Seoul Searching

Alright, that's a lame title, and I'm almost sorry about it...but I just couldn't resist. I happened on these pictures I made in Seoul a few years ago, and I don't think I ever shared them here. Seoul was a pretty incredible place. Having lived for two years in Taiwan, and one year near Beijing, I found Seoul to be the perfect mix of the two. It had all the modern amenities and open minds of Taiwan, with the great weather, atmosphere, and tasty foods like I found in China. I highly recommend visiting and spending more than the few days I had while working. Definitely check out the old palace while you're there, which is where I made all these.

Spaceship Chicago

Nikon D7100, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @15mm, f/8, 3 frame HDR, ISO 200, Nik HDR Efex Pro 2. Movie in Millenium Park...can you name that show?

#800: "They Say That Love is Forever..."

Nikon D7100, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 14mm, f/16, 3 exposure HDR, ISO 400, Nik HDR Efex Pro 2. I'm in Delta, Utah; doesn't Portland have graffiti somewhere?

This is my 800th blog post. Thanks for viewing. I love to show these pictures off, and I'm glad that you all have supported me for the last four years. I was privileged to have some time shooting with Jesse Walker this evening as we trekked to Delta, Utah, and we made this stop at the old TinTic reduction mill near Goshen. I think spray paint may be all that's holding this place together, and it's a wonderful notebook of poetry and pictures and tasteless tagging. Kinda makes me wanna put my hand to the can and see what I could turn out. I'll probably never do it, though. With my luck, the time I try it is the one time the sheriff would drive by; that and my Grandma Sim always says, "Fool's names, like fool's faces, always appear in public places," and that's pretty much turned me off from graffiti. Sigh.

Doodling

Do you ever wake up at night with a dream of something you can do, something you can make? I do pretty frequently, especially when I'm getting ready for something or studying a new technique. Well this picture is part of a study to create the drawing I made below. If things go well, I may be able to make this one happen this week...

Nikon D800, 50mm f/1.4 lens, f/4, 1/30s, ISO 500.

I know you're going to ask (everyone does): Yes, I drew it. I did it on my iPad with Wacom's Paper App and Wacom's incredible stylus. It's a free app, it's incredibly good, and you can get it by clicking on this link. Hey, it helps keep me awake in Church; there are studies, you know, that doodlers pay better attention than apparently attentive individuals. I'm just sayin'. I used another page to do several sketches of the dancer to get the perspective just so. It's really a cool tool. 

Super Moon

Nikon D800, 50mm f/1.4mm lens, f/11, 25s, ISO 100.

I was teaching other photographers in Seattle the other day and it happened to be when the Super Moon was still on. We headed out together after my presentation to search out some cityscapes, when we realized the moon hadn't risen yet. We picked up our tripods and boogied as quick as we could to Kerry Park--that's where the really iconic images of Seattle are made from. The Space Needle is looking pretty slick in it's fresh coat of Orange paint. Yep: Orange.

Here's the thing: the space needle isn't really that tall! it's a couple miles closer to my camera and on a hill that makes it look so high above the rest of the town's buildings. Smoke and mirrors and camera tricks. Click on the image for a larger view.

Costa Maya

The colors in the ports in Mexico are so lively. I recommend making the trip...

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @90mm, f/8, 1/800s, ISO 1600.

Photo Walking

Yesterday was Scott Kelby's Fourth Annual World Wide Photo Walk. As always, it was a blast. Our local chapter got together and roamed the USU campus making pictures of whatever oddball stuff we could find. In speaking of oddballs, K. was one of the participants, and was good enough to almost hold still long enough for me to make a few frames. It's great people like K. who make these activities and all the fun things we do in the Cache Valley Photographers worth it.

Nikon D700, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 125mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, ISO 200.

Also made this funky one, finished it using HDR Efex Pro from Nik software (trial version--but I like it!)

Nikon D700, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 28mm, f/4.5, ISO 200.

Street Sweeping: Dubai

This is my day walking through Dubai from my hotel on Sheik Zayed Road. I headed out on Friday (the local Sabbath) and decided to go to the Dubai Mall--the largest Mall in the world.

Looking up as I walked out of my hotel--I like the way that the light reflects from building onto the other. 

Lots of tall buildings in Dubai. Funny, from these pictures it looks like clear blue skies all the time. This is early in the morning, however, and dust just hasn't gotten high enough, yet.

Dust from things like...construction! Which is the major descriptive word for Dubai. Loads of construction going on, and loads fo construction not going on after the recent economic crash. Most of the buildings are not finished.

This one is the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, and while the outside is finished, I'm told the innards are still incomplete. There was apparently a big to do at the unveiling because it was supposed to be the Burj Dubai, but at the unveiling it was named after the guy who bailed them out after the crash. How embarrassing; I guess. The wall on the left is the outside of the Dubai Mall.

Inside the Dubai Mall they have an aquarium. With big fish. 

Here's one of the repeating wings of the mall. Now, this mall is really big. I've been to Edmonton Mall, in Alberta, which I'm also told is the largest mall in North America. It's big, too, but no offense, it's nothing compared to the Dubai Mall. It's interesting, though, the similarities the two places and the drive for a big mall. In Dubai it's boiling hot most of the year, and the only respite is found in air conditioned buildings. In Edmonton it's freezing--no, waaaaaay below freezing--I mean seriously cold (even I couldn't get out to make any pictures) and the only respite there is within heated buildings. Hmmm...reminds me of the book Dune, by Frank Herbert...I wonder if Canada is using the hard conditions to train an elite corps of...mounties...

It's just huge. I walked through a third of it, but had to turn back to rest my feet and recharge my camera batteries.

Lots of very nice cars in Dubai. This is the first Porsche I have ever seen with four doors.

This was a little farther from my hotel; my friend Yasser took me around to show me the traditional Arabian architecture at this posh new hotel. Really a beautiful place.

This is the traditional looking marketplace. Lovely light in this building.

More construction going on here; but it's beautiful even unfinished.

That building on the right is my hotel. The bridge is the pedestrian crossway over Sheik Zayed Road (I just like the sound of it). It connects to the Metro light rail, and it's ar conditioned.

These are my friends, Kenny and Susan from China. I walked to the beach and made a few pictures there and met them on the jetty. It was a long walk from my hotel, I can tell you. It was nice to make some new friends on the way.

Sunrise, Ryadh

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 112mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO 400.

Nikon D7000, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 78mm, f/8.0, 1/1600s, ISO 640.

HTis is just of the millions of Mosques I saw during my trip to Saudi Arabia last week. They have mosques like Mormons have chapels in Utah! It's really incredible to look over the rooftops of the city and see minarets popping up all over. There is a lot of variety in the styles of construction, but they all have the same basic structures, it seems. N. explained to me that the minarets were originally used to call people to prayer at the specified times each day; the neighborhood could hear a person calling from the top. Nowadays, there are loudspeakers mounted in all the towers, and the radio plays the call, and it's also broadcast on most PA systems in office buildings. In this photo, I was struck by the light falling across the ridges on the dome, and also the top of the wall. This is an interesting contrast, as the walls are classic Arabian style architecture, whereas the dome is a derivative from Greek architecture. Did I mention that N. is an architect?

Higher Learning

Nikon D700, 300mm f/4 lens, f/8.0, 1/5000s, ISO 400. The United States Air Force Academy turns out officers who receive some of the best learning available. And this is the view that greats them every time they walk out of their dorms. It's the roof of the Academy Chapel, which has sanctuaries and chapels for several different religions and sects. I think it's a beautiful building. These spires run the length of the entire edifice, suggesting the launch of a row of jets into the heavens; and if you graduate from here, you might do just that.

Norehan

Nikon D700, 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR lens @ 70mm, f/4.5, 1/100s, ISO 1600. Norehan is also a fine fellow. We enjoyed exploring Hong Kong together and had fun seeing the various things and that town has to offer. Things like Turkish doner kebab sandwiches and places like St. Georges' Cathedral. Remember, the British influence on the island is quite strong. There are several Episcopal Cathedrals, and this beauty was a fine specimen. Terrific light and a good subject left us with this image to remember the day.

The Capitol and Moon Rise

I was lucky enough to spend last week in neighborhood of Washington, D.C. I even got to meet up with a few friends I haven't seen in many years, and tour the National Mall with some locals. It's an interesting place, D.C., and I'd like to visit again...in the autumn, perhaps, or another time when 200 year old high temperature records aren't being broken...

Nikon D700, 70-300mm lens @ 145 & 300, f/29 and f/40, 30.0s and 1/2.5s, ISO 200. I spent more than an hour making this image, getting the moon in just the right place. Photoshop was not a major player in this image, but if you know that the Capitol lies at the East end of the National Mall, then you also know that this image is impossible to make in June! The moon rose nearly 90 degrees to camera right. This image was made by exposing the sensor twice without advancing to the next frame. This is a technique that has been around as long as photography. Is it 'realistic'? Just as real as any photograph that is an image of a moment in time. Photography is never realistic. The world keeps moving, the world is color not black white, the world is color, but never as vivid as we remember, the world is changing and decaying and growing and aging. Photographs are static and timeless and surreal and historical. Never realistic. 

The Monument

Nikon D700, 50mm, f/16, 8.0s, ISO 1000.

Lincoln

Nikon D700, 50mm lens, f/16, 8.0s, ISO 100.

And, my guide through the Mall. D. has a vision for photography, and I'm excited to see how his images are realized.

70-300mm lens @135mm, f/5.0, 1/160s, ISO 800.

50mm lens, f/1.4, 1/80s, ISO 800.

Natural History

Nikon D700, 70-300mm lens, f/4.5, 1/20s, ISO 1600.

Air and Space

"Droid"

Nikon D700, 50mm lens, f/2.8, 1/30s, ISO 3200.

National Museum of the American Indian

Nikon D700, 50mm, f2.0, 1/30s, ISO 3200.

3rd Place

I won 3rd place in the Summerfest Photo Contest last week. Boy was I excited to win. I had been to this location twice, scouting it out and imagining how I wanted to make a picture there. This first image is what I was was working on. I shot a million of it with different framing, and different exposures, and different filters--heck, I even used different tripods! It just wasn't happening, though.

So, I turned around, and this is what I saw in a barn. Immediately I imagined it in black and white, and thought about how I would finish the image. then I started hooting it. Took about ten frames. This is the image I entered, and it's the one that one Third Place.

I never did print the first one. This next was my second entry at the Faire.

Panama City; 9:45 p.m.

I stayed out late, working my way along the Causeway, trying to get a good angle on the city, keeping my gear out of reach of raccoons, and wiping splashes of seawater of my lens (put there by these enormous fish rising and thrashing in the shallows--seriously! they were about 6 feet long!), and just generally feeling disappointed with my images from the evening. This was the final image I made that evening. I rather like it. This is the structure on a floating dock that large yachts use to load/off load goods and people. It was creaking and groaning as the gangplank moved across the deck with the rise and fall of the bay; it was consistent and loud as it moved up and down all evening. Anyway, the light on the far dock was shining in just the right spot, and the small aperture of my lens created the rays streaming out from it (each blade in the iris of the lens creates two of the rays; to some extent, more blades means a higher quality lens; five is standard for lenses that come with cameras, and seven is usually some pretty nice glass; I was pleased to see that this one has nine!). A little abstract, but kinda fun. Even with the sun down and the sea breeze, I was still dripping sweat...

Nikon D90, 70-200mm lens @ 102mm, f/22, 13.0s, ISO 200.