Photographically speaking, July 4th was a great day!

 

***MK PHOTOGRAPHY HAS A NEW WEBSITE***

http://monixkap.wix.com/mkaplerphotography

While I will still continue to chronicle some of my personal adventures in photography on this blog, please see the above website for my portrait business!

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I spent Independence Day in northern Iowa this year with my family. We started the day with a trip to West Bend, IA to visit the Grotto of the Redemption. The artist of this amazing place was a priest named Father Paul Dobberstein. As a young seminarian he was very sick with pneumonia and prayed to the Virgin Mary to intercede for the grace of his health, promising to build a shrine in her honor if he lived. He did live, and in 1912 began constructing the Grotto. The materials are all kinds of rocks, precious stones, shells, and petrified wood from all 50 states and all over the world.

 

 

 

This was the original shrine that Fr. Dobberstein built, and he expanded the Grotto from there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The swans were in the pond on the grounds of the Grotto. I got some great shots with my 100-400mm lens that I last posted about. I can now cross "good swan pictures" off my photography bucket list. :)

 

 

 

 

 

It wouldn't have been Independence Day without my brother lighting off a bag of fireworks! I love the shots of his bottle rockets lifting off with the flame and sparks behind them.

 

 

And finally, I crossed another item off my photography bucket list: "good fireworks pictures".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added the text in photoshop and made some awesome prints of this bottom one!!

 

 

Thanks for visiting and a special thank you to all men and women who serve and have served our country in the military! Thank you for defending freedom, including my freedom to pursue my passion for photography!



Telephoto Fun

***MK PHOTOGRAPHY HAS A NEW WEBSITE***

http://monixkap.wix.com/mkaplerphotography

 

While I will still continue to chronicle some of my personal adventures in photography on this blog, please see the above website for my portrait business!

 

*************

 

 

Friends, fans, and family, meet my new telephoto lens!

I invested in a Canon 100-400mm L-series and after a short trial run in my backyard, I'm VERY glad I did! This lens is a gem! Here are some sample images from my short photoshoot. FYI there was ZERO post-processing of any kind done to these before uploading them. No cropping, no photoshop, nothing. I wanted to show what this lens does all by itself. Enjoy!!

 

Here's the lens itself!! It's a tank!

 

The photos of the birds below were done handheld (no tripod used) and I'm very impressed with the clarity at the low shutter speeds they were taken at (only 1/60 second for the robin and 1/250 second for the sparrow)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two of Bandit were done on a tripod. The sharpness of these images is awesome, and coupled with the beautifully smooth bokeh they simply take my breath away (plus my doggy is pretty handsome). I love the color saturation of this lens. Like I said before, these are straight out of the camera.

 



 

Thanks for visiting!

NEW WEBSITE!!

Check out Monica Kapler Photography's new website, where I will be posting my work in categorized pages for convenient viewing, and you can view a list of my prices as well as contact information!
Click the link below:

http://monixkap.wix.com/mkaplerphotography


Thanks for visiting!!

Some Candid Pet Portraits

 

Bandit is quite used to being followed around by my camera and me. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 



Prom 2014

 

I had so much fun with these guys!

Thanks to the adorable couples for letting me be a part of their evening!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



The Suburban Night Sky

Unfortunately I did not get any photographs of last night's blood moon. I took a guess and set my alarm clock for 1:30 AM but when I ventured outside to check, the moon was not yet showing any signs of turning red. As a devoted photographer I really yearned to stay up and wait, however, I still had a day job to attend in the morning. Sleep was necessary.

 

I did still get some cool pictures of the night sky earlier in the evening!

 

 

The night view down my street:

 

 

 

You don't get to see many (or sometimes any) stars in an illuminated suburb,

but the moonlit clouds were pretty: 

 

 

 

 And a telephoto shot of the moon: