Pedestrian Views

Elizabeth and I were practically shoulder to shoulder as we made our way along the river. I wanted to like these but in the end I'm left with a question - is my curiosity stimulated enough to try again? (to make time and make it happen) Am I willing to go beyond the beginning? There's something about photographing the now that is changing before your eyes - knowing one day such images will preserve a look long gone.

Magic Carpet Ride

As the light warmed, I think we both enjoyed arriving in a tree, rather than crane, dominated scape, and seeing how the 60's era waterfront development had aged and become a lived in space

it was interesting reading about sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney; I needed the obligatory p.o.v too.

Alcoaville

Waterfront Photo Shoot

Barbara had only me for company on our photo shoot around the DC waterfront.  We spent a good bit of time with the construction site but we stayed on through the golden hour.  This was an 'out of the box' subject for me but we had a good time finding views to photograph.  As an added benefit, I saw a part of town that I had never visited before. 

Is this an archaeological site?  While these look like columns from some classical Greek or Roman structure, they are probably just footers from an earlier building.

Shot through a scrim featuring a fire boat

This was a surprise find:  a memorial to the men lost when the Titanic sank.  The sculptor is Gurtrude Vanderbuilt Whitney.  This is the obvious frontal shot

But these last 2 seem too 'cutie' to me. 

I cannot really understand what I am looking at without the first picture. 

black + white conversions

Have been playing around with b+w conversions in Lightroom, planning on creating a new wall of photos in the house and theming around bridges, these are a sampling, haven't curated the final shots yet. Some of these were shot with my Sony, some are older and done with my Nikon D80. Will be very curious to see how these print. Would love pointers on improving. I think the fog really killed the last one, think it went past etherial into muddy but still hoping I can save it. And the Manhattan detail may be too overdone, might back the sky off.
ps, going to see the Frans Lanting exhibit on Sunday...

Golden Gate 09.15

Morrison 09.12

Brooklyn 07.15

Manhattan 07.15

Golden Gate 09.15

Golden Gate 09.15

Ai WeiWei at Alcatraz

I was lucky enough to see this installation in March at Alcatraz Island, a short boat ride away from San Francisco.  In selecting these, I was reminded of the Polidori photos we examined in class.

Abandon all hope (of escape) ye who enter here

Ai WeiWei fashioned these delicate porcelain flowers 

for exhibit in the Psych ward.  This area is normally closed to visitors.

Enter this cell to hear Pete Seegar singing the ballad of Victor Jara

Protest songs, political poetry and speeches can be heard in the solitary confinement cells.

The guards planted flowers and vegetables. That tradition continues.

This is the third phase of the installation, located in the factory building

The fourth phase: these portraits are made of legos assembled by volunteers

to Ai WeiWei's specifications.  He was not allowed to leave China to oversee the installation. 

fun with my macro lens

I went out into my sister's woods with no other lens except my 100mm macro lens.  I rarely use this lens because it is so hard to focus on closeup subjects, yet this is precisely why I have the lens in the first place.    The first 3 show the close, middle and far range of the lens, while the last few are pairs. I hope you can help me decide which one of the pair should be saved.

My name written in Rosslynian

Fun little photo challenge - spell out your name with things, buildings, signs, etc from your neighborhood.

These were all taken with my phone and edited with a free online collage maker.  Purposefully sized to fit Facebook cover photo. 

Butterflies!

Spend some time in the live butterfly pavilion in the Natural History Museum. If you haven't been there yet I highly recommend it.