100 bowls

Off to event today for/by the woodturning Supiks.  Mark's brother Ed bought a live christmas tree in 1984 and after christmas planted it in his yard.  By 2009 the tree was 60' high, 30" around and encroaching on the house. Down it came and became the stimulus for a project by Mark to turn 100 bowls.  Mark turned some but most were turned by amatuers.  Ninety-nine bowls were on display at the Schiavonne Gallery in Highlandtown today and Mark was there to turn the last — number 100. I was there to grab some snaps. Those will get posted along the way tonite and tomorrow but... I decided to capture the bowl turning on video. Fortunately I had the 7D with me, which has an easy to understand movie button, I have no idea where it is on the 5D Mk II, should probably look that up.  I also left the tripod in the car, so this my first real attempt at at video has some shaky parts, visually shaky, the whole thing is artitically shaky. Anyway in for a dime — in for a dollar, stuck the 85 f1/2L on the front, dialed the aperture to, what else, f/1.2 of course, why pay for if you ain't going to use it. Great receipe, no experience, no support system and a razor thin DOF. Post processed with a trial version of Final Cut Pro and uploaded to a virgin Vimeo account. Don't know squat about them either.

Here we go....

America's 911 Ride

Below are links to the Americas's 911 Foundation 2011 Ride snaps. All taken the morning of 8/20/2011 at the Maryland House Rest Area on I95.

Appologies to all those I couldn't photograph and those whom my sexagenarian reflexes caused to be rendered very out-of-focus, especially all those who made some sort of gesture.  In addition to my very suspect reflexes your helmets, visors, windsheilds and at times your speed made getting the shot quite challenging. Photography is for me, a hobby, not a profession and my sports photography skills are a bit rusty. Of the nearly 1,300 photos taken, about 185 made the cut (some of which could be better in the focus department) and found thier way into the galleries. Sorry I couldn't get one of each of you but I hope you will enjoy seeing your fellow riders.

Feel free to download these images for your personal use, several sizes are available including full size images by clicking on the preview image (not the thumbnail but the image that is shown when the thumbnail is clicked). Most of the imges are cropped to 5x7 although some are cropped square and a very few are cropped to 8x10. The time and camera information are available by pressing the [I]nfo button in the context menu that appears when you mouse over the preview photo.

The images are stored on SmugMug — click on the image below to be taken the SmugMug gallery that has the images in the sequence they were taken. Click here to be taken to a gallery that has the images arranged by orientation to make them eaasier to view on rotatable devices like an iPad.

These images are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Advance man waiting for the Ride

141...

shopping days until Christmas.  Reprocessed snap from in front of the flagship Saks store on Fifth Avenue on Black Friday 2011.  Should probably make that trip again in 2012.   All with HDR Efex Pro, with darkened, de-structurfed, de-contrasted Granny's Attic preset applied to the background masked off the subject, further finishing with Color Efex 3. Suggested by Nik webinar.

A couple of blocks up Fifth.

The other side of the Avenue.

Rock Center

Remember me to Herald Square!

Small favors...

Dateline, Lowell, MA, 7:14PM, May 7, 2011

Dear Joe,

We won't be making that trip on May 8th.  Please try later in the season.

Capt. Steve

Cap'n Steve is an astute man or at least his customers are.  One lighthouse was cold enough six would have been hypothermic.  Maybe still a little too early for seersucker bermudas north of the Hub.

Annisquam River and Light in Background, from Wingersheek Beach,  7D, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS, 180mm, 1/320, f/8.0, ISO 100.

Great Sands Dune NP approach

From the approach road, a few miles away.  The dunes are about 750' high, the white between the clouds and the dunes is blowing sand. Sangre de Christo range in the background.  The name, meaning "blood of Christ", is said to come from the red color of the range at some sunrises and sunsets, especially when the mountains are covered with snow.

7D, 24-70mm f/2.8L, ISO 400, f8.0. Three shot HDR.

Lupita's

Bessemer, CO.  Across I25 from CF&I.  Lot handy for parking while shooting CF&I from the I25 overpass.  Great colors, but I guess Yelpers! have discovered Bessemer yet!

7D with the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L which just happened to be on the camera.  Thought maybe not the best place to be changing lenses.  ISO 400, f/8.0.  Three shot HDR.

Castlewood Canyon

State Park, south of Franktown, east of Castle Rock and at the very end of the plains.

Most with the 5d Mk II mounting the 24-70 f/2.8L and the 17-40 f/4.0L, the picnic shot with the 7D and the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L. 

The east side of the Park, HDR processed

The Lucas Homestead (west side) — not much between here and Kansas actually not much between the front windows and the Mississippi

Tree in front of the Lucas house.  This image down sizes horribly

South side of the Lucas house, HDR processed

Picnic on the East side, the tarp is to block the persistent wind.  Lots of local knowledge

Cojones

Cosmith, cobrown, cojones!  JFC the 'piscopalians have no shame, check the cojones on "African Dog".  This is now burned in my cortex for sticky client service situations.  Screw that real lace stuff, just blame it on the ascendancy.  Some balls they got — must think they are Mattel and have a mandate for anatomically correct. Ken and Barbie rock, so does "African Dog"! Hah!

Same approach and recipe as below for a gargoyle snap.  Never know what a long lens will reveal.  Anyway what does an "African Dog" have to do the the US National Cathedral?  BTW, "African Dog" can be found on the North Nave.

That is it for the WNC, assuming the tornado warnings are just that, off to Denver in the AM.

Outside, inside

Washington National Cathedral, Outside: "Master Carver" gargoyle, North Nave, Inside: State Flags, South Nave.

Both two shot HDR sandwich, third was too slow and shaky.  Flag snap with 5D Mk II, 35mm f/1.4L @ f/2.0 and ISO 800, gargoyle with 7D, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L, ISO 100, f/8.0, 380mm (equivalent FF 608mm)

Interesting, passed 10,000 snaps on the 7D (acquired September 2010) and 40,000 (acquired May 2009) on the 5D Mk II yesterday.  Aperture library since October 2003 is now over 120,000 snaps.