This is one of my favorite features of downtown Indianapolis. Taken with my D7200 and the awesome Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens (1/60, f8, ISO3600). An outdoor library open to all. Love the scene but tough to capture in a picture. The girls in the picture help give scale. In retrospect, I wonder if it would be better to have them at the front carousel instead. Also interested in coming back again in spring when the tree is in full bloom and perhaps on a sunny day.
High Line Park
This was taken on March 9, 2017 at the very cool High Line Park in New York city. Taken with my D7200 and the simple but awesome Nikon 18-55 VR II lens (1/60, f11, ISO 1250 at 42mm). Lots of great scenes in this short but nice park. I liked this one for two reasons. One, the tricycle highlighting the friends of the park message caught my attention. Two, the back lighting behind the trees creates an interesting effect. It's a busy park. Perhaps catching some people in the scene would have been more accurate. That said, I like the tranquility of the scene as is. Would be interesting to go back in spring to see what the flower blooms bring to the park.
Construction Framing
This picture was taken Feb 24, 2017 in Fort Lauderdale, FL from the W Hotel across the street from this construction site. Thus the blur even at a high f value (f/11, 1/1000 sec, ISO 900). Shot with my Nikon D7200 and the Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD. Lens fully extended to 600MM. I continue to be impressed by the performance of this lens. I took a number of shots of the site. This is the one I find most interesting. I like the color and patterns of this picture. Art in everyday items. My one regret is that I did not focus more on this type of shot. I took a large number of overall construction site shots. None turned out as well as this shot. Interesting how the background is blurred even at f/11. A great illustration of how zooming in blurs the background even at high f values.
Indy Barn
This was taken on December 27, 2014 at Conner Prairie in Indianapolis with my Sony RX100 III (1/125, f4, ISO400, 25.7mm). I found the view of the open barn opening in the back to the urban neighborhood interesting. There was a house with a white trim door to the right of center as you look through the barn doors. I found this white dot a bit distracting in that it drew my eyes away from the rest of the scene. I tend to use little editing in the photos but this is one case where I did use Lightroom to make some adjustments. Still not sure what I think about having done so. It perhaps cleans the picture up a tad but does not give a fully accurate depiction of the scene. It depends somewhat on what I'm trying to convey here. Keeping it as is for now.
Stay Noided
This is a picture of some graffiti in New Orleans take with my D7200 and Nikon 35mm f/1.8 lens on February 7, 2017 (1/640, f9, ISO400). I was trying to catch the grittiness of the Stay Noided statement. Thus the reason for making this black and white (high contrast). My primary self criticism here is that there is too much going on in the background of the picture. As a result, the "stay nodded" message is not coming out strong enough. I tried cropping but was not happy with the result. This is a case where it would have been beneficial to take this picture from a multitude of different angles to see what might work best in post processing.
New Orleans Trolly
This is a more recent picture taken in New Orleans February 6, 2017 with my relatively new Nikon D7200 and Nikon 35mm G f/1.8 lens (1/60, f1.8, ISO4000). It was obviously taken in the dark of night. Pretty happy with this picture. I like the contrast of the color with the dark. I also like the way the tracks lead you into the main subject of the trolley. The trolley appears to be driverless, which I found interesting. The biggest challenge with this photo is that I had a major lens flare that showed up in the dark area of the tracks and significantly detracted from the picture. I was able to mostly eliminate it via Lightroom but it was a pain to do so. Not sure if the flare was from the lens or the B&W UV filter on the lens. I'm tempted to try to use the lens at night without the filter to see if it makes a difference. Great low light lens that I plan to use often at night so figuring out how to eliminate the flaring issue is important.
Indy Skyline
This is a picture of the Indianapolis skyline taken from the office of the executive director of the Indiana State Museum on August 29, 2014 with a Panasonic DMC-LX7 camera (1/640, f2.8). I was really happy with this picture when I first took it. Thought it would be one of my favorites. I am less excited about it over time. Two things make me not like it as much as I initially thought. First, there's more noise in the picture than I like. I have subsequently replaced this camera with a Sony RX 100 III as my grab and go camera. Much happier with the results from the Sony camera. More importantly, I'm not as thrilled with the composition as I was initially. It's a beautiful day and a clear view of the city. However, it's a surprisingly flat photo that doesn't do anything in terms of telling a story. I find I'm far more captivated by pictures the tell some type of story, such as the flower cutting picture from my first post. This picture is in my portfolio for now but it may not last since it lacks the emotion that some of the other pictures in the portfolio possess. I need to be more thoughtful of the story I'm telling as I compose and take my photos.
Cutting Flowers
This is one of my favorite pictures of my girls. Taken with a Nikon D5300 (f/10, 1/400, ISO800) at 26mm with my Nikon 18-300 VR II lens. It was taken at the Lavender Hills Farm in Niles, MI on July 5, 2016. It captures the expression of my daughter Brianna (main subject) well. I decided to use f/10 to better capture my wife Vivian (left) and other daughter Sorana (right) in the picture. If I could do the photo over, I would be less tight in the cropping to get Sorana deeper in to the photo. Ideally, I would have waited for the person in the far back of the photo (just to the right of Vivian) to move. However, had I done so, I would have most likely missed the moment. Still, multiple photos would have been better here - just in case. Lesson (hopefully) learned.