Flagpole 158/365

This can be summed up as a good idea, poorly executed. The only thing I like about this is the color of the sky.

Cell Tower 157/365

These ugly beasts dot the landscape along the interstate highways.   They provide a critical service but they look like hell.

Triple Exposure 156/365

Remember film cameras?  My first SLR was the original Nikon FM.  Yes, I realize I’m dating myself.  On the top of the camera was a slide switch that allowed you to take double or even triple exposures over the same frame.  In today’s digital workflow this is now a post processing step in the digital darkroom.  In this case I did it as a single frame shooting through the cut glass embedded in my front door.

Back to College 155/365

We brought our daughter back to college and helped her move into the sorority house.  No time for photography today…

Still Life 154/365

This was a two hour exercise to learn and experiment.  I setup a sweep then photographed the same subject using between 1 and 3 speedlights.  I wasn’t overly fond of anything where I used 1 light.  It’s not that I disliked them, I simply liked the shots with 2 or 3 lights better.  A key contributor was that I setup in a room with little natural light and a single ceiling fixture which I kept turned off.  I used an assortment of light modifiers including a grid, snoot, defuser cap, defuser gel, umbrella, and wax paper.  Here I selected just one of the shots I liked and if you’re interested there are others here.  What will I do differently the next time?  I’ll change the setup so I have options on how close the subject is to the background.  That should give me more options for managing shadows.

BTW - There was no post processing done one any of the shots.

Presidential Portrait 153/365

Sorta… Thanks to a $50 dollar bill, a macro shot, and a little post processing to add the vignette.

Aged Plumbing 152/365

My guess is that this is 65+ years old because all the other fire hydrants in town were installed in the late 40’s or early 50’s and they look nothing like this one.  The others also get painted on a periodic basis and are blue & yellow.

Watching The Cars Go By 151/365

I set the tripod up on an overpass of the Wantagh Parkway.  Taillights are 30 second exposures and headlights are 20.

Pencils 150/365

A Rare Sight 149/365

To the east a rainbow and to the west a spectacular sunset.  Too bad I wasn't at the beach...

Times Square at Night 148/365

Times Square is often referred to as the Crossroads Of The World and defines the NYC Theater District.  It’s packed with hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, shopping, and a million other activities whose goal is to separate you from your money.   It attracts tens of thousands of people and is busy 24 hours a day. I have no idea how the gentlemen could be sleeping through the commotion.

Legs 147/365

We watched this young couple painting themselves in what I presume was in preparation for a night at the club. 

Leading Lines 146/365

Remember photography 101?  Leading lines are lines within an image that leads the eye to another point in the image, or occasionally, out of the image. 

The Spire of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral 145/365

What struck me, and caught my attention was how everything was in shadows except for the church spire.  St. Patrick’s Cathedral is the largest gothic-style Catholic Cathedral in the United States and it’s the seat of the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

Soft Shell Crab 144/365

My wife and I went out for dinner and to see the Broadway play Wicked tonight.
Below is the stage set for the show.

Pill Box 143/365

Tylenol Gelcaps in a wine glass taken with a 20mm extension tube.  

Due to the close proximity of the lens to the subject I used 3 speedlights, all on low power to light this and minimize the shadows.  Even then I had to boost the shadows.  I should have done it during daylight on the back deck.

Playmates 142/365

Madison and Sandy tease, torment, and annoy each other relentlessly. They play like puppies with boundless energy always trying to outdo the other. They love each other dearly and suffer from separation anxiety whenever they’re apart. 

Hibiscus 141/365

This was one of those snapshots that I didn’t put any thought into but was pleasantly surprised with the results.  It’s straight out of the camera. The vivid color, sharp focus, texture, and lighting contrast between subject and background.  It just works for me.

Ant Marching 140/365

Look closely on the left side of the stem.    Notice too how shallow the DOF is with this Sigma 50mm prime f/1.4. 

MGD 139/365

Cold and ready to be enjoyed…  It was one of those 365 nights, little motivation, zero creativity, and the strong inability to identify a subject to get excited about.

Commuter’s Hell 138/365

I sympathize with this poor soul.  I can almost imagine how he/she felt after a long hot, humid, and tiring day at work to get off the train only to discover that some lowlife bastard had stolen the wheels of a his/her new Infinity G37S.   I wouldn’t have snapped this if the owner had been there.

Snackin’ 137/365

A Bully Stick will keep Madison busy for countless hours.  

Camera mounted flash with DIY 8x8 bounce card.

Chrome Beauty 136/365

I saw this Hog in the parking lot and just had to stop to photograph it. 

Long Exposure 135/365

It never fails.  I own 3 ND filters (a split, 4 & 8) and of course I didn’t have any of them with me but I did have a polarizer so I managed to get an extra 2 stops out of this. 

Boating On The Lake 134/365

Visitors to the County Park can rent radio controlled sailboats for $10 an hour.  The lake has long been a popular spot for remote control boats and hosts regular competitions.

The Chicken Man 133/365

I don’t think I can explain this.  We passed him on I-95 southbound on our way back to NYC.  He picked up his camera when he saw me leaning out the window with mine. 

Stonington CT 132/365

I stayed at the Stonington Inn for my business trip to Groton.  This morning the fog was so heavy that visibility was limited to about 500 feet.  It was very eerie, and driving was a little nerve racking. I walked down to the shoreline of the Long Island Sound to grab some shots of the yacht club. 

Triborough Bridge 131/365

They recently renamed it to the Robert F Kennedy Bridge.  But to New Yorkers it will always be known as the The Triborough because it connects the boroughs of Manhattan-Bronx-Queens.   This was taken on the drive to Groton CT and it was the only photo I took today. 

CAREFUL 130/365

The light at the end of the tunnel just might be the train…  In this case it’s the Southbound No. 1 train approaching  50^th Street.

Times Square - NYC 129/365

Home to the New Years Eve ball, Broadway, mega billboards,  Good Morning America, MTV studios, countless tourists and all that goes with them.  I had reason to walk through the area and figured what hell, I’ll fit right in with thousands of others snapping away. 

Fresh Tomatoes 128/365

The tomatoes from the garden are pure perfection.  Tonight we had fresh mozzarella and tomato with basil from the garden, drizzled with olive oil.  Heavenly!

The shot – key light camera right at 1/8 power with defuser gel.  Fill light camera left at 1/32 power reflected off foam board.  F/16 ~ 1/125 sec, iso 100, 45mm.