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Archive of ‘Personal’ category

Personal, Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Foggy Great Falls

Fog descending over Great Falls, Virginia ©TimeLine Media
Fog descending over Great Falls, Virginia ©TimeLine Media

Inversion over the Falls

Late last year, a thick foggy morning motivated me to get out of the house. Landscape or nature photography is not my forte. However, a foggy Great Falls has been on my list to shoot for a while. Unlike other areas, we generally do not have very foggy days often. On this occasion, the warm morning temperature created a thick inversion over the entire northern Virginia area. So, I got in my car and looked for a place to make some photos.

Great Falls on a foggy morning ©TimeLine Media

When I arrived at Great Falls Park, I knew that this would be a perfect morning for photos. Walking through the parking lot, and the park trails, the fog was still hanging in the air. I was excited about getting to the edge of the falls however, the walk through the park was just as inspiring.

Great Falls trail signs in fog ©TimeLine Media
Trees in the fog at Great Falls Park ©TimeLine Media
Trees in the fog at Great Falls Park ©TimeLine Media
Trees in the fog at Great Falls Park ©TimeLine Media

Finally arriving at the edge of the falls, I propped my camera on a tripod. Though it was not very bright with the thick fog and early morning light, I put on an ND filter. This smoothed out the motion of the water, and made for some nice prints later!

Fog over Great Falls in Virginia ©TimeLine Media
Fog over Great Falls in Virginia ©TimeLine Media

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Shore Birds

Shore birds flying over Featherstone Shores on the Occoquan River, Woodbridge, VA ©TimeLine Media
Shore bSeahawk flying overhead ©TimeLine Media

Woodbridge, VA

Last summer was a great opportunity to photograph shore birds. Some neighbors of my mother built nesting platforms for seahawks at the end of their pier. Along Featherstone Shores large birds will congregate and fly around the area looking for food. With the new nesting platforms, there were osprey that now stayed longer term.

Shore birds flying over Featherstone Shores on the Occoquan River, Woodbridge, VA ©TimeLine Media
Seahawk scanning the Occoquan River ©TimeLine Media

At this part of the river, there are many piers that jut out into the water. With the neighbor having the platforms for the shore birds, I wanted to get a closer look. In the meantime, I took out a camera with me in case there would be a chance for some action.

Two ospreys approaching nest on Occoquan River, Woodbridge, VA ©TimeLine Media
Two ospreys approaching nest on Occoquan River, Woodbridge, VA ©TimeLine Media

Quietly, I walked out to the end of the pier, and setup my position for photographing the birds at the nest. Even though I had the longest lens that I own, I was still woefully short! Indeed birding photography requires the longest lenses to get the most outstanding images! While I had this lens racked out to 200mm, you would need something much longer to get the birds properly such as 400mm or 600mm!

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703-864-8208

Personal, Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Washington Monument

Updating Wall Art

Washington Monument from Tidal Basin ©TimeLine Media
Washington Monument from Tidal Basin ©TimeLine Media

Last May, I went to downtown Washington, DC to get photos of the Washington Monument. We are updating a wall art collection in one room. For that reason, I thought about grouping photos of DC monuments would fit nicely.

Now that I had an idea of what I wanted to create, I set out to make the photos on a clear evening. This time of day is ideal for what I was looking for. I did not want a late evening, or nighttime shot, but the middle of the day would not have the dimension I was looking to have on the monument. When the sun gets lower in the horizon, the shadows will be a little less harsh overall.

Sunset photo of Washington Monument ©TimeLine Media
Sunset photo of Washington Monument ©TimeLine Media

For these photos, I used the 24mm PC-E F/3.5D tilt shift lens. This is one of the sharpest lenses I have in my bag. Secondly, the shift function of the lens helped to correct the ‘falling away’ look of the very tall Washington Monument. As can be seen in the comparison photos, the straightened version is more accurate, and a different perspective than from the ground vantage point that you see.

uncorrected monument 24mm lens ©TimeLine Media
uncorrected monument 24mm lens ©TimeLine Media
shift corrected monument 24mm lens ©TimeLine Media
shift corrected monument 24mm lens ©TimeLine Media

Washington Monument Print

Once I had the settings of the camera dialed in, I moved around the base of the monument. Sometimes the placement of the trees at the bottom surrounding park was distracting. In another case, the construction cranes from a museum going up near the monument was distracting. Finally, I just decided to shoot, and remove the crane out of the print in software for my final selection. It was a successful exercise to gain experience with a lens, and to shoot for a specific purpose.

final black and white wall print ©TimeLine Media
final black and white wall print ©TimeLine Media

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703-864-8208

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