to my personal blog. Here I post examples of my photography and writing. I specialize in making unique and highly detailed photographs. Notice I said making and not taking. Yes I take photos but a lot of time and work is involved in pushing and punishing the pixels in my images to achieve the look I like.
Please feel free make comments about any of my words or photos. I enjoy constructive critiques, learning about locations to shoot or photography techniques. Click on the "Share Article" link to share any of my photos via Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Want to use one of my posts in your own blog? No problem, but please make sure it links back to the original post here and do the right thing and give me credit. Don't copy my words, crop the images, remove the watermarks or claim my work as your own. This has happened more times than I can count so I've had to report copyright violations to ISP's and regrettably the violators blog is usually taken down.
Can't we all just get along?
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 at 11:03PM | in HDR, Marine Corps Memorial, Travel, Washington DC 
Marine Corps Memorial - Washington DC
Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 9:17PM | in Architecture, Boston, HDR, Travel, Weather I had just bailed out of a session at the "HOW Design Live" conference because the instructor began spouting his liberal political views. Not just the odd comment either. He started preaching his particular view of how things should be and seemingly forgot the topic of the class. This actually happened to me twice during HOW.
Anyway, upon entering the hallway at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, I immediately noticed that the lighting outside looked baleful. As I approached the floor to ceiling windows in front of me, I could see more and more of a huge storm cloud that was advancing on the building I was in. I could clearly see it was dumping rain in the area of Fenway Park about 3/4 of a mile away. I saw several bolts of lightning flash from somewhere within this towering and churning mass. I began shooting hand held HDR sequences when a brilliant flash momentarily blinded me followed just a second later with the loudest thunderclap I had ever heard. A split-second later It seemed that every car alarm in the area was wailing in unison. The streets were suddenly flooded with water and convention center security began moving everyone away from the windows. Less than 10 minutes later, the worst of this storm had moved on leaving the buildings, trees, and streets completely drenched and full of reflections. It was time for dinner and I was ready to walk around and make a few more images.
Post a Comment | tagged Architecture, Boston, HDR, Travel, Weather | Share Article Permalink Email Article Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 10:09PM | in Architecture, Boston, HDR, Night, Travel I had spotted this cool old fire house from the windows of the Hynes Convention Center during my first day in Boston. Later that evening my work colleague Mike and I walked over so I could make a few HDR sequences of it. It turned out we were just in time for the end of the blue hour. Fifteen minutes later I was taking photographs of the Apple Store down the street and all color had left the sky. The firehouse was massive and once housed a police station. It was opened on February 20, 1888. If this had been built in Los Angeles, the city council would have long since declared it an eye sore, had it torn down and replaced with a parking lot.
Post a Comment | tagged Architecture, Boston, HDR, Night, Travel | Share Article Permalink Email Article Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at 11:47PM | in Architecture, Boston, First Church of Christ, HDR, Night, Travel I was in Boston last week for the HOW Design conference. The weather was often humid, stormy and rainy. In other words perfect for HDR photography. Boston is in no way lacking in wonderful architecture, so when I could, I tried to make some images. This is the first church of Christ - Scientist which was built in 1894 and expanded in 1906. I really loved this huge reflecting pond located in the Plaza. I wish it had been more glassy but the wind was blowing and rain was intermittently falling. The clouds were very dramatic and in fact not long after taking this sequence it rained really hard. The church asks that photographs taken from the plaza (as this image was) not be sold or used commercially. So no sales of this image. Sorry.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 at 8:50PM | in Aviation, Fisheye, HDR, Museum, National Air and Space Museum, Travel, Udvar Hazy Center, Washington DC I have read that even with the accute raw material shortages and rationing that went on during WWII, anything needed for the Manhattan project was was delivered on a silver platter. It was understood that if the United States failed to create a working atomic bomb before the Germans or the Japanese we would likely lose the war. Within the Manhattan project, nothing was given a higher priority than the special modifications that were needed to be made to standard B-29 bombers which would enable them to drop atomic weapons. For that reason these modifications were code named "Silverplate". Pictured here and preserved for history is the Enola Gay which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan, the effects of which probably killed between 90,000 and 166,000 people while helping to end WWII and probably saving 1 million American lives.
Monday, June 4, 2012 at 9:52PM | in Fisheye, HDR, National Air and Space Museum, Panorama, Space, Spacecraft, Travel, Washington DC In the 1960's and 70's the United States and the Soviet Union were trying their best to outdo one another with feats in outer space. This hall at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, features many artifacts from this time period.
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 11:21PM | in California, Embarcadero, HDR, Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, Travel In San Francisco to work on a proposal and staying at the Hyatt Regency on the Embarcadero, I had a great view of the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge. On this particular day I got up around 4:30 AM, showered and went to get some breakfast. From the street level, I could see that the sunrise was going to be spectacular. I went back to my room, grabbed my camera, tripod, ExpoDisc and off camera shutter release. From there I headed for a secret balcony that I had discovered a few years ago on another visit. There's no sign that says "hotel employees only" or anything similar so in any case, I got the shots I wanted and nobody was the wiser. It was very windy on the 19th floor so my tripod shook a little during the long exposures, but not enough to ruin the shot. 10 Exposure HDR covering 10ev. Post processed in Photomatix, Lightroom and Photoshop.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 9:52PM | in Balboa Park, California, HDR, Museum, San Diego, Travel, Vertorama This is the Sefton Grand Atrium in the San Diego Natural History Museum. It's a big space, 4 stories tall with 5,000 sqare feet of floor area. It's often used for special events like corporate parties and concerts. When Kathy and I walked into the Museum, I looked up and knew I would want to get a shot from the top looking down. Just before we left the building, we took the elevator up to the 4th floor to take this shot. I had to do a 3 shot vertorama with my 14mm lens and I still couldn't fit it all in. Each of the 3 HDR shots was created from 10 individual exposures and then photo merged in Photoshop to create this composite view. I like the unique viewpoint of the Allosaurus dinosaur on the bottom center of the photo.
Sunday, November 7, 2010 at 9:29PM | in Aviation, California, Castle Air Museum, HDR, Museum, Travel I've read about them in books and seen them many times on DVD's and TV but until this October I had never set eyes on a real B-24 bomber. To say I was impressed would be an understatement. Manufactured by the Consolidated Aircraft Company of San Diego, the B-24M Liberator bomber was 13th version of this aircraft to be built. About 20 minutes after I took this 10 exposure HDR image, the skies opened up and it rained hard. I took refuge under the huge delta wing of a Canadian Vulcan Bomber and put my camera back into my rolling backpack. My day at the museum was cut short, but I was able to return the next day to finish my tour.
Post a Comment | tagged Aircraft, Airplane, Aviation, Bomber, California, HDR, Travel | Share Article Permalink Email Article Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 6:14AM | in Chicago, Fun, Illinois, Millennium Park, Travel It had been raining really hard for about an hour in Chicago's Millennium Park. Me, my backpack, tripod and camera were huddled under the umbrella I decided to bring with me on a whim. As the rain tapered off to nothing, I saw this little boy go running through what had been a very still giant puddle that had accumulated between the two lighted towers of the Crown Fountain. I thought the reflections were particularly interesting. It took some strategic maneuvering by his dad to recapture and return the kid to dry land. Walk on the water whenever you have a chance. That's my advice.
