Awww, How Cute...

Here's a shot I took a few weekends ago after a run. My camera was on a tripod and used my Sigma lens. Man, I love this lens, but I really need to use a tripod in shady or indirect light, in order to get the razor sharp imanges like the one below:


Click the image to see a larger version.

A few race pics

Here are a few pics from yesterday:


Yep, it's me (note the 162 in my race bib, not exactly 216, but....)


Coming around the bend, almost at the finish line.


Here was one of my cheering squads (aka co-workers)


I'll have more pics, once my minion submit...(more pictures that is ;-)

I DID IT!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!! I've raised over $1,800 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!!!

I finished my first 1/2 marathon in 02:08:07

I placed 1065 of 1839 for the entire race and I placed 314 of 417 for my division (male <40).

314, that's freaking Pi!!! How perfect!

Let the fun begin...

Good morning all,

It's 5:05 am and today is the big day where I will run 13.1 miles. It will be my very 1st 1/2 marathon. I'm so excited and super happy that it's not raining cats & dogs!

Last night was the pasta dinner for me and my fellow Team In Training comrades. It was lots of fun and the food was really good! For those of you who know me personally, I was able to eat pretty much everything they offered because there was less than 3 ingredients per food item =)

I am so grateful and excited that I chose Team In Training as the program to participate in for my first 1/2 marathon. They take care of everything for you and offer so much inspiration that it's almost impossible not to be super motivated to finish.

I'd also like to thank all of my family and friends who supported me during my training. Without you, my training and fund raising would be have been a lot harder than it was, so THANK YOU!!! Because of you, I was able to raise $1,829 to help cure blood cancers!!!

Well I'm off to Providence to go run....for more info please visit here.

Cheers,
216Digits (aka Kevin)

New Lens

I saved up a little extra money and splurged on a new lens for my Nikon D80. I ended up ordering a "Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG APO Macro Motorized Telephoto Zoom Lens for Nikon SLR Cameras" for $185.00. I even had a $50 gift certificate to apply, therefore only $135! WOOT!

Anyways, I've only been using my kit lens that came with the D80, its a 18-135mm. I really like the lens, but I've always wanted more zooooom. I thought about ordering the Nikkor lens equivalent, but it's almost $600! I couldn't justify paying that much for a lens, not for what I do with photography. I mainly like to print 4x6's and make photoalbums and of course this blog =)

Enjoy my new, bestest moon shots...


Click above to view an image straight from the camera.


Click above to view the previous image post-processed. I cropped the image, therefore a zoom is applied on top of the 300mm lens. I also adjusted the color/contrast a smidge.

So what do you think? Could I have gotten better by spending the extra dough? Perhaps, we'll see....

Fooling Around

I had a little downtime tonight, so I decided to play around with some photo editing tools. Let me know what you think, enjoy!

Click on the images below to view larger.


Here's the original, taken from last summer.



Here's the edited version...I added an infrared filter and some other tweaks.

Twelve loooong miles!

Hey guys! Some of you know that I'm training for a 1/2 marathon this May. I'm training with a team that supports leukemia and lymphoma. Kindly click the purple TNT logo on the right to donate or read more information. They provide the know-how and experience so that I can cross the finish line. Well today I broke all sorts of personal records!!!

• Longest run of my life: 12 miles, check
• Fastest long run: 1h 53m 20s, check
• Most calories burned during exercise: 1652, check
• One tired Kevin: check!

Overall, I'm super impressed with myself. I really didn't think I would be able to do the mileage and endurance so easily, but once I get in my zone the miles and time just pass on by....

Let me share a screenshot of the run that I did (click on it to zoom!):