This 2019 Lumen Rooftop shoot was done for the Tysons Partnership. Because their mission is to coordinate efforts among partners to guide the development of the area, these would work nicely for them. From the top, you have a panoramic view of the surrounding area.
While I have been making images for years in Tysons, this was a perspective that did not exist previously. From here I could see Tysons Corner Center where I photographed so many events from the Plaza. Additionally, you can see the Arthur Murray in Tysons and the McLean Hilton where I base the majority of my ballroom dance shoots. Overall it was a privilege to have this kind of access. Thanks to Rob from HOAR Construction who escorted us to the unfinished rooftop! Additionally thanks to the Tysons Partnership for reaching out and initiating this project.
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.
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.
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.
To follow up from a post a few Fridays ago, I’m posting here more black and white photos I made specifically for the Facebook Black and White Challenge. Being that these were made over the holidays, we spent a lot of time with our family. The familiar surroundings sometimes makes it difficult to make new photos. The scenes are too familiar, and nuances that make for compelling images seem difficult to pick out. Sometimes, you just need to change your angle. Get higher, or get lower. That is usually my first go-to move! Here Dani, a little dachshund becomes much larger in the photo. I put my head and camera right on the ground. I took a series of photos as she sniffed around the grass. In a stroke of luck, she licked making her look like a lioness!
Dani-in-the-yard
Moody Environments
In these other photos, the mood was really helped by a thick fog rolling in from the river. It was an unusually warm air day, but the water was still cold creating the foggy scene. You could almost feel the low ceiling when you were standing by the edge of the water. Not too much noise was cutting through their either – only lapping water and shore birds. This image of the tree branches cutting through the negative space of the cloudy background made me think of canvas paintings of a coastline. This is almost exactly how the photo was captured in camera:
Trees-through-the-fog
The last took a little more work in Photoshop. I placed a neutral density (ND) filter in front of my wide angle lens. This filter does not change the color tone of the scene, it only makes it darker – like sunglasses for your camera! Putting the camera on a tripod, the ND filter allows you to lower the shutter speed which makes the moving water smooth into a blurry sheet at the bottom of the photo. To simplify the photo even more, I removed some string running across the pylons, and other piers that jutted into the left and right sides of the frame. It makes for a more minimalistic presentation that my eye likes much more than the original. Have a great weekend, readers!
