Mark the Spot - Day 73 #CY365

Fill the frame, use the rule of thirds, blur the background and leave the viewer with no doubt as to what the photographer intended the photo to be about. Canon 5D Mark II, 1/200 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400, one LED flash light with the beam focused narrowly on the cup.

Escape - Day 51

My escape today is performance art at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio. I really enjoy art glass and have taken a few couses and made a few projects. But the Glass Studio takes appreciating the art of glass making to new levels with their Third Thursday performance art series. Tonight Hannah Kirkpatrick's performance of "Lights, Camera, Action" a created a giant camera obscura, 20 foot wide - 8 foot tall with hundreds of "lenses" for a dramatic live performance with music provided by members of Live Bison. In this photo we see Hannah and her team behind the "camera obscura" with glass neon lights she created. Below you see a photo of what the audience was seeing. Canon G15, 1/100 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 1600.

Canon G15, 1/8 sec @ f/2.2, ISO 1600.

These were challenging photos to capture given the almost total darkness in the studio. You can tell my Canon point and shoot was really pushed with a high ISO of 1600 and wide apertures of f/2.8 and f/2.2 and in the case of the second photo some camera blur resulting from a super slow shutter speed of 1/8th second. These were all taken using full manual control as the camera's light meter wasn't much use in the dark environment.

Night Tide

The Tide light rail leaves the MacArthur Plaza Station with the downtown Norfolk skyline as a back drop. Canon 5D Mark II, 4 second exposure @ f/11.0, ISO 100, 24mm focal length.

Fall Explosion

Time for a little explosion of fall color. Canon 7D, 1/5 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200.

Commercial Park

The flowing fountains at Commercial Park in downtown Norfolk, Virginia. Canon G11, 1/3 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 80, Neutral Density filter, camera sitting on the edge of the fountain and shutter released with the 2 second delay timer to blur the water falls.

Scotty, Warp Speed Please!

- I wish I could jump to warp speed when traveling through the Midtown tunnel, the heaviest traveled two-lane road east of the Mississippi. This is the closest I'll get to that experience. Canon G11, 1/3 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400.

Big Yellow Taxi

- There are over 13,000 yellow taxicabs in New York City and they seemed to always being moving creating a constant yellow blur on city streets. The other common vehicle seen around new York streets are the NYPD's RMPs (Radio Motor Patrol) or police cars to everyone else. Canon G11, 1/4 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200.

Light Painting

- Some long exposure camera blur from inside Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Canon 5D Mark II, 1 second @ f/13.0, ISO 400, 50mm focal length.

Jacks

Any body up for a game of onesies, twosies, threesies, foursies, fivesies? Today jacks come in these soft neon rubber variety rather than the painted metal ones I remember as a kid. Canon 7D, 1/200 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 100mm macro lens.

Starry Night

- Out in the country in Southwest Wisconsin the nights are dark and the sky is full of stars. This is a long exposure of 78 seconds so there's a little blur with each star caused by the earth's rotation. Canon 7D, 78 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 100, mounted on a tripod.

Abstract

- We picked up a new piece of art glass by Jeff Price recently. This image is a macro photo that is slightly out of focus and yes that was intentional on my part. By illuminating with an LED Litepanel and blurring the image slightly, the patterns and colors really jump out. Canon 40D, 1/500 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 200, 100mm macro lens.

$1

From 2010 Blog

- No it's not the Northern Lights but a simple light painting completed with $1's worth of thin chemical bracelet lights from Target. We always check out those dollar bins just inside the door at Target stores. Sometimes we find cool bargains like these lights, other times not much of interest. Canon Rebel XTi, 2 seconds @ f/5.6, ISO 200, 50mm lens mounted on a tripod.

Tunnel Crawl

From 2010 Blog

- Brake lights abound as I did the tunnel crawl last Thursday afternoon coming back from Hampton Virginia through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel - the HRBT to locals. I was headed east on I64 on the down slope toward the bottom of Thimble Shoals channel. The camera was dash mounted and fired with a remote control. Canon G11, 1/10 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 400.

The Great Bridge

From 2010 Blog

- 127 years later the Brooklyn Bridge is still an amazing feat of engineering and construction. I had the opportunity to walk across the bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan last fall and took this picture of the east tower using my Lensbaby. I highly recommend walking the great bridge on any trip to NYC and for history and engineering buffs, David McCullough's 1972 book "The Great Bridge" is a must read. Canon 7D, 1/200 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 100, Lensbaby Composer.

Light Speed?

From 2010 Blog

This is a 4 second exposure of a tractor trailer riding in the lane next to me in the HRBT this afternoon. The blurry effect reminded me of a jump to lightspeed. You know us serious photographers, when we take a blurry picture it is always intentional. Canon 7D, 4 seconds @ f/8.0, ISO 200, 50 mm prime lens, camera on dash triggered with a wireless remote.

LRT Blur

From Portland

I took this photo in 2006 of the Portland Oregon TriMet MAX Light Rail train moving by me. I didn't have a tripod with me so I braced the camera against a light pole. By the way, LRT stands for "Light Rail Transit". Canon Digital Rebel XTi, 1/3 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 200, 18mm.

309 - Color Bomb

From 365 Project

Fall colors explode from this maple tree with a little help from the camera's zoom blur. Canon 7D, 1/5 sec @ f/9.0, ISO 200 with a variable neutral density filter set at 4 stops of light reduction. The effect is completely done in camera with the saturation pumped up a little in Lightroom. I was pleased with the "impressionistic" effect.

301 - Departure

From 365 Project

This week's spooky theme continues. I saw this straggly tree with a little color in the old Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk Virginia. I was playing around with motion zoom technique and captured this eerie looking image. Canon 7D, 1/3 sec @ f/13.0, ISO 200 with a variable neutral density dialed in to block about 5 stops of light. With the resulting relatively slow shutter speed, I was able to zoom out while the shutter was open creating the "jump to light speed" look.

232 - Smart!

From 365 Project

This is simple shot of the Smart car logo from a cool looking black model displayed in the MacArthur Center mall in Norfolk Virginia. The camera was pulled slightly downward during the exposure to create the three dimensional effect. Canon 40D. 1/4 sec @ f/5.0, ISO 200. Converted to black and white in Photoshop Elements using the Hidden Power Infrared and Custom B&W plugin.

184 - Daylily Twirl

From 365 Project

Feeling a little artsy today. These are my Jersey Spider and Alabama Jubilee daylilies on a long exposure with the camera twirled during the shot. I used a Vari-ND (neutral density) filter to achieve the extra long exposure necessary to have the blurred motion effect in bright sunlight. Canon 40D, 6/10 sec @ f/20.0, ISO 200, 24mm focal length.