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....

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, LET IT SNOW!!!!

Taking pictures during or shortly after snowfall can be very, very, very cold. Also VERY rewarding. I have had a LOT of positive comments on these shots especially #3 & #4. 

The difficulty lies, as most photographic problems do, with exposure. I tend to solve this with HDR, which also brings a whole host of other issues, not the least of which is getting the correct white balance. The other is reflecting light off crystals still in the sky. I like a nice dark sky, but you don't get that in this type of situation...

This shot made me crazy because there was a UPS truck parked, lights flashing FOREVER, had to go back the next morning (see that shot later) and re-shoot.

This took some pretty "Out There" settings in Photomatix, but it looks good on screen and even better on paper!

I consider this in need of Re-Do, but lack the time to really get after it, And I'm not sure if it is worth it. Especially in light of the next photo that I did the next morning. Still may try it and see what I can do... in my copious spare time!

This was a bugger but I like it. I had to do two different versions of this in Photomatix, with two different white balance settings then blend them together. Big pain in the butt. But it worked beautifully!

How to NOT waste 5 minutes waiting for the train...

Any time I have to wait for the train to arrive is torture, especially when it is cold. Seeing as I had my camera with me (recurring theme!) I was able to play and get some fun shots! All taken at the Moran Eye Center on the University of Utah Campus. K200d and SMC 24mm f2.8

Atriums and Barbed Wire

Nothing fancy here, just showing off what I like to do, notice details and record them.

Cold frosty mornings and barbed wire are a nice combination!

Wide open and deliberately NOT focused...

Yeah, I get bored/crazy and try interesting things sometimes. I like to pretend my Sigma 17-70 is really a 17mm prime and can be shot wide open at f2.8. I may not be all that crazy. It seems to work quite well sometimes.

First shot, indoors, wide open, of a tree made of strings of lights. 

Same tree from further away, pedestrians silhouetted against the light, the ENTIRE image deliberately Out of focus. Crazy no?

Later the same evening, melting snow on my windshield with lights behind, zoomed out to 70mm but wide open again. Whether these are "good" shots or not I leave up to you, but when you are feeling like there is nothing to shoot, try breaking some rules and get crazy. Could be fun!!!

Lucky Thanksgiving Morning!!!!

I have the honor of having a job that is actually necessary, and even vital enough to have to perform on holidays and days when I would rather be home with my family. Thanksgiving it gave me reason/opportunity to be up at the right time of day with camera in hand to take some photos I am VERY pleased with. The clouds were just perfect and the light was too.

Now a few technical notes. I tend to use HDR to even out exposures with brightly lit skies and darker foregrounds, with my newer camera, a Pentax K5 I am able to do more with one exposure than I could with my older body. So I decided to take one photo that was a single exposure and push it as far as I could to make it look as best I could. I was surprised at what I was able to do. This first image is the single frame, the second is the HDR. They were taken from slightly different spots and the single exposure first so the clouds shifted a little, but they are similar enough for my purposes. I had to throw some vignette on and a little blur to hide noise I created while pulling and twisting the exposure like taffy but as I said I was VERY pleased, though I like both of them a lot.

Wanting a little more sky portrait orientation was my choice, I should have thought to shoot extra images to stitch and make a HUGE sky! Oh well..... DRAT!

At the behest of my lovely wife after viewing this first attempt which she found too dark, I re-processed it to look less heavy and dark.

This was my final cut and I like it too. In fact I just ordered a print of it, curious to see how it turns out!

Got My Mojo back?

I hate the "s" word (Slump) but have I felt that with the weather and the insanity of my schedule I have not had the chance to just go out and "discover" the world recently, I need the relaxation of focusing, being in the moment, and looking for the details and patterns around me. Took a few minutes at lunch and then after work to just allow the crisp fall air to empty the cobwebs from my brain. Well worth it, though I didn't take a "WOW" photo, I found myself 'seeing' again at long last.

That seeing helped me to finally find this shot, for some reason this staircase has frustrated me, I like the looming knife edge of the cancer center but I could not blend that with the staircase in a way I liked. I'm still not sure I am done, the railing is almost too obvious of a leading line, however it is better than what I have done. (24mm @ f8 K200d)

Wide open at 24mm and f2.8 this leaf was caught against the fence at the train station, blown in from however far away, what was it's journey?

24mm, .5 seconds at f16, I wanted to capture the movement of the train, the power and speed.

Switching to my somewhat neglected (until recently) SMC 135mm f2.5 I got off the train at the Library station and crossed the street to the Salt Lake City/County Building, a really COOL old building that has also frustrated me, the longer focal length allowed me to look more for details than a wider lens, rewarding me with the texture I was looking for. This may even be a candidate for my SMC 200mm f2.5 Rhino Beater.

At first I hated this shot, then it kinda drew me in, the shadows and colors... the texture of the weathered sandstone.

While I am not a fan of lawbreaking, tagging and the accent it brings to run down urbania does make for interesting photos at times.

Somehow I have missed this wall before, what cool oozing mortar frozen in time. Will definitely revisit I think.

And my old friends the flying weathervanes at the light rail station. The color was not there yet (never did really come...) but I just loved the feeling of the clouds being pushed away as the top figure speeds through the sky.

All in all, a good afternoons shooting. Glad I could share it with you!

Sometimes you just have to have a camera WITH YOU!

Sometimes having a camera in hand that may not be the BEST camera ever made or a lens with you that may not be the SHARPEST lens ever made, but that is WITH you makes all the difference. I have taken the habit of trying to keep a camera with me when I am commuting to work. Sometimes I forget and I hate myself, and sometimes I take it and nothing photo worthy ever shows up. 

I luckily have two DSLR bodies. My oldest and first one is a Pentax K200d. This is still a great camera. AA batteries, and a sensor that just renders colors very very nicely. It also pairs well with my older lenses, as much as I love them I realize that they may not resolve quite as well as more modern lenses and using a 10MP sensor camera allows them to perform reasonably well. I have been carrying three lenses recently: Pentax SMC 24mm f2.8, Pentax SMC 50mm f1.4 and the Pentax SMC 135mm f2.5. I find I use the 24 and 135 more. All of these subsequent shots were taken with one of those lenses, some are panoramas stitched from multiple shots, others HDR. But they were all grab shots that I got ONLY because I had a camera in hand. Funnily they were all taken within 1/4 mile of each other. Near or at the light rail station in Daybreak Utah.

This is a 6 shot Panorama, though it could have been done with less, I just tend to be extra careful in case I have to discard an image because I had shakey hands. This looks over the Utah Valley and Mount Timpanogos with the Point of the Mountain in the foreground. I loved the layering and the color. Some of my FAVORITE panoramas are ones taken with a telephoto lens that compress the distances and show the world a little differently than you see it with the naked eye.

These two were taken 2 days earlier also with the 135mm, but they are single shots, and somewhat cropped. I was walking to the station and saw that the sun was just about to come up. I had to rush to get the camera out but I got it done. I just love mornings don't you?

The rays coming off of the sun are caused by the aperture blades, in this lens there are 8 rays because there are 8 blades. Funnily, other lenses have different patterns, lenses with odd numbered blades have twice as many rays as they have blades, but even numbered blades only give you the same number of rays as blades. I have no idea why they just do. Interesting eh?

11 shot panorama here all with the 135mm again, It is not super sharp at 100% I was breathing kind of hard, but it gives me ideas for the future, shooting off of a tripod. ;-)

Now, here is where I had a lot of fun, I like HDR, I really like altering reality to make it hyper reality, not as crazily as some people but I do like it. I was shooting with my SMC 24mm f2.8 right as the sun came up. Shooting directly into the sun is hard, exposure is tough to guess and often the meter gets it wrong. I tend to bracket like crazy in these instances and either merge them or just pick the exposure that has the best potential. I shifted a little between each exposure or set of exposures. So exact comparisons are not valid, but I still think it is ok to compare at least the first to photos. The first is a HIGHLY tweaked single exposure. The Second  is a HDR pushed a bit, and the third is a different set of exposures merged in HDR but with a much more reasonable bunch of settings. You can decide which one or ones you like the best.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by the single image and what I was able to do with it.

Just... Stuff...

I try to not take the same shot over and over, but sometimes you have to until you get it right. I have been playing with the trains as they arrive on the light rail platform trying to get the right shot. This first one is close, but needed the shutter started a second later, or open for a second longer. Considering I had the camera sitting on a trash bin on the platform I will take it but I can do better. (Pentax K24mm f2.8 on K200d)

I have heard of the tradition of doing this on a bridge in Paris, but apparently it is starting to be done here in Daybreak by the lake. Interesting. (Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4.5 on K5)

I loved the delicacy of the last light on the higher clouds, I had to work to bring the shadows up a bit without it looking like crud, but while it is not amazing, I like the choices I made with the light that was available.

A few minutes later than the shot above at the lake the sunset was heating up. I'm a sucker for them. Total sucker! Sunsets that is. (Also Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4.5 on K5)

More trains, This one was stopped for a few seconds while the shutter was open, really need to take the old tripod with me and make a serious effort to get this concept right. (Rokinon 8mm f 3.5 Fisheye on K5)

Still Just Playing Around...

I guess this could be considered a "still getting to know a new lens" thread because these were all taken with my new 55mm, but it is less about the lens and more about the fact that yes I am still taking photos! Despite time and energy constraints, work being what it is in the fall and needing to get things done around the house etc..., I am still taking photos when I can and enjoying it a lot! Just not in the volume I would if I were on a trip to Southern Utah.

I am trying to keep an eye out for the cool things I see everyday but don't "see". Walking out of work, I noted the water on these leaves but didn't even think about photographing the scene until 30-40 feet later, retracing my steps I pulled out my camera and started shooting. The fact that it was my 55mm on my camera is simply due to the fact that I have kept that lens on my camera almost exclusively while getting to know it better.

For this photo I would have been better off with one of my longer lenses, but again, it is what I had with me. I LOVED the clouds rolling over the top of Mt. Timpanogos. LOVED!

Commonplace everyday things are what stick in my mind. For some reason, when I think about my sunglasses I almost always visualize them sitting in this spot.

This is purely about the bread, I BAKED BREAD!!!!!! Yes me!