Archive of ‘Personal’ category

Throwback Thursday – TV

“Don’t kill the messenger!”

The form of the “messenger” is ever changing especially in the information age. Although it is usually not a person that you meet face to face, it is usually a screen. For a long time now, our messenger has been behemoth of screen not in terms of size, but in weight and girth – an old Sony XBR CRT TV. This thing was state of the art in Y2K! It had a “flat” screen not that it’s enclosure was small, but that the glass screen in front was no longer bulbous. Thus, giving the picture a much truer perspective for viewers.

Sony CRT XBR TV
Sony CRT XBR TV

This was our first major purchase after we moved into our new house. Emphatically, it became a focal point for our living room. We painted the room a dark red color, we installed black-out shades. Its 4:3 aspect ratio picture was BEAUTIFUL! We paired it with speakers to fill the room with all the chirps, beeps, and booms from the best DVDs. We hosted movie nights, and enjoyed using the technology to bring friends together. Moreover we see films more closely as they were intended by creators.

Original Setting

Home Theater
Home Theater

From other broadcast programming, we were able to witness many important events – presidential elections, inspiring musical performances, 9/11/2001, amazing athletic wins by our college football team, crushing losses by our professional team, and even some of our own creations – old home movies updated to be shared before they are lost.

Sony CRT XBR TV
Sony CRT XBR TV

But technology marches on, and it is finally time to upgrade. The front of the TV has many scars from the few times we have moved it – only once did we change its room, and that was only when the house was changed too. The power button barely has any coating left from all of its use! We were going to wait until the TV would no longer work. All the new movies and TV shows were wide screen, and all the new connections for streaming content from the internet could not be connected due to technical reasons. But we held on to it for almost 15 years. We only hope the new messenger does the job half as well as its predecessor.

Sony CRT XBR TV
Sony CRT XBR TV

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Compositions with Fog

Foggy trees make a minimal composition
Foggy trees make a minimal composition ©TimeLine Media
Foggy trees make a minimal composition ©TimeLine Media

Virginia

Fog can do a photographer a lot of favors. In our part of the world, it is not a common occurrence for us to have foggy days. So if you are looking to get images of familiar places in a new light, adding a bit of fog can be helpful. Sometimes I come upon a scene, and it is not immediately apparent where I should start. Compositions with fog gets me excited since there is a completely different feel right off the bat. I know from the beginning that I am going to get something out of the ordinary, so my creativity neurons start firing when I start looking through the camera.

Pier under a cover of fog ©TimeLine Media
Pier under a cover of fog ©TimeLine Media

Fog acts as a large light diffuser. If there is a sun above it cannot cut through the fog directly affecting your scene. It’s light is spread out across a larger area making the light cast more even. This is the reason why you see studio photographer using large boxes where they place their flashes. A larger light source will make the perceived light softer on your subjects. Fog will automatically do this for landscape scenes.

End of pier over a foggy river ©TimeLine Media
End of pier over a foggy river ©TimeLine Media

Having clear subjects in photos is also a challenge for me. Strong photographs usually have an undeniably clear main subject. With fog it can be easier to isolate a subject for your composition. Clouds in the sky can sometimes make my photos too busy – the fog took care of that problem for me! The stark emptiness adds to the mood while focusing the viewer to what ever is left in the scene. It can give a sense of melancholy, or foreboding, but it does achieve the goal of setting a mood.

Washington, DC

Foggy US Capitol Building and the Capitol Christmas tree ©TimeLine Media
Foggy US Capitol Building and the Capitol Christmas tree ©TimeLine Media

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2014 Dance-o-Rama Sidelines

Standard dancers at Arthur Murray National Dance-o-Rama
Standard dancers at the 2014 Arthur Murray National Dance-o-Rama

Gaylord National

Dance-o-Rama events are undoubtedly the signature gatherings for Arthur Murray dance students. They occur in different cities throughout the year and they make sure that the production is above all of the highest quality. I photographed the local DC area Showcase and Freestyles events, but these Dance-o-Rama events really take it to the next level. On this occasion, the National Dance-o-Rama was held at the Gaylord National right outside of Washington, DC.

Dancers in line prior to going on the dance floor ©TimeLine Media
Dancers in line prior to going on the dance floor ©TimeLine Media

We decided to participate earlier in the year. The preparation to dance at this kind of event starts months prior to the event. They pack a lot of dancing into the weekend, and we really wanted to show well for our studio in front of crowd that stretched much farther than our local area.

Professional Competition

Ashburn, Virginia Arthur Murray professional competing at the National Dance-o-rama ©TimeLine Media
Ashburn, Virginia Arthur Murray professional competing at the National Dance-o-rama ©TimeLine Media
New Jersey Arthur Murray professional competing at the National Dance-o-rama ©TimeLine Media
New Jersey Arthur Murray professional competing at the 2014 National Dance-o-rama ©TimeLine Media

At this time, the professional competition was one of the best reasons to attend a Dance-o-Rama. We saw a lot of familiar faces from the local studios that are friends and customers of our photography. However, we also got to see studios from New York, Canada, the Carolinas, Florida, etc. We were able to see how different our dancing can be stylistically giving us different ideas that we can use and play with. All of us learn from the same base core curriculum, so we have a common place from which to start.

Alexandria, Virginia Arthur Murray professional competing at the National Dance-o-rama ©TimeLine Media
Alexandria, Virginia Arthur Murray professional competing at the National Dance-o-rama ©TimeLine Media
Maryland Arthur Murray professional competing at the National Dance-o-rama ©TimeLine Media
Maryland Arthur Murray professional competing at the National Dance-o-rama ©TimeLine Media

We really enjoyed our time at this event! We placed well within our division, and we hope that we made our instructors proud. We hope to go to another Dance-o-rama as soon as we get to another level of dancing!

Personal photos from the Dance-o-rama ©TimeLine Media
Personal photos from the Dance-o-rama ©TimeLine Media

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703-864-8208

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