Merry Birthday America

All photos were shot with a Canon Rebel T4i with an EFS 17-55 2.8.

Westfield Brandon Town Center.

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Canon Rebel T4i First Look

I have a slight addiction to cameras.  This time I convinced myself that my

lovely wife needed her own light weight DSLR.  The Canon T4i fits that bill,

and I hope it will make a great travel camera , smaller and lighter then my

other DSLRs.  I bought it at North Tampa Photography a few weeks ago,

so far so good.  It's a solid tough little camera, light weight and relatively easy to use.

If  you have an earlier Rebel you will have no problems, after years of using

a 20, 40 and 7D I found some of the buttons and menus challenging but

I figured most of it out, still learning it really.

I don't do "reviews" or give "recommendations" everyone is different and

has different needs and expectations.  That said, here are some of my first

videos and a sample of stills, a small low light ISO sampling at the bottom.

If you want a more detailed look, check out my friend Chad's blog over at

Chad Soriano PhotoBlog he has more stills and videos.

Video Samples

Still Samples

night sky ASA 100

night sky ASA 1600

night sky ASA 12800

Back Yard Strawberries

Back in March I shot several stories in the Strawberry fields of Plant City Florida.

On one outing I watched as several workers weeded and pulled runners from one field.

  The pile of runners intrigued me, I wondered how they would grow in an earth-box.

With permission, I picked up a few and took them home.

With minimal consideration, I just jammed the runners into an available earthbox 

holding a few pentas.  To my amazement, they exploded and even produced

some really good strawberries.

Above you can see runners jumping out of the earthbox into a strategically placed pot. 

If you have a chance to pick up some strawberry plants, or some runners

give backyard strawberries a try.  After this years success, winter strawberries

may become a regular in my garden.

No Sun? How About A Few Sunflowers

After three days of constant rain I have made the command decision to post

some happy sunflower photos on the internets. 

Ah ...... I feel better already.

Florida West Coast Surf and Surfers

When you live on the west coast of Florida you don't see signs like this one very often.

But when you do, you either have a hurricane or a cold front bearing down on you.

Back in April, it was a cold front and was too frigid too swim so I spent some time

shooting surf and surfers.

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Beach Moonset and Astro Time-Lapse

Every time we go on vacation I always check to see if there is a chance we
might have dark skies, and I mean dark.
Why? Well, if your a fan of time-lapse, stars are the ultimate subject.
For most of us, light pollution surrounds us every night, only a few stars
might be visible to the naked eye. To shoot a good astro time-lapse you need
to find really dark skies. One of the few places near where I live where you might
get some good darkness is the beach, thank you sea turtles.  On our last
staycation I was lucky to get a balcony room up on a high floor and shot this
moonset and astro time-lapse. I shot it with my old Canon 40D, bad pixels and all.
The first shot is of a waxing crescent Moon and Venus.
The fourth and fifth and sixth shots show how clouds and light pollution
can make shooting stars difficult.
In the world of astro time-lapse it's ok but not great, I always take the opportunity
to practice for when I get some really dark skies.

Years ago I shot this frame from a lower balcony, you can see the tail end of
the milky-way.  The pool and resort lights blow out the foreground.

When I got my first DSLR (Canon 20D) one of the first things I shot was this
long exposure looking at the north star. 

Popular Science Simple Project of the Month

Page 79 of the May 2012 edition of Popular Science.  Low cost kitchen timer
panning units have officially gone mainstream. My Ikea Stam kitchen timer hack
is Popular Science's May Simple Project of the Month. 
I don't know why but there is something about seeing your stuff in print that is always fun.
For those of you just finding my blog and wanting to build this project, my DIY video is
below along with links for other versions of my panning units.
Here is the link for my original Ikea Hack blog post.
This project is best for small point and shoot cameras with built in intervalometers.
I use GoPro Hero cameras with mine, they are cheap, light, durable and
have an internal intervalometer that will run until the battery dies or memory card fills up.
This Ikea Stam Kitchen timer is not strong enough for DSLRs.

Want to see the Ikea Stam in action? Check out this video
If you liked this video please check out my youtube channel and subscribe to Getawaymoments.
Here are a few links I would suggest watching if you want to make your own panning unit.
Egg Timer Timelapse Panning Unit Part 1
Egg Timer Timelapse Panning Unit Part 2
 Egg Timer Timelapse Panning Unit Part 3
 Egg Timer Timelapse Panning Unit Part 4

$6 will add motion to your timelapse.

A GoPro shooting a GoPro Hero2 in action.

There are four different colors to choose from, $1.99 each..