Day 307 (2 Nov 2012) Norwich Waterfront

About 10 or so miles up the Thames river from Long Island Sound is a town called Norwich.  It’s not anywhere near the shoreline, yet there is a marina there.  It’s a quite place after dark, but beautiful with the colors reflecting off the water’s surface.  The are is pretty well lit so one can walk around and enjoy the area even late at night.

Tonight was a little breezy, as you can tell by the second photo.  I tried to capture the movement of the trees in the wind.  Not sure how well it shows, but I did like the clouds.  I did leave the shutter open a tad too long, as the stars were starting to trail (a 30 second exposure when it should have been 20-25 seconds).

I have a question for all y’all out there, is there a better WordPress theme than the twenty twelve for a photo blog?  I prefer to link my photos from Flickr vice hosting them here, if that makes a difference.  Thanks!

Day 228 (16 Aug 2012) Riding the Rails

Ever since I was a kid I had a fascination with trains and rail roads, maybe because my dad had model (HO) trains as his hobby, or just because I’m a boy, and it’s part of the X chromosome 🙂  So tonight after visiting my friend in Norwich, I took a slight detour to some rails I’ve shot before.  I went to a different location this time and found multiple sets, most of which were abandoned.  I shot for a little while (would have gone a lot longer, but it was getting late) and headed home.

Now that I’m home, I got to play with my newest “toy”; Lightroom 4.  I just installed it this afternoon and after my first use, I love the new features!  If you use LR3 and you get the opportunity to upgrade, do it!  I wouldn’t have done it except I was able to find the student version on sale (take a low price and reduce it more, and I’m ok w/ it!).  If I made my living with my camera, it would be a no-brainer.  But if you are just a hobbyist, like myself, LR3 is still a very powerful and awesome photo editor!  But anyway, here are some of my images from tonight:

 

44 mm, 15 sec, f/10, ISO 200 (Night Rails)

50 mm, 15 sec, f/10, ISO 200 (Rail Switch)

29 mm, 20 sec, f/10, ISO 200 (Rails and Warehouse)

Day 114 (23 April 2012) The Other Side of the Tracks

Tonight on my way home, I took a detour along a road with some old warehouses and discovered a set of track between them and the river.  I just had to stop!  I love trains and rail roads, and night shooting, and old brick buildings and water.  I found them all in once place!!

18 mm, 30 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200, 18-55mm kit lens (Norwich Rails)

The truck you see in the photo below is an oil deliver truck.  Many homes in the North East US rely on home heating oil for winter heat.  It’s much more expensive to heat a home with electric here, and unless you live in a natural gas supplied area, it’s either wood or oil.  The “oil” is just un-taxed diesel fuel.  Many homes (mine included) also use oil to make hot water for showers, etc.

18 mm, 30 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200, 18-55mm kit lens (Oil Delivery)

These next two I almost didn’t even upload.  But I figured I would try B&W and see what happened. I’m happy I tried!

18 mm, 30 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200, 18-55mm kit lens (Night Rails)

18 mm, 30 sec, f/8.0, ISO 200, 18-55mm kit lens (Night Rails II)

Day 54 (23 Feb 2012) Norwich at Night

For a while I’ve wanted to find a high location and shoot down-town Norwich, CT at night.  Downtown is situated near the Thames River at a relatively low elevation compared to the surrounding area, so I thought I might find some high ground with a clear view.  As I’ve driven through it the past few times I’ve tried to pay more attention to what is around me as far as possible shooting locations.  This will need some actual dedicated planning and scouting, as all I’ve seen in my limited routes is a parking garage.  So tonight I tried it.  Since it’s winter and not the weekend, the area wasn’t exactly bustling with crowds, so from my vantage point it wasn’t real exciting.  But since it was after 9pm I parked and took a few shots.

18 mm, 30 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100, EF-S 18-55mm IS kit lens (Norwich, CT)

18 mm, 20 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100, EF-S 18-55mm IS kit lens ()

18 mm, 15 sec, f/11.0, ISO 100, EF-S 18-55mm IS kit lens (Empty)

Day 50 (19 Feb 2012) Church

Today marks Day 50 of my Project 366!  I have not missed a day so far!  Though at least a few photos posted were just to have one up, but hey, at least I’m still on track!  I’m kinda surprised that I’ve made it this far, and it’s encouragment that I will finish this project 🙂

I was trying to think of somthing I could shoot that would be in line with a theme of “50”; either the number somewhere or 50 of something or whatever.  But I didn’t give it enough thought and on my way home tonight I realized that it was too late to be super creative.  So I chose another subject.

This old Congregational church in Norwich is quite beautiful to look at.  It was built in the 1850s and is in great condition.    During the day you can see it in its redish color and really appreciate its architecture.  I thought I would be great to shoot at night, since it looks cool all lit up at night.  But with the mix of lighting on the building itself, along with all the street lights that are in that area causes this to be very challenging to shoot.  There are much better sides to this building than what you see below, but between the lighting and interfering objects (power lines, poles, etc), in addition to my own lack of experience in shooting something like this, most shots came out w/ areas over exposed and others under exposed.  So I settled on the shot below which is the most evenly lit (or un-lit) side so I would not have to spend hours in Lightroom adjusting exposure on each area.

If you have any tips on how to shoot a building like this at night, please share them!  I would like to try this building again 🙂

21 mm, 61 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100, 18-55mm kit lens (Church)