Day 188, Benjamin Franklin, Statue at the Old Post Office, Washington

Day 188, Benjamin Franklin, Statue at the Old Post Office, Washington DC, by Jacques Jouvenal, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

I faced down that dilema again, color or black and white? Of course I went pansey and did both. This is the sculpture of Benjamin Franklin in front of the Old Post Office in Washington DC. There is an argument here for both. I caught it at a great time of day since the Post Office was lit up nicely and gave the statue a nice contrast. But the Black and White does the same and forces you to focus a little more.

What do you think? Color? or Black and White?

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	1/3200 sec
Aperture:	f/1.4
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 175, Atrium Color Changing Wall, Atlanta Georgia Aquarium

Day 175, Atrium Color Changing Wall, Atlanta Georgia Aquarium, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

We went to a cool place for dinner tonight. We went to the Atlanta Georgia Aquarium. So often the dinners that we do for these meetings are somewhat old school cocktail partyish. But tonight, we had the Aquarium all to ourselves. I really enjoyed it here and I hope you will enjoy the pictures.

The main entry has an atrium that the Aquarium sets up into a buffet style party. They have this cool color changing light wall, and I could not resist shooting it. So since it is color changing, here are a few shots as an example.

Tomorrow I will post some of the fish. It was harder then I thought it would be to shoot them. But there are some that I like.

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture:	f/2.2
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 162, Well, How about the Green and Red...

Day 162, Well, How about the Green and Red..., originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Last plant post, I promise, until tomorrow....

Thanks for looking.
EXIF Data,

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture:	f/3.5
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV

Day 34, Fall Leaves in California

Day 34, Fall Leaves in California, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

One of the great things about Southern California is the weather. So many folks out there just don't get it. Yes we have congested freeways, and our economy swings the U.S. In fact, on its own, the economy out here makes up the 8th largest in the world. 

It has always amazed me how big and diverse California actually is. When you leave the L.A. area and head north on the 5, you see the agricultural backbone that we have. It is amazing all of the crops that grow here. Where I live in Riverside, Citrus was the crop that made the area. Our housing track was Orange Groves just 10 years ago. I drive through groves everyday. They smell great. Orange blossoms are one of my favorite smells. 

Here it is, December 15th and I went for a ride on my Electra Townie with my kids and cut my grass. The temperature was 68 degrees and the day was beautiful. One of the parks by us had some trees just finally losing their leaves and the colors were great. I have always loved looking from the inside out of these trees. The backlight gives the leaves a great color. Salt Lake got up to 28 degrees and talking to my friend on the phone he said that there was about 9 inches of snow on the ground.

Southern California has great weather, and I love the year round activities here, hope you like the pictures.

As always, thanks for looking and the out takes and EXIF data are below.

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture:	f/8
Focal Length:	54 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 21, Fall Leaves, Fresno Temple

Day 21, Fall Leaves, Fresno Temple, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

On our way home from the big Thanksgiving bash with my family, we came down the 99 instead of the 5 so that we could stop by one of the newer little temples that the LDS church is building in an attempt to make temple worship easier. Our church has always build the temples as the great and grand buildings that they are. For us they offer the ordinances that are most key to our religion. When we are married in the temple, we are married forever, not until death do us part. I can imagine nothing that scares me more then the separation of my family after this life. So, we stop at temples with our family and take pictures in front of them as a fun way to discuss the real significance they hold in our religious life with our children. We have on our walls pictures of us in front of 8 temples now.

As we were leaving, the sun was just setting and it was overcast. The parking lot lights had just come on and the lights with the few rays of sun that were breaking through the clouds as we left seemed to make the leaves on this tree just sing. They were so vibrant. I just noticed them because I was trying to use them to frame up the Angel Moroni on the top of the temple, but it wasn't working. But these had such color, that I swapped lenses and took the picture. I love how vibrant they came out.  I also posted below the Angel Moroni, which I converted to B&W due to the overcast day to make it pop.  It did not work the way that I wanted.

Thanks for looking.

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture:	f/16
Focal Length:	55 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Sunset, Zion's National Park

Sunset, Zion's National Park, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Here it is, my entry into the blogosphere. I have been learning a lot about photography in the past few years. Well, I have been shooting a lot and I was generally happy with what I shot. Now I am on Flickr and I have become aware of my limitations and strengths. This picture is from Zion National Park in Utah. I went with my best friend just to shoot pictures. We stopped at a camera store in St George because I forgot my polarizer, and there they had all of these used Cokin filters. I have wanted to try them and so I bought 6 of them for $2.50 each along with the holder. I used a Gradual Tobacco T1 Ref. 124 and a Gradual Grey G1 Ref. 120 which I turned to angle a little. I love the results, but I was the little guy here.  

The park had more photographers then wildlife.  When I hiked up the lower narrows, I saw maybe half a dozen birds and three fish.  I counted 29 photographers.  As we were leaving the park, we saw this gathering of photographers on the bridge at Canyon Junction.  So, of course we jumped out to investigate.  I think that this picture is actually better in some ways due to the documentary quality.  There are so many great shots of this park, but on the other side of those exposures lies another world.  In defense of the wildlife, we did see about a dozen deer as we were leaving.  In fact I think that they come out only when everyone is leaving.

Analogously, Authors write about words to convey something deeper, so a photographer shooting photographers should have something on another level there.  Unfortunately for me, it was shallow, I had camera envy.  Look at those uber-cool large format rigs.   One was a Wista, up to $2000 for the camera before lenses and the rest.   Another was a Linhof, $6ooo and up. There were a few more large format cameras there along with some other medium formats.  10 sheets of film for those large formats run about $30.  I thought that I was really pretty good with my Rebel XTi.  But that was something to watch.  

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Sunset, Zion's National Park

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	125
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

More Photographers then Wildlife at Zion's National Park

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	55 mm
ISO Speed:	250
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV