This is probably my favorite image I’ve ever made.To me it’s better than anything I ever captured at The Republic, and it’s better than anything I’ve photographed at MTSU. It’s better because this is my best friend – and my best friend has now left us.

Anyone who met Sid almost always fell in love with her. I know I did. At the end of May 1994 my parents decided to let me get a dog. We went to the Bartholomew County Humane Society and in a kennel on the right side, about in the middle – I remember this like it was yesterday – was this black and white, bushy three year old dog. I told my parents no one would adopt a three year old dog, and this was the dog for us. A few days later, Sid, the newest addition to the Heidt family, was riding in the backseat of my father’s car on the way back to our house. Not much longer after that we discovered that Sid was actually not three – but only 10 months old – a literal puppy. 50 lbs. of puppy.

What  followed from the summer before my sophomore year of high school to now was nothing short of wonderful. Sid was our dog. She was just like us – she fit in perfectly. She made my sister a dog person. She was a loyal companion to my mother as she quilted and cooked dinner. She was up early with my father on weekends when he worked in his home office. To me, well, she was everything I’d ever wanted in a friend.

I have so many memories of Sid that I’m not even sure what to write, so I will tell you some of the things I miss the most. I miss Sid barking for a tennis ball. I miss her digging at the carpet underneath my bed in my parents’ house. I miss her sleeping at my sister’s feet when Sarah was home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I miss her fights with the towel that covered one of her dog beds. I miss her white paws, chest, snout and sleek, black body. I miss sniff-o-lux. I miss my father inverting her, and her tail hitting him in the side of the head. I miss how much she loved bananas. I miss how she’d jump up on my ottoman and hop over to the couch when she’d visit my house in Columbus. Most of all I miss how she made my family smile. We were so lucky to have Sid in our lives, and for that I am so grateful.

Sony DSC-T33, 11.4mm, f4, 1/80, 100 ISO

I think part of the problem with this panorama is the camera. Although I love my little Sony DSC-T33, isn’t the best camera for making a panorama. When you use a point and shoot you are basically the conduit for getting the image on the memory card – you have virtually no control – just when the photo is taken. This summer I finally broke down and bought a camera, a D300, (read my earlier posts for more details) specifically for having much more control on the trip to Las Vegas. There were two places I had in mind for panoramas while in Las Vegas. Freemont Street, the old part of Vegas, now turned into a pedestrian mall complete with a 5 block long LED canopy used for displaying light shows, advertisements, etc., and Hoover Dam. I learned a couple of things while shooting, and then making (with the aforementioned help from CS3 and CS4) the panoramas. First, try not to get any people in the foreground of your images, more specifically, the foreground edge of a frame. On the Freemont Street panorama, there is a man on the right edge of the left side image who, when the image was put together, was missing about half of his body, which required a little bit of fudging on my part to make him a non-ghost in the image. Second, if you are going to shoot a wider panorama, shoot vertically. Doing so will save you a lot of time in the clone stamp department. The Hoover Dam panorama wouldn’t have benefitted as much from shooting vertically, but Freemont Street would have been much better as 7 or 8 vertical images instead of 4 horizontals, mainly because the wider you go, the shallower your panorama. My recommendation: 1-3 photos, shoot horizontally, >3 shoot vertically. Here’s a helpful link on how to shoot a panorama, just keep in mind you can’t always carry a tripod around with you, but the basic principles are the same. Below are the two completed panoramas from my trip to Las Vegas.

Nikon D300, 20-35 f2.8 @ f8, 1/2000, 400 ISO

Nikon D300, 20-35 f2.8 @ f5.0, 1/125, 1000 ISO

Nikon D300, 20-35 f/2.8 @ f/8, 1/100, 200 ISO

At the moment I’m thinking I need to figure out a way to make my photos in this blog bigger, mainly so you can admire my Photoshop panorama making ability, which I used to the best of my ability while in Las Vegas. I also learned some secrets in the post-production that I will share once I post the two completed panoramas; Hoover Dam and Freemont Street. For now enjoy this Joshua tree in Red Rock Canyon Park.

That’s right, my new camera, cards, strap, and Lensbaby have arrived in what I like to call the box of fun.I took my new light tight box over to my fellow Middle photographer’s house tonight and tried it out on his two dogs, Bogart the Beagle and Louis the Weimaraner. I did shoot a little bit with the Lensbaby, but I shot with it wide open, and you have to be spot on focus-wise, so I’m not real pleased with the results. there will be more with it in the future, although I am pretty impressed with the build quality, and the aperture discs are magnetic, so using the tool to change them is a breeze, which is good because apparently Lensbabies come sans instructions.

At any rate, the above photo is Bogart being warned to stop barking, to no avail. I think he was showing his happiness at the arrival of the box of fun.

No images to display yet, although there is a piece of photographic news. I’ve finally broken down and purchased a digital SLR. After working at a newspaper for nearly 6 years, using 4 different types of Nikon cameras, and here at Middle using 5 different types (in a third of the time of what I spent at the paper) I’ve purchased a Nikon D300. Why the D300 and not the D700 you ask? Well, there are two reasons. Reason one: I don’t own any long glass (I don’t consider the 500 f/8 mirrored Tokina long glass, and I don’t even think it’s in TN) so the 1.5x factor actually works to my advantage, although the widest lens I own, my 20-35 2.8 is now a 30-52 essentially. If I need something wider than that I can always borrow my 14 2.8 from work. Reason 2: The D700 body is [gulp] $3000, which is A LOT for someone who hasn’t shot any freelance in over two years (that’d be me). Those reasons, and the fact that for a few months we shot with 2 D300′s here, and they are now permanent residents of our studio, so there is no learning curve (although there wouldn’t be with the 700, either) and the comfort factor is already established. Beyond the camera, I purchased:

2 4GB 233x cards. Not UDMA – I don’t have a UDMA reader, so who cares, and the 2 512MB cards I already have aren’t quite going to cut it (I plan on shooting most everything in RAW – just used to it now).

A black Tamrac strap (just like the ones I use at work). I can’t stand the Nikon Straps. They tend to fall apart and slip like crazy, and they look like a billboard.”Look, I have a D300! Woo!” No thanks.

A Lensbaby Composer http://www.lensbaby.com/?gclid=CMrxgrXDgJsCFQa-sgod3jvjdA much to the chagrin of my fellow Middle photographer. “You’ll use that thing for five minutes and then you’ll be done with it.” To which I replied that I’d never take it off my camera. A bold statement, and not entirely true.

All of this is on its way from B&H and should arrive Friday. In the mean time, there are two days of work, and a concert in Nashville tonight and lots of anxious waiting…