Entrance into Town

For these pictures, I wanted to capture downtown Dallas in ways many people do not. If you travel south on the Dallas North Tollway into downtown, you will eventually arrive at I35. If you continue south, you will likely travel underneath a pair of train tracks. These tracks are those tracks. This is the railroad that leads into Dallas. I wanted to take pictures close to the railroad so that there might be a reflection of downtown, and there was.

A Distant Sunset

First, I want to say that when taking this picture and future pictures, I was extremely careful and aware of my surroundings. I took out my headphones to listen for trains and looked numerous times both ways for them. I was well aware of where I was and the dangers it had. Now, this picture is one that I enjoy because of the simplicity. It is just a sunset over some train tracks and trees. The colors are beautiful, the reflections from the tracks, and the hints of nature.

Small Man, Big Town

This picture came together by chance, and I did not intend to take this picture. I was taking pictures on a grassy hill when I noticed this man walking in front of the Dallas skyline. I wanted to capture how small this man is compared to these huge buildings that make up downtown Dallas. It is a little hard to see him, but he is wearing a bright red shirt and is in the middle of the picture.

Evening Walk

For this picture, I wanted to capture people walking on the pedestrian bridge. I set my camera on a chair and waited for some people to walk in front. I wanted to showcase the motion of people walking in a silhouette with the sun setting in the background.

Downtown Dallas

Welcome back to Dallas. For this next week or two, I will be showcasing Trinity Groves in southwestern Dallas through sunset and night pictures, and long exposure pictures. This first picture was the first picture I took when I arrived. I wanted to highlight the bridge connecting Dallas and roads to Fort Worth, while also having downtown Dallas in the background.

Fast Motion

Here is my final picture from New York City. I wanted to capture the movement of people walking and cars on the street. To capture this, I set my camera on a tripod and decreased the shutter speed. The shutter speed allowed me to capture the movement. One of the downsides is anything highlights in the picture will be magnified since the shutter is being opened longer. This is why the background/sky is so bright.

Evening Rush Hour

This is a picture that I took on my last night as we walked out of Central Park and back into the craziness of New York City. We were crossing a street, so I didn't have time to position myself correctly, but I still like this picture. I like how it is crooked, there is a taxi in front, and the road, and buildings and trees lead to the back of the picture where there is a slight sunset.

Reflections

This picture is made entirely of reflections of the sunset off of different objects. The most obvious is the reflection of the sun off the rock below. Some others include the two buildings to the left of the sun and the ring it creates on the people standing. I wanted to include the boulder for this picture for some more depth of field. I wanted to create a pathway to the sun and a focus point besides the people or the sunset.

Central Park

As we wrap up the New York City adventure, here are a few final pictures. This first picture is of my sister, and she is standing on a boulder in Central Park in front of some New York City buildings. I wanted to turn this picture black and white mostly because there wasn't already many colors in the picture. Also, I wanted to show the similarity in color between my sister and the buildings.

Constant Motion

This is a long exposure picture from inside Grand Central Station. I wanted to capture the movement of people going around the station. I set my camera at the highest aperture and lowest ISO to maximize the length of the picture. The shutter speed was only 1.6 seconds, which is not the fastest, but also not the slowest. The perfect speed for this type of picture.

Grand Central Station

Welcome to Grand Central Station! This was one of my most favorite places to take pictures because of the opportunities. You could take a long exposure, a picture from a high vantage point or a low one, with a fast shutter speed, you name a variation of a photo, and you could take it here. For this first picture, I kept a low vantage point and took it with a fast shutter speed.

Watching

This is similar to a picture before, except the subject is different. This is a picture of my brother looking out at the New York City skyline while the sunset. For pictures like these, when there are a subject and the sun, you want to place a subject or object to block the sun. This will reduce highlights and pull the viewer's eyes back to your subject and not the sun.

Setting Sun

Before I continue with pictures of downtown New York City, I wanted to showcase the sun. It set on facing south and west, which is normal for the winter as the sun sets more south in the winter, then more north in the summer because of the way the Earth revolves around the sun. I liked the way the sun created some streaks in the hazing air and the shadows it created from the buildings.

Outlook

This is me taking a picture of someone else taking a picture. I wanted to showcase the protective bars, but also didn't just want to have the bars in the sunset. I put it into black and white because I liked the old-timey feel when looking at the picture. The sun streaks looked better as they are streaking across downtown and onto the city below.

Downtown

Next, I ventured to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. I dragged my brother and dad up at 3:30 for a 5:00 sunset, but it was worth it! It was incredible to see the sunset across the Hudson River and into New Jersey and towards the southwest. This picture is of an observer looking from behind the protective bars looking at downtown New York City during sunset.

Sunset Row

After exiting Central Park, we started walking back to our hotel. While walking past many streets, I noticed the south-facing ones had a little sunset at the end. I ended up taking multiple pictures from multiple streets, but this one was my favorite. There is the car lights, lights from the store and lights from the night, the people walking, the smoke from the subway, and the sunset.

Nightfall

For this picture, I moved my brother out of the frame and kept my sister looking at the skyline. I wanted to make the buildings seem large and overpowering compared to her. I set her in the middle to have a good contrast of buildings on either side but made sure to capture more of the buildings then her head.

Skyline

This picture is of my brother and sister overlooking the New York City skyline from inside Central Park. There was a bridge that crossed over a small stream and they were looking at the skyline. I wanted to capture both their faces looking away and the buildings, but also the sunset. I positioned them on the bottom left side of the picture to allow for all of these actions to occur simultaneously.

New York Public Library

I took this picture right outside the New York Public Library. In front were two rows of trees with a pathway in the middle. Many people were walking on the pathway, so I raised my camera above most of their heads and took this picture. I wanted to capture the sunset, trees, people, and the buildings surrounding the pathway, including the New York Public Library on the right.

Guggenheim

This is the Guggenheim museum made by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is seven levels of mostly 2D art with some 3D art pieces between floors. Each floor has a unique exhibit about a theme or era. I am not much of a 2D art fan or a painting/drawing fan, but there were some interesting pieces. For instance, who knew white stripes on a white background were art, but also some of the paintings, especially by Pablo Picasso, were very thought-provoking.

Bartholomews Church

This is Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue in New York City. Inside the church were many displays with candles on them for people to light. The ceilings were incredibly high, and some had drawings on them. It was built in 1903 and is the third location for the congregation, which began in January of 1835. 

New Years!

Happy New Year and 2020! I took this picture a few days after the previous pictures but felt it should be posted today. This is Times Square, and in the middle on top of the buildings with many advertisements is the ball. Times Square is full of bright lights, sounds, and colors, unlike any other New York City neighborhood.