Simplicity
As the sun continued to rise, I wanted to capture the light along with the park and its surroundings. I had already taken many shots of downtown Fort Worth and wanted something different. I noticed the broadcast pole and made it the subject of my image. The image is simple, a pole dividing the brush. But I like this simplicity and feel it allows the colors in the sky to stand out.
In Tandy Hills Park is one main trail with a few split-offs. It had rained for multiple days before the 26th, and the main trail was caked with two inches of mud. With my shoes five pounds heavier, I pushed on closer to the interstate. I eventually found this little trail that created a perfect leading line towards downtown. I waited for the lighting to be optimal and the sunrise colors to shine, then snapped the image.
Morning Light
My next step, as I typically do, was to send up the drone. By this point, the clouds were thin, and the sun was shining. When I sent it up, I was fascinated by the cars, shadows, and soft light on the ground. If I were to retake this picture, I would add an ND filter to the drone to allow for a longer shutter speed and make the cars a blur. Regardless, I still really enjoy this image and its simplicity.
As the sun continued to rise, the clouds finally began to dissipate. Unfortunately, the eclipse ended at 6:22 am, and the clouds decreased well after then. While the clouds were blocking the eclipse, I pivoted and used them as a smooth, solid backdrop to allow the buildings to stand out. Also, I combined two shots to make this image, one focused on the flowers and one on the buildings. I felt the shots individually weren't the strongest, but together and with everything in focus, they create something great.
This image is one of the first Todd Hido emulations that I took. After being introduced to the idea, I set out that night with no intentions other than to follow Hido's ideas. When editing, I debated brightening the image to reveal more of the house or leave it dark and hide it. I ended up leaving it dark to make the image appear more mysterious and vague. More up to interpretation to the viewer.
A few days later, I began another adventure to capture life void of human existence. I chose to take images of this house for its structure. There are many sharp corners, angles, and geometric shapes. Unlike yesterday's, this image is the complete opposite. Opposed to the openness of the house, this one is closed and finished. The walls filled, and lights lit. Humans definitely have been living in this house.
For this picture, I continued my nighttime drive through the neighborhood. This house is unique as it is the only one of this series that is unfinished. This uniqueness balances the series appropriately. Many times, we see the finished product. A finished picture, project, or house. But this picture shows the unfinished nature of things. The fact that perfection and completeness aren't instantaneous, rather a culmination of many hours of work.
Next, I found this house with an American flag flying on its porch. It was illuminated by two lights, and I wanted to make it the subject of the image. I carefully positioned myself such that the pole didn't block the flag, and I could capture the reflection of the flag on the front door. The next challenge was finding the balance in light between the bright flag and dark sky. I made the priority the flag, since it is the subject, but made the overall composition slightly above the brightness I typically shoot at to compensate for the sky.
After a short drive, I showed up at this second house. Many of Hido's images appear during a storm. But when you can't produce a storm on demand, it makes emulating a little difficult. To compensate, I used a trick Hido himself uses, water. I fill a spray bottle with water then spray it onto the lens. This action blurs the image and adds an interesting element to it. There is a possibility of the water getting into the camera from this process, but most modern cameras are water-resistant, and I made sure to avoid spraying the body.
As I mentioned a few days ago, the next series will be one about the images I created during my school photography class. In early January, I received an email from my teacher with a link to a Youtube video. The video describes the work of Todd Hido. Hido photographs manmade structures, typically during the night or a storm, void of human figures. The idea is to create an image that has a different meaning to each viewer. For this reason, he doesn't title his images. Instead, he uses the number given by the camera. Over the next nine days, I will be posting my emulations of his work.
A few days later, I went on another adventure. This one was back at a park I venture to frequently. But that was not the focus of the image. The focus was the highrises of downtown Dallas. I lined up as best I could on the road leading to downtown, adjusted the settings to capture the dark subjects, and took the image. It was cloudy that day, which meant that all the lights in the city reflected off them. This made the clouds appear in two different colors, violet from the night and orange from the incandescent bulbs.
As the sun continued to set, I changed locations yet again. My next stop was Flag Pole Hill, one I know all too well from running. But instead of focusing on the hill, I focused on the road leading to downtown and the sunset. Similar to the picture from two days ago, there was nothing I could do to avoid the sun. So, I made it the main subject of my image. I angled the camera to get the best sun flare possible and positioned the drone so there it created a reflection off the road. These two actions, paired with the colors of the sunset, allowed for a magnificent composition.
After biking around the lake, I came across one of many docks. This one happened to have a flock of birds in the water across from it. I was a little disappointed when I first took the image, but I like the muted colors more and more. The grass is not green, and the trees don't have leaves on them, but this makes the birds and people stand out more. The water is a weird brown-green color, and I'm sure it's not environmentally healthy, but I think it looks interesting.
My next adventure led me to White Rock Lake, where I was greeted with blue skies and gusty winds. These winds wouldn't have been much of a problem, but I had recently updated the drone and was not accustomed to the new direction-awareness system. This system tells you where the drone is relative to the controller and which direction it is facing. Regardless, I decided to test it out and flew anyways. The next problem was trying to shoot west towards downtown, right where the sun was. I thought about lowering the camera angle and avoiding the sun altogether, but that didn't help. So I figured, might as well include the sun instead of trying to avoid it.
After adjusting the camera angle from the last image, I was delighted by this sight. I kept the same settings (0.8sec, f2.8, 100 ISO) which allowed for the motion of the cars to show. The sunset portion of the image is a second image that I took minutes before this one. If you don't know, the Dallas North Tollway runs almost directly north-south, and the sun doesn't set in either of those directions. So, about twenty minutes after sunset, I took an image of the colors above the already set sun. Then moments later, I took one of the moving cars. I combined the two, and it turned out like this.
This image is one that I have been waiting to post for a while. One night during the Holiday Break, I biked over to the Dallas North Tollway and sent the drone up. It must have been a very calm night, as the drone was steady enough to take a 0.8-second shot. I was surprised when I saw this image since I wasn't expecting a long exposure from the air to work. But now that I know it does in the calmest winds, I will be emulating this image with other subjects.
I bet you weren't expecting this post today, but how could I miss such a fascinating event! The day started with a 4:30 alarm, followed by a thirty-minute drive, followed by an introduction to my new favorite park. I had known about the May 26th lunar eclipse for quite a while but couldn't find a place near home but also far from city lights. I settled on Tandy Hills Park, off Interstate 30. The viewing of the eclipse was sporadic, as the clouds decided to invade my photographing of it. How rude! But, there were a few seconds when the clouds broke and provided me with a glimpse of the event. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth blocks the sun's light before it reaches the moon. The timing of this picture is before the total eclipse, which is why the moon looks like a regular crescent. Regardless of the clouds and regular-looking moon, the view from the drone was superb. It is odd for me to post twice a day, but I could not wait to post this taste of the lunar eclipse (the whole eclipse series is coming after the winter drone series).
As I continued my bike ride south, I noticed this baseball diamond. I have taken a few pictures near the area, but never from a drone. I took this picture a few minutes before 5, which made the shadows long and light soft. Throughout the image, the subjects are cast in different lights. Treetops in a bright orange or green, the baseball diamond and park a soft yellow, the lake a dark black, and the pathways a light gray. It is a unique way to see the park, one that I have never seen before.
After a brief break to finish up my school work, I am back! This next series will be nine days straight of drone images I took in Dallas in December and January. After this short series, I will post another series that I have been working on for my school photography. Then following that series, I will begin posting more recent images.
This image comes from December 19th, 2020, and back when there was still some color on the trees. What I like most about it is the rays of sunlight and how the image's composition splits into three sections. The lower half is of homes, the upper left is downtown, and the upper right is the sun. The original image was relatively dark, but nothing some Photoshop can't fix.
