A simple scene, of a male Wood Duck enjoying a peaceful morning in Sterne Park; Littleton, Colorado.
EXIF:
OM System OM-1 camera, M.Zuiko 100-400mm lens
ISO 8000, 400mm, f/6.3, 1/800 sec
Tag Archives: reflection
Banff Twins
Canada Day fireworks in Banff, Alberta:
This shot was taken from the Banff Avenue Bridge, with a few seconds’ display reflected in the Bow River.
EXIF:
Olympus E-M1II, 12-40mm M.Zuiko Pro lens @ 24mm
f/8, ISO 200, 3 1-second frames stacked via Live Composite
Beanrise
So it just now occurred to me that I took a huge number of photos on a trip to Chicago a few years back, and somehow neglected to get more than a handful out on the internet to date.
That being said, here’s a shot I took of a Chicago sunrise, partially reflected in the Cloud Gate sculpture (a.k.a. “the bean”) in Millennium Park:
For those interested in visiting, I’ll be writing up a post in the next week or so with tips on photography of and with Cloud Gate; as public sculpture goes, it’s a particularly fun object to work with photographically.
Enter the Bean
I almost titled this one “Self-portrait of Tripod,” given that I made this shot on self-timer so I wouldn’t be in it. As a result, though, you can see over a dozen reflections of my camera on its tripod.
The reflector in this case is, of course, the “Cloud Gate” sculpture (a.k.a. “The Bean”) in Chicago’s Millennium Park. This is taken from under the middle of it (officially called the omphalos, Greek for “navel”). You can also get distorted shots of the weather and local architecture by using Cloud Gate’s exterior reflections.
Loads of fun, but you need to get there early unless you want to make photographs with lots of people in them. Remind me to do a full writeup on photography of / with The Bean some day…
Morning comes to Flores
Sunrise in Flores, Guatemala:
We didn’t get to spend much time in Flores on our autumn trip to the Yucatan — really, just a night sandwiched between the ruins of Tikal and our flight east to Belize. But we had a great night on the island, and were greeted in the morning by this amazing sunrise.
The original part of Flores (where we stayed) is an island in Lake Peten Itza — it was once the last Maya holdout (from the conquistadors) in the Yucatan peninsula. Now the island is connected to the mainland by a causeway, and the town of Flores covers more ground there than on the island.
Frosty mirror
A few nights ago, we took advantage of a warmer night to check out the “Blossoms of Light” display at the Denver Botanic Gardens. They put on a nice show, as always, and it hasn’t been as warm since — so, fortunate timing.
I took this shot toward the north end of the gardens; with the lens closed down to f/22, a nice long exposure erased the slow parade of other viewers along the path…
Bubbles in the grass
Another quick reminder to be open to images even when / where you weren’t expecting them:
I caught this image when my daughter and I were walking around looking at the balloons at this year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. One of the trinkets on sale at the fiesta’s concession booths was a battery-powered bubble blower. Here, a kid had just run past blowing bubbles — thanks to an overnight rain, the grass was still wet, so the bubbles didn’t pop on contact with the ground.
The technicolor reflections make for a fun (semi-abstract) shadow self-portrait…
Moraine Lake sunset
Another shot from last summer’s road trip to the Canadian Rockies:
This is a shot across Moraine Lake, just at sundown. We scrambled to get there while the light was still up — we were too late to do any hiking around the lake, but at least I was able to get this shot. Or to be precise, three shots combined as an HDR image.