Photo of the Day : December 2010

[Phrasikleia]

The Third Time's a Charm

Sixteen minutes after my previous photo: this is the shot I had come to take. It was my third visit to this location. On my first two attempts, I had bad luck with photogenic ephemera, so the site was high on my list of potential "do-overs". This time the air was clear, and the sky was full of lovely, puffy clouds sailing past the Alps. I was also thrilled to see that the melting snow had left a luminous white ring around the hill beneath the church. I waited eagerly for the sun to set and for the church lights to come on, feeling sure I was in for a treat…

However, when the lights finally came on, it was for only a matter of seconds, and then they turned off again. I screamed "LIGHT!" repeatedly in Slovene, hoping someone at the church could hear my cries. I also heard my husband exclaim something in exasperation from lower down the hill where he had stationed himself. Then BAM!, the lights came back on…and then quickly shut off again! Again we both cried out. This happened a few times before the pattern became obvious. The lights were malfunctioning and getting tripped off every 30-40 seconds. So I not only had to wait for the right balance of ambient and artificial light, I also had to time my exposure to coincide with the lights being on. In the end, all was well: I got the shot I had come for.

 

[Doylem]

^^^ That's beautiful... with a perfect balance between the light sources. It's great when hard work and patience pays off (and, in a strange way, I don't mind too much when hard work and patience don't pay off... at least it means I was out there, giving myself the chance. You don't get many pix by gazing out of the window ).

 

[fcortese]

The Third Time's a Charm

WOW! Well worth the wait and hard work. A reminder to us all that a good part of photography is set up and patience.

 

[Keleko]

Sometimes you have to wait for the right light. Other times you wait for the right sounds and smells. Yes, it is baking season for teacher gifts before Christmas break. Here is my wife working her magic.

 

[VirtualRain]

That looks like a really fun place to take a camera. Your photo enticed me to Google for more shots of this location with its holiday lights: what a feast for the eyes!

Thanks. It is a fun place to photograph, but also very challenging. A lot of my photos were rejects because the lights all blend together rendering a magically lit scene in person into a flat and unintelligible array of lights to the viewer.

Here's another one of my keepers... beautiful colors, but you can see what I mean about it all blending together. If anyone has any tips on photographing stuff like this, please share.

 

[Doylem]

If anyone has any tips on photographing stuff like this, please share.

Is it possible to get there for the hour after sunset, when there's still a bit of colour in the sky?

 

[VirtualRain]

Is it possible to get there for the hour after sunset, when there's still a bit of colour in the sky?

I can certainly try to do that next time I go back... do you think that besides adding some texture to the sky, it will also help to bring some dimension to the artificially lit terrain?

 

[Doylem]

I can certainly try to do that next time I go back... do you think that besides adding some texture to the sky, it will also help to bring some dimension to the artificially lit terrain?

All sorts of wonderful things will happen... not least you won't get lights coming out as coloured pinpricks against the black; you'll have two light sources to juggle with. Great fun... even though the time-frame isn't long...

 

[Phrasikleia]

^^^ That's beautiful... with a perfect balance between the light sources. It's great when hard work and patience pays off (and, in a strange way, I don't mind too much when hard work and patience don't pay off... at least it means I was out there, giving myself the chance. You don't get many pix by gazing out of the window ).

I'll have to remember that the next time I leave a site with my head hung low, which was basically the entire day before I took that twilight church shot.

I can certainly try to do that next time I go back... do you think that besides adding some texture to the sky, it will also help to bring some dimension to the artificially lit terrain?

Yes, I think so. I agree with Doylem; if you start shooting after the sky has gone black, you'll get only the lights and no landscape to go with them. I would advise getting there early, just before sunset, when you can work out a composition that works without any lights (that is, the structures and forms visible before dark would make a good composition even without the lights). Then wait for the lights to come on, which hopefully will happen while there is still some color in the sky. You should get at least five minutes of good balance, plenty of time to get the shot you worked out in advance (note that the moment of perfect balance will probably follow the actual sunset by 15-30 minutes). The result will be your nice composition made more magical by subtle lights sparkling all over it.

 

[VirtualRain]

Thanks for the advice... I'll give it a shot if I get a non-rainy day to work with.

 

[Schtumple]

Canon EOS 60D
0.100 sec
f/9.0
250 mm
ISO2000

This is 2 imagines combined, one to pick up the mist, the other to get the moons detail, bit too grainy for my liking, but I really wanted to capture it, it was very pretty.

 

[avro707]

I'm enjoying seeing all those great photos! Another of mine:

(large image, click to view)

That day was fun - four seasons in one day. Cold drenching rain to start with (me and cameras got wet), then warm and sunny later in the day. The sun arrived right in time for the main event. I took many more photos of the later proceedings and press conference, but I won't flood the place with them.

 

[MattSepeta]

Hmmm.

Have not posted in POTD for a while.. Here we have a night time pow-slash during a blizzard. Shot with one SB-28 off camera left + 11-16 f/2.8.

 

[pdxflint]

I'm enjoying seeing all those great photos! Another of mine:

http://www.totalnfs.net/c_d_files/707b.jpg (large image, click to view)

That day was fun - four seasons in one day. Cold drenching rain to start with (me and cameras got wet), then warm and sunny later in the day. The sun arrived right in time for the main event.

I sure love those old 707s. I flew many miles on them with Pan Am, Qantas and Cathay Pacific airlines back and forth across the Pacific. Classic machines. The other two I really liked were the Douglas DC-8 and the also classic DC-9 (or whatever they're calling it's derivative these days - MD-80, I think.) The DC-9 was like a sportscar version of a passenger jet, and if you sat near the front it lived up to its nickname of "Whisperjet," it was so quiet. But the 707 is the true pioneer. Super long range, beautiful to look at, a plane that made you feel proud in those days (before "cattle-car" airline operations.)

PS: If you change to [ timg ] tags instead of [ url ] tags, your photo will show up like this: (with same "click to view" larger.)

 

[avro707]

Thanks, didn't know about that tag, in all my time of using/running vBulletin style forums.

The B707 above is a 138B, one of only two still about. The other one has been decommissioned for museum display, but in a way that appears like it could be activated again. John Travolta's one of course still runs beautifully. Looks beautiful, sounds great too.

Always a pleasure to see the lovely Juliet Tango.

Your description of DC-9 sounds like the Vickers VC-10. Quiet up the front, but ear-splitting at the back. The VC-10 must be among the loudest civilian planes.

MattSepeta: Awesome photo. Love it. Great sense of movement,

 

[bld44]

I went with something simple that just happened to catch my eye and I liked the way it turned out.

 

[TheReef]

This is an interesting picture of an A380, which gives you some idea of the scale of the thing. I was on one of those bad boys recently, a couple of weeks before the engine blew up.

I saw the pic then disappeared before I could get to a computer that I can comment with, great work arvo707.
I was on the SF flight a few weeks before the one where the engine blew up. The issues are supposed to be resolved now.

Here's a sunset on Mount Etna from September.

I like the different layers of light, shade and colour here, nice.

Great capture of the action and use of lights!

Very nice, well worth it

Lovely colour pallete, didn't you used to shoot with a K10D?

Thanks, yep I still do use it

K20D - 4s - f/11.0 - ISO100 - 16mm

 

[MSUSpartan]

@Flickr

 

[possumwater]

D300, 17-55f/2.8, 17mm, f/5.6, 1/80, ISO100

Amazing shot!

 

[possumwater]

Mixing autumn with Christmas. And I can tell I want more leaves in my 50mm aperture, but that's not my priority for lens choices right now. Unfortunately the f/1.8 version didn't have as sharp of a focus on the leaf. I don't know if the focus was just off or the leaf was too curved to provide enough surface to be in focus at that setting. f/2.8 just came out looking a lot better overall.

I'm an amateur shutterbug, these are some of my favorite shots

 

[otter]

Otter, I'm enjoying these photos (as I do all your photos) but am scared of where this series is going ...

Thanks Fujiko7. Don't worry, I'm not planning to post anything too graphic.

 

[Designer Dale]

Amazing shot!

I'm an amateur shutterbug, these are some of my favorite shots

Hi and welcome to POTD. Click the link in my sig and read the tutorials on multi quoting and quoting posted photos.

Dale

 

[fcortese]

Where the Antelope Roam

From the Bighorn sheep "expedition" a few weeks ago. A little too washed out, but they did not stay around long for me to get set up.

 

[macrumormonger]

Ignore the gaping mouth of the trash can in the foreground.


Camera Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias +5/3 EV

 

[RHVC59]

Got out on a short hike down Perseverance Trail Sunday and this little guy practically posed. This was the sharpest of the lot... the little one was packing away spruce cones.