Shot in the fall of 2008, this is one of my all time favorites. Kind of a niche thing, but I love how it is framed by the trees. Order a print or download now for the astronomer in your life. This photo was taken with my Olympus E-510.
This is a side chapel at the famed San Xavier del Bac mission outside of Tucson, Arizona. From the mission website:
The present church was built from 1783 – 1797 by the Franciscan Fathers Juan Bautista Velderrain and Juan Bautista Llorenz. Little is know about the actual labor of the construction of the church, who was the architect, who were the artisans, but many believe it was the Tohono O’odham who fufilled these roles. San Xavier Mission is acclaimed by many to be the finest example of mission architecture in the United States. It is a graceful blend of Moorish, Byzantine and late Mexican Renaissance architecture, yet the blending is so complete it is hard to tell where one type begins and another ends.
Whether you prefer this color version or the black and white version, they are both available in my art gallery for purchase as prints or downloads.
The image above is of a braided hose line on the primary lift motor of a Titan II missile. In September of 2008 I had the opportunity to visit the Titan II Museum outside of Tucson, AZ. The museum is actually a decommissioned Titan II complex, a relic of the Cold War. This photo is available for purchase as a print or digital download in my Art Gallery.
I took several interesting pictures on that day. It was one of the more fruitful photography days I have had, most likely because that’s all it was supposed to be. No doubt more of those images will make their way here as photos of the week.
More information about the museum can be seen at their website.
On 10.28.08, In Commentary, By Chester
Sometimes I think I am a crazy person for believing in some of my photographs the way I do. Take this one for example. It is a crop of a larger image, but there were some things in the larger one that I didn’t like. Rather than editing them out and going through all that (which I deperately need to learn how to do better), I just cropped the image down to the piece I liked. Unfortunately, that operation left the Saguaro cactus in the middle of the image. In all of the images I have seen of Arizona, I can’t really say that I have seen any others like this. Which made me think I was crazy for liking it.
Fast forward to this past weekend. I was reading a book on exposure, and lo and behold, the other had taken a similar image in Arizona. Going through the book more, I saw other shots similar in nature to the ones I had come up with all on my own. Knowing what the publishing cycle is like, I know this guy was there before me. But we saw similar things. That is really encouraging to me. To see similar photos published in a book alleviates any thoughts of being crazy. It reinforces my thought that I might know at least a little bit about what I am doing.
BTW – watch for the book review soon, I am almost done with it. And not too soon – I have 3 more books coming in from Amazon this week.
On 09.12.08, In Commentary, By Chester
A few weeks ago, Microsoft Photosynth hit the Net. A few of the blogs I follow talked about it, and it looked interesting. I had some time during my conference in Phoenix, so I made a “synth” of my room at the Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale, AZ. I downloaded the PDF synth guide with instructions for making a new synth, and set about shooting the room. I wound up with 78 photos.
I shot them in RAW, so I exported them from Lightroom 2 and then started the upload process. This is where my frustration started. It took over 4 hours to upload those pictures. Luckily I had other things to do, like go to the pool and then a dinner engagement, so I left to do that.
When I came back after dinner, the little green box said it was done, and that my photos were “58% synthy”. Whatever that means. I proceeded to load the synth, and was not pleased with the results. For whatever reason, I had expected this to work like other synths I had seen, that acted like a virtual walk-through. I took pictures of the room, the balcony, and the bathroom. I took “approach” photos that I thought my be what synth needed to construct the next scene in the walkthrough. It didn’t do any of this.
You are probably asking why I did all this, and expected a result other than what I achieved. Fair enough. It’s because the PDF instruction set didn’t have specific directions for how to do this. In the absence of those directions, I made an assumption. I wonder how many other people are experiencing this.
Oh well. I don’t really see an application for this anyway. You have to download software to even view these things. When you consider that Flash is on 99% of computers out there, it makes more sense to do virtual tour types of things in Flash than this thing. It’s a solution without a problem.
Apparently, someone I really respect agrees it isn’t ready for widespread usage.
On 09.11.08, In Photos, By Chester
This image probably doesn’t seem too remarkable, but it represents a first for me. It’s the first time I have done a photo in “bulb” mode. I was trying to get photos of the lightning storm that passed through last night. It was too far away, and none of the bolts looked good in the shots. So I went with my immediate surroundings. Sometimes a shoot doesn’t work out the way you wanted. You just need to roll with it and see if you can get something salvageable. In this case, I got practice, which is worth a lot to me… PP in Lightroom, of course.
On 09.10.08, In Photos, By Chester
Outside of Tucson is this 300 year old Spanish Mission. More information about it is at sanxaviermission.org.
Based on the success of my recent sepia picture, I decided to treat this one the same way. Most historic pictures of the old west are in sepia, so it seemed appropriate. And it is an easy thing to do with Lightroom 2.
Going to get out and shoot some today, working on my real estate photography skills. Conference ends this afternoon, but I am here until tomorrow. Plenty of practice time.
On 09.09.08, In Photos, By Chester
There are so many historical things to photograph out there. Some of it seems more timely than others. With the sabre-rattling going on over Georgia, perhaps a photo of this Cold War relic is a timely one.
This Titan II Missile is standing in a nearly complete missile complex in Tucson, Arizona. Decommissioned in the 1980′s, all but this one were blasted to a depth of 20 feet to ensure they could not be easily reused, and so that the Soviet Union could verify their destruction via overhead satellite passes. This one was spared, for historical purposes, and turned into a museum. They give tours ( http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/ ) which are interesting and very informative (AAA Members get $1 off the tour admission BTW). This was a fascinating place to me, having wanted to be a rocket scientist at one point in my life. We always joked with the ROTC students that they were just going to be “key turners” once they graduated (they all wanted to be pilots naturally). Mutually assured destruction seems like insanity to me, but it did keep both sides form using these destructive weapons.
Anyway, if you are in Tucson, this is one thing worth checking out. I got some other interesting photos while there, but most are just of the ‘snapshot’ variety to show people what these facilities were like.
As for the photo, I cropped it, selectively reduced exposure in some areas, and then applied an “aged photo” preset, all in Adobe Lightroom 2
On 09.08.08, In Photos, By Chester
Arrived in Phoenix yesterday morning and drove to Tucson to see a few things. This is the underside of the Kitt Peak Solar Telescope.
I am on a laptop with Lightroom 1.3 (might upgrade it to 1.41), and am not doing much work on the pictures while I am down here. I’ll still post pics this week, but there won’t be much in the way of post-processing. I also might do some Synth’s of my room and some other areas here at the Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale, AZ.
Ghosts of the Past
Hard to believe, but on this day 68 years ago, Pearl Harbor was attacked, throwing us into World War II. But you didn’t need me to tell you that. The only reason I am posting about this today is that I was recently going through some old photos I have taken over the years, and came across this group from my trip to Hawaii in 1984. I was 13, and armed with my Kodamatic instant camera. Anyone old enough to remember it knows that this was the Kodak version of the Polaroid, and that the film production had to cease because of a lawsuit from Polaroid. I think I got a rebate check for $30 from Kodak as a way of saying “sorry, we shouldn’t have sold you this camera.”
Nearly everyone agrees that a good photo should evoke some sort of emotion. In that regard, I love these pics. I can’t remember much of that weeklong trip (except the Dole pineapple cannery tour, Hilo Hattie’s signs everywhere, the beach), but these pictures remind me vividly of what it was like on the Arizona Memorial that day. It was a strange feeling, standing on the monument, straddling the remains of the Arizona, and knowing there were still people (their remains anyway) in there. There were also reminders that the ship is not done settling in, as there were small oil slicks (maybe a few inches across) hanging out near the rusted gun turret mounts. It’s a powerful mood, being out there and seeing these things. No, these Kodamatic pics don’t do it justice, but if you have been there, maybe these are all it takes to bring your memories back. If so, let me know by commenting below.