Washington, DC

Metro

This past weekend we traveled to Washington, DC and stayed with my sister, Louise. We were there for my son, Daniel's, birthday.

Birthday Boy

On Saturday we did some sightseeing. Took a quick picture in the Metro Station. I just placed the camera on a railing on the 2nd level and hoped to get it in focus. The pictures below were taken at the new Martin Luther King Memorial that just recently opened in DC.  It's conveniently situated near the Jefferson Memorial tidal basin and you can see the Washington Monument easily. The crowds in DC on that day were remarkable and we were glad we used public transport: the Metro.

 The new M.L. King Memorial

 You can see the writing on the side of the memorial. Some say the words may be changed in the future.

As for pet photography, my sister's terrier, Landau, was kind enough to pose for me since he knew I was happily doing pet portraits.

Landau Poses

Aidan and Landau

Latest Pet Photos

Daisy Dog

Now that my Pet Photography class has ended, I wanted to post a few photos that I took for the last assignment. I was determined that the last entries should be from my two pets. Daisy, our Golden Retriever, is a beautiful dog but she will not look at the camera and always looks dejected as if being punished when I sit her down to be photographed. I was determined to get a decent picture of her.

And our cat Leo, who used to pose beautifully, now shows distain when I bring my camera near. So, I was thrilled when I got what I thought was a decent picture of him. And both pets have catchlights in the eyes, an absolute necessity for most pet portraits.

Leo the Cat

Multimedia Discussion

Just got back from 3 days at the CNPA (Carolina Nature Photographer's Association) Meeting in Columbia, SC. The Keynote speaker was Bob Krist who is best known as a travel photographer who has his photographs published in National Geographic Traveler. His photographs are amazing.

The final day of the Meeting, Krist spoke about Multimedia. I didn't think I would get anything out of it because I am not into video but, in fact, there were some things to learn. Krist put forward a challenge/idea to the gathering that in 5 years we would have a new category: Best Time Lapse in our Annual Photo Contest. So he suggested we all look around in Google for some of the amazing "Time lapse Video" that is out there.
Click here to see one of them:
http://vimeo.com/22439234

October 29, 2011 Photograph Charlotte at dawn

This morning I photographed the skyscrapers in Charlotte. I especially like the tall building that is outlined in blue.  You need to photograph when the sky is still pretty dark to get it to stand out. But the color can change. I knew that I needed the wide angle lens and the I would take long shots from down below so I didn't need to bring all my lenses. I woke up at 6 am and made it into Charlotte by 6:30 AM. Traffic at that hour is no problem. It was a pain to drag around the tripod but its absolutely necessary.

February 6, 2012 Learning Pet Photography 4

Laney

The focus this week is on including 2 pets in the photos. So I asked my brother-in-law, Bill, if I could photograph Laney and her new puppy-brother, Dylan. Puppies have so much energy that I knew I was in for a challenge but I thought, at the very least, I could try and keep an open, relaxed mind about the photo shoot.

I arrived with my camera, tripod, flash and this time I brought a light with a softbox to diffuse the light from the flash and a backdrop. The quilt I used for a backdrop had bright stitching on it which wasn't ideal but it was a nice blue color which I knew would set off Laney's whitish coat and Dylan's brownish-red coat.

Laney and Dylan

I started out taking a few shots of Laney.  I realized that my lights were too bright and I was positioned too close to the dogs. My camera was on a tripod and I could not move around to keep their paws in the picture as they moved. So, some of the photo were overexposed and their paws or ears were cut out of the photos. Now, I asked Bill to put Dylan down next to Laney and they played together so well. They were completely focused on each other. Dylan began to get under the cloth and it would have been cute to get him coming out from under but I did not get the opportunity.

Dylan and Laney

If I try this again, I will bring a better backdrop. I'll dial down my light sources. Lastly, I will have Bill stand behind me so that I can get him to direct their attention to him and get a full on gaze in the camera, for as brief as it might be.