Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Brick Wall

Quick post for the night. This is a picture I took back in Boise earlier this year on one of my photo trips around the city.

I took a page out of my buddy Lee's book and vamped it up with high saturation and contrast.


Cracked siding in downtown Boise, Idaho

Snow Blower

Finally back from the dirty south, with a slew of new pictures to edit from Christmas. What little time between adventures... So I figure I will continue posting some of my pre-edited/captioned pictures and will probably get around to posting new pictures next week (when all these holidays are finally over).

This picture is from the snow storm this year, but is a little misleading as it was taken the day after. We were on our way to the White House, and the wind started to pick up, which made this snow blowing effect without having to stand in the middle of an actual storm. I didn't quite like how the colors got blown out, but I think Sepia helped compensate to still give it the effect I wanted.

Snow blowing off building in Washington DC

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Dirty Politics

Additional picture from DC after the snow storm. I had been thinking about this type of picture for a long time, as I love the look of pictures I have seen from other people. I have a bunch of similar pictures from New York City post the rain, but I didn't really like the look of any of them. As we were walking to the Christmas tree in front of the Capital Building, I saw this image in some of the melted snow and loved the way it looked.

Also I tried some Lightroom Presets for the first time to add a little variety to an another wise straight forward picture; and I definitely think it helped.

US Captial reflected in puddle in Washington DC

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Fence Shadow

As I mentioned yesterday, the snow storm allowed for a great clear day on Sunday when the snow stopped falling and the sun came out. It was actually kind of blinding how bright the sun was on that day when it reflects off the white snow.

One of the better parts of having such a bright day was the great shadow effects it created on the snow banks. After I got done with the birds, this chain link fence next to the National Christmas Tree made for a great photo op.

Chain Link Fence Shadow in Washington D.C.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Bird on a Wire

As I am sure everyone knows by now, we had an epic snow storm over the weekend on the East coast. With over 16 inches of snow in the Delmarva area, it was definitely huge.

I was just recovering from a cold so I didn't go out too much, but when it got nice on Sunday my brother and I went into DC with our mom and saw the sights. Near the National Christmas tree, there were a ton of little sparrows hopping around on one of the park benches. I got off a ton of pictures, but I liked when one landed on the chain nearby the best.

Sparrow sitting on Chain in Washington D.C.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Ladybug Mountain

The ladybugs have been especially bad this year in Maryland, but that doesn't keep me from enjoying the photo-ops they present. This one was an unposed pic (I did take a lot more where I did pose the bugs), and I enjoyed watching that bug on top coming in to annoy the one on the bottom who was just hanging out.

I really dug the contrast of bright red of the bugs and tractor with the texture and gray tire treads, and I created quite a few pictures with this same theme.

Ladybugs on old Tire Tread

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Flying Solo

Back in Boise, I discovered a family of Burrowing Owls one day while driving home from work on a back road. It was mid fall, though, and they were gone after 2-3 trips. I remembered it this last summer and went out to the same location again to see if they were back.

I got lucky on that day, and saw the family of owls far out in the field sitting on their mounds. So I pulled over, took out the telephoto and started snapping pictures. As I was checking the pictures, I looked down and saw this little fella in a hole right next to my car. It had an injured wing, so it just sat and stared at me, and made for a perfect model.

Just to ease my mind, I called the World Center for Birds of Prey and told them to go look at the bird, but I am not sure how it turned out ...

Burrowing owl with injured wing

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Green Toe

Here is another picture from the farm back home. When the weather was bad at Thanksgiving, I kept to taking pictures of objects and details instead of landscapes and animals. In fact the weather has not been my best friend lately, and has given me a nasty cold...

This picture is of a statue that was sitting on one of the planters in the garden. I loved the greens of the bronze statue and the green growth on the cement planter.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Close Shave

Using a brush to apply shaving cream has become kind of a lost tradition. I remember my dad taking all the partial bars of soap and adding them into a mug and using a brush to make a nice lather to shave with. Nowadays you just buy the canned stuff that foams on its own, so what's the point.

The left over brush/mug combination does make for a nice picture though.

Shaving kit by window

Friday, December 11, 2009

Rims

This shot was taken at one of my last trips to the Saturday Market in Boise. I had done the fruit and vegetables shots multiple times since I had been down there, so I decided to do something new and shot some of the art booths.

Clay Bowls at the Boise Saturday Market

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

City of Angels

I know that title is reserved for LA and technically NYC is "The Big Apple", but this picture makes me think otherwise.

As we headed over to the Apple Store and FAO Schwartz outside of Central park, I spoted these cool Cherubs along one of the light posts. I didn't really get enough time to frame it right (it was getting really cold and we wanted to head inside to warm up), so I ended up with a tree branch growing out of his arm pit. (Nothing a little photoshop can't take care of).

Cherub statue outside Central Park in New York City

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Skating below Giants

We had thought about ice skating while staying in NYC, but with Dan having a bum ankle and myself having never skated it was probably for the best that we didn't, otherwise Jen/Jason would have had to carry the two of us back. We did get to pause at both Rockefeller Center and Wollman Rink in Central Park (pictured below) to see all the other people trying it out.

It was cool to see all the other photographers at Wollman Rink set up with tripods all along the railing like myself. One of them had some pretty neat levels that he attached to the flash hotshoe to ensure all his pictures were straightened (help reduce post processing).

Ice Skating at Wollman Rink at Central Park in New York City

Monday, December 7, 2009

Parkside

Had an awesome time up in New York City this weekend (thanks Dan and Jen). Not even a rainy day kept us from experiencing all the food and seeing all the wonderful sights. I got a ton of pictures from this weekend, and will be posting up a storm. Its very different to go around a city as a tourist with people that actually live there.

Jen was nice enough to take me around the park on Sunday, and we got to see the lake, the castle and ice skating rink (Christmas is definitely the best time to go see NYC). I like this pic of the park, but didn't really like the colors that much, so I figured why not go B&W.

Central Park Bench in New York City

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Hotel Motel (but not the Holiday inn)

Another shot from the National Harbor tonight.

What really got me to go to this place was the Gaylord Hotel which you can see lit up from 95 (don't ask me if thats 295 or 495, since I obviously have yet to figure it out). I had thought that they were just the interior lights from the rooms, but after going inside I discovered they have these strips hanging from the ceiling covered with strands of lights.

I had started shooting without the tripod, but once the sun went down I wanted to get shots from the inside, and they weren't coming out sharp enough. So I had to waste time going back to the car to get it. Lesson learned: Always take it with me.

Lights hanging inside the Gaylord Hotel in Washington DC

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Oh Tannenbaum

I know it isn't Christmas, just yet, but driving back from DC tonight and passing by the National Christmas Tree; which they lit tonight; I couldn't help but post an X-mas image. I went to the National Harbor two weekends ago (got on the wrong 95, AGAIN), and they have a giant Christmas tree there as well, though it wasn't lit up until this past weekend.

I was amazed though at the large Christmas bulbs, which provided some awesome reflections back of the buildings in the harbor. Hopefully in the next few days I can venture back down there and get a few night shots.

Christmas Bulbs at the National Harbor in Washington DC

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

White Towers

Driving down 495 to Washington DC, you round a bend in the freeway and in front of you is the massive LDS temple. Its a towering stark white building that shines so brightly in the night sky.

Coming home from Turkey day with my brother, we saw the building, and I could just feel my brother rolling his eyes. Getting out and walking around, the building is a beautiful white marble and is very reminiscent of the temple in Salt Lake City. The difficult part of taking pictures of this building was actually the whiteness of the building which made metering difficult. I ended up just overexposing all my images and then backing down the exposure in Lightroom to get the images right.

Washington DC LDS Temple