wbeem's photostream

One Thing Leads to Another

I like to wander around the resorts when I visit Las Vegas. There are always familiar scenes and there are new decorations. It’s a bit of a mix. The lobby of The Venetian is one of those familiar things that I like to shoot. I keep trying to find a time when it’s empty, but that’s not easy. Las Vegas is a 24×7 town and this lobby is pretty popular. So, I didn’t get the shot I had in mind on this trip.

Instead, I found this musician resting on the fountain and a muse struck me. It wasn’t what I had in mind, but that’s one of the things I like about photography. Sometimes you get something you didn’t anticipate.

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One More Creepy Day

Disney’s marketing theme this year was One More Disney Day, but it looked pretty creepy in the morning fog. Some of the Disney boards that I follow had quite a bit of discussion about what the theme would be this year, and what it meant. Some folks got excited with the idea of the park being open 24 hours on February 29th, since this was a Leap Year. Others (including me), thought that would be such a waste for a year-long campaign. Once you step into March, what do you have left for your theme during the rest of the year? It seemed quite asinine.

So, that’s exactly what Disney did. They stayed open for 24 hours one day. One foggy, creepy day. I’m not sure I agree with it from a marketing perspective, but it provided an opportunity for some interesting photos.

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The Old Hall of the House

For about 50 years, this was the meeting place of the House of Representatives. Now it’s the main home of the National Statuary. Each state gets to donate two statues to the U.S. Capitol National Statuary (that’s a mouthful!). Of course, it’s up to the states to decide which statues they want to donate. I’m told it seemed like a really good idea – until the weight of all those statues started to crack the floor and raised a danger of disaster. You can see some of the heads of statues in the bottom of this photo, but now they have many of those statues spread out around the Capitol building.

So, you may be wondering why I don’t have a picture here of the statues. Honestly, it’s because I’m weird. I looked at those columns and the dome with more interest than most of the statues. Not that there’s anything wrong with the statues – they’re fine works of art and each is interesting in its own way. The two statues from Hawaii made the biggest impression upon me, but neither of them are in this hall. I’m just thrilled with columns and domes. Not to mention the colors. Lots of opportunity to play with those colors. I almost made this a black white because of the lines, but I just could not bring myself to sacrifice those colors.

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I finally got some quiet time inside the Lincoln Memorial. No student groups and hardly anyone else around. On one of my last days in the D.C. area, I woke up early to get a dawn photo over the Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial. Once I had those shots, I drove over the bridge to Potomac Park and hiked up the stairs for this shot. Even though the sun was still barely over the horizon, there were still folks lingering around. A few young men in suits sat on the steps. A group of Marines came running along and charged up the stairs. Well, most of them. A few admitted to going up the ramp and they were told “Go run the stairs! We don’t cheat ourselves.”

I spent some time in my garage with a strip soft box playing with lighting on my Harley-Davidson Fat Bob.

Strobist: Einchrom BXRi 500 with Strip Soft Box above the tank, angled down about 45 degrees. Shot up at the tank about 90 degree angle to the lighting.