Tag Archives: USA

Chapel in the Woods

Posted on July 16th, 2012 by

A Funny Place for a Church

On our last road trip to Arkansas, we returned home a different than we usually drive. The purpose of the diversion was to visit the Mildred B Cooper Memorial Chapel in Bella Vista Arkansas. This site was designed by E Fay Jones, an architect from Arkansas who was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright. The chapel is open to visitors when there isn’t an official function happening and as luck would have it, there wasn’t a ceremony that afternoon. In fact the place was deserted! Upon arrival there was a small group of Asian tourists leaving as we entered the chapel. I set up my tripod and snapped a few shots.

Peaceful

The chapel is glass…lots and lots of glass. The woods of oak and pine surrounding the chapel envelope you when you are inside and out. You feel like the chapel is part of the Ozark woods and the woods is part of the church, the separation is perhaps an illusion. If you happen to need a beautiful place for a small ceremony and are close to Northwest Arkansas…this is a beautiful location.

Technicals

This is a three shot bracket (-2, 0, +2) combined in Photomatix, edited in Photoshop and Lightroom.

HDR Photography
Chapel in the Woods by W. Brian Duncan

D.C.F.D. Engine No3

Posted on July 12th, 2012 by

FIRE

On my last trip to Washington D.C., I stayed at a nice hotel about two blocks from the U.S. Capitol building’s south entrance. The first thing I noticed when I walked up was that there was a D.C. Fire Station right next door…WHOOPEE! I like fire station’s as much as the next guy, but not sirens at 3am which sort of concerned me. I need my sleep! Fortunately I always pack ear plugs on trips (light sleeper) and I didn’t notice any late night emergencies so my fears ended up being for not.

Rain

It started raining on me that night as I walked to the Washington monument just after shooting the World War II Memorial. When I say rain, perhaps I should really call it what it was…a very sudden severe thunderstorm that lead me in a dead run for the nearest Metro stop back by Smithsonian Castle. I took the metro (happy to be underground) back to Union Station and by the time I got off, the rain was down to a drizzle. I walked by the fire station…all the doors were open, the trucks lights were on getting ready to go to work. It was a picture made for the taking…I wasn’t ready. The last thing I wanted to do was stand in the middle of everything and delay the D.C.F.D. from saving the day! I stepped aside and watched the trucks roll out, getting my camera set for the shot I wanted. I think it ended up decent, but it would have been much more dramatic if I would have been about 10 minutes earlier. Thus is life.

Technicals

This photo is a three shot bracket (-2, 0, +2) on a tripod combined in Photomatix, edited in Photoshop, Nik and finished in Lightroom.

HDR Photography
D.C.F.D. Engine No3 by W. Brian Duncan

The Jeweled Ceiling of Union Station

Posted on July 5th, 2012 by

Jewels

Ok…so maybe jeweled is a bit of a stretch, but it is really impressive looking. Perhaps not in the European Palatial sense, but I found it quite stunning. I shot from my tabletop tripod and kept expecting someone to tell me to get lost. The great thing about that little booger is that people don’t see it as a hazard like they do my larger tripod. I incur the wrath of many a security guard when trying to open my Really Right Stuff legs, but my tabletop…NOTHING! It’s like a tripod in stealth mode! I cant recommend one of these little guys enough.

Technicals

This was a 3 exposure bracket (-2, 0 +2), processed in Photomatix, exported to Photoshop to repair some burned out light bulbs, Tonal Contrast was added out the wazoo in Nik Color Efex Pro 4 as well as sharpening done in Sharpener Pro, final touch-up work was done in Lightroom 4.

HDR Photography
The Jeweled Ceiling of Union Station by W. Brian Duncan

The Washington Monument

Posted on July 2nd, 2012 by

Washington

The Washington Monument is the worlds tallest obelisk at 555 feet 5 1/8 inches. I am certain Dan Brown can tell you the significant of that height in one or more of his books, but I have nothing but speculation to offer. I took this shot in the early afternoon on a very warm day in D.C. I was honestly very happy to be standing in the shadow of the memorial as it was much cooler and I was sweating through my clothes. This is also the ill fated trip where I got tons of great photos, but utterly destroyed my feet with blisters in the process of obtaining said photos. I enjoyed putting the sun in my shots while I was in D.C. and taking 9 stops worth of brackets. In this particular instance, I only felt like I needed 3…which in the end saves quite a bit of hard drive space.

Techincals

This was a three shot bracket (-2, 0, +2) processed in photomatix, extensive work was done to remove tourists in Photoshop, Nik software was used for tonal contrast, sharping, finish work was done in Lightroom 4.

HDR Photography
The Washington Monument by W. Brian Duncan

Abraham Lincoln

Posted on June 28th, 2012 by

Four Score

The South wall of the Lincoln Memorial is inscribed with the Gettysburg Address. This is where I hung out waiting for my chance to open up my tripod in the main part of the memorial. I took the chance to watch people and became somewhat fascinated by the numbers of people stopping to read the speach. I guess I found it odd because I memorized the first few lines for some grade school project and have thus read the speech a number of times. PRO TIP: when staring up to read an important historical speech from one of our nations greatest, please close your mouth.

Throngs of People

The Lincoln Memorial is busy…REALLY busy. I stood around for what seemed an eternity, frankly surprised that the park officials didn’t run me off on account of my tripod. I stood over to the side for probably half an hour waiting for the people to dissipate to get this shot. Given the traffic that goes through the memorial I am pretty pleased with that I ended up with. What do you think?

HDR Photography
Abraham Lincoln by W. Brian Duncan

The Kauffman Center By Day

Posted on June 18th, 2012 by

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

I just can’t get over how cool looking the Kauffman Center is. It seems like a cross between the Sydney Opera House, the Guggenheim Museum and something with lots of glass. The last two times I have been in downtown Kansas City, I couldn’t help but be drawn to this place and takes its picture. This time I went more wide angle using the 16-35mm lens. Last time I used the 50 and shot at night. I would love to shoot the inside of this place as I am sure the hall is magnificent as well.

Technicals

This shot is an HDR three exposure bracket (-2, 0, +2) processed in Photomatix, exported to Photoshop and modified with the Nik Complete Collection (noise reduction, tonal contrast and sharping). Final adjustments were done in Adobe Lightroom 4.

HDR Photography
The Kauffman Center By Day by W. Brian Duncan

WWII and Washington Memorials at Night

Posted on June 14th, 2012 by

What the What?

Two posts this week? What? Yep, I am having so much of a good time taking and processing photos I figured I need to step up my game. As a side note I have been reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers where he professes the need to spend 10,000 hours to become an expert at any task. More processing and photo taking makes for a quicker path to 10,000 hours! WAHOO!

Blue Hour

I am finding that I really love blue hour. The quality of the light in the sky is just wonderful. It’s also interesting to me how quickly blue hour ends and the lights from the city overwhelm the good light. I took this photo at 8:57pm…4 minutes later I had stepped to the right to shoot the Washington Monument straight on and the sky was an awful sickly salmon color.

New Monuments

Every time a new monument gets put up on the National Mall, there is a controversy. The first time we visited DC, the WWII memorial was in the planning stages. The second time it was under construction. While my Grandfather was a veteran of WWI (Navy in the Pacific) I had mixed feeling about the placement of the memorial. Seeing the completed memorial has completely changed my mind. It really just fits there…like it should have been there all along.

Technicals

This was a 3 bracket series (-2, 0, +2) processed with Photomatix. It was cleaned up in Photoshop and modified with Nik Color Efex Pro 4 (Tonal Contrast) and Sharpener Pro. The final work was done in Adobe Lightroom 4.

HDR Photography
WWII and Washington Memorials at Night by W. Brian Duncan

Union Station Kansas City MO

Posted on June 11th, 2012 by

Pop In for a Quick Photo

You never know where an interesting photo may present itself. We were in downtown KC for WordcampKC and during lunch decided to take a walk around. Who would think Union Station in Kansas City Missouri would have been so quiet. Really quiet. There were really only a handful of people and that let me capture a really empty hall with some interesting light.

Sticks (Tripod)

I was also surprised the guards didn’t seem to mind me using a mini tripod. I had left the Really Right Stuff sticks behind, but I had my new Manfrotto 709B DIGI (link to 209 legs with a different head). It’s TINY and fits nicely in your bag. Its pretty stable even for the 16-35mm lens and I can fold the legs up under the lens using the ballhead in a way most people wouldn’t notice you even had a tripod on your camera. Its like tripod stealth mode! While the ballhead is less than stellar, it is functional and this unit is a MUST for your camera bag.

Technicals

This is a 3 bracket series (-2, 0, +2) processed in Photomatix, Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 4 (Tonal Contrast) and Sharpener Pro. The final touches were added in Adobe Lightroom 4.

HDR Photography
Union Station Kansas City MO by W. Brian Duncan

Behind the Lincoln Memorial

Posted on June 4th, 2012 by

A New Kind of Travel

An interesting thing happened to me recently. I needed to take a bit of time off work else I would lose the time so I decided to take off the week of Memorial Day. I have been collecting frequent flyer miles for some time and thought to myself, why don’t go somewhere and photograph. JUST me and my camera. While I enjoy going places with my wife (and #1 best camera assistant), it was interesting to meander and linger where the photos took me. Pamela is exceptionally patient when I “artist-out” and lose myself in photographing. I can sometimes spend hours taking photos of the same darn place, but I am also conscious of her and want her vacation time to be fun as well. This trip was different, not better mind you, but different. It was more work than anything, but never felt a bit unlike passion.

Bad Shoes! BAD!

I have been to Washington D.C. three times now so I know a few things about the layout of the National Mall. For one, much of the trails are made up of tiny gravel and dirt. It gets on your shoes and I decided it would be better to wear an old pair of tennis shoes so as not to get one of my good pairs filthy. Little did I remember just how massive the National Mall really is and after the first day my feet were really sore from all the walking. By the second day I had developed five sizable blisters on my feet (mostly the left) and could barely walk. Pro-Tip…always wear good, comfortable, supportive shoes when going to a big city that requires more walking they you are used to.

Technicals

This is a 9 exposure bracket (-4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) taken on a Canon 5D Mark II (Magic Lantern Loaded) with a 16-35mm f2.8 II lens at 35mm, mounted on a Really Right Stuff tripod and ball-head. The brackets were combined in Photomatix, exported to Photoshop, cleaned up, tonal contrast and sharpening applied with Nik Software. Finish work was done in Adobe Lightroom 4 (contrast, color, crop, clarity, etc). This photo is from the back side of the Lincoln Memorial about an two hours before sunset.

HDR Photography
Behind the Lincoln Memorial by W. Brian Duncan

The Driskill Bikes

Posted on May 21st, 2012 by

Rain Falls Down

SXSWi 2012 was a wet experience…at least for the first part. It rained so much flights were delayed, attendees were waterlogged, and the general mood was dour. Would that stop photographers from going on a photowalk? Hardly! While the turnout for this particular event wasn’t mind blowing or as record setting as was hoped it was a fun opportunity to hang out with a bunch of other photographers taking pictures of Austin in the rain. Luckily by the time the walk happened, the rain had tappered down to a mild drizzle. This was of course much better the the torrential downpours that had been delaying flights.

And Now for Something Completely Different

This was a bracketed shot, but in the end I didn’t like the processing I got out of Photomatix. I ended up just using the normal exposure and processing this entire photo in Adobe Lightroom 4. I ended up using quite a bit of clarity as well as moving to a 1:1 crop. The image was shot at 35mm f2.8 on a 16-35mm, 1/1000 sec, ISO 1600.

HDR Photography
The Driskill Bikes by W. Brian Duncan