Long Exposure

The May challenge for the Viewfinders camera club is a B&W shot using an exposure time of greater than 1 second.  One of my ideas is shown below.  I remember from the olden days of film cameras that you could take multiple exposures of a scene with moving objects and when you finished the multiple shots, the moving objects would not show in the picture because of their short appearance time compared to the whole shot. I thought I'd try something similar by using a long exposure.  My target was the I-10 interchange at Loop 410.  It is probably the busiest intersection in the city, with traffic on all connectors at most all times of day.

There is a hotel, the Marriott Northwest, near the interchange.   My hope was that there would be a publically-accessible window on an upper floor where I could take a shot of the highways.  The hotel has 11 floors.  I took my tripod and camera up the elevator to the 10th floor and there was a suitable window right at the elevator.  I had three 8x neutral density filters to give a nine-stop attenuation.  It was about 3 PM on a Friday so there was a lot of light and also a lot of traffic.  The photo here was a 60-second exposure at ISO 100.  The only complaint I have is the reflections from the inside of the window.  They are a little distracting, but I think I proved the point of removing the moving cars from the scene.  They occupy probably less than 1% of the time at any one point on the road, so they do not show in the overall shot.

Murder Trial

I’ve been thinking about the Jodi Arias murder trial.  It has been on TV a lot.  The “’talking heads” on TRU TV, Nancy Grace and other shows are having a field day commenting about the trial along with their on-air “experts” who are mostly law enforcement types or attorneys.  Much has been said about Ms. Arias’ response to cross examination by Mr. Martinez, the prosecuting attorney.  She rarely answers a question with a simple “yes or no” answer, often qualifying her answer or commenting on how the question was framed.  I have heard a lot of opinion expressed that she should be forced by the judge (or someone) to answer the questions properly and that she should not be allowed to lie as much as it seems she is doing.

I keep thinking that this is a death penalty case.  What does that mean?  It means that Mr. Martinez is trying his best to convict this person and send her to the death chamber.  If his arguments prevail with the jury, it will result in Ms. Arias losing her life.   So we have on the one side, Ms. Arias and her attorney trying to get her off, or at least to save her life.  And on the other side, the state, through Mr. Martinez, trying to take her life.  Now never mind whether she is guilty or innocent or something in between.  She and her counsel are the only ones trying to save her life.  She is facing questioning from someone who, if successful, will kill her.  So how much truth and cooperation does she owe to a man who wants her killed?   If it was just a matter of avoiding a fine, or even some jail time, yes, maybe she should “fess-up”.   But it is her life we are talking about.  The end of her existence.   It seems to me she is justified to lie, scream, or clam-up if it is necessary to save her life.   Some seem to suggest that she should cooperate with the prosecutor in the name of justice, even to the point of sacrificing her life.  I don’t think so.    If you are in a life or death situation, you do what you can to save your life.  Now I am not talking about those cases where you put your survival ahead of someone else’s or where you might sacrifice yourself to save others.  That is not the case here.  Travis Alexander is already dead.  None of the lawyers or jury members is in danger whether Ms. Arias lives or dies.  She is on trial with her own life and no one else’s at stake.   I say she should use whatever intelligence and cunning she can muster to save her life.  If she pays a price of perjury or jail time or whatever, so be it.   Without a life, none of those things have any significance.  

 

As always, I reserve the right to change my mind later.  8=)

 

Mall Shots

I was at North Star Mall with some time to kill.  I had always wanted to try to get photographs of people coming up the escalator so that it showed only their head at floor level.  Here was a chance to try that.  I scouted out a spot in the food court where I would have a clear view of the escalator coming up from the first level.   I sat at a table and put my camera on the chair next to me with the lens (200 mm) aimed toward the escalator.   I turned the articulated LCD up so I could see it,  Since I could not count on autofocus to pick up the person's head, I used manual focus.   I have a wired remote switch that I plugged in and held in my hand.   Regrettably I did not think to use burst mode on the shutter.  I could have gotten a lot better positioning of the person in the shot.  Here is one of the results.

One problem I did not anticipate was the traffic in the area.  Since I was about 30 feet from the target, there was a lot of foot traffic coming off the escalator or going to the down side.  So I had to wait for them to clear before I could take a shot.  Someday I may try again.  And I'll use the burst mode for sure.

Dragan II

Here is another iteration of my attempts to do a Dragan process.  Compare this one to the earlier attempt.

Dream Time

I had heard many times that dreams do not happen in "real time", but when you experience an activity in a dream and that activity seems to play out for an hour, for example, the real dreaming time may only be a few seconds.  I have anecdotal evidence that disputes that.  I had a dream once in which I was with several people on the parking lot at a place where I used to work.  I had in my hand a small electronic device, probably a radio.  Suddenly there was a loud beeping sound and everyone  looked at my radio.  I told them it was turned off, but they still thought I was the source of the noise.  I opened the back and removed the batteries.  The beeping continued and people across the parking lot were looking at me.  Then I noticed two telephone repairmen on a pole above us.  They had some kind of instrument that was causing the noise.  This whole episode consumed about five minutes.  Then I woke up and shut off the alarm clock which was making that exact sound.  The clock showed it had been alarming for five minutes.   To me that says  the five minutes of clock time exactly corresponded to the five minutes of dream time.   QED!

Andrzej Dragan

I was given a link http://andrzejdragan.com/ to the web site of a photographer I had not known about.  He deals primarily in portraits, but not your normal sweet shot of a person.  I really liked the look of his work which involves a good bit of post processing.   I decided to try to get a similar effect.  I didn't succeed, but here is as close as I have gotten so far.  It is a self portrait with some processing steps that make my 75-yr old skin look even worse than it does.  

Please realize that I am making a face here.  I'm not always that wide awake.  I don't have Dragan's lighting down yet, nor his HDR effects.   I'll keep trying.   Comments welcome.  

Tina in Concert

My friend, Albert, posted on his blog a cool image he took at the recent Red Hot Chili Peppers concert.  That got me thinking about taking photos at concerts where cameras are usually prohibited.  About 10 - 15 years ago, Tina Turner had a concert at the Alamodome.  I wanted to try to take some photos even though we would be sitting pretty far from the stage.  At the time I used a Canon F1 and had a 600mm Sigma mirror lens that was very short for that focal length so I put it on my shoulder under my jacket, hoping I would not be stopped.  I loaded the camera  with Kodacolor 1600 ASA film and hoped for the best.   Here is one shot that came out pretty good considering the conditions.  

Now with digital cameras that can use enormous ISO settings, it might be easier to get a good shot.  Maybe I'll try again some day.