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.
Almost a year ago my wife and I were sitting in our living room and I looked out the window and noticed a beautiful cloud formation. We rushed into the car and drove west. I was able to capture this with my 35mm summicron.
Keeping it short today. Couple weeks ago when I was driving around Bluffton, Indiana I came across this old grey barn. Again, it was in the middle of the day which does not make for good shooting but I put my 3.0 ND filter on my 21mm lens and shot 7 exposures to create an HDR pic. I think it turned out well? I really like the movement of the clouds.
If you have not noticed, I don’t stick with one photography genre very well. My last 10 posts have been a combination of portraits, HDR’s, sunrises, sunsets, black & white, wildlife, etc. I’ve always been someone who likes to explore, try new things, and have many interests that have no relation. Probably my only constant enjoyment is my wife (I’ve been with since junior high). For example, I am a foot and ankle surgeon by day, an avid photographer by night, I enjoy playing basketball 2-3 times a week, I weight lift, enjoy politics (but don’t talk about it openly), and have a very strong interest in anything technology related (I’ve always been the go to guy with computer repair or technology related questions). I’ve yet to find anyone with similar interests (it’s usually one or the other).
Having all these interests have made me well rounded. I feel as if I can find some association with all people I talk to, and credit my broad interests in allowing me to do so.
In keeping with my theme or I guess “no theme” todays post is taken at the cemetery that I wrote about a few days ago. What really caught my attention was this large Jesus crucifixion on the east side of the cemetery. It set on a large slab of concrete about 4 feet off the ground and all that could be seen behind it was the sky. I felt it would be a great place to take an HDR or time lapse shot but after attempting this many times I really didn’t like the angle (I wish I was at eye level with Jesus). I decided to put up my 28mm summicron and take a few shots with my 50mm summilux wide open. After taking this shot I realized I was wasting time with my 28mm summicron. The 50mm summilux with it’s beautiful bokeh was definitely the way to go!
We were eating at a sushi restaurant called Nobu in Dallas, TX. As we were leaving, I looked across the street and there was an amazing building with awesome architecture. I ran to it and grab this pic.
P.S. This image works great for a wallpaper for your smartphone. Feel free to download and use it.
It’s been an amazing past few weeks with the wonderful weather. Hopefully it continues. Here’s a picture I took with my Sony NEX-7 and Leica 90mm macro elmar using the Novoflex adapter. Leica glass on this already great camera, makes even more remarkable pictures. Oh, and the “pixel peaking” feature on the NEX-7 for manual focusing is wonderful and probably will be used by others because of how well it works.
I find flowers nice to look at but don’t typically consider them good enough subjects to take pictures of. Probably, because so many people already take pictures of them.
Another reason why I don’t like taking pictures of flowers is because of the composition. Composition is a combination of what you have included in your picture and the way or perspective you took it. For example, when taking pictures of flowers almost always, you stand over them and point down towards the ground. This allows for the flower to be in the foreground and dirt in the background. Dirt obviously is not very eye pleasing and rarely allows for enough contrast between it and the main subject.
One way to change the composition is to be creative an attempt pictures from different vantage points, one in which you typically don’t see. The picture below is an example. Near our driveway we have an island of landscape that is elevated. Because of this I was able to lay down and allow for the sky to be used as my background. This allowed for the tulips to really stick out.
I spent almost 4 years of my life in Des Moines, IA going to school. Twice a year I head back to my old school and each time I spend some time wandering around downtown. It’s not even comparable to Chicago or New York but they have a very nice and beautiful downtown.
A couple of years ago as I was walking around, I noticed that there were a bunch of bike racks with bikes to rent. Since I don’t live there I’m unsure how often they are used but I think it’s a good idea.
