Paxtang Cemetery Shoot

Well, guess where the Camera Club went to shoot!!!  A cemetery!!

This morning we went to the Paxtang Cemetery in Harrisburg.  I thought there would be a boatload of things to shoot.  There is a Mausoleum, beautiful trees in the fall foliage finest, tombstones with details, etc.  Annette went along with me to keep me company.

It turns out that I struggled to find things of interest to me.  Still, I took 275 shots.  Of course now that I have gone through them I have narrowed them down to less than half of that.

Let's take a look at some of the pictures I got and I'll give some random thoughts on each.

The first place we started was the mausoleum.  It was a beautiful building.  Each little wing had a stained glass window at the end.  I worked with this window for a long time.  With just the available light, the window was bright and everything else was pitch black, so I added flash to try and even the exposure out.

The area was not a brightly lit room like an office or a classroom.  It was fairly dark.  After all, it was in a mausoleum!  I wanted a more somber lighting.  It was difficult to get the amount of flash to the point where I wanted it.  I also played with the color compensation.

After the mausoleum, I went out into the open air.  It was just a beautiful day!  The temperature was just on the cool side of perfect.  There was a bit too much wind for some of the tree and plant pictures that some of the other photographers were taking.  But otherwise, perfect!

When I went out side I decided to work on details.  So I went around looking at the various tombstones.  Everybody is unique in life and I guess that want to maintain that uniqueness after death, because there were so many types of headstones.  Here are some of the detail pictures that I took...

 The angel in this next picture was envisioned over a hundred years ago.  So I was thinking...I wonder if humankind's idea of beauty and peacefulness have changed in the past one hundred years?

My answer, judging from this angel, is that, no, beauty has not changed all that much.  I have seen the square neckline with the stylized flowers in cloth in my lifetime.  The girlish face has smooth skin and would still be attractive today.

 This next little statue was only about 8" tall.  I enjoyed its calm demeanor.  I didn't know whether to include the tombstones in the background or not.  The light color might draw your eye away from the angel.  But without the tombstones, the statue could be in a garden rather than a cemetery.  I think part of the angel's story is that she is watching over a grave.

I often call Annette, Nettie.  Annette asked the nieces and nephews to call her Aunt Nettie because Aunt Annette was hard to say and sounded like Antoinette.  I think Annette should use this image as her wallpaper on her computer, don't you?

Chicago Visit

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I had the opportunity to go to Waukegan, Illinois to visit a supplier for my employer.  We had a great visit and it was beneficial.


There were two legs to the trip:  Hagerstown to BWI and BWI to O'Hare. 

The plane on the Hagerstown to BWI leg was a Cesna 402.  If you don't know what that is let me tell you this.  There is room for the Pilot, the Co-pilot and 8 passengers!  Very small for a commercial plane.


One of my co-workers, who was on this trip, is a recent college graduate.  This trip to Illinois was his first airplane ride!  So he got to ride in a small twin-engine prop plane and a larger Jet airliner.  We were looking for the little plastic wings that they hand out to kids to give to him for his first flight.  But we never found any.

On Tuesday evening we were able to go into Chicago and see some of the sights.

We went up the Hancock building, but there was a line to get a table.

We came back down and I took some pictures of the Water Tower.

Then we went over to Millenium Park Where we saw the following:

I don't know the name of these columns and fountain.  Can you help me out?

 The Millenium Sculpture, which is more commonly referred to as "The Bean".  This was a fascinating sculpture because it was polished to a mirror-like finish, which allowed the surroundings to be reflected.
 

I also don't know the name of this outdoor theater/stage.  Can you help me out here?

Dinosaur

Then we saw the Lions in front of the Art Institute.  Guess which image was made using the flash!  As a clue...I thought it was fascinating that the light from the tiny flash on the G11 only reached the Lion and did not reach the building in the background.

We were also able to see the Buckingham Fountain.  Unfortunately, we got there just as the band was finishing the last chorus of the last song of their performance.

It was so dark that I had to set the camera on the ground to have any hope of getting a picture that wasn't blurred beyond recognition.  I was also trying to get the moon in the picture.

Rumor had it that they were shooting Transformers 3 in Chicago this week.  You can see from this picture that they had wrecked quite a few cars in the making of the movie.  I haven't seen the earlier Transformer movies, but I may have to go see this one so that I can try to find this scene!

All in all it was a great trip, but I am glad to be home!

The Wedding Weekend

Annette and I had the distinct honor of shooting a wedding this past weekend.

It seems that so many couples are not going the traditional route anymore.  They move in together and even have babies and then tie the knot.

Not this couple.  They decided to wait until after marriage to live together.  Bravo for them.

Some times you see a dating couple and there are harsh words and selfish actions.

Not this couple.  We have been very impressed by the giving nature of both the bride and the groom.  For example, the groom spend several weekends designing and building a glider as a lasting gift for his bride.  (It was beautiful!)

So, I have to say, that it was an absolute joy and honor to be the photographers at their wedding!

Some times you also get lucky with photography and recieve gifts from the photo dieties.  Things such as window light.

Sometimes you also get lucky with beautiful settings just handed to you.  The arch below was at the back side of the reception hall.  Even though we had been there a couple of times before the wedding day, we had not seen the arch.  Then on the day of the wedding, we walked all the  way around the building and discovered the arch!

The day was such an adrenaline rush, being in beautiful places on a happy occasion.  The rush continued with the review of the pictures.

All in all, a great weekend!

Church Interior

Annette and I are shooting a wedding tomorrow.  Always fun.  Always stressful.  No second takes.

I took these pictures of the interior of the church from the balcony.  The shutter speed was very slow but I rested the camera on the balcony railing for steadiness.

The church is very beautiful. Some how it manages to mix a modern interior with a traditional exterior and make it work.

Sunset Lighting

Annette and I made the trip to Erie for the long Independence Day weekend.  While we were there, we were able to go to Presque Isle State Park, which is more commonly known by the locals as "the Peninsula".

At this time of year, the park is just beautiful.  Everything is so green and lush.  It seems there is always a cooling breeze from over the water. We enjoyed it so much.

We took our niece for pregnancy pictures by the water.  We found a beautiful spot at Beach 1.  And shot some great pics.  Then we moved to the North Pier and took pictures with the pier lighthouse in the background.

In the evening, we went back to Beach 1 with another niece, Sarah.  Sarah was both our model and our guinea pig.  She was so patient with us as we experimented with matching the light with the setting sun with some fill flash.  I really do appreciate that she was such a good sport about the whole thing.

During the photo shoot I was very frustrated because I couldn't quite get the intensity of the two light sources to match.  The photo above is about as close as I came.  It was one of the last photos that I took.

But, as I have mentioned before, if you just think about your problems you will come up with some additional ideas to try.  Unfortunately for me, the ideas come after I leave the photo shoot.

So it was with this photo shoot.  Once we had driven half way home, I realized that I should have waited and stayed longer.  I think it would be easier once the sun had disappeared below the horizon.  In addition, I think that two flashes would have worked better.  The one from camera right should have been higher and I should have added a flash to camera left to fill in Sarah's hair and cheek on the dark side.

Here is a picture shortly after the sun disappeared.  This is when we should have been taking pictures.  Oh, well!  We'll do better next time.

Where there is no vision, the pictures perish.

In the town where I grew up there was an auto parts store that had a quote from Proverbs painted in large letters on the side of the building:  Where there is no vision, the people cherish.

Well, as you can tell from the title, I am going to paraphrase that just a little:  Where there is no vision, the pictures perish.

When I went outside with my camera to take a picture of this flower, I took my tripod.  I knew I wanted to take a picture of the flower, but I didn't have a vision of what I wanted.  So I just snapped away, trying various compositions.  I didn't even use the tripod.

Now if I had a vision, I would have used the tripod so that I could have closed down the aperture and achieved more depth of field.  But I didn't find this out until I looked at the image on the computer screen.

I don't think my vision would have included a patch of sky peeking through to draw attention away from the flower.  Nor would it have included the light colored rock in the lower left.

And what's up with that tip of a flower petal poking in on the lower right?

Oh well, every experience is a learning opportunity!

Sunset Shadows on Sculpture

It's great to have family and to enjoy their company.  Unfortunately, we don't get to see the ones we love often and long enough.  But last Monday evening, Annette and I went to Gettysburg to see Clayt and Ashley.  We enjoyed it tremendously.

I had my camera and took it out to shoot a tree.  I felt bad about taking time away from Annette, Clayt and Ashley.  So I only took two pictures; neither one quite right.

Then we went over to the Peace Memorial with the "Eternal" flame. On the front of the memorial was this sculpture.  I loved the light on it so I took the time to take three shots of it and then returned to the conversation.

I liked this picture for a couple of reasons.  I like the way the light washes across the sculpture from camera left to camera right.  It shows the "folds" in the dresses.  It makes the birds chest/breast stronger.  It gives dimension to the faces.  Actually it gives dimension to almost every part of the sculpture.

So many photographers when shooting at sunset want that beautiful sky picture, so they face the sun and shoot into the sun. 

And there are some fantastic pictures of sunsets out there!

However, I enjoy looking for the shadows to see how they "inform" the image.  What do the shadows enhance?  What do the shadows hide?

 In the picture above where the man is photographing the sunset (camera left), look at how the main trunk of the tree is darker on the right than on the left.  Look how some of the ridges in the far background are lit and some are not.  And though it is not as obvious, notice how the left side of the tower is brighter than the right.


To do that I look at right angles to the sun light.  Try it.  You might like it!

And now a picture to totally go against what I have been saying.