Published Photographer

I'm a published photographer! One of my shots made it to the UMaine student newspaper, The Maine Campus. It's a good start ; )

Signed and framed print

What a difference printing a large copy of one of my images and framing/matting makes! I was very impressed in how it came out. I have my very first satified customer of an original Tony Llerena Photography art print. : ) Thanks Lauri!


-- Post From My iPhone

Me on TV

I did an event shoot for McDonald's Coffee Ambush at the University of Maine for National Coffee Day. I just happened to be in the background while WABI 5 was filming a student's interview.

Pocketwizard Plus II's are the way to go!

I purchased a Pocketwizard tt1 and tt5 despite reading terrible reviews and I was severely disappointed. They failed on me during one of my photo sessions leaving me quite embarassed. I was using them with a 430EX attached which apparently has the greatest RF interference so I shouldn't have been surprised but I felt that something that costs $430 should perform on command. The flash wouldn't even fire from 10 feet away!

Luckily, Amazon has a great refund policy so I sent them back and ordered the older, but tried and true, Plus II's and I am quite pleased. I know there are less expensive ways to do remote flash but I wanted a system that was proven and reliable since I like to buy things right the first time.

Panning at the Fly-In

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Originally uploaded by dostech

I have only one piece of advice to anyone brave enough to try panning shots... take LOTS of them. I was shooting with my 70-200 at planes flying well over 100mph and it is a lot tougher than it looks. I probably got one keeper for every 10 that I shot. My settings were Tv with the shutter at about 1/30th of a second and ISO100.

Portland Head Lighthouse - Cape Elizabeth

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Originally uploaded by dostech

To black and white or not to black and white? Well I'm not a huge fan of black and white images because I feel that it's overused and done poorly most of the time. In this case, I made an exception.The light just happened to be right, about an hour before sunset to give the cliff rocks some character.

Another photographer near me suggested I use bracketing but I chose to go with my gut for exposure and you can see the results here. Was I wrong? Tell me what you think?

Professional Lighting Setup

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Originally uploaded by dostech

I finally got all of the lighting gear that I need to get started doing my strobist style shooting. I picked up a Canon 580 EXII along with a pocketwizard minitt1 and a flextt5. I took a few shots with them this afternoon and they worked really well. I was about 25 feet away and didn't have misfires. I might have to try it from farther next time.

Funny Photoshop error

During my workout this morning, I came across this Weight Watchers magazine and noticed something odd about the cover model. Her head seems to have shifted! It's either that or the editors missed this before going to press.



-- Post From My iPhone

Mini Softbox

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Originally uploaded by dostech

I was just gifted a light stand and softbox diffuser for my flash and boy am I excited. I can't wait to experiment with my new toy! Thanks Rideout Family!

Backyard before

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Originally uploaded by dostech

Here's a picture of the backyard before the landscaping was done for comparison.

New Backyard

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Originally uploaded by dostech

We had a nice rain storm last night and there are a few puddles but overall I think it drained fairly well given that we've had more rain over the past few months than I've seen in my entire life. And I lived in Florida for my first 25 years too! Anyhow, I think once there's grass to soak up some of the water it's going to be great.

Backyard in progress

We've been slowly developing our backyard into a usable lawn for the kids to run around for a couple of years now. Thankfully the rain let up today just long enough for the trucks to bring in the fill and top soil so we can plant the grass seed. Here are se pics from the project.











-- Post From My iPhone

Tanks on the Highway!

It's not every day you see a couple tanks rolling down the highway on your way home from work. I was lucky enough to get close and get a shot from my iPhone. Have I mentioned that I love my iPhone? : )


-- Post From My iPhone

Rainbows and Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

I was lucky enough to catch a rainbow on my way home from work the other night. I ran home to grab my camera and a barefoot Julie jumped into the car to help me chase down the pot of gold. : ) It goes to show that the best camera is always the one you have with you since the only picture I got was with my iPhone.


-- Post From My iPhone

Wedding Slideshow

Erin and Dan's Wedding

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Originally uploaded by dostech

Here's another shot of the ceremony.

Erin and Dan's Wedding

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Originally uploaded by dostech

I had the pleasure and fortune of taking pictures at Erin's wedding who is a co-worker of mine. The setting, atop of Mount Battie in Campden State Park, was absolutely gorgeous. It was really easy to get some nice shots, all I had to do was expose properly and let Dan, Erin and the view do the rest! : )

Fireworks in Bar Harbor

Fireworks in Bar Harbor, originally uploaded by dostech.

This is a test of the emergency blogcast system...