Using Light As a Background

I've really struggled photographing humans. Probably one of the biggest reasons I've never really pursued doing portraits in the past. Sure, I've succeed and taken some nice shots, but call it an irrational fear, but people suck. They aren't symetrical and they rarely for nice lines...well. I might just be afraid and that it.

This next shot was from our trip out to Oxbow Park I keep talking about. I dang near filled up a 4 GB card.

We took the kids to see the keepers of the zoo do a demo about birds of prey that were on exhibit here. When I saw this one at home, I got a nice smil in my heart. I took a picture of a human and I liked it!

I used the the bright light in the background to take care of the horrible background. I gotta say, the bird turned out pretty well too.

Second Chances

Back in September of 2007, I went to Oxbow Park in Byron, MN on a Photo Safari with Community Ed. If you go back to that set, I took a picture very similar to this one, but this time, the lighting was very much different. I've also changed how look through my lens.

Not sure I nailed it this time, but I do like second chances. Thoughts?

Americana Flag

This is another shot from our friends house taken July 4th.

Not sure what it was about this decoration they had, but I really enjoyed studying it.

I'm sure about a million of these are probably in circulation, but the hand crafted look is kinda cool.

This particular one has a nice weathered look.

Flowers are fun

I really need to figure out what kind of flowers these are, they are just fun to shoot.

I took this shot the weekend of the 4th of July at our friends house. As I've said, the Mrs of the house has quite the green thumb and one of my recurrent tasks for the weekend is to photograph her lovely flowers.

As shot, natural light, nothing fancy.

Back to the Arch of St. Louis

I'm still working my way through the summer of photography. I found this one in the photos I took in St. Louis of the Arch.

You can tell by the haze that it was nearing a billion degrees that weekend and the humidity was, um, a bit high.

Unfortunately, I don't get to St. Louis but once ever 40 years, so, unless that changes, I got what I got.

As usual, this is as shot, right out of the camera.

Grey Wolf

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Originally uploaded by OhCaptain1

We took the kids back to Oxbow Park and Hollman Zoo a week ago. Shooting this zoo can be a challenge. All the animals are kept in cages with chain linked fences. Not really fun to shoot through.

I did manage to capture this wolf looking off to the distance. What a beautiful animal.

Just before the crack

While out on the Scott Kelby Photo Walk, I discovered a reflection that I had never seen before. This is the Plummer Building reflected in the window of the University Square shopping and U of M campus.

Moments after taking this camera, I heard a sound that no photographer ever wants to hear. I picked my camera bag up off a park bench and felt it suddenly get lighter. This was followed by the sickest sound I've ever heard. My 70-300mm lens had fallen from my bag and landed on the sidewalk.

We went for beer, I cried a little.

But I'm here to tell you...Canon support ROCKS! Within a week, they had returned my lens with the auto focus and image stabilizing fixed! Woot! Woot!

Thankfully, I had a UV filter on the end which protected the glass from damage. For a little less then $100, my baby was back in my bag. Anyone know of a good case for these?

The Plummer Building: in the details again

Like I said in the last post, the Plummer Building was built with an eye on the details.

This shot is of the one of the figures on the huge brass doors that make up the entrance to the building.

As the story goes, these doors never close to symbolize one of the core principles of the Mayo Clinic and that is "the patient comes first."

This organization strives and demonstrates every day this philosophy.

This photo is as shot and the camera was hand held.

The Plummer Building: in the details

Here in Rochester, MN, it's hard to find much that wasn't touched by the history of the Mayo Clinic. Go figure, right?

One of the prominent features of the Rochester skyline is the Plummer Building. While out on the World Wide Photo Walk, it was hard to escape the draw of this building.

One of it's many curiousities is in the details that went into building it. I tried very hard not to spend all of my time shooting the standard from the sidewalk on a tripod looking up photo, but instead, look into these magnificant details.

This is a pillar near the main front door of the building. The textures and the incandecent light produced some fascinating shadows.

This shot is as shot right from the camera. I was hand holding the camera, no tripod was used.