cut!) to fly the Champ some. This was also taken pre-propeller incident :). Donna took this using her Rebel T2i and 18-200 lens. Exposure was 1/750th at f/5.6, camera zoomed to 72mm, ISO 200.

Hand Launch
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21 Years Ago...

I was blessed with the birth of my 2nd son, Andrew. Today he's serving our great nation as a Marine stationed at MCAS Miramar. Below is his photo taken during boot camp. I couldn't be a prouder of him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!

Andrew J. Jones, United States Marine
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Propeller 1 - Finger 0

Monday night I added a new airplane to the hanger. Pictured below are my two RC airplanes. The small yellow one is an ultra micro HobbyZone Champ. The larger white one is an Airport Cessna 182 Sky Trainer which is the newest acquisition.

Champ and Cessna
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While checking out the controls on the Cessna the motor spun up an the plane started running off the table towards me. My reaction was to try and stop the plane with my right hand. I honestly think I just reacted without thinking too much about it. Big mistake! The spinning propeller struck my middle finger and nearly chopped it off at the first joint. Donna and I spent about 3 hours in the ER getting X-rays and stitches. Here's a couple of shots of my hand after returning from the ER.

Finger
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Finger
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I've had a follow-up visit with an Orthopedic specialist and I guess I was very lucky that I didn't lose the tip of my finger. I have a new brace that I will have to wear for the next 8 weeks while my finger heals. So what have I learned from all of this - plenty:

1 - Always remove the propeller when you hook up the battery when indoors.
2 - It's better to do these checks outside.
3 - I don't have the ninja-like relexes I used to have.
4 - I have an incredible wife. Donna has bent over backwards to help me out with things I need to do even though she's in the first week of her new dental assistant program.
5 - Not being able to type with my middle finger sucks!

Picture of the Week (POTW) #10

Picture of the week for the period 15 - 21 August 2010. I shot this female Banana Spider (Argiope aurantia) this past weekend while Donna and I were walking around in the Cypress Gardens Swamp. While I don't especially care for spiders what I really liked about this picture was the spider web. It's pretty amazing how spiders can create these webs. I shot this using my Canon 7D and 70-200 f/4 lens. Eposure was 1/250th at f/5.6, ISO 500. Lately I've been using Auto ISO more. Even though the camera seems to pick a higher ISO then I would have though the images are turning out well so I'm going to stick with it for a while.

Female Banana Spider
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