photography Archives - Page 3 of 12

December 19, 2016December 19, 2016

On Approach

This is a jet on approach to the airport on California. Over the weekend I stayed at the Marriott hotel adjacent to the San Francisco airport. One of its main attractions is to sit outside and watch the jets land. That sounded a bit odd to me until I stepped outside the first morning. Once I saw it for myself I was mesmerized. I’ve been inside of planes countless times but I’ve never just sat and watched the spectacle. There is a strange fascination with watching large objects descend from the sky. I took a few images and this is one of my favorite.

Daily Image

I wasn’t the only one there with a camera, another fellow was out as well. I got the impression that watching the planes is a reason some people choose this hotel. Inside the rooms I couldn’t hear the jet engines so they’ve done a good job with that. Along the water was a bike and jogging path so the area has a nice feel to it despite it’s proximity to the airport.

If I can borrow a popular phrase, this image is a bit of fake news. In fact there were no clouds in the sky so I replaced the sky with clouds from a Florida image. I’m more interested in the feel of an image and this is what I had in my mind. I also added a bit blur to convey motion. To some people this is just cheap photoshop tricks, to me it’s an idea. Meaning I have an idea in my head, I take a photo, and I bring that idea to life through tools.

paintography from the gallery

Just because it might look real doesn’t mean I’m trying to trick anyone. I’m just exploring ideas, having fun and at the same time feeding my creative muse. This is paintography, a mix of photography and digital painting.

October 22, 2016

A Walk in the Park

I got this one afternoon when I decided to take a walk in the park. This is Stanley Park in Vancouver and is one of the best urban parks in North America. It rivals Central Park and Golden Gate Park. I took this at a little pond known as Lost Lagoon where there are some resident swans. You can usually line up a good shot if you just wait for the right moment.

Daily Image

Waiting for the right moment is good advice for landscape photographers. If you stay in a single spot long enough, something is bound to happen. It’s all a question of how long you want to wait. Usually I’ll walk up on a scene and not see anything in particular. The scene can be like a puzzle, however it almost as though a sixth sense tells me there’s something there. I just have to recognize it, compose it, and take the photo. So it could be a matter of focusing in on a small area, or it could be just slowing down and waiting for something to unfold. It’s an inexact science but the longer I wait, the more likely I am to walk away with something worth my time.

Another little technique to add to this is pick a time of day when you think something might happen and then get there a little earlier. For instance, in Florida, right at the crack of dawn the pelicans will fly from their nighttime resting spots to their daytime fishing locations. So if you want to get a sunrise with some pelicans flying by, you get there a little early and wait, but be ready because you might only get one chance, believe me I’ve missed more than I care to admit.

landscapes from the gallery

With this image I planned to come in the afternoon because I knew the sun set across the water from a section of the path. So I got there, waited, noticed the swan swim by, then click and I had my image.

Oh, and one other thing, if you’re going to be out in nature, bring mosquito repellant. I got swarmed as I stood here and waited. Next time I’ll take my own advice and bring some.

October 20, 2016October 20, 2016

Bridge Street Pier

This is another shot taken next to the Bridge Street Pier in Bradenton Beach, Florida. In the morning everything is quiet as the pier casts long reflections on the calm waters of the Inter-coastal. This is my favorite time of day to get photos of places that are normally much busier during the day. Next to me sat a couple on a bench drinking coffee and watching the sun rise. Not a bad way to start the day.

Daily Image

I’ve taken a lot of pictures from here but when I take the time I can usually find a different perspective. So even if I’ve been here, the photo is unique in some way. I don’t mind repeating myself if I’m taking pictures of something pretty and I’m having fun. Whomever said you can’t repeat yourself forgot to send me the memo.

gallery images with reflections

For me, photography is a state of mind more than anything. I have an idea what I want to convey, something peaceful, calm and serene. So no matter where I am I just figure out how to do that. If my inclination was to show some form of action or interaction, I’d take a completely different approach. Photography is a state of mind and if you constantly practice your images reflect that state of mind. That’s not to say I have a peaceful, serene and calm mind, but that yearning is what I focus on.

Anyway, now that I have you in a peaceful state of mind, maybe its time to get a cup of coffee. Or glass of wine depending on the time of day.

October 18, 2016October 18, 2016

Walking into Robson Square

Walking into Robson Square on a Saturday night I took this image in the rain. I know the folks in Vancouver get tired of the rain but I don’t live there and so I kind of like it. Mainly because of how it makes the streets shine and everyone is walking around with umbrellas. I don’t get to see a lot of that back in Florida. First of all, people don’t carry umbrellas. If it’s raining you just wait in your car for a few minutes and it’ll pass. Secondly, we only get rain in the summer, its pretty dry in the winter. So when I come to Vancouver in the winter, I’m okay with the rain while everyone else is more or less resigned to it. Maybe it would be different if I lived there.

Daily Image

Another difference is that Vancouver has a vibrant downtown scene. Most of the city centers in Florida are deserted after dark, everyone lives in the burbs, or by the beach along the water. In Vancouver you can go out walking at night and there is a lot going on; food vendors, restaurants, sights to see, and everything is within walking distance.

Differences are what makes traveling fun; seeing and experiencing different things. I live in a place where people travel to for their vacation, so I’m just like the people in Vancouver, I take it for granted. The tourist down here can’t get over how pretty everything is. That’s just how we’re made, we get used to things and then we might just need a change of scenery.

Vancouver gallery

I took this photo hand held at ISO 10000. Hand holding camera to take a street scene is only possible with the latest technology in my Sony camera. The camera sensors are getting to the point where they’ll be better than our eyes in a very short time. In the meantime, I’ll take my eyes and go out looking at new things when I travel.

October 6, 2016

Museum of Anthropology

This is the back of Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology. I was here last January walking along the coastal trail below this. It was only mid-afternoon yet the sun was already low on the horizon. Vancouver gets about eight hours of light in the winter, but of course the opposite is true during the summer, maybe twice as much.

Daily Image

The museum is full of art, artifacts and history of the original people of the region. As a photographer I was surprised that cameras were allowed inside. You can take photos of anything in the museum. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel compelled to. As I stood in front of the huge carvings and totems I was somehow transported to another time and having a photo seemed, well, inappropriate. Maybe that sounds strange but I felt something to do with the history that could not be captured in an image.

Canada gallery

I think we all carry the threads of connection to people and cultures throughout time. But of course we are unaware of it for the most part. When we come in contact with things from another culture it may spark a nascent memory or feeling. It defies logical explanation because it transcends time and space. So it was with me at the Museum of Anthropology. It doesn’t necessarily change who I am, it just makes me a little more connected to something else. That may sound like a strange thing to say, but, it is what it is, an enigma.

October 5, 2016October 5, 2016

Sunrise Taking Shape

On Monday I noticed a sunrise taking shape as I drove home from the gym. So I grabbed my gear and headed across the river to capture the colors as they lite the sky. I barely made it on account of all the traffic, most people were driving to work. By the time I finished and headed back over the bridge the roads were clogged, fortunate for me I was returning against the traffic. But by the time I got home showered and got ready for work, I was late. But you know something? Getting a nice photo makes it all worth while. Hello Monday.

Daily Photo

This is a combination of two long exposure shots. The bottom half is a three minute exposure and the top half is a five-second exposure. I put it all together with the help of AuroraHDR 2017, an updated photo editing tool from Macphun and Trey Ratcliff. Every now and then I take a photo that begs to have the original colors restored, this is one. By that I mean that the colors of a photo are never as full as the actual scene. AuroraHDR allows some of that to be restored. Of course I use artistic license as well because photography is an expression of art for me.

sunrise gallery

As I write this it’s a couple of days later on Wednesday, aka hump day. I don’t know about you but I look forward to the weekend. Three more days to go. Then all is good, I can take more photos, I can spend more time outside, I can be free for a couple of days, free of deadlines, work, worries. Then, Monday rolls around again and we start it all over again. But maybe with a few Mondays like this I might not mind it so much. (Fingers crossed)

October 4, 2016October 4, 2016

Long Exposure Sunrise

This is a long exposure sunrise shot I took Sunday morning from Anna Maria Island. In reality there are waves and gulls and pelicans flying about. But using a couple of strong neutral density filters I can stretch-out the exposure about two or three minutes to create an entirely different effect. It’s a little like looking through an arc welders mask, very little light gets through.

Daily Image

I have had filters for a while but I recently purchased these Lee filters from B&H in New York. They’ve opened up a world of long exposure photography. And for whatever reason it seems to suit me. I suppose that’s because as I write my blog I like to wax philosophical about photos, and a long exposures seem to fit right in with that narrative. In a way they are ethereal, not quite real, a little removed from reality. That can be a great place to begin.

florida gallery

The funny thing is I don’t write my blog for anyone in particular. I do it only because I like to. I like taking pictures in a creative way and then writing about them. It’s just another way to be creative and for me its a fun thing to do. I would much rather take pictures and write about them than watch TV. Unfortunately I do watch the news almost every day, and that has me running back to my photography as quickly as I can.

August 4, 2016

City on the Pacific

When I was last in Vancouver I took a ride in a seaplane and captured this as we circled around the city. I’ve been meaning to do this for years and glad I finally did. I’ve walked just about every inch of Vancouver and seeing it from the air was a great way to put it all together.

As you can see there is a lot of green space which, in my opinion, is a sign of a healthy city. To the left is Stanley Park which is a little like Central Park in New York only more wild.

I overlaid the image with a texture to convey an almost mythic quality of the city. Maybe it doesn’t seem that way to people who live and work here everyday, but when you draw back and get a little perspective you have to agree there is something amazing here.

more Vancouver images

Vancouver is nothing if not a big concentration of towers. Surely other cities have more, this is only a slice of Manhattan, but this city is surrounded by mountain peaks. It’s the combination of the towers and mountains that strikes you when you visit. That’s then followed by a million other impressions coming at you from every direction in this great city on the Pacific.

July 21, 2016July 21, 2016

Summer Evening

I noticed someone sitting on a rock at dusk in the warm summer air. I took this last week when I went to Fort DeSoto Park in St Petersburg. I can never get enough of this place, no matter how many times I come back I always find something to take pictures of. That’s partly because I live in an urban area and I seek out places with open spaces; this is one along the water.

This time of year we get clouds every evening on account of the afternoon storms. It seems the more severe the thunderstorm the better the clouds afterwards. Even if I don’t have anything to take pictures of I could just focus on the clouds and the colors at dusk.

Images of solitude

When I took this I was standing next to the fishing pier about 50 yards away. It was dark enough that I couldn’t see the person sitting on the rock. That’s a testament to the Sony sensor in the A7RII camera that I use. I can take pictures of something I can’t actually see with my eyes and then bring it to light with post processing. That’s incredible and opens up all kinds of opportunities for photography. I’ve mentioned this before but I keep being amazed at the camera nonetheless.  All that aside, the weekend is coming and I’m looking forward to more thunderstorms, the bigger the better.

July 13, 2016July 13, 2016

Unforgiving

This is another image I took with my Sony 70-400mm G lens fully extended. I almost didn’t bring the lens on the trip because of its size and weight but I’m glad I did. It was key in getting perspectives I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Of course, having a tripod to mount it on was key.

The features of the landscapes like this are amazing and, for me, a little terrifying. The elements are entirely unforgiving. When I look at this my mind projects me onto the slopes and once there I consider my prospects dire. There is no easy way up or down and survival is anything but assured. I’m a problem solver by nature, but when I look at this there are no easy options.

portfolio

Why I do that in my head I don’t know. Why is it that when looking at images like this my heart races? Yet despite my reservations, if given a chance I would probably climb. I would be terrified and on life’s thin edge yet continue nonetheless. Perhaps that’s why I get terrified when I look at this, because I’m already working out the route and know that this mountain is in fact, unforgiving.