While walking through historic Old Salem, I became utterly enchanted by the texture of the bricks laid in the sidewalk. I'm not sure if I horrified Jim by lying down on the ground to get the right perspective for this shot, or if he just takes it as par for the course with me these days ...
Shot with Nikon D200 + 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens; 1/500s at f/10 and ISO 200 at 38mm.
This shot from Old Salem, NC was an experiment in framing. I'm reading The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman, and his discussion of proportions and purposeful position of the horizon line was fresh on my mind that morning.
Plus, a big pile of leaves always makes me grin like a little kid.
Shot with Nikon D200 + 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor lens; 1/125s at f/5.6 and ISO 200 at 55mm.
I was playing with focal length, exposure settings, and unusual angles the other day while exploring my own front yard. This shot is almost SOOC; I just applied a quick softening filter in Photoshop before adding the quotation. I'm thinking this might wind up printed and hung on my office wall.
Sometimes, it's just fun to play...
Shot with Nikon D200 and 50mm f/1.4 lens at ISO 200 and 1/400s at f/1.4.
This is the second year we've held a meeting at the Cincinnati Hilton Netherland Plaza. There is an overwhelming amount of stuff to see (and shoot) in this historic hotel.
The literature says it's decorated in the 1930's French Art Deco style.
What I see is a lot of brass, a lot of marble, a lot of mirrors...
...and these intricate wood carvings. You'll find them near the ceiling (being used as moulding) as well as on decorative pillars.
This was the perfect opportunity for me to eschew flash and put my new-found manual-shooting-skills to the test. I shot these with my newest lens: a 50mm that will shoot as low as a delicious f/1.2.
This could easily become my favorite lens for shooting everything except children. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to frame each of these photos ... all of which are SOOC (straight out of camera).
What a beautiful little slice of history.
Last night was a full moon, and it was one of those deliciously clear, crisp evenings that just smells like winter. I was outside taking photos of our new nativity yard decorations when I decided to swing my camera toward the heavens. The first few frames I shot came out as a big, blurry ball. This was my first foray into playing with shutter speed. I can only imagine what I would wind up with if I were shooting at 300mm or 400mm on a tripod, rather than just my 200mm telephoto, hand-held. But this is still a pretty cool shot for what it is. Hmm... astronomy photos... I might just have a new interest... Shot with Nikon D200 using 70-200mm lens, 1/1000s at f/10, December 11, 2008.
This beautiful, haunting sculpture sits in the San Antonio garden of our friends, Rebecca and Charles Ingram. The inscription on the base reads, "The bud was spread/to show the rose/Our Savior smiled/The bud was closed." Shot with Nikon D200 at 40mm, f/5.6 and 1/60s, November 29, 2008.
While wandering across one of the fields in Assiniboine Park, I walked beneath a tree and looked up - to discover it was covered with tiny bulbous fruits. At first, I thought they were cherries ... but as I looked closer, I began to suspect they might be crabapples. They look a lot like the ones we had in our yard each autumn when I was a kid in Virginia. I put my Elph on macro mode and focused it on the fruit hanging directly over my head. Slight edge burn applied in Photoshop.
Autumn comes slowly to Dallas, and is replaced quickly by our bleak, grey version of winter. At the park this weekend, I could see the leaves just beginning to turn, and it made me nostalgic for the crispy, crunchy autumn days I enjoyed in Northern Virginia as a kid. This little leaf, caught in the spotlight of the sun as it filtered down through the branches above, captured my attention. It made for an interesting photo. Shot with Nikon D200 at 200mm, aperture mode, f/5.7, October 18, 2008.
In the spring of this year, while visiting my parents, I participated in their church small group they host in their home every Friday night. I shot candids for them that evening, and as I moved around the room, I spotted my Dad's hand resting on his Bible. My father works extremely hard, and uses his hands to create with wood and metal and paint. I guess you could say at heart, he's a carpenter. So this is a shot of a carpenter's hands with his Bible, a book which tells the story of the carpenter who sacrificed his all for us all. Now how's that for a pretty cool photo? April 2008.
As we watched the balloons air up at the Plano Balloon Festival, it was total visual overload ... the colors were amazing. Shot with my Nikon D200 and trusty 55-200mm lens, at 125mm and f/4.8; RAW format allowed for a little exposure tweaking. September 2008.
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