Night – Page 14 – Decaseconds

Portland Pearl Aurora

2015-Dec-09 adohertyh2 Comments

This is more than a vibrant, glowing, living moment of late-night city life from the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon; this picture is the first I’ve ever processed with a new piece of software, Aurora HDR. It was processed only with Aurora, with no other fiddling in other programs. (As you may know, I’m typically a die-hard Photomatix+Photoshop workflow guy.) I’m not sure what place Aurora will have in my workflow long-term, but I have to at least say this: its noise reduction algorithms are by far the best I’ve ever seen. (Noise is the main enemy of good HDR shots.) I’ll bring you a longer report when I’ve had more seat time with it.

Columbus Nightfield

2015-Dec-02 adohertyh2 Comments

Rainy nights make for the best hotel stays; when the city is a strange mix of old brick and modern blah* (hello, Columbus!), a cloudy sky lit by unnatural light matches the alienating mood.

*Where “blah” = solid but uninspired office buildings.

Wall of Olympic

2015-Oct-02 adohertyhLeave a comment

This image of the flank of the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle, Washington is imposing for a variety of reasons, but none more than the number of bricks, each of which must have been carefully laid into place, necessary to construct the façade.

Super Blood Moon over St. Lawrence University

2015-Sep-28 adohertyh2 Comments

This weekend’s inescapable event was the once-in-a-decade super blood moon, a simultaneous lunar eclipse and supermoon. I snuck away from working to get a shot of the moonrise over the campus and the Adirondacks.

Later in the evening, the lunar eclipse was in full swing and I shot it as it passed the newly restored steeple of the campus chapel.

The Beast Awakens

2015-Sep-25 adohertyhLeave a comment

The arcing forms of burning steel wool, mirrored and displayed in a “tiny planet” polar projects, put me in might of science-fiction technology or some demonic portal.

Fire Tube to the Portal

2015-Sep-232015-Sep-23 adohertyh1 Comment

Burning steel wool makes for some really cool effects. With St. Lawrence University Photo Club, we experimented with illusions of depth and movement over the course of the exposure.

Interstate Through Portland

2015-Sep-09 adohertyh1 Comment

The raised interstate looks like a crown, with bridges for gems, just above the emerging skyline of Portland’s Pearl District.

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Movie Bridge

2015-Jul-24 adohertyhLeave a comment

On this through-arch bridge going into Canton from the Adirondacks, I used the Brenizer Method to make a super-wide, narrow-depth-of-field image that brings to mind some slightly sinister movie scene.

Canaras Lodge

2015-Jul-01 adohertyh2 Comments

Camp Canaras has a central lodge, a merry place of varnished wood and Scotch served neat. Late at night, long after the campers are tucked in, the place takes on a ghostly, abandoned vibe.

Inside, the minor remnants of the party still remain, along with the major remnants of large animals.

He Has an Idea

2015-Jun-19 adohertyhLeave a comment

A lightbulb can be more than just a cliché for having an idea.

Lightning Over Carl Sagan’s House

2015-Jun-122015-Jun-12 adohertyhLeave a comment

As a scientist and educator in the 21st century, it’s difficult to overstate the role that Carl Sagan played in shaping my worldview. When I traveled to Ithaca, NY for the first time this week (for a chemistry conference, naturally), I wasn’t planning on any kind of specific pilgrimage. Nonetheless, I found myself standing on a tall bridge above a gorge, watching the lights of Ithaca and the flashes of lightning in the distant clouds.

I didn’t have my normal Nikon with me. I didn’t have my tripod with me. I made do. How often do you get to photograph lightning over Carl Sagan’s house?

(It’s the house on the right, by the way.)

Winter Light Cones

2015-May-27 adohertyhLeave a comment

Information cannot move through the universe (as far as we know) any faster than the speed of light. In the hyperbolically shaped world of spacetime, all factors that could influence my current state are in the “light cone” behind me, and all factors that I can influence in the future are in the “light cone” ahead of me. This photograph, from during a particularly nasty winter storm, exhibits light cones of another variety.

Murdered Out

2015-May-20 adohertyh1 Comment

Continuing my week-long digression into automotive photography, I brought back this older shot from the damp streets of Berkeley. The glow of the apartment buildings, the light trails, and the older cars on the street all form the backdrop to this murdered-out Subaru Impreza WRX. (Murdered out, meaning black rims and a dark black window tint—though I always thought this look worked better on Cadillacs than Subarus…)

Old and New Ghosts

2015-May-13 adohertyh1 Comment

Continuing my observations of the end of the year are a couple of photographs of campus buildings that have a bit of literal spirit to them. First is Sykes Hall, one of the older dorms. With the full moon by the tower and the HDR’ed light trails (a happy accident), the scene says “Halloween in May.”

ODY Library doesn’t have the same old-school creepiness, but rather that brutalist, Soviet vibe that says the ghosts must be a bit more modern.

The Quad is an Ocean

2015-May-08 adohertyh4 Comments

Continuing this week of “end of the school year,” calming-of-the-campus photographs is this landscape over the quad: An ocean of light and shadow (pardon the cliché) divides the new Kirk Douglass Hall (a.k.a. “the new dorm”) from the rememberer.