Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Entrance | Washington DC
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I awoke to cloudy skies on the morning of my visit to Arlington National Cemetery, and I’m glad I did. The photos I shot in there just wouldn’t have the same mood and feeling if it was a bright and sunny day. It is such a hallowed and somber place that I wish I could be in there all alone, without the noisy fieldtrippers who do not yet understand or have the appreciation for such things. Don’t get me wrong, that was me last time I visited our nation’s capital—a 5th grader who really didn’t ‘get it.’ Visiting for the first time as an adult, I immediately felt the appreciation for the history and culture that all of Washington DC represents.
When I first emerged from the Metro, I could see this fountain and knew immediately that I wanted to spend some time shooting it. After a brief stop at the visitor’s center, I walked up to find a maintenance truck parked right in the middle of the center arch. My wife and I walked around the cemetery for a while, found some cherry blossoms, watched the Changing of the Guard and came back to get this before leaving.
The shot: Nikon D90, Rokinon 8mm /f3.5. 3 exposures, tonemapped in Photomatix, finished in Photoshop CS4 with Nik Color Efex and Nik Viveza.
Right on Schedule | Bridgeton, NC
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This is part two of a bucket list shot that I posted a few days ago, and in my opinion, the better of the two. At first I was concerned about this one turning out. I only had time to shoot one frame of the train in this position, so everything had to be right and ready to go in camera. Turned out pretty good!
You can check out the old post, complete with a lot of info on bucket lists and the back story to this series of photos here.
The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens, 2 exposures (one for the train and bridge, one for the sky). Manually masked in Photoshop.
Jagged Pier | New Bern, NC
This fishing pier, located in Lawson Creek Park in New Bern, still shows the scars of last summer’s Hurricane Irene. The storm surge entered the area and appears to have lifted the pier right out of the bottom of the river. I have wanted to shoot this for a while now. The way the lines sort of zig zag up and down is really neat. This particular day, the water was nice and choppy and ready to be smoothed out by a long exposure!
This is a 30 second exposure shot through a 10-stop ND filter.
The Blaze | Atlantic Beach, North Carolina
Lately, the post-sunset light has been my favorite time to shoot. You can stretch out some long exposures while still preserving some of the color (particularly the blue) in the sky. This night was one of those nights. I loved how the clouds were blowing across the sky layered on the blue sky that was showing through. The sun, which had just dropped below the horizon, reflected upward making a blazing orange and red sky. Low tide made for some great reflections in the foreground.
Leap Year Sunset (2-29-12) | New Bern, North Carolina
On the evening of the ever so rare February 29, an hour before the sun was to set, I noticed the sun was briefly shining. Seeing the grey clouds briefly part made me thing there may be something to tonight’s sunset. I was sure it would either be amazing or be blah. Either way, I have learned not to risk such things. So, much to my wife’s dismay, I headed out to shoot a sunset just before dinner. The sky went through many different colors as the clouds and sun played off one another until, after setting, this happened. Sunsets like these come around about as often as a leap year, that’s for sure!
