Well this was one of the cutest photo shoots I have ever covered. The National Geographic Kids Club had a petting zoo visit Tysons Corner Center. To say it was a big hit is an understatement! The small animals from Squeals on Wheels were quite the attraction for everyone visiting the mall. There were kids of all ages that wanted to line up and pet the rabbits, chicks, and piglets.
John and Jill the co-owners of Squeals on Wheels gave an orientation to everyone visiting about how to get up close to the animals. They encouraged everyone to greet and touch the animals – “It’s not a looking zoo, it’s a petting zoo!”
The line to come into the zoo was full the entire time they were open. The amount of people that could see the animals at one time was nicely controlled so that everyone had plenty of time and space to visit. It kept the animals calm as well so they did not have to entertain too many at one time!
Not only were there animals, but there was also talented Face painters and balloon makers. Parents and kids had a great time at the club this afternoon, and I am sure they will be back for more events this year. Go to their website for more information, and I’ll see you at the next one!
With all my landscape images, I have been bracketing exposures with the intent to do some post processing on the photos and create a high dynamic range (HDR) final image. One evening, I walked out on the Virginia side of the Potomac River from Washington, DC to the Memorial Bridge. This is a beautiful spot to make images of the Lincoln and Washington Monuments especially in the early evening. With the sun lowering, the white buildings again take on that pink/orange hue of the fading light.
In looking through the set of images that I made after the shoot, I did notice that this night had a smoggy haze. With rush hour traffic starting to build, it did not make for as nice a scene as the crisp winter mornings. The haze came in the middle of the frames underneath the blue, and stayed over the pink part of the sky overlaying this ugly gray layer.
This was just bad luck for the time I happened to be out there shooting. Obviously, it makes me want to try this on a different day. Perhaps I can get a better result next time. In any case, I saw the result from the post processing the bracketed photos with Photomatix. I wanted to compare it to the RAW file images. With this in mind, I had a feeling that being able to shoot at a low ISO. Additionally, with all the detail and information that the Nikon D4 gathers, I could make one of the RAW files that was in the middle of the bracket look just as good as the HDR image.
What I learned in looking at these photos, is that there is not a huge difference between the dark and light sections of the photo. Moreover it is very possible to make one exposure similar to a realistic HDR image from 7 bracketed photos. The Raw file was adjusted in Adobe Lightroom with just some contrast, clarity, and vibrance added to the original file.
I then adjusted the white balance of the scene to mimic the HDR, and these photos looked very similar. Although it is not something that I am comfortable yet pre-visualizing. So it is nice to have the bracketed photos as a backup. I will probably continue to shoot both ways, and processes them in 2 ways, until I can more easily predict when it will save me a lot of time and memory card space to shoot just one photo instead of the whole series.
Tick, tick, tick – today is the last day to view and buy photos from the 2013 DC Dance Challenge! After tonight, the images will be removed from the website, and put in the archive. We need to make more room for new events – starting with our first event of the year this upcoming weekend. There was some great ballroom, and Latin dancing from the participants, and an awesome professional Argentine Tango show to end the day.
Thanks to Fabio and Jennifer Bonini that have had us cover their event the last couple of years. They worked very hard every year to bring more to the dancers so that they have a good time on the dance floor and off. This last competition had their special challenges landing on the week of a federal government shutdown. This resulted in a change of venue right at the last minute, and they pulled it off nicely. The Ronald Reagan building was a beautiful venue for their event, and it would be nice if this becomes the new venue as it was great for photos.
Whatever or where-ever the competition is held, you know that it will be worth your time to get in front of their judges, and enjoy the dancing of your friends and studio mates. They also have some great shows, and the unique “Dancing with the DC Stars” competition. We hope to be invited back again this year, so stay tuned to their website for more details as the date comes closer.
