Solstice
(Click any image to enlarge)
Last week I took off Tuesday and Thursday to spend some vacation time that otherwise would have gone away in July. On Tuesday Ryan and I drove down to Elephant Rocks and then over to the Johnson Shutins.
50mm, f/1.8
50mm, f/1.8
50mm, f/1.8
50mm, f/1.8
50mm, f/1.8
Because it was a Tuesday it was relatively quiet. On the weekend all these rocks would be covered and as I mentioned the last time I posted about the Shutins (last September) this is a fun spot to shoot. To my eye it feels like a Where’s Waldo cartoon the way this part of the river layers when seen from the boardwalk.
85mm, f/1.8
5mm, f/4
This was taken on a Canon PowerShot SX170 I’ve had since 2010 and keep in my bag as a reliable and conspicuous point-and-shoot. A brief downpour hit and I wanted to see if I could get an interesting composition by swimming out a bit and taking a shot from water level. I didn’t bring the rain sleeve for my main rig, however, and so risked the dutiful PowerShot (which survived!).
14mm, f/22
Walking through the newly re-opened old courthouse.
35mm, f/22
50mm, f/16
50mm, f/9
Yesterday I stumbled on a corn hole competition downtown. I learned that corn hole—with no offense—isn’t the easiest sport to capture. Or maybe it’s more like: for the corn hole pro, you would know what to photograph and how, but I was at a loss as to what the lens was supposed to do. Folks came from all over Missouri and Illinois, and many had sports jerseys for their teams. There’s a nice sort of alley on the approach to Busch Stadium and many dozens were set up there with rings of camp chairs, keeping cool in the shade. Below is my attempt at an action shot. I think what you would need to do is throw on like a 135mm lens and shoot from across the person throwing but behind their opponent.
50mm, f/9
If there’s any unifying theme to the various shoots I did on Saturday, it’s that context improves everything about your photography and it’s going to show if you don’t understand what you’re shooting. As I frequently get to experience. This comes up again below in the auto show I went to right after this downtown photowalk. I don’t know a thing about cars and I think I turned in some alright images, but you can also tell I’m not an auto photographer and I don’t know how to present something like an engine block.
14mm, f/9
50mm, f/9
50mm, f/9
50mm, f/9
After walking a bit more downtown I left directly for a classic car show in Breckenridge. I’m more interested in this image than in most anything else about the cars. To me “old men look at car” is going to trump the car itself every time.
85mm, f/9
85mm, f/9
85mm, f/9
85mm, f/9
The winning car, I believe a ‘56 Chevy. Someone milling around it informed me that the car appeared to be 100% original.
85mm, f/9
85mm, f/9
85mm, f/9
85mm, f/9
85mm, f/3.5
