Summer Weather

House and clouds near sunset

Another kooky one. We’ve been getting storms lately, and with the storms come lots of cloud cover. They’ve been really impressive lately. Dark gray bottoms with golden sides as the twilight hits them. I always want to take pictures, but it’s always a fool’s folly; they all just look like boring old clouds after I’ve taken ‘em. I’m sure that a better photographer than I can manage to capture the grandeur, but I can’t seem to.

But still, you have to try, right?

Technorati Tags: photography, champaign, il, illinois, house, cloud, sunset

Tree in Window in Window

Tree in Window in Window

Okay, I realize that this is sort of an odd ball picture; still, I like it. Maybe it’s the texture of the cloud reflection on the right? Not sure, but it works for me.

This is a picture of a window in our house with a tree and clouds reflecting in it. Also, you can see another window on the opposite side of the house.

Technorati Tags: photography, tree, window, sunset, reflection, clouds

Easter Lily in Black and White

Easter Lily

One of the final blooms on our Easter Lily. I know that you can transplant these lilies, but I’m not really sure what type of care the plant needs. I suppose that I’ll have to research this a bit more.

Chairs at Sunset

Another sunset / shadow picture. I’m not too sure why I am so enamored with these pictures. I’m sure to most people they’re just boring pictures of chairs, but to me there’s something there. I just have to figure out what that something is….

Technorati Tags: photography, lily, black, and, white, tri-x, rodinal, chairs, sunset

Keyboard Reflections

Keyboard reflections

Keyboard reflections, alternate

Technorati Tags: photography, piano, keyboard, reflections, sunset, canon, 40D

Color at Sunset

Prism at sunset

As the sun was setting, I saw some interesting colors in my daughter’s room. Nothing earth shattering, but I like the play of the colors and shadows.

Lamp heads

Wall Shadows

Technorati Tags: photography, color, sunset, prism, lamp, shadows

Piano at Sunset

Piano at Sunset

Continuing with my playing with Chiaroscuro (or pseudo-chiaroscuro?), this is our piano at sunset. This was taken with my digital camera and processed (in Aperture) with the red filter for B&W conversion. I think that I like the “mini” direction this is moving in. I’ve got several shots that are waiting for me on film, but none with a red filter. I’ll need my tripod for that, and that will be a bit more challenging with the little ones (especially around dinner time).

Piano at Sunset, detail

A detail shot of the music holder and shadow. Should I have tried this at a different angle? More dead on? Again, processed with the red filter during monochrome conversion.

Sunset silhouette

There seems to be a common wisdom running through the blogosphere (or at least my view of the blogosphere) that you need detail in the shadows of a sunset / sunrise picture. I’m not entirely sure why this is.

After all, isn’t a sunset mostly about color? Color is the primary here. Isn’t it simply distracting and unnecessary to force detail into something that I most likely want to be a silhouette anyway?

Picture of the Champaign sky at dusk. No mods, converted to JPG via Adobe Camera Raw.

Not to contradict myself (though I may), but the next picture (a different frame) I feel needs the bit of detail right in the foreground. Overall I’m undecided on whether I like the picture, but I’m pretty sure that without the detail in the front, it’d be crap. Might be a depth thing.

Technorati Tags:
champaign, illinois, photography, silhouette