17/52 - Washington, D.C.

This last weekend Paige and I took a trip out to Washington, D.C. It's just a 5.5 hour drive from our place and we've been wanting to go ever since we moved out here. My aunt and unlce live just outside of the city in Chevy Chase, MD, so we used their house as home base for the long weekend. They were wonderful hosts and my Uncle Mark rode into the city with us on Friday and spent the day touring around with us. Outside of all of the touring, we kept it pretty low key. They grilled out both nights and had very nice dinners out in their back yard. I couldn't have handled going out and partying with all of the biking, walking and standing we were doing during the day.

We brought our bikes with us since there is a bike path that goes from Bethesda (right next to Chevy Chase) all the way into D.C. and it would be a very convenient way to get into town and around the city. It was a 10 mile ride on the bike path from their house to the Lincoln Memorial.

Friday, we headed in and really hit a lot of the National Mall. We started at the Lincoln Memorial, where the trail dropped us off, then hit the Vietnam Memorial, WWII memorial, Washington Monument, the White House, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Capitol and the Library of Congress all before heading back home. Between the ride into the city, around the National Mall and back home, we put in about 25 miles on our bikes. It was a long day.

Saturday, we decided to put our bikes on the Metro and head in that way, rather than riding in. We took the Metro to Gallaudet University (the biggest deaf college in the US). Since almost all of Paige's sign language instructors attended school there, she really wanted to go see it. From there, we rode our bikes back downtown and hit up the National Archives, Smithsonian Natural History and American History museums, then rode across the Potomac to Arlington National Cemetary. Again, it was another long day, capped off by a 1.5 hour commute on the Metro, due to construction and delays (coupled with a screaming baby) which made it seem even longer.

All in all, it was a great weekend. It was a lot of fun getting to D.C. since it was both of our first time to go there. Having the bikes was critical to getting to see as much as we did and I was really glad we brought them.

There is still a lot of stuff that we didn't get to see, but we hit a lot of the big points. I can't wait to go back again.

I didn't take a whole lot of artistically inspired pictures, but rather a lot of touristy pictures (I've been Here, type) so there isn't anything really special about a lot of them. As I get through the rest of the photos I took, I might come back and post some more, so check back.

This is a photo I got of the Washington Monument. It's a 2 picture verticle panoramic that I stitched together in Photoshop, then converted to B&W.

Paige and I in front of the White House. The President or Prime Minister of Israel was in town, I believe, so they had extra security and had the perimiter pushed even further back. We are standing on the Elipse, which is across the street from the White House. Normally, you can get right up to the fence.

Here are a few more pictures that I got while we were walking around.  I finally got them processed and uploaded to the computer.  I put a certain style of processing on these pictures that really bumps up the contrast, brings out more details and gives an older, kind of grainy look to them a little bit.

I then either converted them to 100% black and white, or I desaturated them about 75% where there is still  a little bit of color remaining.

Arlington Cemetery



Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

 

Seating at 'Unknown' Ampitheater





The "West Face" of the US Capitol



US National Archives



Smithsonian Natural History Museum

Let me know what you think.

T.

16/52 - Baby Bump

Paige is actually starting to show now and has almost fully transitioned into her maternity clothes. She thinks that she's getting 'fat' and looks too big, but I think she's beautiful and looks great. She can still fit into some of her regular clothes but is wearing more materinty than not.

I wanted to get another picture to kind of showcase her belly. I thought that by using cross lighting, I could get a nice shadow going right down the middle of her belly to really show off the bump and really bring out some of the detail of the curve.

Both of the lights are set at the same power to try to get the same amount of light on either side of her body, but the left light was placed slightly in front of her and the back light was slightly behind her, so I cross-lit her at an angle. I thought this would bring a little more shadow on her body and give it a little more of a 'key & rim light' feel.

It took a little bit to get the light placement and camera settings the way I wanted, but I was pretty happy with the way it came out.

I really like the 'low key' style of pictures because it really makes your subject stand out against a black background and I think the darkness really gives it a different feeling.

I wish I would have gotten more definition in her clothes, so they didn't look like they completely blend in with the background, but I guess I could go in and change that up a bit in PS if I wanted to.

Anyway, I'm sure there will be more of these pictures to come as her belly continues to get bigger!

Let me know what you think.



T.

15/52 - 5 o'clock somewhere

I havne't had much time to get out and shoot over the last couple of weeks.

I got this picture 2 weeks ago while I was just messing around outside. I wanted to try to balance ambient light with the flash. I think that the picture turned out fairly well, withe the exception that the entire image looks a little underexposed. I wish I would have slowed down the shutter just a bit to bring in more ambient light and brighten the flash...but, it was my first time trying to do this, so I'll just live and learn.

This was taken while Paige was on spring break and back home in Chicago for the week, hence the beer and cigar, haha.

The set up for the shot is pretty simple, I've just got one light, set around 1/4 power camera left, 7 feet high and 10 feet away from me.

It took a few shots to get the exposure the way I wanted it (even though now I realize it's too dark) and it was tough getting the focus correct, as I was shooting this all myself.

So, it took some time, which I didn't have much of becuase the sun was quickly setting, but I eventually got something.

I'd like to try this again, when I can get one of Paige against the sunset. I think that would look pretty nice.

Let me know what you think.

T.

14/52 - Beauty Lighting

This week I wanted to try out a lighting style that I saw on a post from Scott Kelby. I really liked the way this lighting style made the subject look as the background is completely blown out with some of the light wrapping around the subject's face. Then, just firing one light to brighten the face. I think that it gives a very natural and flattering looking light to the subject.

It's a very easy set up, with just the two lights, so it really wasn't too hard to put together.

I had Paige pull her hair back so that the light coming from behind wouldn't be blocked by her hair and it would wrap around her face a little. Also, I thought it would make the lines of her face more 'clean' and less distracted.

So, Paige stepped in and I got a few pictures. I made some joke about how she was holding her head at one point and made her laugh, so I snapped another picture while she was laughing, and I really like the candid feel to that picture coupled with the lighting.

All in all, it was a really simple shoot that just took a few minutes. Post processing was easy as well as I didn't really adjust the color at all.

So, thanks to Paige for posing for me again. I really liked the way the pictures came out and will have to try this style again at some point.



Let me know what you think.

T.