Archive of ‘Personal’ category

Milwaukee Tour

Wisconsin

Thanks for all the responses from the post yesterday. I had some questions on the photos that were taken out of the plane window. The photos that I posted were all from the Fuji X100s. Although you are allowed to use small electronic devices during takeoff and landing, I did not turn on my phone out of habit. So I took the photos with the small mirrorless camera, then cropped the images in Lightroom so that you can see more of the details out of the window without the frame of the plane, the wing or the engines in the way.

Wisconsin from the air - ©TimeLine Media
Wisconsin from the air – ©TimeLine Media

This is only the second time that I have spent any time in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My mother always takes a city tour when she goes to a new place, so we decided to give that a try. We found Untapped Tours of Milwaukee through an online search, and made it down to City Hall to meet the tour guide. This was probably the best thing we could have done with our time!

Untapped Tours Milwaukee

Untapped Tours bus - ©TimeLine Media
Untapped Tours bus – ©TimeLine Media

The tour stopped at all the sights around the city. With the foggy, but nice weather, there were a lot of opportunities for photos, but more importantly, we found all the places that we needed to visit later. The tour started at the impressive Milwaukee City Hall. Even though the building was being renovated, the size of the building and the scale of its tower was impressive both inside and out.

Milwaukee City Hall clock tower - ©TimeLine Media
Milwaukee City Hall clock tower – ©TimeLine Media

Since we were on a tour, I did not have a lot of time to setup a photo of the building. I just took out my Fuji X100s, and took a series of photos from bottom to top. My thought was that I would combine the photos later in a vertical panorama in Photoshop.It worked! I had to work on the photo with some adjustments due to the way I shot the original images. After the tour, I also had the chance to take more time and make an HDR image. I’ll post more about that on the next Tech Thursday post.

Milwaukee City Hall - ©TimeLine Media
Milwaukee City Hall – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Leavin’ On A Jetplane!

Flying West

It has been a while since I have taken a trip that needed a jetplane to get to the destination. This was a good occasion – an out of town wedding! The best part, is that I did not have any work to do for the wedding! It was another trip that did not have a work-related component attached. So, I went into the trip with a more relaxed approach. However, I still wanted to make some good photos. Especially since it is not every day that I get the chance to travel.

KC-135 on tarmac - ©TimeLine Media
KC-135 on tarmac – ©TimeLine Media

For the trip, I planned what gear to take that would let me take a range of photos without weighing me down too much. Paring down the gear list will also let me carry it onto planes without too much fuss. I brought my Fuji X100s which has a 35mm lens, and my iPhone. For the “big” camera, I brought my Nikon D800 with 3 lenses – a 14mm for a wide angle, a 50mm which is a small, normal, lens, and a 105mm macro lens that I could use as a telephoto or portrait lens.

Fog Over Chicago

747 and Willis Tower on approach to Chicago O'Hare airport - ©TimeLine Media
747 and Willis Tower on approach to Chicago O’Hare airport – ©TimeLine Media

The first plane we boarded was an almost factory-new Embraer 175. From the inside, the modern design was really evident with what seemed like a lot of headroom and legroom for a small regional jet. The first leg of the trip was supposed to be from Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) to Chicago’s O’Hare airport (ORD). The E-175 and the crew provided a smooth flight to Chicago, but Mother Nature had a wrench into the landing plans. Due to the Polar Vortex that brought a lot of cold down from the Arctic, the Great Lakes stayed frozen for much longer than usual. With the warm air starting to arrive it created a lot of fog off the lakes. You can see from this photo, that there is a thick layer of fog closer to the ground. Chicago is usually one of the most beautiful cities to see from the air. With Lake Michigan taking up most of the view, and the tall towers, it is a great view from the plane. Not on this trip! Zooming in, you can just see the top of Willis Tower, the 2nd tallest building in the US.

747 and Willis Tower on approach to Chicago O'Hare airport - ©TimeLine Media
747 and Willis Tower on approach to Chicago O’Hare airport – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Shooting From the Hip – Tech Thursday

Family Get Together

It has been about a week since my last posting – I have not fallen off the face of the Earth! We took an extended weekend to attend a wedding out of town. Of course, I took my camera with me. Now I have a whole slew of images that will make it on the blog soon. Today, though, I want to go back to a family get together to describe a looser, or a freer way of shooting to get a different style of images.

Playing-with-Waterguns-©TimeLine-Media
Playing-with-Waterguns-©TimeLine-Media

This late afternoon was very warm outside. What better way to cool off, than to play with some water guns? The ammo is unlimited, and everyone is a friendly target! This was a perfect time to try a specific technique for photographing kids that I have seen a few times but have not tried myself. First thing to consider – my professional camera bodies are weather-sealed at all of the openings. The connection between the lens and the lens mount is covered by a piece of rubber. This will keep the opening sealed for light water exposure. I have photographed with this camera and lens combination in the rain while covering a football game with no problems. I keep a towel handy, and would stop if there is a chance that much more water will be close.

Side Holstering

Playing-with-Waterguns-©TimeLine-Media
Playing-with-Waterguns-©TimeLine-Media

Knowing that I my camera could stand the water from the guns, I set the camera to a manual exposure so that the settings would not have to change as I fired off frames, and I had the shutter speed set high enough to ensure there would not be blurred photos while running. I had my nephew chase me and shoot at me with his water gun while I ran backwards with my camera pointing towards him. It was easy to get some neat shots of the water coming right towards the camera!

Playing-with-Waterguns-©TimeLine-Media
Playing-with-Waterguns-©TimeLine-Media

Be prepared to delete a lot of photos when you shoot this way. Lots of times, the composition was not perfect, and sometimes I would miss him completely, but so many of these came out nice. I do not think I could have composed these spontaneous images with my head behind the camera, and directing the scene. Sometimes, you have to just let that control go, and hope for the best. It’s just like having fun – you cannot plan every detail, but you may have better results than you planned!

Playing-with-Waterguns-©TimeLine-Media
Playing-with-Waterguns-©TimeLine-Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

1 17 18 19 20 21 68