HDR Photography
This image, taken from the air over Campus Security and with the restored steeple of St. Lawrence University in the background, might not be quite up to my normal quality standards. I find it more interesting for another reason: it’s the first (good) picture I’ve captured with a quadcopter drone. I have to admit, the potential of the technology for landscape photographers is pretty exciting. Now if I can just get a drone to carry something as heavy as my DSLR…
The Lamborghini Murciélargo is an all-wheel-drive chunk of octane and gloss and “DA BULL.” That aesthetic and attitude might fly in New York or Los Angeles, but I’m not sure what to make of it all in a friendly city like Portland, Oregon.
Continuing my Seattle street photography trend from my last post, todays photo is a similarly odd vignette of West Coast life, from the punk/patriotic dirt bike to the painted brick to the elegant Jameson label.
I found this newsstand just around the corner from this recent photograph of Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington. I love the stark grid of his shirt against the curves of the contrasty cover, and the two lighting temperatures of the magazines and the street outside.
Seattle’s Pike Place Market has a lived-in, European aesthetic. Tiny stairways and doorways peak out from beneath railings and walkways. I half-expect to see a secret agent carefully eluding his pursuers in the complicated structures. Early on a Saturday morning, however, events seem just a bit calmer.
I was told to go to the Seattle Public Library, and gaze into the eldritch angles of its geometry. I rather like the reflections on glass and water in this image, and I think the gridwork is quite cool; still, the idea of sneaking some kind of Lovecraftian building into the architectural melange of a city sounds like the plot of Ghostbusters. Excellent.
Portland’s Pearl District is colonized by construction like some sort of reverse-termites; shiny new buildings add to the skyline each day. As impressive as the reflections and the bridges and the gorgeous dawn sky is, I rather love the image of the man reading the paper in the bottom-right corner of the image. He’s literally on the edge of this dramatic image, but so thoroughly unfazed. Reading the paper and eating cereal has to happen sometime!
My co-author is the true Seattleite, and I began to understand the appeal of the place when I spent time there for a wedding this weekend. From atop the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, the view of uncanny Rainier Tower complements the wee cars in the streets below. Dawn is the time to gaze down the canyons.
We recently spent an evening by the Columbus Convention Center. As I explored the neighborhood, I was struck by the combinations of tiny, earlier buildings (lik the wee gray one in the center) and new, shiny, modern behemoths. Columbus seems to be in the process of figuring out if it wants to be Pittsburgh or Cleveland.
The grassy, rolling, limestone-based Kentucky countryside looks too perfect. Precise fencing geometries and gently rippling ponds are just too much. I’m reminded of the famous Microsoft Windows XP default wallpaper, “Bliss.” The key to making both images work, I think, is an overall very clean image with just enough small details and imperfections at the edges to show you that it must be real.
Pony Finals at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky make for excellent people-watching. Designer Charles Ancona’s preferred mode of transportation is his color-coordinated Ducati Monster.
Come for a taste of Bourbon among the aging casks. Woodford Reserve is a tasty whiskey.
I know the clichés about whiskey and fire in a bottle, but this is just ridiculous. (From a recent trip with my co-author to Woodford in Kentucky.)
At the Kentucky Horse Park, the Kentucky Summer Classic has wound down and Pony Finals are about to begin. This particular arrangements of trainers, riders, and well-wishers was arrayed at the the warm-up ring, and the gradient of shadows beneath the tree branches brought to mind some modern take on a Renaissance painting: linear, repeating patterns and strong, horizontal lines.
When the water level rises in Stone Valley, the landscape gets odd, and impossible islands form where there were once minor changes in the landscape.
The water rushes through ferns and tree-roots and creates barriers in the landscape that redefine hiking for the day.
