I had the opportunity to attend a course last Friday and Saturday at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. As I often do, I went early to take some photos, because... well... I am a photographer as well as a Physical Therapist! So Friday I went to the inside of the Capitol Building as I have once before. Except this time I had my handy dandy new Tripod which with a L-Bracket allows me to shoot Panoramas with the nodal point of my lens approximately in the same place as the center of rotation of the tripod. More about that in some other post... So, there I was all by myself at 7:00am in the Capitol rotunda getting prepared to shoot. Once I started shooting I found that the lighting was very tough and I was going to have to shoot 3 bracketed shots and process them as HDR then stitch them. So I spent the next 30 minutes shooting at 25 degree slices until I had covered the whole 360 degree angle of view. Finally on Sunday I got the opportunity to process the HDR's and loaded all 15 shots into The panorama creator in Photoshop Elements 7 and off I went... with one small problem... it locked up my poor creaky old computer. Crashed and burned!!! So you don't get to see those yet, hopefully my brothers rocking machine can handle that load.
On Saturday it was not snowing and I was able to shoot outside. I had no idea that there was a reflecting pool behind the State Capitol, seriously, no idea. Well I discovered it at my usual early hour on a cloudy Saturday and this series is about that.
My main disappointment with this shot was the massive flare from the lights. Not unexpected due to using a 10mm lens with that large and bright of light sources, but disappointing nonetheless. I may use my 17-70 in a vertical position the next time and stitch a few shots together, it has a much better flare characteristic.
This the first of two quick and dirty treatments of these shots, you see a slight haloing of the building, that is due to my quick layer cutting rather than the processing. If I thought that this had promise as a saleable shot I would definitely go back and do a much tighter mask.
Despite being a little wild and crazy (OK a LOT wild and crazy!) I like this version much better. There is just a certain drama to it. I wonder if the Capitol Police would get after me if I waded into the fountain to get closer? Hmmmm......
This lovely piece is a 180 degree panorama shot with my Sigma 10-20, it is 5 HDR shots stitched together (15 exposures total) This I am tempted to try to sell, though I may repeat the shot with a better sky and try that. I dunno....
5 comments:
My first reaction as I was reading your narrative, before looking at the accompanying photos, was to chuckle. You are definitely a 'techie' and for a minute I was wondering if you were talking about the same hobby that I enjoy. I'm pretty weak with all the technical stuff, I'm not even sure I know what all the knobs, buttons and wheels on my camera do, and I haven't even thought about figuring out the video capabilities. Sigh! But your photos are gorgeous. In this series I can't find one that is a stand out favorite-I like them all. I've never been to the Capitol building to shoot. I'm going to add it to my list! That's what a good photo does, makes one want to see for themselves!
Karen,
Thanks! did you check out the link to my prior trip there? It is a beautiful building, and deserted on Fridays, especially in the mornings.
I am a little bit of a techie, but just enough to try to make things work right. I much prefer taking pictures to playing with my computer.
I am hoping to get a chance to get into the senate and House Chambers and take some photos one day.
Gorgeous shots as usual Lloyd. Great work.
The second one with the reflecting pool (who knew indeed?) is so cool with the sky almost as marble-y/granite-y as the exterior of the capitol. Almost seems like the sky's reflected in the building reflected in the pool.
Post a Comment