I thought it would be fun to try and play around with some lights, crinkled aluminum foil and tinsel. I used my 50/1.8 and just messed around. I think some of these would make good powerpoint or card backgrounds. It was fun just to mess around for a bit! I posted a lot more photos than usual; they were all so different I couldn’t just pick one or two.
Can you guess how I did the last one?
Tonight I decided to try and get the shot I was trying to get the other night. This was much better!
Yesterday I had an idea for a shoot, and I had about an hour to set it up and execute before I had to leave for my evening plans. Not realizing how late I would be out (hence why this post is coming out today, lol), I did some ‘test’ shots and would finish up after returning home. Overall I’m happy with the concept and composition, but they are not quite right. I had to so some selective editing in LR to get the lighting (close to) right. I thinkI know how I need to modify the set up, so I’ll try again to get it right!
Tonight I wandered over to the Colchester Town Green to see our tree. The tree that was decorated in the past was damaged during Hurricane Sandy and was removed after Thanksgiving and replaced with this one from the edge of the Green. It’s a bit smaller, but still a beautiful tree!
I set up my camera with my 50mm f/1.8, radio trigger and tripod and just had fun! It was a warm 50 F with minimal breeze, so I wasn’t in a hurry to be done and was able to enjoy myself out there! There weren’t very many people out for me to get in the way of (or vice versa, lol), either. 🙂
I’m curious as to your thoughts on my interpretation of the scene.
Self Portrait
Christmas Light
Christmas Lights and Tree
Christmas Tree
Today makes 336 consecutive days of taking photos! Only 30 more till I hit 366! This dude isn’t stoping at a mere 365, I’m going all the way to 366!! Oh Yeah! LOL
Tonight I hung out with some friends (and their kids, lol) at the Groton Holiday parade. It wasn’t the the greatest parade ever, but how often do you get a chance to see several floats all lit up at night just drive past you? It was a good time to light paint many times with minimal effort, lol. All I had to do was stay warm 🙂
Nothing spectacular tonight; just trying to get some bokah practice in for when I can find a great outdoor Christmas tree 🙂 These were trees in a shopping center parking lot, strung with some white lights.
Looking south on I-91, just north of Downtown Hartford, CT. Even at 11 pm, there is still plenty of traffic coming to and from the city. This is part of my daily commute, into the city, then out again to my home, in the country. 🙂
At least that’s how it looks to me 🙂 I had a glass mixing bowl shatter in the freezer and I thought some of the pieces would make great props for a shoot, and I think I was right! This isn’t the first time I’ve shot using junk or ‘garbage’ for this project; it’s amazing what you can do with simple stuff lying around (or that is no longer useful for it’s intended purpose)
This weekend I was out shooting with a friend and we drove by the Groton – New London Airport and she pointed out that at night the airport runway was lit with the blue lights marking the runway paths every night. I had never even thought about that; I was surprised to learn it was open/lit at night; it is a very small regional airport. So tonight I headed that way to see what it was like.
I did find the runway all lit up, and pulled over and set up my tripod right up near the fence. As I was shooting, I was a little concerned that a police officer might pass by and tell me to stop. Not that I was breaking any rules that I know of, but in this day and age, people can be paranoid.
Since there was no real foreground interest items to focus on, I decided to play with the focus and crop/composition to try and be creative. In Lightroom, I played with the white balance and saturation to change the colors a bit. I found that the level, in-focus shots were boring. So I broke rules 🙂 You can see part of the fence I shot through, but I like what it does.
Hurricane Sandy knocked out power to most of the state, including my home. But having prepared, I had propane for my fireplace (not as fun as a real one, but much more convenient). I thought it might be fun to play around with shooting it, including changing the focal length (zoom) while the shutter was open. The first is my fav of the group because it looks like the grate is in the fire in part 🙂
I know that you must be going into withdrawals not having an image of mine to take in every day over the past two and a half weeks, but now your wait is over! HaHa, J/K 🙂 I’m not ‘that’ full of myself. But It is good to get back into this daily activity.
The past two weeks were AMAZING, to say the least. Spending 2 weeks with my amazing girlfriend in Barcelona and the surrounding areas (France and Andorra, included) was better than I had dreamed. Can’t wait for her to visit here in December 🙂 🙂
While there I shot just under 2000 images, and have not had a chance to do anything with them, as I had two mid-terms this week upon returning (finished last one tonight), so any spare time was in the books. I hope to work on them slowly over the next few days/weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for make-up posts (and more images up on Flickr)
Tonight after my last mid-term of the semester, I pulled out a LED powered glow stick to see what kind of fun I could have in my dark basement. I think I had more fun than the images portray, but that’s always ok 🙂
Last night I went to the wedding of a very good and close friend. After the reception ended at 11:30 pm, a friend and I headed to Downtown Providence, RI to see Waterfire. But due to the late hour, most of the fires were out 😦 But we just hung out a little and stumbled upon a group of people who were playing/performing some ‘fire dancing.’ They had torch-like objects on the ends of two chains which they twirled around. It was pretty cool. I used the opportunity to set up my tripod and take some images of their art. I was able to meet and talk with one of them when I showed her the photos I took of her friend, then she wanted me to shoot her doing it. It was pretty cool to see them and meet them. She was very appreciative of the fact that she can now get photos of her doing it.
18 mm, 1 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 (Ring of Fire)
18 mm, 8 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 (Fire Dancer)
18 mm, 1 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 (Flaming Dance)
18 mm, 30 sec, f/14, ISO 100 (WaterFire Basin, After)
Last night a friend and I attended the Hebron Harvest Festival, primarily because I wanted to make images of the rides at night 🙂 Like I did here.
On the bumper cars, I know realize that I should have popped a second-curtian flash; I can see how it would have added a bit more definition to the ride, but still preserve the motion. It was challenging to get any shots I wanted with the ferris wheel; it took so long to reload that it was only running about 60 sec out of each 5 min. A smaller one would have done better, at least for me 😉
18 mm, 1 sec, f/22, ISO 100 (Carnival Rides)
18 mm, 1.6 sec, f/8, ISO 100 (Round and Round. . .)
18 mm, 3.2 sec, f/8, ISO 100 (Bumper Cars)
18 mm, 1 sec, f/8, ISO 100 (Cliff Hanger)
18 mm, 4 sec, f/16, ISO 100 (The Midway)
(Variable focal length), 0.4 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 (Zoom Lens Fun)
Not in traffic, but with traffic. And my camera 🙂
Class started today so it was dark by the time I got around to shooting, and since I was in Manchester, CT, I thought I could try shooting a busy intersection and shooting the light trails from tail/head lights. After a couple frames I changed things up. I’ve been a big fan of bokah since I first learned about it, so I flipped my lens to manual focus, and put the camera deliberately out of focus to get these shots:
43 mm, 2.5 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 (Unfocused Drivers)
55 mm, 2.0 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 (Focus on the lights)
18 mm, 30 sec, f/11, ISO 100 (Phantom Car)
I remember when I was learning how to drive, while growing up in Northern California, that at night it was easier to tell if there was an oncoming car around a bend or on the other side of a hill, because I could see the headlights reflecting off the power lines. They would light up in advance of the car. I used this cue to dim my brights and if necessary, signal them to dim theirs. To this day I still use that clue, esp. here on the hilly, windy roads of CT.
For a long time I’ve thought about shooting the glowing power lines, but tonight was the night! I pulled over on a semi-busy road after leaving a friend’s house, set up my tripod in front of my car, and took several exposure while cars zoomed by at 55+mph. This image I cropped once I noticed the power pole’s silhouette, as it grabbed my attention, almost as much as the lit up power lines.
55 mm, 20 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100 (Power Lines)
So yesterday’s post wasn’t a work of art, that’s for sure. What you saw was my reward for 4hr, 8min of grueling Tough Mudder! It was probably the most awesome thing I’ve ever done, and a TON of fun! I am defiantly going to do it again next year!! When I posted that photo, I was at some small pizza joint with my team, reliving the glory of the day and refueling our bodies for the drive home. If you are interested in a physical challenge, I HIGHLY recommend you go to www.toughmudder.com and finding the nearest event, signing up, and training for it!
On my way home from spending the day with my teammates at a post TM hang out, I noticed all the other people headed home after their weekend’s actives. I got me thinking, I wonder what they all did this weekend? Did they have to work? Did they get to spend it with friends/family? Was it a terrible weekend? We all probably had different weekends, but we all had one thing in common: we were all going home. Home to rest, relax, prepare for the up-coming work-week.
55 mm, 13 sec, f/20, ISO 100 (Going Home)
55 mm, 13 sec, f/20, ISO 100 (Tail Lights)
55 mm, 13 sec, f/20, ISO 100 (Coming Home)
Today Was spent enjoying the festivities of SailFest 2012 here in the Groton/New London, CT area. I started the morning watching the OpSail 2012, which is a parade of “tall ships” including the Coast Guard Cutter, Eagle, a US Navy amphib, and several others. Then I went to downtown New London to see the street fair, then back to the Groton side for the fireworks!
Below are a few of my Fireworks images, but I did shoot all the events of the day (though it’s now past midnight, so I’m not gonna review/edit all 200+ photos from today right now!). I think tomorrow I’ll do a supplement with other images from the day, and maybe a brief tutorial on how I shoot fireworks (based on tutorials I’ve read, and my limited experience).
18 mm (cropped), 3 sec, f/10, ISO 100 (SailFest Fireworks)
18 mm (cropped), 6 sec, f/10, ISO 100 (SailFest Fireworks)
18 mm (cropped), 2 sec, f/10, ISO 100 (SailFest Fireworks)
18 mm (cropped), 13 sec, f/11, ISO 100 (SailFest Fireworks)
Happy Independence Day all!
For Americans, today is the day we celebrate the anniversary of our independence as a nation. Nation wide this is celebrated with parades, memorial services, pick nicks, BBQs, and fire works. Many towns either had their fireworks or parades this past weekend or this coming weekend. So today was a chill day with some friends and some sparklers after dark 🙂 My friend brought her three kids over for some sparkler fun, and they just went wild in my yard and had a good time 🙂 I joined in, too, but that photo was pretty boring compared to theirs.
I’ll be attending a huge fire works show this Sat night in Groton. Of course I’ll have my camera, tripod, and cable release ready to capture the show! So stay tuned for those 🙂
I shot these all at 18 mm, f/8.0, ISO 100 in bulb mode with a cable release (held shutter open for duration of sparklers, 30-60 sec). I used f/8.0 so the kids could run around and keep the sparklers mostly in focus, and ISO 100 since they were so bright.
Tonight I was attempting to spell out my blog name with a sparkler. Not as easy as it sounded, given my short-lived sparklers, windy location, and lighter that was almost empty! And trying to do it all solo!
Actually, I really need to blame my poor hand writing, as I couldn’t read it when it was done. So I tried again (several times, lol) with something simpler, in honor of this project. This shot was inspired by the photo scavenger hunt I’m participating in, hosted by SeeingSpotsPhoto and Nick Exposed.
18 mm, 30 sec, f/9.0, ISO 100 (365 Painted)
5 months down! Wow, what a ride and experience it has been!! I appreciate all y’all’s support as I tackle this project 🙂 YOU have made it a lot more fun!
I went back out to the local carnival tonight (still wearing my sweaty/stinky gym clothes, lol) and was able to shoot each ride I wanted to! I’m pleased with these photos! One of them will be one of my submissions to the Long Exposure project. One of my shots from the ADKs is my first submission, and I think my last one will be from the lake shot. I really like the first three shots, and wills submit one of them; but I would like your help selecting your favorite of the three (or any other long exposure shot I’ve done)! So, please leave me a comment about which you think I should submit, and maybe why you like it better than the others (or why you don’t like the others). Thanks!
18 mm, 2 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100 (Rock O Planet)
18 mm, 1.3 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100 (Rock O Planet)
18 mm, 10 sec, f/22, ISO 100 (Carousel)
18 mm, 3.2 sec, f/11, ISO 100 (Spinning)
18 mm, 2 sec, f/10, ISO 100 (Ferris Wheel)
365 Photos by Jeremy 