Thanks to all that serve, past & future…
Storm is coming
Lone Goal
Re-post June 2011
Since starting this site in May I have not mentioned a whole lot about my self with the exception of having a newborn. I have many enjoyments in life, including spending time with my beautiful wife and daughter, playing basketball, lifting weights, working on computers, photography, and work which consists of fixing peoples ankles and feet. I guess I have to say that I’m very diverse in what I do.
My wife grew up in the country and her father put up a basketball goal in their yard. She never had interest in playing basketball but always watched me throughout high school (yes, we are high school sweethearts). Often times we would go out and shoot baskets for fun. I never thought much about the placement of the basketball goal but it sits out in the middle of a field with a small tree along side it. The solidarity of this structure interested me and thought it would be a great picture opportunity.
Horizon
Downtown Chicago
Re-post May 2011
It was a nice clear night and I was looking for a good shot of downtown Chicago. We walked below the Michigan Ave. bridge crossing the Chicago River. This is a 5 exposure HDR. Initially shot in color, I prefer it in black and white. I hope to return to Chicago soon, it’s my favorite city to travel to.
Des Moines @ Night
Re-post June 2011
I drove into Des Moines tonight for a meeting and thought I would capture some pictures. Des Moines is one of my favorite cities. Since graduating in 2005 from Des Moines University there has been a significant amount of renovation to the downtown area. I love the architecture and it’s always a great place to take pictures.
Iowa’s State Capitol sits on the east side of downtown (immediately behind me in this picture). There is a lot of sidewalks and landscape to its west. It also sits up high in comparison to the remaining downtown which allows for some great cityscapes. Also, I love how Locust street ends in front of the capitol thus allowing for a unique perspective.
This shot was taken at dusk using my Leica M9 and 90mm summarit-m. As Leica owners know, summarit is considered their “affordable” lens (most would disagree). Anyway, I’ve been very happy with its sharpness and have taken many great pictures with it.
Looking for reflections
The Abandoned School
Re-post from July 2011
A few days ago I decided to travel the local country side to look for interesting structures to take pictures of. It was in the middle of the afternoon and is typically the worst time to take pictures because the sun light causes very harsh shadows and typically the camera cannot compensate for the amount of exposure. Besides HDR photography there are other ways to fix this problem. One way is to use a neutral density filter.
Neutral density filters are either colorless or grey and reduce and/or modify the intensity of light without harming color rendition. This allows photographers to shoot in situations that typically wouldn’t allow them. These filters come in different intensities, which allow for different shooting techniques.
I recently purchased B+W ND 3.0 at B & H Photo for my Leica 21mm Elmarit lens. It allows me to shoot in very bright light, thus allowing proper exposure. It can also be used to create a time lapse picture which shows the motion of clouds or objects in front of it. As I was driving around I came across this old school (built in 1896) that appeared to be on its last leg. You can see in the pic, the motion of the clouds in this 4 second exposure.
The Empty Pier
Re-post July 2011
Last year when traveling to the Outer Banks in North Carolina I was able to get a lot of good pics. One morning I decided to get up and drive to the Avon Pier. I walked around the pier trying to find the best place to setup for some great sunrise shots. I initially was standing up on a mountain of sand hoping it would give me a great vantage point but as soon as I could setup, the owner of the pier came out yelling at me telling me to get off. She explained that they are there to help protect their structures during hurricanes, and they cost a lot of money. After I told her what I was doing she was then nice enough to allow me to go up on the pier for few pictures. Here is one of those pics.