Evan Gearing (Evan's Expo)'s photostream  

For you other photographers out there... Have you ever processed an image, put it out on the web, came back to it and thought, "I could've done this or that better?" Lately this is happening more and more to me. Sometimes I find that processing an image, loading it up on the blog or Flickr or what have you without making it public for a day or so, gives me time to step away from it and re-look at it with a fresh pair of eyes. When I have a shot that I think looks nice, often times it will look not so nice after I've let it "cook" for a while. It's kind of like writing a paper for a class.. They always say, put it down for a while and come back to it later and you'll see some places for extra edits. What do you think?

Back to the subject at hand... I had to come in to Austin last Saturday night for work and when I finished up, I spent a few minutes on the 1st St bridge getting a shot or two of the Austin skyline and the lake. Here it is... Luckily, I think this one turned out nicely after a night of letting it cook. I don't know, maybe it's still rare and needs some more baking, but I'm gonna serve it up!

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This morning I took the day off from work. Yahoo! Normal people would sleep in, but being that I like to take pictures of stuff, the best time to do that is either at sunrise or sunset. Today I picked sunrise and my subject was the Pennybacker Bridge in Austin. My reasoning for the morning shot was that most people who shoot the bridge do so in the evening. I thought if I did it in the morning I would get a whole new aspect of it that most don't usually get. I thought I would get the orange glow to the left of the bridge instead of the right during sunset that you see mostly in photos of this lovely bridge. Well, it turned out that I was right in that regard. Except for the light, I was able to get a different look. This morning there was fog all over the bridge so a new aspect was in the making. However, the fog really hid the bridge. I thought I had to pack it in and try another time. But, just as the morning light was getting to that perfect time we call the "golden hour", the fog lifted over the near side of the bridge and I was able to fire off a few brackets before the fog socked it in again. I probably didn't get the best angle for it, but I'm happy with it for the most part.

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Recently I've been posting black and white shots of some photos I took while my wife and I visited Nantucket Island. The reason for this is two-fold... One is because I'm looking for some new material to post and the other is because I'm channeling my inner David Nightingale. If you've ever checked out his website, you'll see that he's a master at creating dramatic images. He's like one of my favorite photographers. Anyway, I'm trying to use some of his techniques to make my stuff a little more dramatic. Of course it helps to have a good subject to start with. His use of curves and masks really helps bring out detail in clouds and other areas of shots that may not be seen in regular processing. Sometimes using curves can get similar results as HDR without having to take so many brackets. And when converting to back and white, it gives the shot an extra dramatic/timeless appeal, at least to me. That's what I've tried for here. I can never tell if I've over done it or not, but I may have in this one. Maybe that's what dramatic means? ;-)

(If you go to my blog and roll your mouse over this shot, you will see what the original looked like straight from the camera.)

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There's nothing like an ocean breeze. Or a heavy wind! While on the back of the high speed ferry to and from Nantucket Island, I found I had to lean into the wind a little bit just to keep myself and the camera steady. It was already chilly, but with a 50 knot or so "breeze", it really gets the blood pumping. As you can see, no one was sitting in the chairs at the aft of the ferry. However, there were some chairs facing aft just against the rear of the cabin on that deck which blocked the wind. That's where a few people sat to enjoy the ride. It was good for me because I could take pictures and not worry about anyone getting in the way. I love it when that happens!

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When going to and from Nantucket from Hyannis, MA, we took the fast ferry. There are two you can take to the island... One takes about two and a half hours each way and one takes about an hour each way. Of course the cost doubles the faster you go. Well, when you are on vacation and crunched for time, the fast one is worth it. So that's what we did. Of course, an hour on a fast boat can make for some interesting shots. Hopefully someone out there could get something interesting. Me on the other hand, gets this stuff., hehe.

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