Spring Break—No. 7

Before I leave my “Spring Break” photos, I thought I would show one more photograph of the Library of Congress. In this photograph, I wanted to show off the detail work in the marble staircase along with all the different lines formed by the staircase, pillars and ceiling.
If you go to Washington, D.C. make sure you put the Library of Congress on your “to see list.”
Enjoy 
Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 2000, f/11 at 1/15^th of a second with my camera supported by pillar in the lobby. 
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance and used adjustment brush to increase exposure and decrease shadows on staircase.

Spring Break—No. 6

 

Before I get into today’s photo, I would like to address two questions that I had regarding my last post—is the Nikon 28-300 mm f/3.5~5.6 my favorite lens.  No.  I am not sure I have a favorite lens.  However, for travel, street photography and candid family shots, it is my lens of choice.  Why?  It is remarkable sharp (even thought the lens specs might suggest otherwise).  Next, it is extremely versatile which fits into travel, street photography and candid family shots very well.  On vacation I now travel with only two lenses—this one and Nikon 50mm f/1.8 (for extreme low light shots).  I do not think I have ever used this lens for any of my professional work.  Even though I do not use it for my professional work, Jay Maisel and Scott Kelby do and I do not think you can argue with their abilities as photographers.

Most everyone has seen photographs of the Library of Congress, but almost all of those photographs are of the main reading room.  As a result, most people have never seen photographs of the main entrance—which is a shame since it is very impressive.

The building was opened in 1897 and cost about $6.5 million (no idea as to what that would be in 2013 dollars).  Today the library contains more that 145 million items that fill the equivalent of 745 miles of shelves—most impressive!  Today, the library acquires new holdings at rate of 10,000 items per day.  Not sure that there are 10,000 items a day that need to be acquired, but then I am sure that the Library of Congress believes that it must do its part to help spend $3.7 trillion each year.

I wanted this photoraph to be totally about the details of the main lobby. 

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 44mm, ISO 900, f/11 at 1/15^th of a second with my camera supported by pillar in the lobby.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added clarity, sharpness and vibrance.

Spring Break—No. 5

 

I believe that if you are a photographer and go to Washington, D.C., you must photograph a subway station.  I think the boys in D.C. did a good job designing the subway stations.  However, I do not like the subway system in D.C. because it is not  nearly as user-friendly as the New York or Paris systems.

Here, I wanted to show the station and put some movement into the shot so I used a shutter speed of ½ of a second.  I waited until a train was entering the station.  It is my understanding that you cannot use a tripod so I braced my elbows on my knees to help stabilize the camera.

I like the movement of the train, the details of the station and how the light plays on different parts of the station.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 44mm, ISO 1400, f/11 at 1/2 of a second with my camera supported on my knees.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance.

Spring Break—No. 4

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is unlike any other museum in the world.  It contains probably the greatest collection of air and space vehicles in the world.  To me, there are two things that make it special:  (1) the range of air craft, from the beginning of man flight to outer space; and, (2) large planes hanging light models throughout the museum.

Today’s photos demonstrate the range of aircraft within the museum.  The Sprit of St. Louis that was the first airplane with a single pilot to go from New York to Paris.  As I was looking at the plane, I thought about JD’s and my trip to Paris last November—flight time 10 hours, large comfortable seats, movies (too many), decent movies and lots of wine!   Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight from New York to Paris—31 hours, cramped seats, no restroom, cold sandwiches, no movies and NO wine!

Within 30 feet of the Spirit of St. Louis is one of NASA’s experimental jet that travels at about 2.5 times the speed of sound.  This plane would have allowed Lindberg to make the flight in about two hours.  I could do without the movies, food and even the wine for two hours!

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 1600, f/8 at 1/30^th of a second with my camera supported by the railing.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and cropped the second photo.

Spring Break—No. 3

The Smithsonian includes eleven museums on the Mall and another six off the Mall.  It is probably the greatest collections of museums in the world.  And, they are all free admission.

My two favorite museums are:  the National Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum.  But, I must admit, the American History Museum and the American Indian Museum are also high on my list.

When Monte and I took our “guys-only” trip to Washington, D.C., we visited the National Museum of Natural History every day.  It was Monte’s favorite museum.  At the time, I was also in complete amazement of what was within its walls.  Today, I am not nearly as amazed.  Why?  Because of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, which is not as large, but presents its paleontology and gems & minerals so much better than the Smithsonian presents it.  For anyone who has not been to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, I encourage you to go, especially to the Hall of Paleontology.

Today, photo is of the museums rotunda.  I wanted to capture the size, the general architecture and the crowds within the museum.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 1000, f/8 at two 1/30^th with my camera supported by the railing.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and used lens correction and cropping to minimize distortion in second photo.

Spring Break—No. 2

Our hotel was a block east and two blocks south of the east side of the capitol.  So, each morning we passed the capitol on our way to other sites on the Mall.

I took this photo on one of those mornings.  The photo is of the east side of the capitol (which, although it faces away from the Mall, is the front of the capitol).  I wanted the photo to show the Capitol’s classical lines.  Some people will be bothered by the distortion of the building—especially the left side.  The distortion does bother me some but not enough to purchase a tilt-shift lens and then learn how to use it.  I think the tools in Lightroom 4 allow you to correction the distortion sufficient for my purposes.  I used these tools (plus cropping) in the second photo to minimize the effect.

Distort or not distort?  Which do you prefer?

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 32mm, ISO 100, f/11 at two 1/180^th.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and used lens correction and cropping to minimize distortion in second photo.

Spring Break—No. 1

Can you guess where the Patricks went on spring break?

Many moons ago, I took Monte (my son, age 7) to Washington D.C.  It was a total “guy trip.”  We had a blast.  We were on the go from sunrise to well past sunset.  We tried to do everything.

I thought that JD and I would do the same with our grandchildren.  A little inside info, a 60+ body just does not have the energy that a 25+ body has.  Yet, a 10- body has the same.  The three little ones wore grandma and me out—and that was despite having Monte and Ana with us!  But, despite being completely exhausted every night and doing virtually nothing for three days after we returned, we loved our trip.  I do not believe there is a greater pleasure in the world than watching your grandchildren have fun learning about the United States of America, the greatest country in the world.

My photographs from the trip were mostly “family” shots, so they will not be shown.  My shots of D.C. are mostly grab shots—I did not go out to take any shots on my own.

I think everyone will recognize today’s photo of the capitol.  The photo was taken from a slightly different location than most photographs of the capitol are taken.

Enjoy

Camera settings:  Nikon D4, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 42mm, ISO 800, f/11 at two 1/250^th.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance and cropped image.

Using Flash Creatively—No. 10

I got the idea to turn the side of a building during the day into a dark night club with a singer performing in it.

Emili did a great job acting like a singer.  Unfortunately, I did not have a microphone, so I asked Emili to act-like she was holding one and singing into it. 

The lighting was straight forward—three Nikon SB 800 in SU 4 mode and gelled acting as stage lights and Elincrhom Quadra to light Emili.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D4 on a tripod, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 50mm, ISO 100, f/16 at two 1/30^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom 4—applied Nikon Vivid preset during import, set white and black points and added vibrance.

Photoshop CS5—cloned-out the light stands of the Nikon SB 800s in behind Emili and added the microphone in her hand.