Great Dun Fell, Cumbria

Darren recently loaned me a book about Ansel Adams -- it made me want to give the ol' black and white landscape a shot. I can see why he preferred large format cameras -- there just isn't enough detail here. One could stitch a panorama to get more detail, except with a shot like this you're already at the limit of what most telephotos can zoom to -- this is effectively 320mm. I shot this as we were coming back from the Lake District. The white dome atop the mountain (Great Dun Fell, 2782 ft) is the Civil Aviation Authority's ATC radar.



Click to enlarge to 1024x768.

London, 2007

Today's photo is a night shot of Big Ben and the houses of parliament in London, England, taken from Bridge Street. A passing doubledecker bus created the light streaks. I think Bridge Street is one of the most photographed places in London, as it has most of the iconic touristy landmarks in view -- Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, etc. And it's a stone's throw from Westminster.

Westminster Abbey at Night (free wallpaper)

Westminster Abbey in London at night, December 5th, 2007 (click to enlarge). This is an HDR photo composed of ten separate photos shot with a Canon 20D and a Canon 10-22 lens, tripoded and cable released (with numb fingers, thanks to the British cold!), combined and downsampled with Photoshop CS3.



Note that although you may use this as desktop wallpaper for personal use, any other uses require a license. As with all of my images, this image is (pending) registered copyright. :)



*edit* Here's a perspective corrected version (pan and tilt simulation) -- which one do you think works better?

Wigs!

My wife tries on wigs in the basement of a fashion clothing store in Harrogate, England. I like the French mousey look, myself. :)

A few people pics

For today, I've picked a few snaps of people wandering around the Tower of London. I love the photographer; I know the feeling -- despite actually being there, you just can't help looking at the little preview screen to see what you've just taken a picture of. :)

Chapel of St. John the Evangelist

Today's photo was shot from inside the White Tower of The Tower of London. Built of French stone some time around 1080, Saint John's Chapel is the oldest church in London. Click to enlarge.

Children

This is shot from inside the armory at the Tower of London. Off to a side in an out-of-the-way nook, there was a window full of purple stained glass with one pane missing. Click to enlarge.

American Airlines

A jumbo jet flies low over London, framed by two cranes. Telephoto snapshot; click to enlarge.

Ginormous London Panorama from Bridge Street

(Click to Enlarge)


Today's photo is of Big Ben, Parliment, and the London Eye -- a 360 degree panorama taken from Bridge Street. 16 photos total, stitched together with autostitch -- a very handy program! Note that this is a very large image if you click on it; however, it's still scaled down quite a bit, as the original is over 20,000 pixels wide!

Saint Mary Aldermary, City of London

HDR shot of the interior of St. Mary Aldermary in London, England. There has been a church at this site since at least 1200 A.D. This is a view to the east. John Milton, the poet, married his third wife in the church in 1663. I asked the man running the church what the story was on the slanted wall at the rear. Apparently, after the great fire of London in 1666, much of the church burned down. When they rebuilt it, there was a dispute between the city of London and the church as to where the property lines lie. The church, fed up with the city, just built the back wall directly along what they argued was their property line, figuring the city wouldn't knock the church down just to settle a dispute.



This is an "out of the way, completely normal" church in London. That is, it's a working church and is considered nothing special and definitely not a tourist destination. There are literally dozens of churches just like this, dotting the city.




Shot using a Canon EOS 20D with a Canon 10-22 EF-S lens, ISO 100, mirror lockup, tripoded, 13 shots at 1 stop bracket steps, merged and processed with Photoshop CS3.

Just got back

I just got back from a two week honeymoon in England, so I should have some new pictures to post soon. :)

Lanette the Geisha

Lanette dressed up like Geisha recently at work and asked me to come along and take a few snaps. Pretty convincing if you ask me -- she looks a bit like Bjork! :)



This was with a wide angle lense, up close. I'm a big fan of centering the subject and going for the tunnel vanishing point effect you get when you do this; it reminds me a bit of Kubrick's cinematography when he'd do backwalking tracking shots.






See! Bjork!






A closeup of her eye with the glittery lashes. I don't have a macro lens, so this was a shot with a 200mm lens almost wide open from 6 or so feet away.

Riv!

An oldie but goodie (one of Josh's favorites). One of my few obviously photoshopped shots. :)

Old shots from Holdrege

Here are a few old photos from a storm chase in Holdrege, Nebraska, July 7, 2005. This was back when I was shooting film with an EOS 3 and a Tamron 17-35mm for the wide end. The wall cloud formed south of town (shown in the top two photos -- the first shot while I was driving, the second shot after I stopped about 1/4 mile from the cloud), then moved northeast and dropped a tornado east of town, narrowly missing the airport. The condensation funnel isn't visible, but the debris cloud is. The wide angle lens makes things look further away; the tornado is never more than a mile away.

More from the zoo

This is a Cape Thick-knees -- a bizarre name for a bird, non? This lil' guy reminds me of the stern eagle from The Muppets Show. :) Shot at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Click to enlarge.







Looks a bit like a doe to me -- but it's a Klipspringer. Native to Africa, apparently this little guy can jump like nobody's business! Click to enlarge.

DO YOU HAS MAH BUKKET?

Some more from the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo (click to enlarge):





"Hi, I'm Wilfred Brimley, and I'd l like to talk to you about diabeetus. Did you know that some Americans don't know about dia... what the hell is that in the sky?"






I have days like this.







I really don't know what motivates these guys to strike these poses in the water -- I'm not sure if they're showing off, or if this is a seal's idea of fun. :)








Mah bukket -- do you has it?

Under De Sea

Today's photos are of iridescent jellyfish as the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Actually, I'm not sure if these bad boys are glowing, or if they somehow react to blacklight. Either way, they were fascinating. :) Click to enlarge.

Check Out My Pipes

This bear at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha seemed extremely fascinated with his own arms and claws -- he kept stretching them out above himself and looking. Click to enlarge.

Ooga Booga

Today's photo is of a baby gorilla catching some Zs at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. Click to enlarge.

You Can Have My Celery When You Pry It From My Cold Dead Hands

Today's photo is of a serious vegetarian at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. Click to enlarge in a new window.

Mountain Gorilla, Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha

(Title borrowed from Ted Kooser) Today's photo is of a gorilla at the Omaha zoo. Click to enlarge.

Maintenance

Today's photo is of a large, beautiful parrot preening his feathers at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. He was a very photogenic lil' guy. :) Click to enlarge.

Goodbye, Molly

We'll miss you, Molly. You were a good girl.

Married

As of August 30th, 2007, I am now happily married to my wonderful wife, Jasmin. I love you, woman!


(Photo by Josh Fiedler)

Gibbon

I'm back! It's been a crazy month; I got married then I got really sick... and now I'm back up to speed. :)



Today's photo is of a Gibbon at the Omaha Zoo (click to enlarge). My wife decided that since I'd never seen the Omaha Zoo before, it was imperative that I went there forthwith -- and boy, was she ever right. I think I'll be getting a yearly membership!

Hurricane Dean from the ISS

Every now and then you see a video so amazing that you kinda step back:





You can hear the chatter between the spacewalker and control in the background. Now try to imagine how mindblowing that must be -- to be out in the blackness of space putting something together with your little space hammer while you coast along at a jolly ol' 17,000mph, when suddenly you see the eye of a Category 5 hurricane zip by 200 miles underneath your feet. Holy cow.



Being an astronaut is fraught with danger, but it clearly is the coolest job in the world and I envy every last one of those guys.

Top of the world in a tempest

Someone asked me where I shot the creepy-looking severe storm photo in my post from yesterday -- the answer is from atop an 8 story parking garage. It's not quite as scary as you'd think (the bulk of the storm had passed), though there's always a slight worry about lightning when you're that elevated near storms. Anyhow, the shot above shows another photographer that was up there snapping away at the storm clouds overhead at sunset. Click to enlarge in a new window.

There Is No Dana

So, we had a severe storm go through Lincoln today...




And this was right after it passed. Looks like Memorial Stadium (where the Huskers play) is a portal to another dimension or something. (Click to enlarge in a new window)



The storm itself was quite wonderful -- golfball sized hail, gusts that were bowing the trees over, typical Nebraska summer stuff. My coworker got caught outside on his break and got a welt on his head from a hailstone. Oh, how I hope I never have to move away from this place.

Local Lincoln Church in HDR

I had to shoot a wedding this past week; I've been going through the shots. I made a point of shooting an HDR of the place (St. Teresa) while I was there. Not quite Notre Dame, but not bad for Lincoln, Nebraska. :)

The Badlands

Ah, the Badlands! A startlingly cool geological oddity in southern South Dakota -- it seems like it belongs in Arizona, not the northern high plains. If you look close, you can see a hawk soaring over the landscape. :) This is a shot from 2002; it was shot on Velvia with a Canon EOS-3 and a Sigma 70-200 2.8EX lens.

Oldie but Goodie

Click to enlarge (huge) in a new window.



This is from an old storm chase last year. Me and Josh were on a supercell near Clay Center Kansas, if I remember correctly, following it north as it dropped several tornadoes. We were on the ass end of it, so while we did get to see the tornado, it was from quite some distance (about 5 or 6 miles), and we never had much chance of catching up to it, mostly because it was moving quickly and we had to, at one point, stop to wait for it to cross the road a couple miles in front of us. (Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the precip that time, so no pics of the tube. I kinda wish we'd stopped and taken a couple snaps of the damage path; it was eerie to see the exploded grain silo scattered across the highway and the lush green farm fields. I made this one extra big for web resolution because it loses a bit of impact when it's tinier. Yes, it's registered at the U.S. Copyright Office. :)



This was taken with a Canon 20D, using a Canon EF-S 10-20mm lens backed out to 10mm. Exposure is 1/100th at f/5, ISO 100.

HDR of a house in Kearney

This is an HDR photo of a home in Kearney, Nebraska. It was assembled with Photoshop CS3 using 9 photographs, each spaced one stop apart, at f/5.6 using a 20D and a Canon 10-22 lens. The shortest exposure was 1/2 second, the longest was 242 seconds.