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.