Third Edifice

The massive eight level Romanesque style tower of the First Baptist Church third edifice located on East Bute Street in downtown Norfolk Virginia basks in the morning sun. Completed in 1906, this amazing building was designed by noted architect Reuben H. Hunt and features an exterior faced in pink New England granite. The church was founded in 1800 as a Baptist congregation of whites, free blacks and slaves. It remained an interracial church until 1848 when social pressures for segregation came to great to overcome. Canon G11, 1/320 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100.

1919

- 1919 Monticello Avenue in Norfolk Virginia has been the location of Doumar's BBQ and Cones drive-in since 1934. The restaurant is a local legend known for its barbecue, hand made ice cream codes, and curb service. It was featured on the Food Network's series Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, hosted by Guy Fieri. Eighty-eight year old Albert Doumar still makes ice cream cones daily at the restaurant on a cone making machine invented by his uncle Abe that dates from 1905. I stopped by tonight after work for some take-out. My grandson Robert is our family's 6th generation customer. My favorite Doumar's desert, the "Ringo", is a hot fudge sundae made on top of bed of crunched up cone chips. I think I'll feature a photo of one of those soon for my venture into food photography. Canon G11, 1/100 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 400.

Sconce

- Photography is the capture of light and I've taken a number of photos of cool light fixtures. By using the camera's capability to to capture light in different ways, the resulting image can be much different than what your eyes see. This image is way under exposed creating the deep blacks and highlighting the illuminated patterns coming from this wall fixture. When seen with your eyes the brain and the iris will automatically adjust for the light to balance the wide range of bright and dark. The camera, especially digital cameras, are much more limited in the range of light that can be captured. In most cases this limitation is the photographer's nemesis, resulting in a loss of detail in shadows and in bright sun. But here that limited dynamic range creates a different view of simple everyday object. Canon G10, 1/15 sec @ f/3.2, ISO 400.

Triple Decker

- The Thomas triple decker was tonight's living room construction project. You can see my co-builder and drawbridge operator at his duty station. Canon G11, 1/20 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 800.

Miss Sasha

- Miss Sasha quietly takes it all in. Canon 7D, 1/13 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 800, zoom at 175mm focal length, image stabilization doing its thing.

Ornament

- Th1s paper ornament was decorating the tree at Beach Scrapbooks today. It was unusual so it made s good subject for today's seasonal photo of the day. Canon G11, 1/125 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 800 in macro mode.

Black and White Friday

- Black Friday calls for a black and white photo and a shopping theme. Before today's massive shopping malls were so popular, shopping arcades were commonplace in cities. These enclosed buildings housed shops on the first floor and offices above. Only two remain in Virginia including this one, the Monticello Arcade in Norfolk, Virginia. Built in 1907 the three-story, Beaux-Arts style arcade forms a protected pedestrian passageway in downtown. Canon G10, 1/60 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200.