Tequilla Sunrise

I had to pull over in a parking lot on my drive to work Friday morning and attempt to capture the beautiful sunrise.  I manuevered between telephone poles and lamps and honestly didn’t think it was going to turn out.  I had forgotten to even check my pictures until last night and then found this.  I didn’t even have to edit much.  And maybe tequilla wasn’t involved but it was a beautiful Cuervo gold 🙂

Stairway to Heaven

I’ve passed by this so many different times and each time I say ‘Oh I want to take a picture of that someday’.  It actually leads to someone’s house I believe but I think its gorgeous the way the ivy climbs  along the edge of the steps and draws you in.  The fact that its lined by trees is an added bonus.

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Happy Halloween

I was hoping to post a picture of pumpkins, squash, hay bales and scarecrows but I actually think I got something even better!  Cemeteries!  I took these today at a local church downtown.  I am posting two photos because I love the way they both turned out.  I used a little HDR edit and my sharpening tool to create both effects.  I love both of them! Hope everyone is having a safe and happy halloween! 🙂

(double click photos to enlarge)

Through the Darkness, Light

This is the last of the  photos I took at the lake and I promise to move on from the softened effect, although it has been a ton of fun!  I overlooked this picture at first but then I decided it might be fun to play with the shadows and light to see how it would turn out.  I actually think I like it!

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Peaceful Easy Feeling

I love the Eagles, I love that song, and those are the first words that came to mind when I happened across this little nitch in the woods not far from my house.  I actually found it by accident while on my way somewhere else.  I kinda love how that happens sometimes 🙂  It was dusk and only a little sunlight was poking through but it was perfect the way it lit the water.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

(click photo to enlarge)

Vibrant Glow

This is another photo from my evening on Lake Bowen.  I did play with the color a little to make it a tad more vibrant and then I used a softened effect.  But the way the sun was reflecting off the water really added so much natural light that the whole area just radiated!  It almost seems like its glowing  🙂

(click photo to enlarge)

Wind Turbines x 1,000

When Ryan told Mindy and I that he was taking us to see a bunch of wind turbines up in the hills, I figured we’d see a handful or so.  The reality was quite different.  There were hundreds of them!  They power Los Angeles which in itself is awesome.   I remember we rounded a corner and went up a hill and you could hear an audible gasp from Mindy and I.  You’d think you took a couple of five year olds to the candy store.  It was a photographers dream, especially those of us that completely adore repetition!!  I don’t know how many pictures we took collectively between the three of us, but my guess is hundreds.  I promise I won’t post 50 photos of wind turbines, but I will be posting several of my favorites over the next few days!

This first one stood out because of everything it offers, from the rolling golden hills, desert sand, green grass, and the fluffy clouds.  The entire shot makes the turbines look almost majestic up on that hill.

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Rural decay

In trying to actually stay with a theme this week of old, rusted, rotted art, here are some pictures of a barn a few miles down the road from my house.  I’ve always wanted to stop and take pictures so last night Bailey and I went out and shot a few together.  It was nice to have someone with me who loves photography as much as I do as I’m usually by myself unless I can drag Aly along for the ride 🙂

The barn sits right along the road so I was limited in trying to capture the whole barn without getting a lot of the roadway.  I thought this first picture turned out fairly well though.  I hardly had to do a thing in photoshop except for a tiny bit of unsharp mask to make the weathered look pop a little more.  I wish the sky had been a little more colorful but there wasn’t a cloud in site as it was so humid all day long.

This next photo was shot from inside the barn.  I did play with the contrast and saturation levels on this one but I absolutely love how it turned out.

This one was taken peeking in through one of the cracks in the barn.  I love how the light cascades in through the cracks of the roof and in through the windows.  I wanted to leave it in color but it actually looked much better in black and white.  I again used an unsharp mask.

Blinded by the Light

This weekend has been all about teaching myself new tricks with light.  As I’ve mentioned numerous times, I’ve rarely ever used anything but my auto buttons on my camera so this has been a HUGE learning experience.  I’ve found numerous blogs and/or user groups on Flickr that have helped guide me as to my particular settings for my camera.  Who knew it could do so much?!?!

Tonight I trudged downtown with my tripod and set up shop.  I really just wanted to test try a few things I had read about, particularly dealing with long exposure.  I thought I was going to have to invest into a SLR in order to do half of this stuff but I’m continually amazed at how much my S5 is capable of if I just use the right features!  Anyway, these are two of my shots from tonight.  I set the shutter speed at 3.22 seconds and aperture at F8 for this first shot.  I love how it caught the star patterns of the street lights and then the trailing lights from passing cars.  I think that’s such a cool effect.  I know I have a long way to go but I will get there!!  I cannot wait to go shoot some more waterfalls using the longer exposures and for a few night shots of the city of Greenville.  I think this was one of my more fun challenges and I can tell there will be a lot more to practice with!!

The church is just because it was beautiful.  I love this shot at night and I just happened to catch a car…barely, as evidenced by the small trailing light at the bottom right 🙂