We went to Galveston for New Years. The weather was pretty bad – cold and wet for most of the time. Monday night, we decided to go the The Pleasure Pier for dinner. I took my camera, and got a couple of pretty good night images of the pier.
Both of these images were taken in the early evening. I actually ended up underexposing with exposure compensation because the camera meter wanted to make the pictures brighter than it really was.
We went to Des Moines for Christmas. They got about a foot of snow a few days before we got there, and I really thought it would less evident. I didn’t think it would be gone, but the snow still adhered to trees and things more than I expected. That allowed me to get some good pics.
OK. now full disclosure: Both of these are after some serious photoshop manipulations. For the first one, I created two layers. The exposure on the bottom layer was about -2, and the exposure on the top layer was about +1.5. I then masked the top layer and brushed out everything above the buildings. For the second picture, I did a similar thing, only I made a gradient mask for the top layer going through about the center of the picture.
My sister and Brother in Law brought my Mother to Frisco to have Christmas with my Nephew and his wife and their 18 month old daughter – Lily. We went to visit them on Sunday, and I took my camera. This was a quick snap inside.
My sister took Lily outside and started up a bubble maker. Lily got really animated, chasing the bubbles all over the yard. This is one of her trying to figure out the bubbles.
After the bubbles, Lily played with her ball, and I got this quick one of her.
I had a session with Heather Lynn Johnson in Harker Heights. We went to a local park for the shoot. The problem was the sun was absolutely terrible. It was mid day, and bright. Since there were no leaves left on most of the trees, there was little actual shade. It was almost like a fight. I kept trying to get her to turn her head for decent light, but every time I did, she couldn’t open her eyes because the sun was so bright. It turned out that I was able to get some good pictures. So, it wasn’t a total loss. The one above was somewhat of an accident. Out of the camera, it was way overexposed. But, in Aperture, I reduced the exposure, and the result was this picture.
I got some pretty even lighting on this one, and I really like the way it turned out. There was a tree that forked at the ground, and she could lean into it and lay her head on it.
She brought several changes of clothes, and from the beginning, she said she had a black dress that she thought would be really good to twirl around in. The problem was the terrain didn’t suite wearing heels. She did several twirls, and some of the shots came out great. Then I had her walk towards me, and this was one of the best of the day.
A model posted on FB that she wanted to shoot Friday afternoon. I was free, and agreed to do the shoot. Another model wanted to join us. The chatted back and forth about what they wanted to do, and since I don’t have a studio, decided on just a general fashion type shoot. The other model was relying upon a ride from someone who was not able to get away. So, it ended up it was just the one model. She asked it it was OK if she brought her daughter, and I agreed.
We met at a park-like area next to the Hippodrome Theater. It has some sculptures and some covers overhead. Plus, the side of the Hippodrome had some nice fire escapes. So, I spent an hour or so shooting the two of them.
This turned out to be a really good photograph. It started out terrible. When I snapped it, the exposure was way off. It was really overexposed. But, in Aperture, I was able to bring it back to the point where, I think it is an effective image.
She wanted a picture in her hoodie. So, I basically did a head shot, and that came out really nice as well.
I liked the fire escape. So, we got a couple of her on it. Several of them weren’t too good, as she had her face behind the bars. But this one turned out nicely.
I also got several nice photos of her daughter. So, it turned out to be a really great experience.
I agreed to do a photoshoot with a model. She knew of a dilapidated house that she wanted to shoot at. That sounded like fun, so I agreed. The day before, she asked it it was OK if her husband and son tagged along. I had not problem with that. When we met, it was overcast with spotty showers. She suggested we go to a local park on the lake. We went there. I spent about an hour photographing them. The child is almost two and acted it, but it was still a great experience. Here are a couple pics from the shoot. I really like the first one as it displays the dynamics of a family with a two year old.
The next one is just a nice pic of the child.
I frequently see Road Runners running along the street, and I have always wanted to get a good picture of one. This afternoon, I went through the Carleen Bright Arboretum because I wanted to see if it was decorated for Christmas. As I drove through the parking lot, a road runner ran in front of me. Normally, it would keep running into the woods, but this one stopped. I looked at it, knowing that as soon as I could get my camera, it would run away. I reached for my camera and it was still there. I lowered the passenger window, knowing that would frighten it off. It stayed in place. So, I took a couple pictures of it.
A few days ago, there was a dandelion in the front yard. I wanted to get a picture of it, but I saw it early in the morning, and by the time I got home from work, all the seeds had blown away. This morning, I was pulling leaves out of the pool, and I saw this dandelion along side the pool. I don’t use my Konica/Minolta 7D much any more, but I kind of do use it for macro photography. So, I put the Tamron 90mm macro on it and set up the tripod.
The first shots were pretty good, but I wanted more. So, I got the small LED light and used it to produce a little more light.
That produced a nice effect, reflecting off the filaments of the seeds. I then got my flash, and used it kind of hand held with radio triggers.
There was more depth of field because I had to stop the lens way down to get the correct exposure, but, again, the effect was pleasing. By holding the flash low, I put much less light on the surroundings, and got a really interesting effect.
Now, the background was essentially unexposed. But now you can see something else that I didn’t even notice. There were small bugs crawling on the stem. Finally, I wanted to add a little more. So, using a spray bottle, I created a little “Dew.”
Steampunk is an alternative world conceptually akin to Jules Vern. Lots of gadgets and alternative technologies. A few years ago, steampunk costumes were scarce at Dickens on the Strand, but over the past couple of years, they have really caught on. Now, it seems like there were probably more steampunk themed costumes than any of the others.
Lots of leather and strange accessories adorn these costumes.
This couple was dressed all up. Too bad they didn’t have anything for the child.
This guy was demonstrating his own flying machine.
And, sometimes, steampunk and pirates co-mingled.
Another favorite theme for costumes was Pirates. You might think that at a Dickens Christmas festival there would be people dressed as Scrooge or ghosts of Christmas past, present, future, or Jacob Marley. But by far and away, the character most used was Captain Jack Sparrow. But, lots of people dressed in various ways in pirate costumes
