Champagne and Whiskey
I had a recent photo shoot at a local Denver bar. Photos from that shoot are coming soon. While I was there I had some fun with the 50mm f1.4 lens.
A random artsy photo
Announcing Steve’s European Adventure, my new Canon G9, and some mediocre photos
OK so I know a lot of you just look at the pictures and don’t read what I actually write. If so, at least read the last two paragraphs and let me know your thoughts!
Are you wanting more blog posts? Are you ready to dream of far away places? Well I sure hope so because that is what you’re going to get starting next week. I will be embarking on Steve’s European Adventure v2.0 next week! Version 1.0 took place back in 2000 when I visited most of Belgium, Amsterdam, Paris, and Prague. I have some pictures from that but they are buried somewhere in the garage, remember when we used to use film?
This go-around I will be visiting friends in Berlin and London, and taking another little weekend trip to Krakow, Poland. I’ve got to learn how to properly pronounce my last name one way or another, and I figured that going straight to the source would be the best way.
Yeah, I know it’s the middle of winter and the weather is going to mostly suck. But I’m on a budget and you really can’t use frequent flier miles to Europe at any time when normal people would actually want to go there. So beggars can’t be choosers and I’m going to bring my down coat and ski hat and enjoy the tourist-free streets thank you very much.
I learned a lesson during my 3 weeks in Florida last month. That lesson is that I’m going to take more pictures than I will have time to actually edit, and when I get home I will be very, very behind. So my plan is to bring just a small camera and take some tourist pictures. Since *somebody* lost my Casio Exilim while skiing last month, I bought a new Canon G9 to take with me. 12 megapixels, RAW image capture, 35mm-210mm range, manual controls, Image Stabalization, and it fits in my pocket. It’s pretty sweet, but I’ve been too busy behind the desk and meeting with clients to actually test the camera out. So that is what this picture set is about. With some fresh snow on the ground, I walked to the coffee shop and took some pics along the way to test it out.
Well the first thing that I learned is that f2.8 on this camera doesn’t work the same as f2.8 on an SLR sized piece of glass. You really don’t get much bokeh (out of focus part of the image). Like this image above, the far end of the bench is more or less as in focus as the front. This is pretty disappointing, since I like to blur stuff out. A lot. But at normal apertures it takes pretty sweet pictures for a small camera, and having a 210mm lens in your pocket is nice too.
So now I am left with the question. Can I really go to Europe for 10 days without my pro camera? I will lose the ability to take pics with bokeh, wide angles, or low light shots (because the noise performance at hight ISO isn’t very good). Churches and castles won’t be the same. What I will gain is the ability to have my camera in my pocket, and not be carrying a backpack full of lenses all over the place, and maybe take a real vacation away from work a little bit. I also won’t have to worry about someone swiping my expensive gear.
Hmmmmm. I don’t know. I sure like taking cool pictures. What am I to do?
Acorn Still Life
One of the great things about going on vacation is that you put yourself in an entirely new space. Different surroundings and activities are great ways to stimulate creativity. Sometimes I can get creatively stuck in the home office, going about my daily routines. When I’m at home I never sit around and do nothing. But while I was hanging out in the warm morning light on a deck in Key West, I found myself playing with acorns.
Road Trippin’: Photos from the front seat
Suburban Christmas
Photo of the Day
I like this photo. It’s kinda creepy. It reminds me of alien tentacles.
Tequila and Turkey’s
Have a good holiday, and always remember, tequila makes the perfect gift.
Denver Street Photography: 7 images in 11 minutes
I’ve had a strange attraction to Cherry Creek this year. Considering that I’d never been there before this year, I’ve been drawn there a noteworthy amount. I was taking a seminar there a couple weeks ago, and we regularly got 15 minute breaks. On Saturday I was quoted as saying, “It’s hard to take pictures at a shopping mall . . .” Or something to that effect.
Well Sunday morning had some beautiful clouds and morning light. I was given the exercise to consciously shift my attention near and far. I thought about how a zen-like attention is integral with capturing great photography. A sense of peace and comfort can be achieved by tuning in to the infinite compositional permutations of landscapes and detail shots and portraits and moments that are around us every second of our lives. This peaceful feeling of oneness is what draws thousands of photographers into nature photography. I found that it is also possible to have a similar experience at a shopping center.
When I went to the parking garage to get my camera, this old woman was staring at me. She was quite surprised find out that she was to be featured on such a prestigious website.
My camera data tells me that all these images were taken in a period of 11 minutes.
All of the Photoshop was done in Camera Raw. Not much was done to the photos, other than color tweaking and a 4:5 crop.
He was very nice.  He was a little upset that I didn’t have any treats, but I made it better by rubbing his belly.
This was a sculpture outside a furniture store.
And so was this.
I enjoyed taking some time on my Sunday evening to play with some random photos. I hope you enjoy. Coming up this week, plenty of pictures of pretty people!
Daily Photo - Reflective Abstraction
Daily Photos - Security Life Center, Denver
Daily Photo - More Metal
Yesterday’s comment regarding geometry will probably make more sense after I remember to post the gallery. Right. Gallery now posted in yesterday’s post.
Photo Gallery - Nederland Steam Crane
Nederland Steam Crane Photo Gallery
Up in Ned there are a couple old cranes sitting right in the middle of town. The big steam crane is pretty large and in charge. They are part of the Mining Museum. But, like a lot of Ned, the exhibit borderline looks like a bunch of trash laying around in the yard in front of the trailer and behind the Chevelle on blocks. So big pictures of the cranes themselves are a bit underwhelming, the available background and high contrast light didn’t leave me much to work with. So I went in close, apparently I still have ‘geometry’ on the brain!
Daily Photo - Horsies Behind Bars
So we went up to Frozen Dead Guy Days to take some fun photos. Unfortunately, a wet blizzard rolled in and foiled my plan. We were underprepared for the cold whether, and ran for cover after the parade. I didn’t even get to see Grandpa. OK, next year … in the meantime, more photos of fog.
Daily Photo - Cubes Of Christ
Baptist Church tower, 23rd St, Denver.