The End of an Era

Over 30 years ago we witnessed the first Space Shuttle being ferried around the beltway on the back of a 747.  At the time, the Shuttle represented the apparent future of space travel. A reusable vehicle that would fly back to earth after each mission.  Anyone excited about the space program in the late 70s had very high hopes for this not so small step for man’s space exploration.   With great fan fair the first shuttle, Enterprise, was flown around the nation for Americans to see.   It was an awesome site lumbering through the air as it circled Washington, DC.  It was unique.  It made us feel proud to be American and the prevailing power in the space race.

 

 

Well this past Tuesday we once again witnessed this awesome sight but unfortunately this time with the sad knowledge that we were witnessing the retirement of the last of the operational fleet of Shuttles.   A fleet of vehicle that made it possible to launch and then later repair the Hubble space telescope.  A fleet of vehicle with unique cargo capabilities that made the building of the international space station possible.  A fleet of vehicles that completed 133 successful missions between 1981 to 2011.  Tuesday’s fly over represents the end of the future of space flight and brings with it an uncertainty about the new future of NASA and space exploration. 

 

 

With the Orion Capsule being the only thing on the drawing boards, one has to wonder if we are not taking one giant leap backwards for man kind.  It all makes me wonder what this little guy has to look forward to over the next 30 years. He was very cute with his Lego space shuttle flying it around in anticipation of seeing the real thing… Will he have proud and fond memories of adventures in space 30 years from now?  Or will he have to settle for the mediocrity that seems to have settled into the culture of our leadership.  We got into the space race over 50 years ago not through mediocrity but with the national pride that drove us to beat the Russians and be the worlds best.   The most ironic turn of events today is the simple fact that, with the retirement of the Shuttle program, we are now dependent on the Russians to get back into space.  Makes me ask, who actually did win the space race. 

 

 

Nevertheless, Tuesday’s fly over was a sight to be seen.  The shear power of the 747 was incredible, as it flew directly over our heads west to east over Rosslyn and the Iwo Jima Memorial at 1500ft.  It brought goose bumps and the shaking that accompanies the excitement of seeing such an awesome event.  Terry and I were privileged to witness the flight 30 years ago and Tuesday we were once again privileged to see the final flight of Discovery.  

 

 

By now we’ve all seen hundreds of photographs of this historic event. Just like most of mine, many are close up shots of a magnificent piece of machinery. But standing on the grounds of Netherlands Carillon, adjacent to the Iwo Jima Memorial and looking out over the city, I found this image very ironic as Discovery flew over the very body of government that chose to mothball the program.

 

 

It makes you wonder if we are really watching our superiority in space exploration fly off into the sunset.

 

 

I certainly hope not for the sake of all the small children who witnessed Discovery as it enjoyed its final flight to the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport. 

What Did I Do on My Summer Vacation

For the first time in almost 22 years Terry and I spent almost the entire summer in the absence of children.  Amanda has moved from school in Pittsburgh across the state to a new job in Philly.  And between camp, vacations, and a trip to the beach with big sis, Caroline has been gone since just after school let out.  

So what did Terry and I do?   We dug deep into our youth and became groupies.  That’s right, we pretty much followed one of our local bands around from bar to bar dig’n the great music. Hang’n with old and making new friends. Basically, enjoying our new found freedom. 

On this particular night I brought along the camera equipment and shot a few for the band.  Pretty simple two flash setup; one on camera with a CTO gel to help warm things up and a remote flash with a blue gel to provide just a hint of color.  

Meet Chickenhawks Rock

     

A Little Steam on a Hot Summers Day

On my way home from the family vacation a few weeks ago, I took a little excursion up to Scranton PA and visited Steamtown National Historic Site. Steamtown is an interesting story. Once called Steamtown USA with its home in Bellows Falls, Vermont, it started with one individuals, Nelson Blount,  PRIVATE collection of steam engines and rolling stock and eventually wound up a National Park Service site in Scranton PA.  It is unique in that its the only Nation Park of its type in the US; a park not devoted to preserving beautiful landscapes or mountain sides, its all about preserving a part of Americana that connected two halves of a country and slowly died the victim of advancing technologies. 

Now housed in the heart of Scranton, PA at the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad yard and round house, the park still services and restores these old iron horses.  A fine example is this 4-8-8-4 Big Boy

Union Pacific 4014 Big Boy

Only 25 of these 4000 class 4-8-8-4 were built by Alco for the Unions Pacific Rail Road.  The UP 4012 is one of only 8 still in existence today and is a beautiful sample of Steam’s hay day on the rails.  It’s amazing to me that this monster found its way to one mans private collection but thank god it did. 

Steam is not the only thing at Steamtown.   This EMD F3, built sometime between 1945 and 1949 by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division is one of 20 A units bought by the DL&W RR.  It has been beautifully restored and is used occasionally for excursion trips. 

DL&W EMD F3A

Although slightly out of focus this photo reminds me of the look often see in a period ads for rail travel.   

 

The greatest thing about a rail museum is it provides for all sort of interesting photography. 

Manual Brake Wheel

2 of the 4-8-8-4’s 16 Drive Wheels

Mail bins inside a Pullman style mail car

It was a very hot day but very fun trip back to a time where Steam was king of the railways and train travel was romantic and glamorous.  If you happen to be in Northeaster part of PA I strongly suggest you stop in and take a look around.  Its an extremely educational location ; very well done by the US Park Services. 

Now and Then – August 28th 1963 and 2010

It’s always cool when you shoot a photograph, take a look at it, and realize it reminds  you of an image you’ve seen in news and print all your life especially if that photograph is of a monumental event in your history. 

Below are two photographs I took at the Restoring Honor Rally this past Saturday.

I shot my images on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial 47 years to the day that the images bellow were shot from similar locations.

Of course, the black and white photos were shot August 28, 1963 during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  This was at the height of the Civil Rights movement, where over 250,000 people, mostly of African American decent, marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial culminating with Marin Luther Kings I have a Dream speech.   Unfortunately, for the movement, African Americans and the country as a whole, King was assassinated 5 years later in Memphis, Tennessee.  I shutter to think how things may have been different had he lived to see his dream to fruition.  

For those of us who lived through and were born in the 60s, these images are engrained in our memories, seeing them on TV and in news papers, magazines and now history books. It makes it specialty gratifying when you have an opportunity to photograph something similar, on the same day, 47 years later, that arguably may also have historical importance.  Of course only time will tell but there is no arguing the historical importance of the 1963 photos. 

Please note: I make no direct comparison between the Restoring Honor Rally and the March on Washington.  I’m merely pointing out the satisfaction in producing similar photographs 47 years after the originals.   

Flash… Don’t leave home without it

Went to the City Docks in Annapolis this past Sunday to enjoy a great afternoon of music from our friend Mary accompanied by her band mates Brian and Neal.  More on Brian, Mary and Neal later. 

Anyway…

We get down to the Dock just in time for a big black rain clouds to roll in.  Bummer!!!  I was looking forward to a beautiful blue sky with a few white fluffy clouds as a backdrop for for some nice photos of the girls and the harbor.  Instead I have dark ominous clouds…  What to do… What to do… 

Whip out the flash and go dramatic. 

Canon 1D Mark III, 1/2500, F/4, ISO 400, FEC +1 2/3

This is super easy to do with a flash and off camera shoe cord.  In manual mode set your exposure for the desired background effect. In this case, I’m at least a stop or two under exposed.  Now work you flash power until you get the desired affect.  Despite the clouds, it was still fairly bright outside so the flash was set at +1 2/3  EV to over power the ambient light ensuring the flash is the primary light in the photo.  Now with the flash set, hold it out for the desired angle and shadows and then shoot away.  Note that the color cast is created with a 1/4 CTO gel on the flash;  give sort of a sun set cast of color. 

Canon 1D Mark III, 1/2500, F/4, ISO 400, FEC +1 2/3

Here’s a couple of examples but after the storm had past.   Note the skies are now blue with white clouds but we’re able to really make them more dramatic using the exact same technique.    

Canon 1D Mark III, 1/400, F/4, ISO 100, FEC +1/3

Canon 1D Mark III, 1/8000, F/4, ISO 250, FEC +3

Pretty cool!!!!  I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have my flash with me and I seem to use it more and more all the time. 

Nocturne

So  when I got back into photography, I made a deal with myself that if I got good enough I wouldn’t turn this hobby into a profession like I did computers many years ago.  For the most part I’ve been pretty good at sticking to that pact.  Most of the “work” I’ve done for other has been strictly on a volunteer basis and because I wanted the experience or fun.    I guess you can say I did this job for the same reasons but, admittedly, I was paid cold hard cash for the work too.

 My personal favorite

Pretty much your average everyday product shoot; capture images of a new line of show and club laser units, add a bit of mood lighting, some accent lighting, make sure the logo stands out etc, etc.  The final images were to be used in advertising literature and website media.  

Front View

 Rear View 

 A look at the setup

We used a three flash setup for the shoot.  The light you see up high was blue gelled and created the blue background off a piece of white illustrator board behind the laser.   The gold/orange accent was added by directing a light at a low angle so it would catch just the edges of the laser.  We used an orange gel to achieve the color.  Lastly we used a pure white snooted light to concentrate its light only on the logo of the laser.  Frankly, I don’t remember all the individual settings now but all the lights were set to manual and adjusted according to the look we wanted to achieve.   As Ansell Adams would say, “We used the right settings.” 

Please also note my two helpers in the background.  Amanda seems enamored with the pretty blue light.  :-) 

 

The result of all that work can be seen here in this one minute video.  The still images are the two you see above. 

Video courtesy of X-Laser

Shooting in the Theater… White Balance revisited

So it’s been a long time since I’ve discussed anything regarding theater photography but I happened to run into an interesting situation when shooting Alice.

First lets review our last conversation on this subject of WB in the theater.  In short we determined that setting the camera’s WB to around 3200K best matched the traditional tungsten theater lights.   This setting will best represent all the different colors used to accent the set and actors. 

Lets also briefly clear up a common misconception I hear from other photographers when discussing WB.  The particular gel color on theater lights should NOT determine your WB settings.  As a mater of fact, quite the opposite.  Setting the WB to that of a gelled light will do nothing but obliterate that color and throw everything else off.  If we are to represent the colors correctly we must set the camera to the WB of an un-gelled (white) light. 

Now with the house keeping expended, enter a new challenge…

Halloween Ghosts

So the image in this post are a couple years old but I thought it was appropriate and I haven’t done a How To post in a while. 

First the image.. 

1D Mark III w/ EF17-40"L F/4 @17mm, F/8, 6sec, ISO 100

The ghosting technique is really quite simple. 

The camera is set on a tripod and exposure is set for the ambient light.  In this case I used and aperture of F/8 for a pretty deep depth of field and  to help slow the shutter speed.  An aperture of F/8 dictated a 6 second exposure.  Now, to achieve a translucent Caroline I held my flash off camera left and dialed it down just enough to light up her face.  It was fired first curtain and then a second or so into the exposure I had Caroline step out of frame.  The initial blast of the flash sets her image and because she’s not in the shot for the full 6 seconds she appears translucent.   

The fun part about this technique is you can play around with just how translucent the subject is by varying the length of time they remain in frame during the exposure.  You can also govern how much blur is exposed as the move out of frame by varying the shutter speed and/or the speed by which they leave the frame.  The faster the subject steps out of the frame or the longer the exposure time, the less movement is captured and the more translucent they appear.  

A Budding National Geographic's Photographer

She looks like a natural doesn’t she?  

And the subject of her attention?

TJ’s Place

Monticello is known as Jefferson's experiment in architectural design and engineering.    Unfortunately there’s no way my words and photographs can do it justice but the Monticello website has a fantastic virtual tour. 

That said I did take a few exterior photos; interiors are not permitted. 

A view of the South Portico shot from beside the Wash House at the end of the North Dependency.

1D Mark III w/ EF70-200 f/2.8L IS 1/125, f/5.6, EV –2/3, ISO 100

Another shot from the north side along the gardens that wrap the lawn.

1D Mark III w/ EF17-40 f/4L 1/60, f/9, EV –2/3, ISO 100

Anyone have a nickel?  Your standard South Portico shot, the same view depicted on the US nickel

1D Mark III w/ EF70-200 f/2.8L IS 1/200, f/5.6, EV –2/3, ISO 100

South Portico reflecting off the Fish Pond near the South Dependency

1D Mark III w/ EF17-40 f/4L IS 1/500, f/4, EV –1, ISO 100

The Vegetable Garden Terrace just to south side of the house.  Visible is the Vegetable Garden Pavilion a place Jefferson would use as a quiet retreat to read. 

1D Mark III w/ EF70-200 f/2.8L IS 1/800, f/2.8, EV 0, ISO 100

And I’ll end with a picture of Caroline and Terry sitting on a bench clearly in some deep conversation most likely spurred on by the guide book Terry has in her lap.

1D Mark III w/ EF70-200 f/2.8L IS 1/200, f/2.8, EV –2/3, OCF on w/ +1 FEC, ISO 100

Apple Picking

Went down to Charlottesville for an Apple picking festival this past weekend. Where it wasn’t exactly what we were expecting, it was still a lot of fun.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  Temps in the low 70s, beautiful blue sky's and a complete lack of humidity.   It wasn’t too crowded but there were plenty of people.  The only real issues was there wasn’t much there except a barn, store, and of course the Apples.  We thought maybe there would be some good home cooking, maybe some blue grass music and the other sort of things associated with a “festival”.  Never the less we still had a great time. 

Anyway, we didn’t get down to the apple farm until mid afternoon so it gave me an opportunity to try to make something out of the harsh mid day sun.  With the help of my polarizer and some hefty exposure compensation I managed to get a few that I really like. 

Of course like all fall festivals of this type you have to have the typical tractor pulled hay ride.

Canon 1D Mark III w/ EF 17-40 f/4   1/400, f/6.3, EV –1/3 ISO 100

And then there’s the people…

Canon 1D Mark III w/ EF 17-40 f/4   1/200, f/5.6, EV –1/3 ISO 100

More people…

Canon 1D Mark III w/ EF 17-40 f/4   1/200, f/5.6, EV –1/3 ISO 100

Pumpkins?  in an Apple orchard? 

Canon 1D Mark III w/ EF 17-40 f/4   1/500, f/5.6, EV –1 2/3 ISO 100

More people heading out into the Orchard or should I say down since this particular orchard was located on the side of a mountain.

Canon 1D Mark III w/ EF 17-40 f/4   1/320, f/5.6, EV –1 ISO 100

And of course the reddish/greenish/dirtyish looking APPLES!!!  That's right folks, they don’t look as “good” on the tree as they look after being processed and put on the store shelves.  

Canon 1D Mark III w/ EF 17-40 f/4   1/30, f/5.6, EV –1, OCF on w/ –3 FEC, ISO 100

Camping Anyone?

What a better way to spend a beautiful weekend than camping in the great out doors.  I couldn’t agree more and it’s exactly what Terry, Caroline, and I did this past weekend. 

Terry and Caroline in front of the fire

Now we’re not talking camping with some sort of camper, nor are we talking camping with bathroom facilities or a 7-11 near by.  We’re talking deep in the forest, dig a hole, deal with the dirt, no sign of any other human life for miles…  REAL CAMPING. 

Trust me there’s nothing like it; the sounds of nature, the stars at night, the cool crisp air, the smell and warmth of a good fire…  It was one of the most relaxing weekends I’ve had in years.  

We camp in Green Ridge State Forest up in Western MD.  Green Ridge is MD’s 2nd largest forest located just between the Gap and Cumberland along the Potomac river. 

Potomac River from Point Lookout – 8/9/2008

Short of a canoe launch area at the river, Green Ridge is completely unimproved with miles of mostly dirt roads throughout the forest.  Camp sites are spread very far apart so the chance of hearing your neighbor campers is slim to none.  Wild life was sparse this time around but we did see a few turkey and an occasional deer. 

Roasting marshmallows

Better blow that one out Caroline!!!

Mmmmmmm  Smores!!!!

Wait a minute are you checking the spelling or cheating.  

And what was I doing while all this was going on?  Why taking my weird photos as my family would say…

Canon EOS-1D Mark III w/ 17-40 f/4 1/800, f/5.6, OCF

Canon EOS-1D Mark III w/ 17-40 f/4 1/800, f/5.6, OCF

It was a great weekend which also included a great 15 mile bike ride on The Great Allegheny Passage… more on that in my next post.