Creative Muscle Exercise

It is always a challenge to simply go out and find interesting pictures. Those of you who have read my blog for any length of time know that I like to simply wander and look for interest in what is around me. Being completely IN the moment as it were. Whether I get anything of significance or even interest is less important than creating a connection however brief with the world around me. Creating strings that tie me to a moment that I can weave into the tapestry of my life. Sometimes that means moments of significance. Other times you are bringing significance to the moment simply by capturing it.

I "saw" this as I was walking to the train. Ooooh pretty flowers, and walk on for most people, IF they even look up from their smart phone. For me I will remember this exact piece of ground even after it is paved over, I will remember the delicate salmon/purple/blue of the sky, the technical challenge of capturing the photo without a tripod in lower light. The luminescence of the nearly full moon, and the delicate sunflower swaying in the slight breeze, making my job harder!

Downtown Salt Lake City is always a rich place for exploration. If you are aware you see new things. I have walked past this multiple times, never looking up at it. Never walking around it to find the dizzying pattern that dazzles and yet draws me in.

Never walked past this part of the courthouse. In and Outdoor reflecting pool. Disorienting and beautiful.

Have to admit I really am shy about just taking pictures of people on the street. Had to get one of this guy though. He was tooling leather for boots just there. In the shade. Never seen him before, wish I had asked to do a closer up portrait...

Tall buildings make everyone a little kid again. You are always looking up. Unless you are glued to your "Smartphone" and walking into street lamps.

In an effort to... push forward the arts, be funky, be cool... whatever. Salt Lake has some fairly random art pieces placed around. "Art on a stick." I call it. Whatever you call it, it can be fun to look at.

Many fond memories of this building, choir performances during intermissions of The Nutcracker at Christmas being the most prominent. Really need to shoot this at night!

Courtyard of the Blue Iguana. Best. Mexican. In. Salt Lake.

Same building. Love the building, love the ornateness of the light fixtures. And yes I made it crooked intentionally. Gotta break out of the OCD somehow....

Debated taking a picture of this kid for awhile, decided it was OK as you couldn't see his face and it was in a very public space. He stood there forever just staring. He was in the moment.

Gone on a Walk About

I really need to make the time for photography nowdays. It used to come easier, but life intrudes constantly. Anyway, I decided to get crazy to spark some madness and took a single prime (non-zoom) lens with me to work last Monday and do some walking between light rail stops on my way home. The madness part was the focal length: 300mm. This is not a common FL for general photography I agree, but like I said, I was trying to spark some madness to get my creative juices flowing. It is a highly restrictive field of view on APS-C cameras and takes extra care to avoid blurriness from hand holding. Because I am just not going to take my tripod too. That is too crazy for a wandering kind of day. I was both frustrated and inspired by that cramping of my style, I definitely liked some of my shots, and really didn't like a lot of them too.

Shadows are a favorite subject, and shooting in the late afternoon makes shadows easy to find. This detail of the chain on a fire hydrant spoke to me of everyday objects that become extra-ordinary in the right circumstances. Integral to the safety of the public every few years, and mysterious in the afternoon light.

I have always been drawn to patterns and order. Sometimes having something different irritates me to no end, other times it is a delightful accent. Often the thing that is different brings the counterpoint  that simultaneously enhances the beauty of the orderly pattern and is beautiful in its own right.

The progression from health to decay and death is a natural one, repeated seasonally, yearly and over generations and lifetimes. I have had an image in my mind I need to photograph one day of the hands of a baby, a mother & an.... more mature mother. Birth, vital life & gentle fading away in one photo, black and white, dramatically lit. Until then, this captures that concept in another type of subject. The fading of brilliant green into yellow then dead brown without the full leaf capturing the potential of a golden moment.

Old buildings present endless opportunities for things to become more beautiful as they age. I kind of wish they had left this cornerstone unpainted. But, then it would have been less interesting.

Again, shadows rear their head, the texture of the ageing plywood is what attracted me the most. Patterns, unseen objects casting shadows, textures.

Ah, an old friend, I have taken several shots down the length of this street towards this building, I really like the compression I am getting from the longer focal length. May need to try on a colder day, at full resolution you can see how heat shimmer blurred the capitol building.

Labor Day Morning: Rio Grande Depot, Salt Lake City

I normally don't drive when I work uptown, I would much rather ride the train. UNfortunately on labor day, certain groups of people tend to NOT want to work, even when us healthcare workers still need to be there. Have to say that despite the myriad pluses to my career as a PT, working holidays and weekends is a bit of a downer. I mean, REALLY, can't you people stop getting sick or needing surgery for a weekend so we can just shut the place down and take a week off? sigh....

Where was I? Oh yeah, I had to drive to work so I left early and took my camera and tripod. Challenges ensued, were overcome and pictures taken. See below for the shots I liked.

This shot was a LOT tougher than you might think, really had to pick the right exposure to not blow the sign out, and then bring up the shadows like a madman. Sorta like it, a lot!

Saturday Morning Downtown Salt Lake City.

Dedicated photo time is a rare and beautiful thing in my busy life. As it turned out I got lucky Saturday and got some time behind the viewfinder. I had to take my car in for some warranty service, expecting it to take 20-30 minutes I really didn't think about taking any camera stuff along until I was running out the door and grabbed my older camera body with the lens that was on it. My 200mm f2.5 prime lens. This is not what I usually would take with me for a walkabout. The field of view is narrow, it only focuses down to 5 feet and you have to be careful with the light because you can get some pretty bad Chromatic Aberration at the larger apertures. But it is what I had, and ya dance with who ya brung.

This was right across from the dealership, a warm up shot as it were. There is a different discipline to shooting manual focus, especially with a prime. You have to try to "See" the focal length you are shooting. This is hard with a telephoto lens, your eye doesn't see that way naturally.

I almost deleted this one, I wasn't enamored of the depth of focus, I shot at f4 of 5.6 when I should have been at f11...ish... I kept it because it conveys the cluttery setting of that part of State Street. It is a street of contrasts, parts are very nice and almost ritzy and others are, um, less so.

This is purely about texture, shot from across the street, if I had my 24mm on, this shot would not have been anywhere near the same no matter how close I got.

I'm not sure why these windows were filled in, I would love to have seen the building when they were there.

I have wanted to shoot this painted wall for YEARS! The juxtaposition of the differing ages and styles of buildings was icing on the cake.

The further I walked, the more I saw that "fit" the lens. It is different to see in telephoto, when your eye naturally sees in wider angle. This is why I like to shoot primes, it forces me to look more closely. And the more closely I looked the more I saw. The little bits and pieces that together make the stuff around us, isolated and beautiful in their isolation.

On a Saturday? REALLY? Don't want anybody washing my windows on a Sat. A.M. when I am sitting around in my jammies...

This shot is why I LOVE the rendering of this lens, viewed full size, it is crisp and the textures of the statue just look... 3D. There is just something special, this focal length, and distance to subject.

I almost never take photos with people in them, but I couldn't resist. Something about his contemplative pose and the reflection tugged at me.

Again, details, details, Isolating small parts of the whole, allowing you to see the world in a new way. The symbolism of the carving on the outside of the Salt Lake Temple is always fun to look at. They took their time and paid attention to their craftsmanship.

Nothing special here, except my first flowers of spring. YAY!!!!!

Two shots stitched together, it is my wallpaper at this moment. For some reason it looks cockeyed but I swear it is straight.

Just down from Temple Square is the old ZCMI building, it is some other gosh awful big box retailers home now, but shall remain ZCMI. I have fond memories of the gingerbread houses on display every year at Christmas as a teenaged Choir Boy performing at Temple Square, then wandering downtown, singing Spike Jones inspired versions of Christmas Carols in fabulous harmony.

Need to take a tele on walkabout more often.

Temple Square Christmas Lights!!!

So it seems that I go downtown every other year to shoot the Christmas Lights at Temple Square. Rather surprising considering how much I like to take photos of temples. Then I start thinking about crowds and realize that is why. People are EVERYWHERE, all the time. I tried to use my 10 stop ND filter but realized quickly that I would be taking very, very. VERY long exposures and that I need to try that some other year..... So with my usual HDR tricks etc... I was able to get some quite nice shots. Not perfect but quite nice!

I really didn't think I would get anything out of this, I was just getting settings right and working on getting the camera level. The clouds show the effect of some pollution, but I still liked the colors. As you will see further in this gallery, this is one of my favorite views.

I decided to go portrait orientation for when the lights came on (5:00 pm if you care) which I like a little bit better. I think I need to go back and pull down a couple of spots of greenish/aqua on the temple. WB is a pain sometimes!!!!

I have a special liking for this statuary that gets put out every year. Next year I will be on this reflecting pool right as the lights come on. I have an idea for a panorama that will be AMAZING!!!! If it works....

The steam coming off the water here was tough to catch, I like how there is just a little movement.

There is something about this angle that I like, not just because it is a walkway that I have walked a zillion times, I just like the... something. As a side note, this photo was taken with my OLD Pentax SMC 24mm f2.8 lens. It is at least as sharp as my Sigma 17-70, if not sharper.

The northeast side of the temple has been somewhat kind to me, but only when I am fairly close. I love the view from North Temple Street but so many things get in the way, it bugs me. I have been determined to find a somewhat new angle. This first one issomewhat similar to one I have done before, but from a more extreme angle. The biggest difficulty with this type of shot is getting everything vertical that needs to be vertical. I am usually less than .5 of a degree off, but photoshop makes fixing that a lot easier!

These next two shots are even more off to the side than is my usual wont. I have enjoyed this view from Main Street before, but never photographed it. I need to experiment more and find more unusual angles to shoot from.

This is my favorite from this angle, I like the sidewalk and movement of the people, the balance of the lit trees with the temple. Works for me.

I really wasn't sure whether this would work or not, I think it is interesting shot, I did no perspective correction and no straightening. Wonder if an 8x10 aspect ratio would work better....

Don't look too closely, this was shot through very dirty glass. I do love the angle though. I wonder what it takes to get up on the roof to shoot in the open air... bet it is more than a smile and  a "Howya doin?"

I prefer the sweep of the sidewalk in this shot to the one below, but I much prefer the trees in the shot below.

I think this is the shot of the evening, as I mentioned, I tried an ND filter to blur out the people, but didn't want to stand there for 45 minutes or an hour... People gave me a few looks, I'm guessing regarding why I was using a tripod etc... but I am used to that. I want ultimate sharpness and IQ, for that I need my ISO 80 and a tripod. If only they knew what I was thinking about them....

Back to the further reflecting pool, hoping there were less people... no dice. Heavy. Sigh. Still like the shots, well LOVE actually, but the people there just niggle at me, guess I could take a sleeping bag and a comfy chair, a 45 minute exposure would hopefully blur most of those folks out.

Yes this one is lighter, playing with the HDR settings and trying for a most pleasing result means each photo is different. I like the shinyness of this one.

 
I have shot this before. And again before that. This is the best so far, but I need to get there early and get the lighter sky like I got in my earliest shots. This will look awesome printed big!

 
I ran over to City Creek just to the south of Temple Square during the middle of the shoot, but I put them in here last because it makes more sense to me. It is a fun place, but not as photo worthy as Temple Square.

Looking back towards the Temple, busy but beautiful.

This fountain is a favorite, I missed the part where it has flames coming out, someday...

You can see the difference in field of view and perspective with a Fisheye (8mm) relative to the above rectilinear lens (10mm)

All in all, I had a really good time, I was dressed for the cold so I tolerated it OK, my largest problem was dealing with the camera backpack on my separated shoulder, no bueno....