HDR Photography
Though a photographer might briefly visit many locations, actually staying in a location means being present at the moment when the light is just right. In this case, sunrise pouring into Coachella Valley lights up the mountainsides and the rooftops, but not yet the valley floor itself.
Being there to capture the sunrise picture is great, of course, but being on location in this case also meant being able to follow it up with a sunrise dip in the hot tub.
Thanks to the local students working summer jobs who make relaxing afternoons possible.
William Gibson’s novels—particularly the latter ones—are deeply interested in questions of design and constructed environments. That, combined with his characters’ globe-trotting tendencies, means that richly described hotel lobbies figure frequently into his works.
I’m a bit of a great hotel lobby fan myself, so the plant-filled glass space at the front of Dublin’s The Green Hotel immediately grabbed my attention. What a cozy space, sure—but the modern touches make me feel I’m more likely to rendezvous with a spy than slowly slurp a warm beverage.
The dry seabed that is Coachella Valley provides a very flat surface for construction; as a result, modern constructions mostly fall on whatever pattern/array is convenient to the developers. In a few places, however, interruptions in those arrays stand out in an aerial view.
The palms on this golf course, for example, are on a clear grid, with the fairways and greens cut into it. Was this a palm plantation before the course was build?
Here, the green lawn of a larger home stands out, covering multiple grid positions, while neighboring homes cluster into smaller, more regularly arrayed lots.
Though this subdivision isn’t itself on a grid, the clubhouse nonetheless interrupts the pattern.
We travel to Dublin’s River Liffey today. This art installation was a less surprising find that might be expected, as the river has quite a history with Viking longboats.
Just down the way, the Millennium Bridge was decorated with rainbow hoops. Whether looking into the sunset…
…Or away from it, there was a color to match the sky. The (comparatively) modern structure against the older buildings of Dublin makes for a delightful juxtaposition.
And let’s throw in one more for good measure: this further juxtaposition from not far away in Trinity College, Dublin. I like the mix of a delivery driver in a modern van, checking his phone in front of a hall whose builders could never have imagined such a thing.
Like a less-pointillist “Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte“, a flat body of water covered in boaters on a sunny afternoon conveys placid vibes.
Flying a drone in downtown Hartford requires some extra permissions, but they’re worth chasing for the opportunity to capture shots like this one: Bushnell Tower, the State Capitol, and a rain-checked fireworks display arrayed above Bushnell Park.
I’m not sure that it’s great for the Kia, but watching a Bay Area sunset from the roof of a car gives “classic California” vibes that make for a great picture.
A big, broad, western-America sunrise may feel summer-y, but this one was taken in the depths of winter.
Does anything say “summer” like nature and watercraft?
Conserved spaces above the noisy East Bay grid make for this incredible reprieve. Though the street lights may shine up here, the sounds are damped over the distance. Lawrence Hall of Science is a popular spot to experience this; I like the contrast in this image between the humans and the city.
Trinity College Dublin’s Campanile forms a center of reflection symmetry on campus—one broken, in this case, by pedestrians, clouds, and construction equipment.
A post came on social media from more than 11 years ago reminded me of trips around the Bay Area; comparing my RAW files with the images I ultimately posted to Decaseconds originally left me asking, “How did I miss these?”
In past cases of reprocessing pictures, I took another approach to images I already knew were solid. This first image today, boat sailing near Point Bonita lighthouse north of San Francisco, is in a whole different category: I hadn’t remember that I’d taken the image at all.
The occasion was a trip to the Legion of Honor and Lincoln Park. Back then, not a single picture made it to Decaseconds. Many of the images from that day suffered from issues that I know how to correct now, but didn’t yet have the tools to conquer in early 2012.
These pictures from a trip to Treasure Island to shoot the San Francisco skyline are likewise mystifying. I posted only a single picture from that trip.
The old and new spans of the Bay Bridge, side-by-side, is a literally now-unseeable image.
Though a lot of posts came of our trip to the Marin Headlands to shoot the Golden Gate Bridge, this more natural shot of the rocky coastline (those little black dots are sea birds) has its own kind of large-scale glory.
Of course, a trip back through my photography in the Bay Area wouldn’t be complete without a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge that I previously ignored.
Several posts ago, I showed you the view from Mohonk Mountain House’s Skytop, including its fire suppression water supply. Seen from the other side, that reservoir makes for a perfect mid-morning reflection.
My first drone flight in Hartford—floating above the trees of Bushnell Park—coincided with Juneteenth. The Connecticut State Capitol (former site of Trinity College) and this vibrant mural are located at the western side of the park.
Decaseconds 