Holiday Light Tower

The top of the Wells Fargo Center in Norfolk Virginia with it's holiday lights on. The Wells Fargo Center is a 22 story office, commercial and residential complex completed in 2010. Canon G15, 1 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100.

Night Train

The new Norfolk Virginia Amtrak Train Station scheduled to open tomorrow gleams at night. Last December passenger passenger rail service to Norfolk resumed with daily trips to Washington D.C., New York and Boston. Ridership has been strong and now we have the most modern train station in Virginia. Canon G15, 1 to 1.5 sec, F/5.6, ISO 100 mounted on a trip tripod, HDR compilation of three images spanning 2 f stops.

Lunar Eclipse

Tonight's lunar eclipse. It's very subtle, but you should be able to see some of the Earth's shadow coming across the bottom right or southeast side of the moon. Canon 7D, 1/400 sec @ f/16, ISO 800, zoom at 400mm with 1.4x tele-convertor, effective focal length 560mm. Converted to black and white using Lightroom 4 with Silver Efex Pro 2.

Harvest Moon

Tonight's harvest moon at Sandbridge Beach, Virginia. Canon 7D, 1/40 sec @ f/11.0, ISO 800 converted to black and white in Lightroom 4 using Silver Efex Pro.

Explorer at Large Josh Bernstein

Had the pleasure of meeting Josh Bernstein explorer, author, survival expert, anthropologist, and TV host of the History Channel's hit show Digging for the Truth at the Commonwealth of Virginia's Information Technology Symposium today. Josh was the keynote speaker and did a great job of inspiring government I.T. workers with the amazing leadership exhibited by Sir Ernest Shackleton's during his 1916-17 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

Leadership Lessons:
- Recuit/Hire the best
- Set audacious goals
- Champion morale
- Lead decisively
- Adapt constantly
- Never give up

Canon G15, 1/80 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 1600.

Edison Filament Light Blub

This is a reproduction on an early 20th Century "squirrel cage" carbon filament light bulb built by Thomas Edison. In today's modern reproductions the filaments are made of tungsten, which burns three times brighter than the original carbon filament versions. They are really getting popular in vintage bare blub fixtures. This one was hanging over my table at Tarrant's Cafe, 1 W. Broad Street in Richmond Virginia.
Canon G15, 1/15 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 200, in macro mode.

Repairing the Web

I've been keeping an eye on this beautiful garden spider I spotted among the daylilies back in June. When I first saw her she was only about a half an inch long now she's easily approaching and inch and half. She was busy rebuilding the "sewing machine" zig-zag part of the web. I had never seen one actually doing this, so I thought I would share. Canon EOS 300D, 1/500 sec @ f/11.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro lens.

Canon 7D, 1/160 sec @ f/11.0, ISO 800, 100mm macro.