You Looking at Me?

Taken at Haynes Point in Washington, DC.

Tractor Tire

This is a close up of the tractor tire at my grandparents place. I think this is a Ford 8N tractor but I am not sure. I was drawn to the cracked and peeling paint and the many layers that have built up over the years.

Picture-wise my vacation was a bust. I had a cold and it rained most of the time (which is good since we had not had rain in months). Still nice to have some time off.

Amo, Amas, Amat

Not wanting to play favorites, I have to post this impromptu shot of Rowan from this weekend. She came into my office, picked up the book and started to go through it. For those of you in the know, you can see Wheelock and other Latin books on the shelf behind her, including the Latin: An Intensive Course which Drea and I were using in the class where we met. Latin, 8am, 5 days a week.

Duncan's Haircut

Another image with some out of the ordinary processing done to it. I love the older film look to the processing. But in the end, I picked this image for his expression. When Duncan is getting his haircut is about the only time he looks like this. Very serious and distant. He never sits still like this at home.

Fallen Apples II

Here is the more conventional processing for the images. I still like it in a different way from the other version. Less aggressively dark and sinister and more a still life about some apples rotting on the grass.

Fallen Apples

My wife calls these the "Evil Apples." I was playing around with some presets from the Lightroom community and came across one that emulates the style of the movie 300. I really like how it looks on this image, especially since the original was so different (I will post that one tomorrow). To me this looks like a classic still life from the 18th century.

Sorry about the delay in posting recently. The whole family has been sick with colds this past week. Hopefully with being on vacation this week to get out and take some fall images, I will get back on the mend. Thanks for stopping by.

(Where was this taken?)

Welcome Fiona and Happy Birthday Duncan

Time for a completely personal post. I just wanted to say happy birthday to my son Duncan who turned 3 years old today. He got his first guitar, and I am expecting great things one day from him. The other big news of the day is that we adopted a chocolate lab mix from the local rescue shelter. She came to us called Brownie but we have decided to call her Fiona. Very busy day.

In Memory of Tobias Anaya

"In Memory of Tobias Anaya - For those of you who may not know, Tobias Anaya died last Tuesday, November 29th. He was 80 years old and lived in Galisteo all his life..." So says the plague on the cross outside the Old Galisteo Cemetery in Galisteo, NM. Of course, I did not know Mr. Anaya but the memorial that was put up in his honor speaks volumes to the lives he must have touched in his day.

Tobias Anaya has a piece of artwork in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution.

Cannons in Snow

I had to wait a long time to get this shot. Not that it took long to get it once I got on site at Battery Heights in Manassas National Battlefield Park, but it took a long time for it to snow here in VA such that I could get a shot of cannons in the snow. I think I had to wait two winters before I had a chance where snow and opportunity matched up. Of course I ended up taking a lot of images that day, until I got worried that my camera and lens were going to be snow-covered too.

Moon over Senate

One morning I happened to be in Washington DC early for some training, so I went wandering around the US Capitol building. I remember it was bitterly cold but the light was great and the Moon was shining. I wandered around looking for various angles to place the Moon. I like this shot because it looks like the Moon is rolling down the roof of the Senate wing.

Washington in Fall

This was taken a few years back but is one of my favorite images of fall in Washington. I hope we have a decent fall this year; however, with the drought it might come and go very quickly.

Make Mine a Rusty Nail

Hold the Scotch and the Drambuie. I found this nail and wire while out and about. I enjoy messing around with depth of field and angles. Also from a design element point of view, I think the triangles, circles and lines come together well.

Rope and Shadow

Ok, I'll give the sailing cruise images a rest with this one. There are so many details on a boat to shoot, you could spend a whole day and not get everything. I often go down to the Washington Marina in Alexandria to shoot boat closeups. This one from the cruise would not have worked without the sun in the right spot to cause the shadows. I like the combination of curve and line as repeated throughout. Thanks for stopping by.

Red Ribbon Curve

Getting near the end of the sailing cruise images, just todays and tomorrows left (I hope you don't mind). This image is of the various sails, rigging and mast of the sailboat. What I really like about this is the red ribbon that matches the curve of the sail. I have others were the ribbon is not in the same place, and I don't think those images are quite as strong. Thanks for stopping by.

Little Boats All in a Row

I tried a number of different angles on this image from both sides of the main boom. This was my favorite, but I also liked some from the other side. I thought about cranking down the aperture to get more DOF on this; however, I decided to let the trailing boat go blurry.

Happy Birthday Andy

On the left is Captain Jennifer and on the right is Andy, who was out with his whole extended family celebrating his 85th birthday on the Bay. We all sang "Happy Birthday" to him when we got back to port.

Canvas Abstract

I like the lines and shadows of this image. Lots of nice diagonals, triangles, etc. To me this image is full of motion and direction. Moving forward and up but not to the emptyness of the shadow.

Backlit Sailboats

Not much to say on this one. As far as technique the main challenge was to keep the sun off my lens and not include people on my boat. The sail acted as a great big diffuser and gave me a lot of shade to work from. I'm not yet sure I like quite all that much water in front, but for now I am happy with it.

Come Sail Away

This weekend my camera club went on a field trip to Annapolis for an afternoon sailing excursion with Schooner Woodwind Cruises. It was a great trip with lots to see and photograph. I have a lot of pictures that I am pretty happy with so this week will be images taken on the trip.

As for this image, there is no existential angst here. However, I did have a number of images of this scene and have chosen the only one where the two boats do not actually overlap. The flag of the boat in the background is just within the triangle of the rigging of the foreground boat. This was exactly what I was shooting for here and with three boats (the two here and the one I am on) all moving at different speeds, I am very pleased that I was able to catch it. Having the ability to burst a bunch of frames really helps.