I went up to Takemah, Nebraska this morning, based on a tip from a guy I met in the Best Buy parking lot, whotold me there were some interesting derelict barns up there. So, I went on an exploratory trip, thinking I'd do nothing serious other than make not of subjects for a later time. Boy, was I wrong-pretty much anything I encountered of interest today was facing toward the east, which means I should have been there before sunrise, not showing up at 8:00am. By the time 9:30 rolled around, the light was crappy and harsh, and I spent the next two hors making "placeholder" photos for a later trip when the lighting is earlier and better.
Here are two alright shots I got for my efforts:
oh-and I do think I found all the barns the guy was telling me about- I drove all the gravel roads (and one mud road) in Bert County, NE looking for them :
I made a vertical shot and a horizontal shot of it in black and white. I shoot verticals of things that have lots of top negative space, so my wife can possibly make use of it for a book cover for one of her future self published books
Only 9 days until the solstice for this thread to be finished. Today, I attacked the stubborn Hollyhock problem with a different approach-tried to se the sun as a natural rim light, and fill in with flash. No fancy dancy alt bokeh lens used-just a plain ol' Canon EF 200mm F 2.8 L, with no tubes:
I would say "too many birds in this thread" - it's like every topic on this board inevitably (d)evolves to the subject of BIF - but then I shot some myself.
http://pp.vk.me/c636928/v636928358/dfb8/gomHlrVKPGo.jpg
Young crow in the Michailovsky garden, downtown St. Pete's. His/her mother was not pleased that someone was hanging around her kid though. http://pp.vk.me/c636928/v636928358/dfe4/iIcabzCLwww.jpg
I was photographing the Peter and Paul Fortress and then... another flying thing photobombed me! Wasn't terrible though, and if it had flown higher I would have totally welcomed the effect. http://pp.vk.me/c636928/v636928358/dfdb/Y7UnsiAaYFk.jpg
Here's a clear shot though. White nights, 'nuff said. http://pp.vk.me/c636927/v636927358/eae8/tWFtLiNL-rY.jpg
Here you can see a throwback to the bird theme as well... as in a few birds are being "post-processed" (to quote Jefferson on this one) on skewers. This shot is from the National Cuisine fest held on June 11th~13th at the same Peter and Paul Fortress (just on the opposite side of it). It was a nice idea, even though there were less than 10 different cuisines represented (from as far afield as Cuba and Catalonia, though, in addition to tried-and-tested ex-Soviet ones like Estonia, Armenia and Uzbekistan). What has pissed me off though was the weather: what we have now is an extraordinarily cold, rainy and windy spell more reminiscent of October (hence the joking denomination of "Juber", a portmanteau of June and any of the last four months of the year). http://pp.vk.me/c636927/v636927358/eafa/BLqZPsDa5f4.jpg
There was some sort of entertainment going on: the local Cossacks were demonstrating their prowess with whips (not pictured) and sabres. This shot is a result of botched ISO/EC settings but I happened to like it all the same. http://pp.vk.me/c636927/v636927358/eb03/t5WYYhajDNw.jpg
Catalonian paella being mixed in a huge vat. Actually, it's pretty much the same as the Central Asian / Caucasian / Russian pilaf but they put an emphasis on seafood and not meat. That, and the choice of spices is different.
