Komatsu Quarter Tire

While out and about in greater DC suburbia, I happened across a Komatsu wheel loader sitting in the parking lot of a shopping center. It was bright yellow and thought that it looked interesting. So I pulled up alongside and began to look at it to see what I could see. Industrial abstracts are interesting to me (George Barr has been doing a great series from a local machine shop). I liked this image because the eye naturally wants to complete the circle, which gives it some internal motion. The white line is another important element that helps fill an otherwise empty space in the image and provides a bit more of a kick. Thanks for stopping by.

Steel Cross

As I was stopped waiting for a light under an overpass for the Fairfax County Parkway, I decided to stick my camera out the window and see what I would get. I had no idea what was up there, just point and shoot. What I got was unexpected, this steel cross.

I processed the image in a traditional way first using Lightroom but was not completely convinced the image met my vision. I saw something strong and dramatic, but I was not getting that from my processing. So as I am wont to do when things are not quite coming together, I created a virtual copy of the image and ran through some of my presets to see if something else works better. That is how I hit on this one. I used an extreme desaturation preset and added back in some color to the girder. I love presets in LR.

Chili Fire

Another shot from the 10th Annual Great Downtown Ithaca Chili Cook-Off and WinterFest. As I wandered around, I saw a guy stoking this fire, which was in a brick oven sitting on a trailer. Now I have seen pit BBQs in the South on trailers but never before have I seen a brick oven on a trailer. I liked the smoke and the flame. Something different.

Kepler Flyover

I sat on my back deck the other evening and watched the Moon rise in the still blue sky. The blue hour is always so cool and to have a nearly full Moon was great. I had my 100-300mm zoom on the camera because I really wanted to get some images of jets going past the Moon. I live right under the routes for Dulles airport. No jets, but I did get this flock of birds flying by. And luckily in this one shot I managed to get a bird (hiding the Kepler Crater if you want to zoom and check it out - I know super geek alert) crossing the Moon while the other caught the light of the setting Sun with their underwing plumage. Thanks for stopping by.

Chili Pepper Meets Clown

We happened to be in Ithaca, NY this weekend just as their 10th Annual Great Downtown Ithaca Chili Cook-Off and WinterFest was getting underway. I wandered around practicing my street photography. Man was it COLD out there. But the people were very nice and this clown was having a grand time entertaining everyone.