Night Time Lights

After I took this picture, I looked at it from the little LED screen on my camera. I noticed the lights above downtown and wanted to continue shooting them. I went down to the banks of the lake, where I found this branch sticking (pun intended) out of the water. I wanted to give the picture a green tint to make the picture look a little eerier and to highlight the downtown lights.

Dallas

Like the last White Rock Lake series, I took another picture of downtown Dallas. When I was taking this picture, I did not expect the lighting to turn out like this. With my eye, I could only see grey clouds, but the camera picked up some lights just above downtown. I believe that these lights do add to the picture because they make the background look better. Also, I wanted to include the trees and lake to add another element to the picture.

Docked

This image is one where you can see the difference between the old lens and the new one. With this lens, the dock is in crisp focus, while with the other lens, the focus wouldn't be as strong. Also, with the f2.8 aperture, this new lens allows for better night pictures. The wider aperture allows more light to enter the camera lens, thus brightening the image.

Watching

Like yesterday's picture, this is also a self-portrait. Recently, I bought the Tamron 24-70mm f2.8, a wide-angle lens. I bought it to replace the kit lens that came with the camera body. Even after taking the lens out once, I have noticed that it is much sharper in focus. Objects look much better, and there is a greater difference in the depth of field.

With the Flowers

There was a change in the plans regarding Colorado. Due to the COVID-19 virus, I ended up not going to Colorado. Yes, this was a major disappointment, but I am making do with places in Dallas. For instance, this first mini-series is back at White Rock Lake. I am only here for about a week's worth of posts then I am traveling to Ennis, Texas to take pictures of bluebonnets.

Rocking

This is my final picture from White Rock Lake. After this, I am going to take a short break until Monday. Starting on Monday, I will be posting pictures from Colorado!! It has been hot recently, but snow is in the forecast. I am greatly looking forward to pictures of mountains, obviously snow, and I am hoping to take some long exposure pictures as well.

Solitary

This is my favorite picture not only of this series but also one of my favorite recent pictures. I love how the light casts down directly on the man fishing. How the pier is on one side, and there is water on the other. One of the things that still confuses me is that if you look at the first picture I took of this man, the light was off. Now, it is on. I don't know if it was just the angle of the pictures or the light was off then turned on, but I still love this picture.

Distant Night

I then proceeded to walk onto the pier and photograph different objects from there. This first picture is of a light shining down on the walkway. I like the simplicity of that the objects create. It has a rectangular platform continuing to the back of the picture, cylinders on either side of the platform, and another cylinder with a light on it towards the back. Also, if you look closely, there are the sailboats again in the back right of the picture. I thought it was cool that they were in the picture, but didn't feel they were important enough to highlight.

Waiting

This next angle is lower and almost equal in height to the pier. I wanted to include the wood columns on top of the walking surface because I like the way that they look. On the right, the columns look new, but on the left, the columns are split and broken. I like the cylindrical shapes in this picture and how most objects have round edges.

Alone

I then continued my bike ride and found a pier with a guy fishing on it. I took the same general picture of this man fishing from multiple angles. The first was this wide-angle picture. I wanted to include the landscape around him, the water, pier, and land behind him. What I like the most in this picture is his flashlight reflecting on the water. The two lights are from his fishing, and the reflection leads your eyes right to him.

Blowing Reeds

After the last picture, I shifted about 50 feet to the right to capture this image. I wanted to focus on the Dallas skyline and how the lights can be seen from miles upon miles away. You can tell this picture is a long exposure because you can see the reeds blowing in the wind. This picture had an exposure of 10 seconds, ISO of 100, and an aperture of 3.6.

Dallas's Other Side

After taking pictures at the first spot, I started to bike around the lake. I wanted to find different angles around the lake that I have never seen before. After about two minutes, I found the perfect spot. It was complete with sailboats, reeds blowing in the wind, and the lights of downtown Dallas. 

Lost At Night

One color that I thought would pair well with this group of pictures is green. Green represents a weirdness and subtle darkness. I took these pictures from 7 to 9 at night. I want to highlight the weird/creepy mood of when I was taking these pictures with the color green. Due to this, in this and future pictures there will likely be a green tint. No, it's not your eyes seeing colors or a misclick when editing, it's intended.

Nature's Eyes

For this picture, I wanted to capture the sunset with a branch in the picture. I wanted to showcase the simpleness of a tree, but also the beauty it can show. I was too lazy to change my lens, so I ended up using my wide-angle lens, but I still like the aperture on the picture. I wanted to keep it sharp (closer to 0, I was at 3.6) to have the background fade and have the branch in sharp focus.

Path to Tomorrow

For this picture, I walked onto a pedestrian bridge and tried to capture the sunset between the rails of the bridge. I wanted to get the lights leading to the back and sunset in the same picture. I also like the reflection the light has on the median line. Everything is straight and linear, all pointing to a vanishing point somewhere in the back of the picture.

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.

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.

Hope

This homeless person was sitting outside near a busy sidewalk and street. Her sign said she had just beat stage 3 cancer and was now homeless. Like me, there were probably hundreds if not thousands of people that walked by her in just one day. She just battled for her life then has to face another battle of finding where to live.

Homelessness

While walking throughout the city, I saw many people sitting or laying on the streets. I assume that most of these people are homeless. It felt as if every block or so someone would be asking for food or money. Some people wanted money or food for good reasons, others wanted money for drugs or other nonessential items.

Rockefeller Center

As the sunset faded into night, I visited Rockefeller Center. The area was full of thousands of tourists looking at the Sach's light display on the east side and the Christmas tree on the west side. I did not take pictures of the light display, but the Christmas tree was incredible. It was by far the biggest Christmas tree that I have seen.