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Archive of ‘Travel’ category

Personal, Photography, Technology, Travel | 0 comment

Friday the 13th

It’s a full moon tonight, and on Friday the 13th too! I know there are some crazy stats on how many times that congruence has happened, and how many years it will be until it will happen again. It will be a cloudy evening for us in the metro DC area. So, it will not be a good night for moon watching. I will have the camera at the ready in case there is a break in the clouds! Here are some photos from a less cloudy day in DC.

Washington, DC - Smithsonian Castle - ©TimeLine Media
Washington, DC – Smithsonian Castle – ©TimeLine Media

We walked back to the Smithsonian Castle to get more exterior photos in the gardens at this time. It is always nice to get a second chance at a shoot. This is something that is impossible in most situations. At sporting events, weddings, or corporate presentations, you only get one chance to capture the images that they are wanting. Practice with my gear is really needed in personal shoots like these photo walks. It gets me familiar with all the different settings, where all the buttons are located on the camera body, and how to dial them in. I remember something that I used on this walk to help with the events I covered over the weekend. Moreover I will probably use on my next shoot.

Smithsonian Castle, Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media
Smithsonian Castle, Washington, DC – ©TimeLine Media

The red bricks of the castle really pop out nicely in high dynamic range photos. With the sun high in a partly cloudy sky, the background becomes a beautiful blue. After putting the bracketed images through the HDR processor, you can really boost the structure of the bricks, and the color of sky to make them contrast nicely. I was much happier with the image I was able to get from this walk through than the one a few weeks ago. It was much later in the evening, the sun was a little closer to the horizon giving more direction to the light.

Reflecting pool by Smithsonian Castle - ©TimeLine Media
Reflecting pool by Smithsonian Castle – ©TimeLine Media

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Event, Personal, Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Smithsonian Buildings Tilt Shift

Washington, DC

The blog has been very ballroom dance heavy the last week. The dancing photos have just been a big part of my computer time, so I had them at the top of mind lately. I’ll start switching the subject out today. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to walk around some Smithsonian museum buildings in Washington, DC.

Kryptos statue - Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media
Kryptos statue – Washington, DC – ©TimeLine Media

During the summertime months, the area is filled with groups of tourists, school groups, and other visitors to the city. Mixed with all the government workers going about their business, it is a busy time for this area. I blended in much more with the tourists pointing their cameras at all the recognizable buildings.

Lens Practice

For this walk, I just had one lens on my camera – the 24mm PC-E tilt shift. I wanted to make more comparisons with some larger buildings than the ones in my neighborhood. The Hirshhorn Museum was one that I wanted to try. There are usually not as many pedestrians or large buses parked by the Jefferson Street side, so I went there for my test. Here are the two images, the first uncorrected with the camera pointing up towards the building, the second shifted to straighten the lines of the facade.

Hirshhorn Musem - Washington, DC - perspective uncorrected - ©TimeLine Media
Hirshhorn Musem – Washington, DC – perspective uncorrected – ©TimeLine Media
Hirshhorn Musem - Washington, DC - perspective corrected - ©TimeLine Media
Hirshhorn Musem – Washington, DC – perspective corrected – ©TimeLine Media

The second is really a different view than what you see as you drive by. The main circular section looks to be suspended in mid air one story above street level. As you take photos of the building when you walk by, the “leaning back” perspective is what you normally see from close below the structure. The corrected version seems so straight, that it does not look right to my eyes! When drawing straight lines, though, everything lines up as it would on a sheet of paper if you were making a blueprint of the building. This was my first try, and it will probably not be the last time that I go back to a familiar place that I am accustomed to seeing with distorted vision due to perspective.

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Personal, Photography, Portrait, Travel | 0 comment

Stalking A Seagull

Seagull on pier - ©TimeLine Media

Looking through my photo portfolio, you could say most of my assignments have a lot of action. From ballroom dancers to weddings, and even to fashion shows. There is always a lot of movement and a sense of excitement – at least that is what I am trying to convey in my photos. This post is about an encounter I had with a bird. You would think that this again would have lots of movement, and trial and error to get a sharp image. But it turned out to be one of the calmest subjects I have had in a while.

Shore Bird

Seagull on pier - ©TimeLine Media
Seagull on pier – ©TimeLine Media

This bird was sitting on the pier near where we were grilling dinner. Although there are usually a flock of seagulls (insert music pun here) in the area, this one gull wanted to see what we were doing. It kept a good distance making sure we were not coming after him in a threatening way. So I thought that I could get close for a nice shot.

Seagull on pier - ©TimeLine Media
Seagull on pier – ©TimeLine Media

As I moved closer to the end of the pier, he moved a little further out. He was cautious, but he did let me get close. I tried moving slowly, and as close to the ground as I could hoping that I could move into a better position.

Fluffing Feathers - ©TimeLine MediaFluffing Feathers - ©TimeLine Media
Fluffing Feathers – ©TimeLine Media

The bird really knew that I was following him, so I just stopped about a third of the way down the pier, and moved around his position. Crouching down all produced even better results:

Bird on one foot - ©TimeLine Media
Bird on one foot – ©TimeLine Media

The best results came from putting the camera right down on to boards on the pier. Keeping the aperture open really isolated the focus to the bird. It made the pylons on the side of the pier both in front and behind the bird disappear making for a nice leading line to the subject.

Seagull on pier - ©TimeLine Media
Seagull on pier – ©TimeLine Media

Luckily, the seagull headed to the middle of the pier making for a nice symmetrical composition. I really enjoyed this exercise! After it was clear we were not going to give him any of our barbecue, the gull flew on to find better luck somewhere else.

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