Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, part of the Philadelphia public Fairmount Park System has clearly fallen on hard times. These buildings are part of what was built for the 1926 Sesquicentennial Celebration, with the top building originally a Russian Tea House and more recently a boathouse. The bottom building is a gazebo representing Japan. Now, there is garbage floating in the lake, partially eaten bones left behind by vermin, and the remains of a campfire on the floor of the gazebo. Jets are seen in their final approach to the nearby airport and I-95 is seen across the lake. The sports complex is next door, so apparently the park is used more by people parking for Eagles games than for enjoying the park.

Philadelphia: The Cradle of Liberty

This shot is titled, "The storm over liberty is clearing." I took it yesterday while downtown and realized that despite having thousands (?tens of thousands) of photos on my hard drive, I don't have any of the iconic Independence Hall. For those of you unfamiliar with Philadelphia, Independence Mall is in downtown Philadelphia and while getting this shot, a hundred feet to my right was the Liberty Bell. When I took it, I found the inclusion of the people intriguing, but without some HDR treatment, it really didn't work. It was a particular Blue States/Red States kind of day on the mall yesterday. Young people from the marching bands that would play in the parade today were swarming the area amidst Philadelphians on their lunch break-- Ohio, Alabama, other places. It made me think of the recent election and, watching their enthusiasm gave me hope for a turn around in the country. Band kids are interesting. Few people realize what work and discipline it takes for the kids and their families to make it to a parade like this-- months of fund raising, hours of practice, try-outs, local successes, and then a very long bus ride to a strange place-- just so they can get up at the crack of dawn and march a couple of miles in near freezing weather to entertain a crowd (and show their stuff).

Philadelphia Mural Arts Project

Mural from the side of the building at 707 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. There is more on the Philadelphia Mural Arts Project go here. Scattered throughout Philadelphia are hundreds of murals depicting everything from famous Philadelphias (Dr. J), to historic scenes, to ordinary people. Each mural is "awarded" to a neighborhood based on developing and theme and requires community input. This mural is in center city, but murals are present also even in neighborhoods filled with urban decay and blight. Bus tours are held from April to November.

Cowabunga

So, this is what you can do with a "long" lens. This shot, Hanging Ten was shot from a pier in Ocean Beach (near San Diego) looking down on surfers using a zoom lens at its max, 200 mm. It was shot with the shutter speed at 1/1000 of a second to get a nice sharp image of the surfer caught in motion with good sharpness. The only downside is that the water is also stopped in motion showing individual drops which makes it look less natural.

Bokeh

Bokeh is the use of depth of field so that different parts of the photo in focus. Typically, foreground is sharp and background is blurry. Changing aperture (f stop) on the camera allows you to make a large aperture (low number, e.g. 2.5) which gives you more bokeh or vice versa. In this shot, the center bird is sharply in focus and the farther back you go, the less sharp/more blurry the birds become. In this photo, Bird Bokah, depth can be conveyed by relative sizes (the farther birds appear smaller) and by selective focus (bokeh). Some photographers use Lens Babies to artificially create bokeh, but I prefer to not manipulate bokeh.

212 Steps Down a Cliff

Breaking in my new D300 while at a conference in California. This photo, Autumn Surf is from Torrey Pines State Natural Preserve just up the coast from San Diego. To get down to this beach required hiking down and back up the Beach Trail, including the 212 steps and a fairly rigorous incline. It was worth the trip though as the day was beautiful and the beach was busy with both people and seagulls. The shot looks fuzzy because it was quite foggy.

The Night of the Show - The Nova Crew

Thanks to the Nova crew for a wonderful evening at the combined grand opening and photography show.