Saturday, October 24th, 2009
So, I was in the Seattle, Washington area earlier this month for a conference at Microsoft when I found out that it happened to be the peak of the season for the leaves changing colors. With a little research, I found out about the Washington Park Arboretum.
The Arboretum consists of 230 acres including North America’s largest collection of Sorbus and Maple. Since I had NEVER seen this up close and personal, I eagerly drove to the park to see the famous colors of fall that everyone talks about. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised!
My GPS took me directly to the visitor’s center at the park where I promptly gathered my back pack along with my camera to capture the spectacular beauty of the colorful trees. I shot hundreds of pictures (many bracketed for HDR later) as I walked along clearly defined paths in the park. The colors of fall are indeed something to be seen first-hand. Whether you are in the Pacific Northwest, or elsewhere, take a drive to one of these areas in the middle of October and see what you have been missing!
In capturing the image here, I was challenged with framing it properly. There is actually a sprinkler head on a pipe sticking out of the ground about 2 feet high just behind the center tree. I had to take small steps left or right of my optimal composition to get the shot you see here. My walk in the park was cut a little short that day unfortunately, as the famous rain in Seattle started to come down and chased me out of the park.
I hope you all get to see this in person sometime – it is spectacular!
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Tags: camera phone, colors, Fall, Flickr, Foliage, geotag, green, hdr, leaves, location, orange, Photography, photos, pictures, purple, random photos, red, Seattle, sky, tree, washington, yellow
Posted in Flickr, Photography, Places, Seattle | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
During my current trip to Alabama, I took a ride into Oak Mountain State Park on what most considered a horrible rainy afternoon. While driving through, I saw a lake to my right and was fortunate enough to find that NO ONE was around! Their loss, my gain…
When I came around the corner, I saw a beautiful clash of colorful paddle boats and canoes sitting at the dock. The amount of color was just too much to walk away from, so I parked in the empty lot, put on the best lens I had with me, and walked out to the dock looking for the right angle to get this capture.
All I can say is walk around your subject until you can see what you really want to capture. I never imagined I would stand where I did to capture this shot. But, it was the best for lighting and color. Time was also on my side when the sky opened up and I caught the gorgeous blue sky with gray and white clouds just above the tree line. Don’t stay in if it is raining, you never know what you will find!
Tags: alabama, boats, Flickr, geotag, lake, location, Photography, photos, pictures, red, tree, water
Posted in Downtown, Everglades, Flickr, Miami Beach, People, Photography, Places, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, April 20th, 2009
First and foremost, a very big thank you goes out to my buddy Ross at www.floridaphoto.com for a great flight on a perfect afternoon yesterday. Can’t wait to do it again!
Last time I went flying with Ross I had a Sony DSC-H1. The pics came out ok, but back then I was a pure point-and-shoot kinda guy. No manual settings, everything was set to automatic. The pictures came out fine, but nothing like the ones from yesterday using manual settings on my 450D!
I started out trying to shoot at ISO 100, then 200, only to find out that my shutter speed was way too slow for what I wanted to capture. Based upon his suggestions, I made some adjustments and all I can say is THANKS – it definitely made a difference in the sharpness of the pics.
Another thing I learned is that next time, I won’t be attempting to use my circular polarizer AND I will wear a dark color shirt to minimize the reflections from the inside of of the window on my side. Of course, one of those nifty holes in the window on the other side will help as well Ross – LOL.
If you are looking for aerial photography around South Florida – take a look at Ross’ site mentioned at the opening of this entry. If he doesn’t already have what you want, you won’t be disappointed with his work!
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Tags: aerial, beach, Flickr, flight, florida, flying, geotag, islands, miami, Miami Beach, Photography, photos, pictures, water
Posted in Downtown, Flickr, Miami Beach, People, Photography, Places | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
Some days are just much busier than others. Today was just one of those days that there was no time to do anything productive in using the camera or learning something new. Then, when I finally left my office, I was confronted with degrading weather conditions here in Miami. It was a dark sky, windy, there was a little rain coming down, and worse of all, there was lightning in the sky.
So, the next best thing to do? Look for stuff online, answer emails, and then create a badge from my most interesting Flickr photos. A badge is simply a mosaic of pictures that is shown where I put in a code on that page. Once it is pasted into a page, a small collage of pictures will appear. Every so often, the pictures will change within the badge.
Below is my “interesting” badge courtesy of Flickriver. When clicked, you will see my pictures on a black background as opposed to the typical white background on flickr. Come back every so often to see if they change!
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Tags: Flickr, flickriver, Photography, pictures, random photos
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
