My camera’s 10,000th image

Holy Sanata Clause Shit!

After 21 months of playing with my 2008 birthday present (the Canon S5 IS that Holly so lovingly bestowed upon me a few weeks before my actual birthday almost two years ago), I finally shot image No. 10,000. And be it ever so fitting, it occurred during our honeymoon in Maui.

Here is IMG_0000 (after IMG_9999, it reverts back to zero):

Knowing that this milestone was steadfastly approaching, especially at rate in which I was shooting down in Hawaii, I really wanted a special image for my camera’s big moment.

Well, Maui couldn’t have painted a better sunset picture!

This was on our way to watch the Independence Day fireworks from the streets of Old Lahaina in West Maui. I was going to try and shoot a bunch more of this awesome view, but some Hawaiian asshole veered his beat up Toyota directly in front of me and my tripod – completely blocking our view! I was pissed, to say the least. But, alas, I still came away with what I wanted: An awesome palm tree shot. Soon after I hammered out some pretty sweet (at least for me) fireworks photos.

But enough about that one image – let’s dig into some stats.

Since Oct. 26, 2008, when Holly gave the camera to me as an early birthday present (she hid it in her bag when I picked her up from the airport, then asked me to grab something out of it. I was speechless for a moment, then excited beyond belief), I’ve taken that camera everywhere!

So, to break it down a little further, between Sunday Oct. 26, 2008, and Sunday, July 4, 2010, I shot 10,000 photos.

That’s roughly one photo every 90 minutes!

Yeah, you read that right. I averaged just over 16 photos a day for 623 days… over 112 photos a week for 89 weeks… 476 photos a month for 21 months!

Now, I’m sure those numbers aren’t incredibly staggering for somebody like our wedding photographer, Benjamin Reed, who popped off over 5,000 shots at just our wedding alone! But for a guy who’s never been paid to shoot photos, I’m chalking up 10,000 as a pretty sweet number.

That being said, here’s to 10,000 more!

Falling Stars

Here’s my second attempt at a star trail timelapse, shot from the balcony of our hotel:

 

Honeymoon Photos

Just a preview of what we get to see EVERY DAY down here in Maui:

 
Sunset at our hotel.

 
People canoeing along the shoreline.

And the sunset view from our hotel balcony (actually, this the balcony outside the elevator just three doors down from our room).

The sky is falling!

 
This image is over 300 30-second images over a 3.5 hour time frame stacked on top of each other.

My new wife and I just started our honeymoon in Maui last two nights ago. Since she was knocked out by jet lag as the sun finally set, I set up the tripod on our balcony (Oh! Quick sidenote: We had originally booked a "garden view" room at the uber-nice Sheraton Maui on Black Rock, as anything else was insanely expensive. Well, upon checking in, we found out the hotel upgraded our room to an OCEAN FRONT view... at no extra cost! Booom shakka lakka!!!)

Anyway, I let the camera shoot one 30-second photo every 45 seconds for just over 3 hours, 30 minutes (it may have lasted longer if the batteries didn't die when I fell asleep).

Nevertheless, I was astonished at how visible the stars were with so much ground light shooting into the palm trees. I think a little over halfway into the video the lights on the ground dim lower, so next I may wait until 12:30 a.m. (that's about when they dimmed, according to my EXIF data) and start a new one. And this time I'll use brand new batteries, so we'll see what happens