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?
Monday, June 7, 2010 at 6:03AM | in HDR, Travel, Union Station, Washington DC Manny and I had been told by security that we couldn't use our tripods on the floor of Union Station, so we climbed up some stairs to an elevated open air resturant. I asked the seating hostess if we could use our tripod during our lunch and she said "sure no problem". This is one of the shots we took. Union Station is a beautiful place.
Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 6:19PM | in Academy of Science, California, Golden Gate Park, HDR, Museum, San Francisco, Travel California Academy of Sciences, Steinhart Aquarium, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Saint Valentines Day: I was waiting for Kathy and just sitting across from this large glass viewing window, thinking that the lighting in the room was very beautiful when this young couple walked up to the glass. I thought they were framed pretty nicely by it. Seemed kind of like a first date type situation. After taking the sequence of shots, I went in search of my own beloved girl.
Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 6:25AM | in California, HDR, Hearst Castle, Panorama, Travel Monday, May 31, 2010 at 10:41PM | in HDR, Korean War Memorial, National Mall, Travel, Washington DC They fought a war to help people they had never met and were largely forgotten when they returned home. This is the Korean War Memorial in Washington D.C.
It was raining fairly hard when I took this shot. Manny was holding an umbrella over me and the camera but some water still got on the lens.
Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 7:55PM | in HDR, Navy Memorial, Travel, Washington DC This moving and evocative statue is located at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington D.C. We sleep well and safely because there are soldiers, sailors, marine and coast guard men and women keeping watch or walking a post for us. Our laws grant us our freedoms but we need to remember it's the men and women who serve in our armed forces who defend those freedoms.
I had been walking around the USS Midway for about an hour with my camera and tripod shooting HDR sequences here and there. I wasn't really liking the photos I was making though. Looked ok I guess but nothing special. Then I realized that it was my viewpoint that was off. When photographing a car, I almost always collapse my tripod and get a low angle shot. This makes the car look more powerful and the viewpoint is interesting because we rarely look at cars from 3" above the pavement. Why should it be any different for aircraft? The fun part was watching the other Midway visitors puzzling over why I way laying down on the abrasive flight deck peering through my camera.
Post a Comment | tagged Aviation, California, HDR, San Diego, Travel | Share Article Permalink Email Article Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 6:09AM | in HDR, Museum, National Building Museum, Travel, Washington DC Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun?
The National Building Museum (NBM) in Washington D.C. is a huge space to a big guy like me so it must look even bigger to my Nephew Manny here. As you can see he took it in stride. The great hall is supported by several of the giant columns you see in the background. They are truly colossal in scale. While the NBM is not the most popular destination in Washington, it's a fantastic place to go if you are in town.
This is a 3 shot HDR which is the largest number of exposures I can generally shoot hand held and have some chance of aligning and stitching together. Since the kid is naturally wired, he moved around during the sequence so I had to mask him into the HDR image from the middle exposure and adjust his saturation and tonal values so he seamlessly blends into the background. Shoot right into the sun? Sure. Photoshop just rocks!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 7:05AM | in Camera Gear, HDR, Travel, United States Capitol, Washington DC The security at the US Capitol building is pretty tight. While I understand very clearly why it needs to be this way, I also realized that due to the rules, Manny and I woudln't be able to carry our backpacks into the building with us. Hence no extra lenses. I chose to take my 28-135 which is a nice general lens but not wide enough to capture the entired rotunda dome. I do think the off center framing adds interest. Oh well. Maybe next time I'll take my 14mm.
Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 11:34PM | in HDR, Museum, National Air and Space Museum, Space, Spacecraft, Travel, Washington DC This is an actual lunar module which was built to fly in space during project Apollo. Its mission was to separate from the command module, fly about a hundred miles away and then link up with it again. This is the second of two test Lunar Modules built. It was never used because the first test item worked perfectly during the Apollo 9 mission.
Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 10:12PM | in California, HDR, Panorama, San Francisco, Travel This was a cool guerrilla photo shoot. I was staying at the San Francisco Hyatt Regency and had found a platform on the 17th floor just adjacent to the emergency stairway. There was a concrete wall with a 9" wide gap in it that allowed me to put my camera and lens through it. This is what I saw.
