One of the things that I like to do when I go out shooting is focus in on the details of some object. In this case it was an old vintage Shell gas station sign on display at the Gilmore Car Museum. I was using my Olympus E3 with a manual 50mm Zuiko macro lens and I took several shots of the sign in an attempt to capture some interesting shapes and patterns. What I should have done (but didn’t) was close down my aperture to make sure I could get the sign in focus. At f2, this lens has a razor thin field of focus. I think this shot is mostly crisp, but I think it would have been better if I had closed things down a bit. Of course, since I was using a manual lens, stopping down would have meant making the image darker in the viewfinder making things harder to focus. Oh well, I did what I did.

Following up yesterdays post, I wanted to post a couple more variations that I did of the same tree. The first variation is from the same raw image used for yesterdays shot (and shown down below), the second variation is of the same tree at the same location, but from a slightly different composition. I didn’t include the raw shot because it was virtually identical to the other raw shot with the only difference being how the shot was framed.

I’m still experimenting with applying textures to images and trying to figure out what works with regards to base image, blend modes, texture images, etc. Last night while watching some TV, I played around with a few images on my laptop to see if I could come up with some images that I liked. This particular image resulted from a ‘I wonder what would happen if…’ sort of moment. I took this shot a few weeks ago during a foggy/snowy day. I’ve always been attracted to the graphical look of bare trees against a monochromatic background. The fog/snow created a perfect opportunity.

I’ve always been attracted to images with a strong graphical quality, whether they are color or black and white. When I was wandering around our cruise ship I had my eye out for subjects which might make interesting subjects. This image was taken from a bridge which overlooked the pools on the Freedom of the Seas. The pools have a variety of colored elements which make for interesting visuals. For this shot I simply pointed down at a portion of the pool and attempted to capture an interesting pattern of shape and color.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently attended the 2009 Motor Muster held at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Greenfield Village is part of the entire Henry Ford Museum complex, a great place to visit year round. Anyway, the Motor Muster had cars located throughout the village, and behind one group of car was the Armington & Sims Machine Shop. In front of this building sits a variety of discarded bits of boilers, coal and other wonderful rusty objects. The picture above is just one of the many interesting pieces of old ‘junk’ which is on display. I’ve always been attracted to mechanical things and I love high contrast, so when I have of a bright sunny day combined with some interesting historic junk, I’m a happy camper.

Here’s an image that is a bit different than what I’ve been working with recently. This is actually an older image that I took at a friend’s house a couple of years ago. The image shows a Le Klint 172 pendant lamp, tinted to give it a little color. I took the shot by first turning the light on. I focused in on various parts of the lamp until I got a composition that I liked. For this image, I took the raw image, added some contrast and then played with the hue/saturation slider until I got a result that I liked. I have a couple other versions of this lamp, including a black and white image that I really like. I recently found a group on Flickr which is devoted to Le Klint.

This shot was taken in North Myrtle Beach, SC where I had spent some vacation time last year. The beach there is quite wide and firm at low tide and people like to ride bicycles on the sand, particularly recumbent tricycles. People really seemed to like to ride these things in circles, making interesting patterns in the sand. I was heading out of our hotel room to look for pictures to take and I noticed these two cyclists on the beach making some interesting patterns in the sand. Just as I was framing the shot, they decided it was time to move on. I had wanted to capture both cyclists as they were riding, but I was only able to capture one, just as he was leaving the edge of my composition. While I wish I had a shot of both of them, I am actually quite pleased with getting the one cyclist.

This image was taken at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. This museum has a great collection of power generators and heavy machinery (among other things). This particular shot it is a close-up of one of the power generators on display. What caught my eye was the various layers of metal and the way they were put together. I particularly like the use of the dovetails on one of the pieces.

This is a shot of the new Ross School of Business building on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The building was recently opened to students. I took this shot while it was under construction.