Watery Sunset

I'm back! These next few weeks will contain some of my favorite pictures. This first theme is about the sunset and night at White Rock Lake in Dallas. I went to the lake to capture the sunset then some long exposures after the sunset. Then, after the next 20ish pictures I am going to Colorado! Hopefully, there will be some falling snow, and incredible sunrises and sunsets.

Nightlights

This is the final picture of downtown Dallas at night. For this final picture, I wanted to showcase the downtown lights, some of the landscape around where I took this picture, and the architecture of the city. I wanted to focus on the bridge while also including many of the other buildings. The one that I missed because it was too far to the south to be in the frame, was Reunion Tower.

Hidden Nature

One of the things that I like about these pictures is that it shows that even in a big city like Dallas, there are still spots of nature. Sure they might have been altered for a purpose, but they're still are spots that aren't as industrialized. I found a puddle in the middle of a grass field and wanted to highlight the reflection of the city off of the puddle.

Backroads

This picture is very similar and near to where I took pictures of the trains moving. I like the lights from the city and the reflection it makes on the rails. I used a flashlight to brighten up the rails and to make them more visible. I like the repetitiveness of the wood pieces perpendicular to the rails, both of which lead your eye to the city.

Fast Motion

All of the pictures that I am taking are long exposures so I can increase the amount of light for the picture, but this is one of the few pictures where I wanted a long exposure to capture the movement of something. I wanted to capture the movement of cars into and out of Dallas, along with the bridge and buildings.

Night Walks

This is another example of a long exposure picture. For this picture, I had my shutter speed around 15 seconds. To counteract this, I decreased the hole allowing light into my camera, the aperture. My aperture was at F22. Lastly, I kept my ISO extremely low (around 100) to help prevent any grains from coming into the picture. I wanted a clean, long exposure of the environment with the background of the Dallas skyline.

A Night City

The sun continued to lower, causing the colors on the buildings to remain the bright sunset colors while the rest of the sky turned dark blue. Like the bridge, I like the contrast in colors in this picture. The colors highlight the buildings and showcase downtown Dallas. I also wanted to capture the bridge because it gives a contrast to all the square buildings.

Sunset Shipment

I have been trying to take pictures that are longer in an exposure. I want to give more motion to the picture and movement. For this picture, the train is the object that is moving. I wanted to showcase the movement of the train during sunset as it traveled to or through Dallas.

Dallas's Reflection

Next, I continued down a grassy hill and found some large puddles. I wanted to capture downtown from two angles, one from a regular picture, and one from the reflection of water. I also wanted to keep the train tracks in the picture, because I like the architecture of the bridge. Also, the tracks help lead your eyes from the reflection of downtown to the actual buildings.

Sun Streaks

As the sun started to lower and set, it created some interesting colors on the bridges and buildings. The sun caused the top of the bridge to turn yellow and orange, while the background was a dark blue. I like the contrast of colors, as the brighter colors are on the subject, the bridge, and the darker colors are on the sky, the background.

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.