Posts in Category: architecture
2/10/2009
Power
An 18 hour travel day yesterday precluded any Pic of the Day posting, so, no, you didn’t miss one.
Taking a break from the Jack London State Park series, this is a shot from the same day, taken at the one safe place to pull off Highway 37 between Vallejo and 101: the wildlife viewing area under the bridge at Sonoma Creek.
I do not generally find power lines scenic, but there was something compelling about the line of towers leading back to the limited sun on the hills behind Vallejo. The geometry of it if nothing else. I took several shots, using the zoom for different framing. This one, taken at about 300mm equivalent, emphasizes the geometry. I like the way the second tower comes through the first, and then the rest curve off into the diminishing distance.
Sony DSC H50. F5.6 @ 1/840th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Some Recovery in Lightroom for the sky, Vibrance and Clarity, and the Landscape sharpen preset.
From Vallejo and Sonoma.
1/20/2009
Blind
Fresh from Florida and not orange juice. This is a blind (or hide as our British friends call it) at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I was attracted to the color of the wood, the geometry of the structure, and the contrast with the amazing vista behind it. The wide angle end of the Sony’s zoom framed the corner nicely and by the second shot, I was seeing well enough to carefully place the horizon in the viewing ports.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide angle (31mm equiv.). F5.6 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I applied a bit of recovery for the texture in the wood and to darken the sky from its exposed value. I moved the black point up a bit for contrast. Added Clarity and Vibrance, and used the Landscape sharpen preset. Since the stark geometric shapes of the wood are set off against the background, I blew up the image and checked for Chromatic Aberration and Purple Fringing (two common artifacts in digital cameras. The first a lens flaw, and the second a sensor flaw). There was no CA, but there was some Purple Fringing in the corners of the image. Lightroom’s CA sliders took it out.
The image is from the Space Coast Birding Gallery.
1/14/2009
Door
Still in rainy Orlando and spending my days pretty much inside, so this is from the archives, as they say. The door of St. Anne’s Church in Kennebunkport Maine. This particular denomination build a series of these rustic rock churches all up the coast of Maine at one point, maybe a hundred years ago. St. Anne’s is among the largest and most beautiful. It sits on a point of land at the mouth of the Kennebeck river, overlooking open ocean on one side and the beaches and harbor of Kennebunkport on the other. It is a very popular wedding venue.
It is also very well maintained. This shot of the door and flowers by the door catches all the amazing range of textures involved in a stone building of this vintage, and is really a study of the way light interacts with the various materials, angles, and shapes. Close cropped for composition, straightened a bit for perspective. An overcast day, so the light was gentle and diffuse, molding the shapes without casting heavy shadow.
Sony DSC H9 at about 70mm equiv. F3.2 @ 1/80th @ ISO 125. Programed Auto.
Cropped and straightened in Lightroom. Vibrance and Clarity and Sharpened.
The image is from the Around Home Gallery.
12/15/2008
The Capital
My one and only visit to Washington DC was a very compressed three day marketing course, held in a building right off the Mall, which kept me effectively locked up inside all day. The only time I had to actually see anything was after class and I spent two evenings walking the Mall from end to end. Of course the challenge in a place like Washington, with what has to be one of the most photographed sets of monuments and buildings in the world, is to find fresh angles. Neither day I was out was particularly clear (which is what happens when you build a city in a swamp), so the long vistas were difficult, unless the haze was part of the image. For this shot, I had already done the immediated grounds of the Capital, and shot the building from every angle. Down by the brass works near the reflecting pool, I was spending some time on the monuments there, trying all the angles. This shot, even though there is significant distorted perspective from the moderately wide angle lens setting, provides, imho, an interesting angle on both the statues and the building. There are three subjects and the real effect of the image can only be seen if you step back and look at it as a graphic. Then the three elements strike what I like to think is a visual chord.
Taken with the Sony H9, at about a 40 mm equiv. for effective cropping. F5.6 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I applied a bit of Recovery for the texture in the marbles, and added Clarity and Vibrance. Landscape Sharpen preset.
This is from the Capital Gallery.
12/4/2008
Bamburg Castle, Nothumbia UK
My 4 day trip to Scotland and back through Northumbia was one of the most amazing photographic journeys I have ever taken. A friend and I drove (he drove, I rode) 1400 miles in what amounted to 3 days, as we spent one full day on the islands of North Uist, Benbecula, and South Uist in the Hebrides. The last day, on the way back to Manchester and my flight home, we came down the coast of the North Sea, past a series of amazing castles. The was the last one of the day, and by far the largest. Bamburg Castle. We drove up a side road along the tops of the dunes to get this view back at the Castle. There was some sea mist, mixed with intermittent rain, but we caught the castle in a rare moment of English sun.
The mist provides a soft and distant look to the castle, while the grasses in the foreground are sharp and clear. I like the contrast. We spent maybe 15 minutes at this spot, and I tried a variety of angles, most without the immediate foreground.
Sony H50. F5.6 @ 1/500 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I used Recovery to pull detail out of the clouds. You can see that the whitest of the clouds is still a bit burned out as the sensor reached the clipping point. Still, a darker exposure would have been hard on the foreground. Added Clarity and Vibrance, and used the Sharpen Landscape preset. For this shot, I also adjusted the contrast slightly, trying to cope with the haze.
This is from the Scotland Gallery.