Bomb Club Bokeh - Plate 1

I went to a car show early this morning. It was hosted by the Southern California Bomb Club. The show didn't officially start until 11:00 AM but roll in for the cars was scheduled for 7:30 AM which is when I arrived. By that time there were already about 100 cars there and while the sun was bright it wasn't really hot yet. I set right to taking as many photos as I could before the sun drove me to take cover. There were a ton of awesome hood ornaments and since the cars were parked side by side, lots of chrome to provide the bokeh dots!

Heavenly Light (and Timing)

I was sitting in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero, San Francisco when the sun's diurnal track across the sky allowed it to quite suddenly shine directly into the vast, towering space, illuminating it beautifully. While very long, the roof skylight isn't very wide so the effect only lasted about 10 minutes but it was cool! I was fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time with a camera and tripod.

Non-Linear

I saw a photo of this atrium on a Washington DC tour book. I showed it to Kathy and she said "I know where that is, National Portrait Gallery." We were staying not too far away so we visited. The evening was really nice, with cool temperatures and the undulating atrium roof was spectacular. The locals seem to hang out here, buying coffee and pastries and chatting one another up. Kathy is sitting on a planter on the left patiently waiting for me to finish shooting some photos and video. The "no tripods" rule is in full force here so to get this shot, I had to hold my camera over my head and press it firmly against a wall while shooting 3 frames for this HDR composite. I was able to hold it perfectly still and it worked just fine. After walking around the nearly empty galleries, we walked to a local restaurant in the fading light and had dinner.

Woodly Park Zoo Station

This is the Woodly Park Zoo metro station in Washington DC. I have always found the architecture of DC's metro stations to be interesting and very worthy of a photo or two. While the stations are nice,it can be a little disconcerting when an express train blasts through the station without stopping or seeming to slow down. You can kind of see one on the right side of the photo. Just look for the semi-transparent blur.

Multiverse

Just prior to Kathy and I traveling to Washington DC, I had been reading a very interesting book about Hugh Everett's "Many-Worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics. One of the concepts the reader has to wrap his or her head around is that of the existence of a multiverse, where there isn't a single universe but instead an infinite number of them which are constantly splitting. One where you ate breakfast in the morning and one where you didn't, one where you posted a photo of an interesting art installation and one where you didn't and on and on. Anyway, there are many Smithsonian art museums but on the National Mall there are two that have a walkway between them which is located below ground level. At some point a very interesting art exhibit called "multiverse" was installed. It consists of thousands of LED lights that race around making patterns that are really compelling. You can walk the length of this tunnel or ride on one of two moving sidewalk conveyor belt thingies like the two guys in the photo are doing.

Hotel Window View of Downtown San Diego

Josh, Alexandra and I spent the weekend in San Diego. This was the view out the hotel room window. Sorry about the reflections on the glass. Not much I could do about them. I didn't have my polarizing filter with me.

Dream Car

As usual, Kathy and I were very excited that the day of the annual Uptown Whittier Car Show had finally arrived. We were out very early and I quickly decided that the first car I wanted to photograph was this beautiful Chevrolet Bel Aire. The owners son sleeping in the passenger seat seemed to take all of the excitement in stride. Never stirring once even with all the noise my DSLR's shutter and mirror were making right next to the car door.

On the Line

This Airbus A340 taxi's to its gate after landing at Los Angeles International Airport. I can't claim credit for thinking quickly and capturing this interesting view of the aircraft. The opportunity was pointed out to me and I happily fired off about 10 frames.

Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service - AirButt Greg-380

As of the time of this posting the cost of an economy class round trip flight on this QANTAS A380 from Los Angeles, California to Sydney Australia is $1,497 USD. I recently had the opportunity to tour this aircraft and while it was huge, the economy seats were small and leg room tight for someone as tall as I am. I know this for a fact because I tried one on for size.

The aircraft itself was amazing. I was stunned by the incredibly high-tech cockpit and at its massive size.

The A380 has an range of 9,756 miles which would guarantee that I would run out of ass before it ran out of gas.

Time Out for Some Bokeh

I found that taking photos of hood ornaments was a nice break from using my tripod to create HDR sequences at the Car Show by the Sea in San Pedro. While having so many cars packed closely together makes creating a nice HDR composition difficult, it makes macro photography of hood ornaments and emblems a joy. The cars surrounding the object being photographed are for the most part very reflective, with fantastic paint and lots of chrome. This means that when shooting with my macro lens using a very shallow depth-of-field, these reflective background objects are rendered out-of-focus very beautifully.