stever

My wife and I had an event to attend on Valentine's Day, so I thought it would be nice the next day for the two of us to take a hotel room in Baltimore, get a nice dinner, then go to Fells Point to browse and get lunch the next day. Turns out doing Valentine's Day the day after is a great idea - plenty of rooms available and smaller crowds. We even got an upgrade from a room to a suite!

As we settled in to our 29th-floor suite late Sunday afternoon, I looked out one window and saw this nicely-textured building next door, glowing from the rays of the setting sun. I asked my sweetheart nicely if she would mind me taking a few photos, and here is the result.

As always, I appreciate your comments, suggestions, and criticisms.

Beautiful and evocative! I really like the way you have echoed the direction of the canon barrel by the "grain" of the clouds. Excellent use of your new lens.

 

Best regards,

SteveR

Beautiful image - great composition and color. I'm inspired!

 

Best regards,

SteveR

Hi Linda,

How did I miss this one?? Yes, I like having a good black design element in a photo, too. I love the repeated arch in black, but also the stone shadows across the top of the arch.

I gotta find me an Arch of Stone!

I'd cross the ocean for an Arch of Stone

Keep me searchin' for an Arch of Stone

....

An' I'm gettin' old!

Another in a series on the City Dock area of Annapolis.

Your comments welcome!

Very nice, Ulla - this would make a really good Valentine's day card. I truly like the double-heart object that you're photographing, and hope you try some more of the same object!

Best regards,SteveR

Hi Marco - thanks for your comment - I wish I had done just what you said - but I didnt get the right angle this time. I've attached a photo I took last weekend of a water-only reflection of this same boat.

Best regards,SteveR

wonderful pattern, Nicky.

I really like the juxtaposition of the dark, smooth-textured walkway with the textured white snow. The strong diagonal of the walkway leading right to the main point, the tower, is a wonderful composition.

It also looks to me that the photo could benefit from a very tiny bit of rotating - it may just be an optical illusion, though.

This would make a wonderful BIG matted & framed print!

Best regards,SteveR

Hello Marco,

 

A very imaginative and expressive photo! I very much like your abstracts, too. Please post more photos.

 

best regards,

SteveR

Part of the hull, and its reflection, of a pleasure craft in Annapolis harbor. The surface of the water was just starting to freeze, and there is this "neckalce" of ice at the water line. This boat is docked on the Eastport side of the harbor. I froze my tuchis off Saturday morning to shoot about 60 exposures in Eastport, but at least this one is good, I think.

One of the best things about taking up photography again after so many years is that it gets me out of the house, out of myself, and into the world. In past years, I just wouldn't have gone out on a somewhat cold day, let alone an unseasonally frigid 12F (-11C) morning like this past Saturday.

In those days, my Saturday would have consisted on sleeping 'til 11AM, then grazing on comfort food while watching hours of mindless TV, then maybe taking a few hours' nap. Instead, my excursion along the almost-frozen Eastport waterfront was invigorating and rewarding. After that, I went shopping with with my wife, and then we went to see a wonderful movie. It was a great day, and I really lived it instead of sleepwalking through it.

All because I had wondered the night before about taking photos of boats and ice!

I just didn't get around to photographing my old Hanukkah menorah ("Hanukkia") during the holiday, but it was too good a subject to pass up. I set it up on a glass coffee table in our living room and turned out the room lights. The first pictures exposed the candles and branches OK, but the body and base were almost invisible. I "painted" them with a $1.00 flashlight during subsequent exposures.

This is the best of the series of about 15 exposures. Interestingly, the 8x10 inkejet print I made looks better than the way it shows up onscreen. There is more fine detail and the brass is "brassier."

As always, I welcome your comments, suggestions and criticisms.

Hi Linda - how did I miss this one?

Yes, she is indeed beautiful. Your choice of a high viewpoint and her pose and expression express great dignity.

best regards,SteveR

Hi Linda - a beautiful photo, and humerous at the same time!

Great use of DOF in blurring the background just enough to keep the pattern but not make it distracting.

I really like the basket pattern being diagonal against the wonderful pattern of the dress.

And of course, the bonus is that great head of the turkey (I was hoping for a Queztal, but this'll do :-)

Thanks again for a wonderful image,

SteveR

Part of a self-assignment to make photographs for Hanukkah.

Why "36" dreydles? Hebrew numbers are represented by letters, with Aleph=1, Bet=2, Gimmel=3, etc. The set of letters corresponding to the number 18 is the word, "Chai", meaning life. So 18 is a fortuitous number in Jewish tradition, and 36, or "twice Chai", is even better!

Looking forward to your comments, criticisms, and suggestions.

Meanwhile, Happy Hanukkah! (starts this year at sundown Friday Dec 19th)

Hi Linda,

The whole thing was basically spur-of-the-moment.

I took this last Sunday during a Hanukkah bazaar at our synagogue. The bazaar was run by the Sisterhood, who also hired an amazingly talented woman to do face-painting like this for the kids. Our friend Debbie (the Mom in the photo and this year's Sisterhood president) decided to have her face painted, too, and asked me to take pictures of her with her daughter, as well the other kids who had their faces painted.

I took my victims just outside the school building's doorway - kind of an open vestibule - shaded but illuminated by the a clear blue noon sky. This also sheltered them from the cold wind blowing at that time.

The entranceway is lined with a facade of stone (or maybe I should say "stone" :-) with mortar joints. I cloned out the mortar joints to prevent the rectilinear pattern from being distracting. I asked Debbie and her daughter to stand for several shots, "just in case" - at one point, Debbie rested her head on her daughter's, which I think made the best pose for them.

As always, thanks for your thoughtful comments.Best regards,SteveR

I'm very much still feeling my way with respect to portraits. I would

appreciate any comments, criticisms, and suggestions.

Hello François,

 

Very appropriate caption for your beautiful photo. Your use of light here gives the child an almost magical quality. Normally, clutter in a photo is not a good thing, but here, it fits in just fine and adds context and even a bit of humor, as the child plays so peacefully, ignoring all except what she is playing with at the moment.

 

 

Beautiful color and composition. I agree it would be worthwhile to shoot this again, exactly as you did, except bracket by underexposing in 1/2-stop increments to keep the white area just above the black nose from going to pure textureless white :-)

Hello Hugh - A beautiful photograph. The procession of people walking away from us and the procession of lights in the tunnel are so beautifully reflected in the mundane puddle. I do like Peter's square crop, as it really focuses on the most beautiful elements of your photo. Best regards,

SteveR

Hi Matthew,

Yes, I like this closer crop much better. Thanks again for your help!

Best regards,SteveR

Hi Linda, Sarah...

With the two of you unanimous that the fan and rest of ceiling has got to go, who am I to object? Playing with the idea, I see that you two are right. I got the same unanimous opinions on this photo posted on usefilm.com, as well!

Here are two more versions, one simply with the background forced to black, and another with a cloned in umbrella in an attempt to balance the edges a bit more

What do you think?

Thanks!

SteveR

Carl Root's "Local Diners" folder inspired me to try my hand at diner photos.

This session was my first attempt at shooting a diner after dark.

As always, I value your comments, suggestions, and rotten vegetables.

- SteveR

Bravo Margaret! I love the combination of textures - the porcelain tub, the fading but beautifully pastel wall, and the small tree. You shot it from a viewpoint that yields a very nice competition.

Thanks for your advice, Matthew - here's a much more tightly cropped version - did I go overboard here?

I thought this more severe crop focused better on his expression.

Thanks,

SteveR