Day 26, Martin Luther King Statue, Riverside

Day 26, Martin Luther King Statue, Riverside, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

 

Today, like yesterday is a you choose posting. Which do you like better. Today is about composition. By Riverside City Hall, there is a statue of Martin Luther King. It has benches (a favorite subject for me) and lends itself to a great backdrop with the trees and walking street behind. Since it is the Christmas season, the trees are set up for a better picture. 

First off, I would like to have seen the Statue lit better. But since I was working off a tripod with no power, I could not add flashes. I am thinking that a reflector would be a nice addition to the gear. This was a 4 second exposure so flashes would have been tough to use and expose the background lights as well. I think that I will try this again with a flashlight to "paint" the statue.   By the time I took the portrait shot, I needed an 8 second exposure to get the image that I wanted.

The real question is one of perspective. Sky or no Sky. It was overcast and the sun had just set, hence a 4 second exposure. The clouds offer a contrasty bigger feel with mood. A blue sky would offer a lighter mood, but the clouds offer a more solemn mood. I have put both up for your input, landscape with no clouds, or portrait with clouds.

As always, thanks for looking and the EXIF data for both pictures is below.

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Landscape

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	4 sec (4)
Aperture:	f/8
Focal Length:	25 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Portrait

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	8 sec (8)
Aperture:	f/8
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 25, Lamp, Mission Inn, Riverside

Day 25, Lamp, Mission Inn, Riverside, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Today, and tomorrow I am putting up two shots of the same subject. I like both, but I want to know what you think. Which one? 

I am leaning towards the Black and White version on this one since the ability to light up the wall behind in enhanced when I add a lot of red once I have removed all saturation. If I was shooting in Black and White native, I would use a red or yellow filter in front of the lens to get this effect.

I am looking forward to seeing your comments, B&W or Color version.

Exif Data

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture:	f/6.3
Focal Length:	75 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 24, Christmas Lights, Mission Inn, Riverside

Day 24, Christmas Lights, Mission Inn, Riverside, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

The downtown area of Riverside is dominated by the Mission Inn. When I was in High School, it was mostly abandoned and the city was looking for anyone to take it over. They put up some great financing help to get it going again.

Over the last 10 years, the downtown has come back. The center of this comeback has been the Mission Inn. It really is a unique place. There is a boatload of history and art there. Well, at least by west coast standards. We don't really have many 200 year old buildings or great revolutionary war stories. Until about 80 years ago, this was nothing but scrub and rancheros. The citrus boom really put this on the course to being somewhere. Most of California has a similar history.

Every year now, the big lights that the Mission Inn does are really better and better. If you need to visit Southern California, and you want to stay somewhere that is not just another hotel, stay a night here, you won't be disappointed. I can't tell the difference anymore between Marriott and Hilton. When I travel for work, few places have any quality of their own. That is what is probably unique to the Mission Inn, it really is a place of its own.

Thanks for looking, as always, below are the shots that I did not choose to run with as well as the EXIF data for the lead image.

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	5 sec (5)
Aperture:	f/29
Focal Length:	31 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 23, Christmas Lights, Down Town, Riverside

Christmas Lights, Down Town, Riverside, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

Every Year the downtown area of Riverside gets a Christmas shot due to and around the Mission Inn.  It is one of my favorite places here in Riverside. In fact, I asked my wife to marry me at a fountain just inside the Mission Inn. There is a restaurant there now, so it is not so quiet and removed as it was. I had a dinner meeting to attend across the street, so I brought my camera to start taking pictures around the area.   I will be post for the next few days some of the shots from there.

One of my favorite restaurants is in the Mission Inn, Duane's.  The steaks there have rivaled anything I have had at any other major steak house in the country, and I have been to a few.  They have this great painting of Roosevelt and the Rough Riders in Cuba.  By great, I mean huge.  It is a captivating piece as well.  In fact, the art in the Mission Inn is really great.  More on that on later posts.

I could not take the picture that I really wanted to take, there was a big event at the Mission Inn and I could not get access to the area that I wanted to shoot, so I worked a little around the outside. The sun was down, but the sky still had a great effect to it and the California Christmas Trees were lit up.

Thanks for looking, as always, below are the shots that I did not choose to run with as well as the EXIF data for the lead image.

A few notes on the shots that I did not choose for the image of the day.  I like the window shopper shot since these are all longer shots and he was still. The arched walkway is cool to stroll through, but tough to shoot since there are about four restaurants here and the service entrance to the Mission Inn. People moving through a long exposure can come out really cool. However when there is so little light, like this walkway, the exposure gets so long that you can not tell that they are people walking through the shot. Hence I shot it without people.

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	4 sec (4)
Aperture:	f/9
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	800
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV

Day 22, Riverside City Hall Clock Tower

Day 22, Riverside City Hall Clock Tower, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

I am from Riverside. Not in the I live there now sense, but I am from Riverside. Although I was born in Long Beach, we moved here when I was in Elementary School, Pedley Elementary. I attended all the way through UC Riverside. My job moved me away for a little bit, but in the end, I settled back down with my family in Riverside.

We love living here. It is not the biggest or smallest place to live on earth. It is filled with friends and family. We live in a great neighborhood and our kids go to a great school. When I was in high school, I attended a mock City Council here at Riverside City Hall. I remember being here and thinking about how they came to choose this style and how did it fit with the City.

I realize that the clock tower is not going to wow the world with its majesty and old world craftsmanship. But at the right time, in the right light, it belongs and is beautiful for here. It fits. It is not the biggest or grandest, and it is not the smallest or worst. It is what was built here, with what we had then. It reflects the kind of place this is, right on for all that right things, and not to much of the things that we don't need.

I plan to shoot a lot more of Riverside over the next few weeks.

Thanks for looking, as always, below is the shot that I did not choose to run with as well as the EXIF data for the lead image.

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	8 sec (8)
Aperture:	f/13
Focal Length:	18 mm
ISO Speed:	400
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

Day 20, Corner Stone, Oakland Temple

Day 20, Corner Stone, Oakland Temple, originally uploaded by solostandfound.

This is the corner stone of the Oakland, CA Temple.  It was laid in place in 1963, about a year before the temple was finished and dedicated.  The golden numerals just seemed to stand out, they glowed.  I loved the contrast of the golden numerals and the white sierra granite.  

Being the 15th Temple constructed by the LDS church, it is one of the more unique designs and layouts for an LDS temple.   It sits in the hills above Oakland and some of the best views of any where in the world.  Part of that is due to the layout.  There are gardens on an upper level that have lookouts that are amazing.  

The temple was announce to the church in January of 1961.  The groundbreaking took place in May of 1962 and was finally dedicated in November 1964 by David O. McKay.  It is located on 18 Acres of land and has 95,000 square feet of floor space.   It is primarily constructed of reinforced concrete with beautiful Sierra White Granite on the face.  It really is one of the most peaceful places you can visit.  In this world, that is so wonderful.  

LDS.org gives the following information;  "The history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in northern California is long, dating back to the earliest days of the Church's westward migration. Members of the Mormon Battalion, for example, were on the scene when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848. In 1924, Elder George Albert Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles saw in vision "a great white temple of the Lord" in the Oakland hills. Land for the temple was purchased in 1943, but it wasn't until 1961 that President David O. McKay announced that it was time to build. The Oakland California Temple was the first temple since the Mesa Arizona Temple to include decorative friezes on the exterior, including one portraying the Savior commissioning His apostles in the Old World and His appearance to the Nephites in America. The temple's Asian motif was designed to represent the large Asian population in northern California. It is the only temple with five spires. The Oakland Temple is so prominently placed and such a distinctive landmark that ships entering San Francisco Bay use it for navigation purposes."

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Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture:	f/10
Focal Length:	37 mm
ISO Speed:	400
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV