The morning of the big eclipse I was at Nickerson and shot some skimmers and terns...
There was a shipping container on the beach, I assume it is used for storing Life Guard and beach maintenance supplies, but IDK...
The paintings on it were pretty cool, I had to shoot them.
-Jon
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Showing posts with label 2017. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2017. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
A few recent Nickerson photos - summer 2017
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Fireworks - 4th of July 2017
I'm getting ready to shoot the fireworks tonight, and shared this image from 2013:
For some tips and inspiration check out Angela's site and video:
http://www.abpan.com/tag/fireworks/
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Monday, May 22, 2017
Infinity Mirrors Yayoi Kusama at the Hirshhorn
A week ago I went to see the Kusama exhibit in Washington D.C. at the Hirshhorn Gallery.
I was lucky to have a friend gift me an un-timed ticket and I went on the second to last day. I got in very shortly after they opened and the lines were still short inside.
One one the things that caught my eyes was this painting, which was displayed along with the Mirrors exhibit. I tried something different and went for the slow shutter speed and lens zooming during the exposure. Of a huge number of tries, a handful came out ok and I liked this one in particular.
The original painting is called "End of the Universe, Abode of Love".
The rooms that contain the Infinity Mirrors pieces are fairly small, and can hold a couple of visitors at a time. With this being so popular, each set of visitors is timed and allowed between 20 and 30 seconds depending on the one (or maybe the docent's interpretation of the time limit, IDK).
Once I had seen the first exhibit/room, I knew that shooting just inside was going to leave me wanting more. And I also wanted to somehow capture the visitors going in or going out. I lurked outside a few of them, and with the one below captured something close to what I hoped for. Again I used a slow shutter speed, and this time with the moving mirrored door, the reflections are stretched out horizontally. And the door helps to bridge the inside with the outside. I wish I had spent much more time with this approach.
Finally here's one from inside. This is shot with a D4 and 35mm perspective control (PC), manual focus lens. I only shot a very brief amount of time with this lens inside the exhibits because getting good focus in the dark in 20 seconds while examining a scene I've never experienced before is all too much. I realized this when I chimped my shots from one room and found almost all of them out of focus. I just hadn't gotten it right. The other setup I was using was a D810 w/ 24-120mm f/4.
I also posted the above to Instagram, and cut off my legs which were distracting in the flickr verison in my opinion.
There are still a lot more images I'd like to share. Here's a small collage of 4 more images from the day.
Have you seen this or another one of Kusama's exhibits? What did you think?
-Jon
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Friday, April 21, 2017
Flying Fish
VA Osprey taking a fish for a ride. It was soon to be a meal.
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Saturday, March 25, 2017
Going Old School - Osprey Drawings
When I was a kid, I used to like to draw. I would draw cars, trees, boats, whatever.
Fast forward and now I like to take photos. A ton of photos. I usually take more than 100,000 photos a year. A typical day could be 500-2000 images depending on how many places and cool things and action I encounter.
A month or so ago I bought a couple of sketch books and some pencils, erasers, etc.
Thursday I sat down with a pad and pencil and stared at it for a while. Then I drew a box with a vertical line through it. And I scratched my head so to speak... What is that and why did I draw it? I didn't know. I still don't know, but it was a starting point. I figured out that was NOT what I wanted to draw. Usually my doodles are boxes, three dimensional distractions that are a waste of time but accomplish the goal.
Then from somewhere the idea of drawing a bird came to me. I decided to try to draw an osprey, and drew about 8 that first night, each roughly a quarter of the page I had to work with. Here are 3 from the first night.
Then on the second night I used most of a page and drew this single portrait. It's got some light and shadow...
Tonight (3/25/2017) I drew another osprey portrait but I didn't like the way it came out. It was too dark and there some issues with the proportions being a little bit askew.
So I drew a second image and here's what I came up with, it is from an image I took today of an osprey eating a fish. All these drawings are based on photographs I took at some point. I put the image up on my iPad and then drew...
Tonight's second drawing (above) is the first that has the tail and the repeating patterns in the feathers, and the first with talons. I drew it quickly and probably because I had done another image and given up on it, I was fast to call it done. Looking at it more I could work on the eye more and the left leg might need some adjusting. But part of this exercise is to go quick and make drawings and learn and move on.
I'm still playing with a few modes of doing the drawings. 2 days ago I started with the eyes and then added around that slowly. Today I tried starting with the tree branch and then added the eye and then more of an outline of the bird. In the future I want to try to do more of an outline of the entire bird/subject and then as I go fill in the details. That should help me get the scale and proportions better. But I also know from some past drawings that starting with small details and adding slowly to that can have a surprisingly good result because it is details added to details and the scale is considered for each small area vs. trying to get the scale correct all up front...
Hope you like the drawings, I had fun making them and plan to make more.
-Jon Read more On "Going Old School - Osprey Drawings"!
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Women's March on Washington
The day after the inauguration of Trump, there was a rally in Washington DC - the Women's March on Washington.
Normally I take photos of nature, animals, and occasionally friends and family. But I have lived near Washington DC for almost 20 years, and I have never photographed any significant or historic events in the area.
Recently I have been open to trying new things, as I did with my trip a couple weeks ago to Jackson Wyoming. Attending a crowded rally in DC, planning for the logistics of shooting there and the uncontrolled/unknowable aspects of being on foot during such a busy time has in the past made me decide to do other things. But not this time.
So I got up at around 5am, and made to a parking area off Ohio drive behind the Jefferson Memorial around 6:15am and then waited. I was unsure what to expect even with this small aspect of the day, where and when to park. But when I got there the lot was nearly empty, heck it was an hour before sunrise - nothing new with regards to planning and traveling for wildlife and sunrise - but the lot could have been closed, the road access could have been closed or diverted, a ton of things could have made this first step a problem But luckily it worked out.
I got to the lot and then rested a bit, and was reassured by this first step working out. Then I walked to the Jefferson, and was the only one there - an odd and eerie thing. The capital would be over run with people in the hours to come but this was the calm before the so called storm. I tried to use the facilities there but they were accessible but closed for repairs.
As dawn approached I walked over towards the Washington Monument, it was foggy and damp out. And there were a few others also getting a jump on the long day ahead (not pictured in this shot).
On Friday I called the park service to see about the march, routes, access and restrictions. What I learned was that there would be restrictions and security for those inside the protected area (whatever that actually meant). But that throughout the rest of Washington D.C. it would be just like any other day and there would not be blockades, or checkpoints, or heightened security. So I took a backpack that was too large for the restricted areas never intending to go inside a restricted area.
As I got closer and the morning progressed, I realized that there would people everywhere and I would be able to see "the event" from all over the place. I walked down the Mall and then south on 4th street (I think).
During the entire day I took about 2,700 photos, and walked 10 miles.
For the most part I managed to remain on the edges of the crowds and assembling marchers. However a few times I had to "retreat" to get to less crowded areas. One time a couple of guys took the baracades along 7th street and made an opening so that the people in the street could easily move to the sidewalks and grassy areas. Most people continued to move towards the Rally area, but within a short time the area was nearly packed with those that didn't want to move closer and wanted a spot to rest.
Another time at roughly 7th and Independence I stopped to shoot the crowd from in front of a jumbo-tron type display. There was space in front of the display because the angle from right in front of it was too oblique to be able to see the screen. However even that spot filled in as more people moved in to the area and gathered. I managed to shoot a handful of images facing the crowd from this spot and it worked well. I also got up a couple feet by standing on something to get a better angle on the crowd - though it was an awkward spot and eventually after I had move off a person asked those nearby not to stand there (on it) anymore.
And later when the intersection of Independence and 15th street was in the preparing stages of the actual march proper, I managed to I guess look like a press photographer and stayed IN the intersection along with organizers, police and actual press photographers. I took the time to shoot photos and talked to everyone there. It felt like one of those act like you belong moments and it worked out. Everyone was friendly and I even chatted it up a bit with a particular press photographer from New York city. He seemed like a seasoned veteran of the trade and was nice and had some interesting quips about the day that I appreciated - such as some background on the "American flag hijab" thing, which he said started in NYC.
This type of photography is new to me, and I have been trying to find a way to show meaningful moments from the day. I realize that I could post photos from throughout the day and that various messages marchers had would be seen via their signs and actions, and the images would invoke various responses. I don't usually try to express my own political leanings through my photography, and I am mindful of which images I choose to share.
With that, here are a couple of images that are a start to my selecting and sharing meaningful images:
Granda
Hijab
-
With that, I will add images to this post as I process and share more images.
update 1 - 2 new images
I took a lot of portraits of those at the rally, there were some really interesting looking people. I used to setups while at the rally, D500 w/ 70-200mm f/2.8 and D810 w/ 17-35mm f/2.8 (I swapped lenses between those 2 bodies a couple times).
update 2 - A couple more photos...
Update 3
Two more images from the march, there was a genuine positive attitude at the march. People were excited to express themselves and to get their message out there. Everyone wanted to be seen and to have their voices heard.
-Jon
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