Setting the Scene

 

Light Trails

For years (literally) I have been fascinated with light trails.  I've slowly picked up the equipment needed to do long exposure photography, primarily a cable shutter release, and 10 stop filter (a really dark filter), and a few tutorials on how to shoot long exposure photos, but I had't really done anything about it.  Last night after working on some statistical analysis (I had an inspiration driving home while listening to Nassim Taleb's The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable), I decided that I should take my mental health break early in the morning and try to photograph some light trails.

Every time I walk across the Legacy Bridge, I always think it would be a good spot to shoot light trails, with cars going both directions.

Interestingly, as I was walking to the bridge this morning I noticed how much light there was - street lights, lights from buildings, and lights on the bridge. Looking - and seeing - with intention is a nice feeling; it's the anticipation of trying something new and seeing how it goes.

While there are things I will do differently on future attempts, I'm really pleased with how my first attempts at light trails came out.  It is a whole different sort of seeing than trying to catch a bouncy dog mid-bounce, and that's really cool!

Looking south; at this time of day, there are a lot more cars going toward the hospital than away from it.

Still looking south. The red lights on the middle right side are the TRAX train.

I really wanted to get some tail lights, so I started looking toward the hospital.

The arc on the low left side is from the crossing guard for the TRAX train - and the red lights on the left side are the TRAX train itself.

Soooo cool!

Yep, these are pretty cool! I definitely want to try some new things next time, but I'm really pleased with my first attempt!

It was really cold out there, so I could only stay for about 40 minutes, but I managed to just barely catch the first hints of the sun.

Rebooting My Brain

Wow. It has been forever since I posted anything here, and rather than beating myself up about the quality of the photos from 6 years ago, I'm going to appreciate where I was 6 years ago and where I am now with my photography.

Anyway, that's not the point of this.  Life has changed quite a bit in the past 6 years.  Abby has long since gone to her great reward (FAR too young, and the loss of Abby really changed my perspective on my photography both for myself and for my clients), and Fiona, the love of my life (okay, all the girls past, present, and future, are the loves of my life, but Fi is the first puppy I had as an adult, so she really is extra special to me), has lymphoma, and is living out her days being spoiled rotten, while still being my muse, my companion and confidante.  At work, I am a full-time statistician, so I'm crazy busy with that, and I treasure the time I spend volunteering with Salt Lake County.

In short, life is busy, and while I'm generally good juggling things, there are long days at work where my brain starts to get a little frazzled.

I did a Leisure Consultation through the PEAK program at the U., and came to the realization that the best way to 'reboot' my brain is to take a break during long work days and take some photos. I bought an old D90 (the camera I was using back in 2015-2016), and that has been a bit of an adventure, too.

I've only been out a few times so far, and it's been really interesting; photographing pets is easy, finding my 'eye' for static stuff is a bit more of a challenge.  So, I'm more excited than even I was a few weeks ago, as I'll get to stretch my view of things, and I've got a bunch of ideas of things that I want to try.

But to get started, here are a few photos from my first couple of walks.  My thought looking at these is that I didn't really shoot with 'intention', and that's something I'm going to work on, as it will help me reboot my brain.

28 Jan 2020

29 Jan 2020

I won't lie; I didn't really want to find out where this stairwell goes!

This actually turned out better than I thought it would

Interestingly, I didn't really "see" the three trees to the left when took this photo.

 6 Feb 2020

Okay, so this last photo wasn't taken at the U., but I needed a new header photo, an when I remembered that I had this old Kodak, I thought it would be cool.  And it fits with one of my core fascinations with photography - the ability to travel back in time through photos.

Snow Day!

Gotta love snow days! Especially snow days that fall on vacation days!

Pretty girl!

Snow makes for springy leggies!

And bouncy doggies!

Even Fi had springs in her leggies!

And apparently snow enhances Abby's listening skills.  Here she is paying close attention to me while I'm calling her to come inside.  *ahem*  Apparently I need a refresher course in treat dispensing! 

Mom who? Who is this Mom person and why is she yelling my name?

Finally Editing Some Photos of the Girls

I've had a few minutes to go back and look at the month of photos I have of the girls (and hadn't edited/sorted), and found a "few" that I like.  As an aside, the girls were REALLY shaggy before their haircuts!

Fi needs a cape here.

Abby looks wildly more angelic here than she actually is; it's amazing what Photoshop can do!

Then there is this sequence....

Given her lack of amplitude and serious twisting, this next photo in the sequence should come as no surprise...

Front feet have landed, rear feet are still trying to untwist themselves.

 

 

Queen of the Frisbees

 

 

A Little Experimentation

Lately I've had this vision about photos I want to try with some of the shelter animals.  (My father would say that when I have visions, I should probably get out of the sun, but that's neither here nor there. I think...)

Anyway, to see if it would have a chance of working, I thought I'd take some of the photos I've been working on - some for clients, some for myself, and see if I could put them in different settings.  (The backgrounds mostly came from sites where people share photos and allow commercial licensing for free.  Why?  I don't know.  But since I have used a few of them, I felt it was only fair to share some snow backgrounds I took.  Actually, the idea is sort of cool, although as you'll see, sometimes it's a bit difficult to get the two photos to blend well - although I think that has more to do with my lack of experience than the quality of the photos).

Kenna the Japanese Chin was Princess of the Pillows in her living room, but I thought it would be sort of fun to try her in some different settings:

Maybe not 100% realistic, but a change from her on the couch!

I actually really like how this one came out - I could do a little more blending work, but I think I managed an acceptable level of matching 'haze'.

This amazing front door is actually where Kenna was visiting this weekend; she just didn't ever actually stand in front of the door. I was so impressed with the door (and the little fireplaces) that I knew this would be a killer background.

Part of my vision with the shelter dogs involves 'crowns' of fake flowers (with dogs, they tend to get worn more like bonnets rather than crowns, but there you go...), and Fi and Abby were my guinea pigs (or crash test dummies)....

I could have done a better job photoshopping Fi's head, but I was getting lazy.

Not really the best dog position for the angle of the background, but I like the general feel. (Some the light rays were in the original photo, some I added.)

Here I was actually going for a little 'overcooked', so I'm actually quite pleased with how it came out.

I go out to the shelter on Tuesday, so we'll see if I can make my vision actually work out!