Please comment on these photos.  If you like them, let us know why.  If you don't like them, let us know why.  If you're a professional photographer and are willing to spend a few minutes, please feel free to share technical corrections.

Ultimately, Christine and I would like to get into the business of selling photographs.  Not necessarily as a primary occupation, but wouldn't that be nice too?

Middle Son

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."

- John Adams

Nikon D7000 - 45mm, f4.8, 1/4, ISO 200. Post processing with Lightroom 4.

Mimi's Birthday!

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come." - William Shakespeare, "Merchant of Venice"

Mimi's 90'th birthday party!  Mimi is Christine's maternal grandmother.  She was a bit under the weather, and couldn't come to her own birthday party, so we took the party to her.

Light conditions for this photograph were challenging.  The foreground was lit with a single can light in the ceiling, while the rest of the room was quite dark to facilitate a slide show on the wall to Mimi's front.  To compensate, I used Lightroom 4 to vignette the photograph to highlight Mimi, and darken the edges more uniformly. The high ISO required some noise smoothing.

Nikon D7000 - 18mm, f6.3, 1/160, ISO 10,000.  Post processing with Lightroom 4

Con·trast

[v. kuhn-trast, kon-trast; n. kon-trast] 

verb (used with object)

1. to compare in order to show unlikeness or differences; note the opposite natures, purposes, etc., of: Contrast the political rights of Romans and Greeks.

verb (used without object)

2. to exhibit unlikeness on comparison with something else; form a contrast.

3. Linguistics . to differ in a way that can serve to distinguish meanings: The sounds ( p )  and ( b )  contrast in the words “pin” and “bin.”

noun

4. the act of contrasting; the state of being contrasted.

5. a striking exhibition of unlikeness.

6. a person or thing that is strikingly unlike in comparison: The weather down here is a welcome contrast to what we're having back home.

7. opposition or juxtaposition of different forms, lines, or colors in a work of art to intensify each element's properties and produce a more dynamic expressiveness.

8. Photography . the relative difference between light and dark areas of a print or negative.

Origin:
1480–90;  (v.) < Middle French contraster  < Italian contrastare  to contest < Latin contrā- contra- ¹  + stāre  to stand;  (noun) earlier contraste  < French  < Italian contrasto  conflict, derivative of contrastare.

 

 

Steampunk

“I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.” – Voltaire

Nikon D7000 - 18mm, f3.5, 1/50, ISO 400.  Post processing with Lightroom 4

Exit/In

"Without music, life would be a mistake" -  Friedrich Nietzsche

This is a small venue in Nashville where my family and I saw VNV Nation perform live.  It was a small, intimate show with lots of bass.

Nikon D7000 - 52mm, f5, 1/100, ISO 100.  Post processing with Nikon Capture NX2.

Lincoln Memorial

"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem."
- Abraham Lincoln, Address Delivered in Candidacy for the State Legislature. (9 March 1832)
 
I took this photo on the same walk as the Arlington photo below.  Coincidentally, February 12th is President Lincoln's birthday.  The memorial was set up with chairs and velvet ropes, which drove the normal mass of people to the edges and created some significant challenges for setting a tripod up.

The memorial is quite dark, but I really dislike using flash. The original photo was underexposed. To make it useable I brightened the image and increased the contrast, while increasing the D-Light (dynamic lighting feature in RAW images).  I also cropped it a bit.

Nikon D7000 - 105mm, f5.6, 1/15, ISO 100. On Tripod.  Post processing Nikon Capture NX2.

Arlington

    Ok, everyone's seen this photo, because everyone has taken this photo...

 Maybe this one is different enough that not everyone has seen it?

"And every time I hear twenty-one guns,
I know they brought another hero home to us." - Trace Adkins, "Arlington"

These two photographs are of Arlington National Cemetery.  These particular graves are mostly from the Korean war, though some of them are from World War II.  The graves in the background are from many other conflicts. 

I took these photos February 12, 2012.  It was cold and blustery, but I walked from the Arlington stop on the Blue Line across the Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial, and then down the Mall to the Smithsonian metro stop. Exposure data is identical, and both are taken from the same position.

Nikon D7000 - 105mm, f 5.6, 1/2500, ISO 100. On tripod.  Post-processing Nikon Capture NX2.

Gulf Shores, Alabama

"We're having something a little different this year for Thanksgiving. Instead of a turkey, we're having a swan. You get more stuffing." - George Carlin


Thanksgiving on the beach.  This was the only bird near the beach house.

The original photo was a little drab.  Better white balance would have corrected the exposure without excessive processing.  I increased the sharpness and the contrast, and then aided the color until there was a hint of blue in the water.

Nikon D7000 - 105mm, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 200.  Post processing Lightroom 4.

Brasserie

"I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" - Song of Solomon 6:3

Christine and I had coffee and croissants at a charming little Brasserie around the corner from Champs de Mars.  This was on Monday, 11 October, about an hour and a half before the famous Segway tour... and about four hours before the "Daredevil Incident".

While I drank my coffee, we were amused by the French mothers pushing their children past in various wheeled conveyances at break-neck speed.  There weren't any accidents, but it did appear quite dangerous. 

Nikon D7000 - 32mm, f4.2, 1/30, ISO 1000.  Post processing Lightroom 4.

Eiffel Tower

"Il me semble que, n'eût elle pas d'autre raison d'être que de montrer que nous ne sommes pas simplement le pays des amuseurs, mais aussi celui des ingénieurs et des constructeurs qu'on appelle de toutes les régions du monde pour édifier les ponts, les viaducs, les gares et les grands monuments de l'industrie moderne, la Tour Eiffel mériterait d'être traitée avec consideration." -Gustave Eiffel

This is the underside of the Eiffel Tower lit up on an overcast night (you can see the city light bouncing off of the clouds).

Christine and I had just eaten dinner on the first platform at 58 Tour Eiffel.  We shared a table with a pair of ladies from New Zealand.  After dinner we took a long walk along the Seine.

Nikon D7000 - 18mm, f3.5, 1/6, ISO 1600.  No post processing.

Les Gobelins

“When good Americans die, they go to Paris.” - Oscar Wilde

Near Les Gobelins metro station in Paris, France.  Christine and I had just left the Starbucks after discovering that "venti vanilla chai frappuchino breve" doesn't mean the same thing in France as it does in the United States.

Nikon D7000 - 18mm, f3.5, 1/40, ISO 800.  Post processing Photoshop CS3.

Moulin Rouge

"The Moulin Rouge. A night club, a dance hall and a bordello. Ruled over by Harold Zidler. A kingdom of night time pleasures. Where the rich and powerful came to play with the young and beautiful creatures of the underworld." - Baz Luhrmann, "Moulin Rouge"

The end of the quest!  We had to take a picture of the Moulin Rouge to satisfy certain family obligations. Bright, red, and crowded!  The line of people waiting to get into the show stretched for blocks!  Fortunately, we weren't actually trying to get in.

Just prior to this, we were standing in front of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, in Montmartre.  We were rescued by a horde of drunken Scottish ladies singing "Sweet Home Alabama" and a bewildered French tour guide.

This photo has some slight touch ups for color and sharpness.


Nikon D7000 - 18mm, f4, 1/60, ISO 600.  Post processing Nikon Capture NX2.

Dragonfly

This dragonfly was at Green Mountain in Huntsville, Alabama.  Prior to processing, the photograph was a bit soft and medium grey.  I corrected the photograph by sharpening, adding contrast and reducing brightness.


Nikon D7000 - 70mm, f5.3, 1/100, ISO 400.  Post processing Nikon Capture NX2

Christine

"Who is this that appears like the dawn,
 fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
 majestic as the stars in procession?" - Song of Songs 6:10

This is my beautiful wife, Christine.  This photograph was taken in Progreso, Mexico while we were on a cruise with four of our five children.

This is the photo that sits on my desk at work!

Nikon D7000 - 105mm, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 200.  Post processing Photoshop CS3.