“Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.”
– Ansel Adams
Storms always provide some great image opportunities. Of course, they present a good deal of danger as well.
Right Place/Right Time
winchester
Senioritis
And so it begins. The last couple of weeks before my daughter is high school senior. The one thing she’s really looking forward to is the senior cafeteria. I’ve walked by this space countless number of times and never really knew what it was. According to my wife (and anybody who attended Handley High School pre-21st Century), this space used to be classrooms. Hopefully I’ll be allowed to roam through the hallways this summer and shoot more of this building – I’ve always wanted to.
A multi-purpose space at John Handley High School. | Order a print of this image.
OG Winchester
“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
– Robert Frost
Apparently my family is very fond of The Olive Garden these days. It’s not uncommon for us to be there late at night even after they’re closing down. It’s nice feeling when you can, occasionally, just let loose and be stupid. And we get stupid. But it’s now been twice this week. I’m sure the wait staff cringe when they see us coming now.
Last ones out.
Discover
“You don’t stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stop playing”
– Posted on a sign at the entrance to Winchester City’s Jim Barnett Park
There’s been quite a lot of change in the downtown area of Winchester (aka Old Town). One of the biggest changes, in my humble opinion, is the recent move of the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum. Not only did it move off the Loudoun Mall (really only 1 block away), but it moved into a huge new building. The former space offered a fun learning space for kids, but the new space is enormous and it ads a roof-top component! It’s really cool that this downtown staple was able to find a space to expand its offering. Can’t wait to check it out.
The new Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum in Old Town Winchester.
“Delight”-ful
The entire time that I worked at TV3 Winchester, one of the more common misconceptions from visitors to Winchester was that the building where I worked was the welcome center. It was, after all, situated in such a way that if you’re coming off the interstate at the “main” Winchester exit you’d see the TV3 Winchester building straight in front of you, well, welcoming you to the city. The actual welcome center is just a few more blocks down the road and around the corner (within walking distance of what was TV3 Winchester). It’s right across the parking lot from the oldest house in Winchester Abram’s Delight.
I’m kinda getting to be a tourist in my own town as I make my rounds to create new images. | Order a print of this image of Abram’s Delight.
Steeple
I had a friend suggest a new project to me today which always makes the gears turn even faster. He suggested that it might be pretty cool to do a “Steeples of Winchester” motif. So, of course, now I’m noticing all the steeples. You know, kinda like the deal when you buy a new car and you all-of-a-sudden start noticing all those same cars out on the road. Yeah, that’s gonna be me with steeples now for a while. Just you watch.
They changed the locks at my church and now I enter through a different door on Sunday. Sometimes a slight change of routine will make you notice things that have been there all along.
Mall
It’s was an awesome day for a Kidz Fest on the Old Town Walking Mall in Winchester. After shooting an event at my church, I headed out and walked right into this. After all the rain and flooding over the past week, it was good to see blue sky again. As I walked up the alley to leave the mall, the smell coming from the new Cajun restaurant in the Taylor Hotel made me want to go in. I will be back to dine. Yum!
The Old Town Mall in Winchester, VA featuring the newly-renovated Taylor Hotel.
Tracks
Every photographer has a huge pile of images that have either gone horribly wrong. Or maybe said photographer thought, at the shoot, that the image was worth shooting, but got back to their desk and realized how horribly wrong they were. I took this image back when I first started dabbling in HDR processing and haven’t gone back to that set of images…until now. I’m posting the three images that made up the final just so I can remember how bad I thought the original images were.
And here’s the final image after some typical post-processing – I could do without all the noise, though.
These are the train tracks that cross Millwood Ave, in Winchester. I took this image in 2012 and am just now processing it.
Library
I was near the Handley Library as the sun was setting and as luck (or design) would have it, I had my camera with me. I just wish there was a more interesting cloud cover this evening. Ah, well. Not bad for an impromptu shoot.
The Handley Library was constructed in 1913 with a major renovation in 2001. It’s apparently also featured in a photography book about libraries that was just published, but I’m unsure of the title.
“Smell The Roses”
It’s refreshing to have the opportunity to slow down and take notice of the very mundane stuff ‘cuz the mundane stuff can be cool. This is the stuff you drive past going to work everyday. It’s the stuff you miss while you’re frantically running your errands for the week. You may even run right past it on your daily jog. Slow down, or even stop, and just take it in. There’s so much fascinating stuff out there. How can I ever get “blocked” as a photographer when stuff like this exists around every corner. It may not be interesting to anybody else, but it is to me. So there. You see me with my camera pointed at something, anything, and you wonder “what the heck?” Well, now you know.
I’ve been walking by these trees for about 3 months now every morning while I walk my dog and have been fascinated with them every time.
Looks like the desert camo that the military wears these days, doesn’t it?
Sanctuary
As I make my way through some new interior church shoots I wanted to apply some of my new-found techniques to an older photo of my church. I discovered it’s not ALL about techniques and post-processing (actually I knew this going in). This is in direct response to that pocket of folks who believe that all the post-processing work that’s all the rage now is cheating. I’m here to say that the post-processing will certainly bring out the best in an image, but if you don’t start with a decent image (tack-sharp, great composition, interesting subject matter, etc.) you’re not going to get very far. I’m satisfied with the edit of this image, but I wish I had a better image to begin with.
The main sanctuary at First Presbyterian Church, Winchester. Order a print of this image.
Recital
I must have some inner urge to photograph the interior of buildings these days. And there’s certainly a huge opportunity for that when you live in an historic town like I do. Granted, Shenandoah University isn’t a really old university, but it does have some great buildings.
Goodson Chapel Recital Hall. Order a print of this image.
Reading Room
I’ve always loved the novelty of this floor and figured I’d shoot some images while I was there last week.
Winchester has gone through many changes, but a lot of the current city has been the way it is ever since I moved here. For instance, I don’t remember Handley High School before the current renovations (I think I went into the school one time – not enough to remember what it was like). I also don’t know what the Handley Library looked like before it’s most current round of updates in 2001. But I do know that this room is the coolest in the library – if I were a kid now, I’d be hanging out in here.
This is the “Teen” section of the Handley regional Library in Winchester. I love all the textures in here. Order a print of this image.
Chapel
I’m slowly making my way through the downtown buildings in Winchester and I’m diggin’ all the shoots and fascinating architecture I’m seeing. I really wish I’d known how to shoot back when we went to England. Anyway…
I usually don’t engage in altering an image’s content, but this time I did. Various things in the original image just seemed distracting so I went ahead and removed them (things like thermostat controls, light switches and literature racks). I’d have to put them back in if I were to submit this image for any major contest, though.
Enjoy.
The Boyd Chapel at First Presbyterian Church in Winchester, VA. Among other gatherings, this space lends itself to the 7:30 am worship service each Sunday. Order a print of this image.
Stacks
The word “stacks” just reminds me of a library. I literally could have spent another couple hours in this building (and will probably go back just to shoot). I’m having fun going all “Right-Brain” on these images!
Learning…
I now know what people are talking about when they say they get lost in their work. I’ve just been playing around with more images and it’s all-of-a-sudden 1 in the morning! Anyway, I’m really digging this Lightroom workflow and am just grabbing any and every image to see what I can do with it.
Here’s one I did a couple years ago…
And here’s the revisit…
Beyond…
What is it that’s making me really want to go inside?
“Old” Town
Downtown Winchester is really getting a facelift. I remember one of our first stories at TV3 Winchester was when the roof collapsed at the Taylor Hotel c. 2007. Read more about the renovation here.
The front porch of the newly renovated Taylor Hotel in Winchester, VA. Order a print of this image.
Switch?
Yeah, I think I might be making the jump over to Lightroom. I know a lot of people already use it and I suppose I’ve resisted because I’m such an Apple “fanboy,” but I’m already loving Lightroom after just a day of using it.
Better basic adjustments, better flexibility, easier presets, more powerful integration into Photoshop. I could go on – I just like it.
Here’s a before and after image with just a handful of basic slider adjustments within Lightroom:
Before…
…and after.
Sunny 16
Sunny 16. No, that’s not a forecast for the weekend – although, I think that’s pretty darn close for this Saturday (in Celsius, that is). Nope, this is a widely-accepted photographer’s rule for shooting in manual mode. By the way, it’s kind of a myth that all pro photographers shoot in manual mode. It’s an absolute must for photographers to know what all the settings are for and how to control each and every one of them, but I’d venture to guess that most photogs shoot quite a few of their shots in Aperture Priority mode with some exposure compensation thrown in on top to adjust for the scene. Anyway…
Given that this is, after all, a photography blog I figured I’d throw in some tips for good measure. All my photographer friends may already be aware of this, but for those of you who want to start shooting in manual mode – read on.
The Sunny 16 rule states that for any scene outdoors (during the day) with the camera set at f/16 all you need to do is set the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO setting. Simply put – ISO = 100 then shutter = 1/100; ISO = 200 then shutter = 1/200 and so on. This is the very basics of the rule and, by all means, shoot how you want to shoot and stray from this rule as needed. But this rule will get you close if your goal is an evenly or properly exposed image during the day.
Here are my shots using the Sunny 16 rule. I color corrected and sharpened each image using the exact same adjustments without touching the exposure or levels. And, no this is not just the same shot posted 7 times.
ISO 100 | ƒ/16 | 1/100
ISO 200 | ƒ/16 | 1/200
ISO 400 | ƒ/16 | 1/400
ISO 800 | ƒ/16 | 1/800
ISO 1600 | ƒ/16 | 1/1600
ISO 3200 | ƒ/16 | 1/3200
ISO 6400 | ƒ/16 | 1/6400
Cedarmeade Studios 