Tall Trees with Autumn Leaves

Originally uploaded by dgmiami

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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Your Boat is Ready!

Originally uploaded by dgmiami

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!

Miami From Above – Residential Islands and Miami Beach

Originally uploaded by dgmiami

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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Another sunrise photo in Miami

Originally uploaded by dgmiami

Most of the pictures that I have posted to my Flickr account have been geotagged. That is, they have information attached to them which gives the location of where the photo was taken at.

Geotagging can happen without much interaction if you use a GPS enabled phone to take pictures and upload them to a photo sharing service like the one I use. The picture of this cruise ship at sunrise was obviously taken in Miami, but what if you wanted to take a similar picture when you are in this area? By clicking on the picture and then scrolling down to the “Additional Information” on the bottom right of the photo page, you will see a link to the map for that picture.

As long as the photographer has allowed geotagging, or manually adds pictures to the Flickr map, you will get a pretty good idea of where the picture was taken from.

One caution about leaving geotagging “on” at all times… Remember that if you don’t want people to know where you live, work, or frequent, you may want to think twice about using it. Like I mentioned, MOST of my stuff is mapped, but some things just aren’t!

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