The back of history

While the majority of those who visit Old St. Charles meander along the main street, there is something to be said about the back of all of those old and historic buildings… other than the parking lots.  Can you imagine navigating these steps back in 1800’s attire?

Dam Heron

What a difference one little letter makes 😉

 

Whoa Nelly!

No idea why it was on their shirts but these ladies were making sure that those with a beer ticket got their whistles whetted.

Street Photography: Do you ever imagine…

When doing street photography there are several ways to go about capturing your subject.  Of course there is the stealth or ‘ninja’ mode which in and of itself has various ways of getting the shot.  You can shoot from the hip, pretend as if you are shooting something near your true subject or just take the shot quickly without being noticed; in, shoot and gone.  You can also just ask the person if they mind having their photo taken which can sometimes lead to an interesting conversation that may enhance your image.  Some may feel that interacting with those you see through the viewfinder doesn’t subscribe to the ideal of street photography but as we all know, everyone has their own opinion about what is what and in the end it’s all about you capturing the image you want.

But sometimes when shooting someone unaware, do you ever wonder what it is they are thinking about?  Or after you view an image later do you find yourself tempted to give the photo a caption (humorous or not) based upon how you interpret the image; create your own cartoon speech bubble so to speak?  My imagination was racing with this image because there is so much fodder for filling in the blanks.  Everyone in this image appears to be in their own world even if they are sitting next to each other except for the two ladies in the middle who are discussing something from the Comfest program.

 

Boardwalk Fishing

The boardwalk at the Hoover Mudflats is used for fishing, as you can see, as well as bird watching.  There are several osprey nesting stands set up that bird watchers with binoculars – or photographers with a zoom lens but not me this time – can view from the boardwalk.

The Sunrise, The Moon, The Palms and The Pool

One day we actually set our alarm to wake up in time for sunrise on the beach.  We had to walk past the hotel pool in order to get to the path to the beach when I saw this and knew I had to capture this wonderful moment.  It was the best sunrise of our stay as the other days the sky wasn’t as alive.  This is an example of high ISO when you are shooting hand held in a low light situation.  The ISO for this shot is 5K and while in the past this would’ve made one horribly noise filled image, today’s modern cameras can handle this and higher without too much damage to the image.  Some people even like a certain amount of noise in their images for that old film effect.  Plus, there are so many noise reduction programs and other ways to reduce noise in Photoshop and Lightroom.  What was important to me was capturing this oh so brief moment in time no matter what the ISO was.

It and the rest of the shots we took that morning were worth getting up at 5:30 in the morning on our vacation.  I will share the color version with you tomorrow.

Shot details:

F3.5 – ISO 5000 – 1/40 – 35mm – Canon 5D MarkIII

 

 

Still life: Calla Lilies in Black and White

A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, or shells) or man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, and so on).  wikipedia

One goal I set for myself this year was to work harder at my photography; read more, take lessons, get out of my comfort zone, etc.  Practice practice practice!   Recently I’ve been trying still life photography.  I believe I have the basics as far as the camera aspects are concerned, it’s just coming up with the subject matter that’s been giving me some trouble.  Here is one of my first attempts, a vase of calla lilies shot from above in monochrome.