Another image from Hawaii — this one from along the trail to Akaka Falls.
It’s a quick little walk on paved trails — should you ever find yourself in the neighborhood, I’d heartily recommend you check it out!
In mid-air
Night along the trail
So let’s say you take a trip to Hawaii and manage to hike out to where the lava meets the sea. Pretty spectacular, particularly at night:
But of course, you hiked there in the dark (likely) over near-black lava (certainly), and now you need to get back to your car, in the dark. Makes for a pretty tough scene unless you brought a flashlight. Luckily, though, most folks remember this little item of equipment (although you’d be surprised how many show up unprepared)
Once you’re back at the trailhead, you can take a long-exposure shot of the folks behind you on the trail:
If you’re having trouble visualizing what’s going on, here’s a VERY STRETCHED shorter exposure shot from the same spot:
Note that all the ground below the horizon is solidified lava flows, the sky is only visible here because I took this on a cloudy night. I’m still amazed at how much detail is visible in this frame…
Still life with pinhole
So yesterday, April 25, was Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day — I thought I’d contribute a shot using my Lensbaby Composer and its pinhole / zone plate optic:
This is a shot of some flowers on our dining room table — the exposure took forever (OK, 20 seconds) since the pinhole has an effective aperture of f/177. It also needed some serious noise filtering, since sensor artifacts really start showing up on long exposures like this. Still, I like the dreamy, abstract sort of look that it gives the shot.
Just for fun, I also used the zone plate (f/19) function of the optic on the same scene — far dreamier:
So which do you like better?
BTW, once it’s been reviewed by the powers-that-be, my pinhole submission will be on display as part of the WWPD 2010 gallery here.
All we need now is the president…
A few days ago, we got back from a quick family vacation to the Washington D.C. area — in part driven by the lucky acquisition of tickets to this spring’s White House garden tour. Those words probably make the thing sound more exclusive than it is in reality — it’s more like the world’s longest conga line, just you and a few thousand of your closest new friends shuffling through the White House grounds between ropes.
Still, it’s as close as most of us will ever get to the place (particularly with a camera!)…
This shot came from right in front of the White House, looking across the rose garden (just tulips in bloom…) toward the steps outside of the Oval Office. I think leaving the building out of focus and mostly out of frame gives the shot a sort of expectant look, as though a big event is about to take place. Of course, the President was out of town at the time, so only some miscellaneous staffers appeared when we were there.
Smooth sailing ahead
The last time I visited Seattle’s Center for Wooden Boats, I managed to get there pretty early in the morning — before Lake Union had time to get choppy from the day’s breezes.
Lucky me — it made for some nice reflections!
Hanging out…
On the way back to our car from Boulder’s Pearl St. Mall, I happened to spot this little piece of yard decoration:
The potted plant is long past being merely dead, so believe me — this looks much better in sepia.
So many don’ts
About a year ago, a business trip gave me the opportunity to wander around a bit in Seattle. I was particularly lucky to have a little free time on a beautifully sunny day — and spent a chunk of it in Gasworks Park, a reclaimed industrial area.
But as you can see from the sign, reclamation can only do so much. So while the scenery behind the camera was green and pretty, this particular spot for contemplation bears a reminder of the site’s less beautiful legacy. The shot looks cluttered in color, but I think black & white is a good fit for it…
Just waiting for my human to come…
So this weekend we had the opportunity to wander around on Boulder’s Pearl Street mall for a bit (it’s a nice pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder). I took some gear along, just on the off chance something interesting would come up — as luck would have it, I found a very cooperative portrait subject:
Funny how most dogs I’ve photographed are very relaxed about the whole thing, this little guy was just waiting for his human(s) to be done shopping.
Playing for change
On a recent trip to Seattle, I spotted this busker with an accordion just up the block from the Pike Place Market:
Pity I didn’t see the little sign at her feet at the time. We were, though, hustling up the street to get somewhere — I only had time to take this shot because we were waiting for the light to change so we could cross the street. If I hadn’t had a longish lens on my camera at the time, I wouldn’t even have been able to capture this scene.
FWIW, she didn’t play a note the whole time — just stood there with her accordion. Maybe a tip would have prompted some music?
Turning in to Hobby
A few months back, I saw a neat long-exposure shot taken out the window of a landing aircraft. The idea was that the city lights silhouetted the aircraft’s wing in a nice, abstract sort of smear.
On a recent trip, I was flying in to Houston’s Hobby Airport at night and happened to have a window seat. So I figured — what the heck, might as well try it myself. Here’s the best of about a dozen shots I took:
Pretty decent, but as you can see, the light streaks are pretty wiggly — I had only my hands to brace the camera (my omnipresent P&S) against the window. I’ll have to get in the habit of carrying a cheap little table tripod too. Just a slight improvement in the rigidity of my “mount” would likely have resulted in a nicer shot (a word to the wise).