Photo-a-day 2012 Week 2

I've noticed why going through the day's pictures, that I seem to take a bunch that try to capture something artistically and some which capture something I found interesting or intriguing or amusing, but are not really very artistic.  I may have to start my Things-i-saw-that-amused-me almost daily picture as well.

Anyway onto week 2:

Jan 8: There is nothing really to add to the photo from Jan. 8.  As a whole, people tend not to look up enough, and often miss what goes on right overhead.  I am fascinated by clouds and how to capture sky in photos. This was with the little point and shoot, as I was coming out of the grocery store.







Jan 9: The 9th was the day I bit the bullet and tried one of the several potential bike commute routes I had mapped out.  I have been a bit nervous of trying the commute since the overwhelming response I was getting from people around here was horror at the idea of going through this or that neighborhood. Anyway, the morning route was an exercise in roads I was not enamored of. The revised route home was much more promising and I was really happy to see it go close to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. This was a spur of the moment shot I took after a slightly hairy left turn into Brook Tree Park.  This will offer a lot of opportunities for photography.

Jan 10: The fax machine at work betrayed me and the department photocopier is not set up to scan to a PDF so I ventured forth to the library on campus to search for a scanner. I am embarrassed it took me so long to go. A nice building and the 4th floor, where media services was, also houses the Center for Jazz Studies. There was a display of mobiles hanging up inspired by jazz, and this photo is of a few of those mobiles.  I liked this as the photo of the day becuase of the combination of the lines and circles and shadows.

Jan 11: The 11th was a fairly gray day, and as the lighting wasn't great for a lot of what I had hoped to try to capture, so I explored around the Cathedral some more, going right around it. This is one of the resulting pictures. It does not capture exactly what I had hoped to, but I like the small bit with the cross on the right of the image. There are two of the large towers, but the one shown is different from the one on the right side of the building. I can't wait to shoot more of the building. I will have to put together an album of just the Cathedral.








Thursday the 12th dawned with a downpour, and it felt like it was night well into the afternoon. It was way too soggy to get the camera out on the way in to work, and pretty much too dark to take pictures anyway.  On the way home it was merely drizzling and with the dark sky and the dark water in the park, the reflections were really vivid.  I stopped in several places along the water to take photos. It was a tough to decide which reflection to use. I debated between a few and ultimately decided on the bridge. I can't say why, besides that I liked the effect of the sports field lighting on the water.

On the 13th the weather was equally stormy. I decided to take the train in because I wanted another go at some railings between the railroad station and campus. Before taking the train though, I had to stop at the post office and take care of a little laundry. On the way to the post office I noticed some fun reflections in the puddles along the way. By the time I was on the way back, the sky was leaden and the reflection lost the brilliance and interest.  The sun was out again on my way to the train and I snapped a few pictures, and only just barely made the train.

Today, the 14th is another day of tough decisions.  I started the day with a few shots of the bark on a sycamore outside my window. Then I went for a walk in the graveyard near the house and saw a lot of birds. Lots of material to choose from. I ended up choosing this male downy woodpecker. The graveyard was quiet when I walked in, but I began to notice movement as I slowly ambled through. I walked as close as I dared and sat down on a tree root and just leaned back and looked up. People do not look up nearly enough. Eventually the chirps and teaks and peeps resolved from sound into specific individuals. This fellow was almost directly above me. I also like how the branches draw the eye. Not a "pretty picture" per se, but a good reminder to broaden your gaze.

Photo-a-day 2012, week 1

Last spring and summer, despite doing several bike races, I failed to actually write most of them up.  In the fall I changed jobs and moved to a new state and did a fair bit of travel for work.  All that meant very little time on the bike. The work travel will continue, and the time on the bike will therefore continue to be curtailed.  I did start bike commuting again this past week and hope to make that a regular thing when I am not travelling.

Due to the lack of training time, I don't think I will race as full a schedule, or do as many "big" races. The work travel has broadened my photographic canvas though, and recent participation in #birdpoker and other daily photographic themes on Google+ has reignited my photographer bug.

As part of that, I have challenged myself to post one "artistic" photo a day in 2012. To date the vast majority of my photography has been natural landscapes and wildlife. The new job is in an urban setting and the photo-a-day will hopefully help me refine my urban eye and refine an urban style.

New years day found me in Upstate NY for the Ithaca count circle's Audubon Christmas Bird Count. I saw a fair number of birds, but I was counting mainly with binocs rather than my camera, and thus the photo from the first was not bird related, but rather a photo of some fungus on a tree.

I chose this image because I found the texture interesting to me.
Both the finer texture within each "lobe" of the fungus as well as the broader texture of all the lobes on the tree itself.

January 2nd found me and dad on our way to Waterloo NY to look for a snowy owl that had been hanging out on the buildings of the outlet mall up there, and hunting in the median of the highway.  We did not see the owl (the last time it was seen there was the day before we looked), but I did see this farm, that appealed to me. I am not sure how much I like the photo, or how well it captured the landscape, but I decided to use it anyway, because of the interesting sky.

On the 3rd, it was back to work. I had to return the rental car before heading in.  The rental place is near the Walnut Street Station in Upper Montclair.  I had about 20 minute to wait for the next train so spent my time looking around for some interesting things to snap pictures of. I noticed a few of the benches had interesting iron work.  None of the benches were placed against compelling backgrounds, so I had to crop. Aesthetically I found the antique coloration more compelling than the full color image.

Jan 4: I was not inspired by anything on my walk from the train station to work, but did explore some of the settings on my little point-and-shoot in the greenhouse at work. The manager has a large cactus collection as well as several orchids. I was playing with the macro settings on the camera and ended up liking one of them more than any of the other pictures I took that day. In post processing, I darkened the background a bit to really help the orchid pop.

January 5: Since starting my position with Rutgers-Newark, I have noticed a lot of interesting iron work on railings and balconies and fire escapes. Given the area I walk in, I have not wanted to carry the big camera around to take pictures, but I have been keeping a mental list of railings I wanted to come back to with a little camera. This is one of them. I will probably end up with enough railings to do a series on just them. ;-). I liked how the antique finish really focuses the image on the near railing, but this post processing did wash out the depth the original photo has. I may process this image a few different ways as part of an ironwork/railing series. Once I have managed captures of other bits of iron work I like, I will have to post a blog with a series.

January 6: I am the only person from my lab who comes in on Fridays. I like to leave a little earlier than strictly necessary to catch the train so I can explore the areas around campus a little. On the 6th I tried to capture buildings, or architectural components of buildings. For my photo of the day I decided to use this image of the public library. My next mission with regards to the library is to explore the inside. I love libraries! This photo was taken on a fairly overcast day.

January 7: last day of the week and I have managed to find one "share-worthy" photo each day :-) My goal this morning was to sleep in a bit. That didn't happen on account of a tree full of sparrows and starlings singing away outside my window.  I figured if they were going to wake me up they had to pay the price and become subjects for the camera.  The starlings proved a bit camera shy, but the house sparrow stood his ground and sang away. I do kind of wonder what any neighbors might have thought had they looked up and seen a zoom lens sticking out the bedroom window... Just spying on birds! I swear it! I did post this image a bit early in the day and thus didn't give myself a chance to consider photos I took later in the day at the beach.