As mentioned in the bookmark post, I used a tripod to capture this picture. Tripods really improve the quality of a photograph, but there isn't much opportunity in our present lifestyle to carry one around and set it up. For this and many other of the better pics of the Nashville Gaylord I had to break away from the family for a while to devote the time necessary to do these things once a subject was identified. This is creativity, which can't be rushed!
It still amuses me to remember that at one time, of all the places we'd been in the world, the kids voted Nashville as their favorite family vacation. The original series from that trip was posted here.
Back in June of 2006 we went to Lost Maples here in Texas for a two-night campout. This was captured with the Fujifilm FinePix S7000 of our daughter and a little friend. Another frame of same burst posted here when the original series was first published.
For two years I'd been watching this small leafless tree outside of our bedroom window during our short Houston winters, waiting for the day when the sunrise would look like this. And I almost missed it! I had just stepped into the shower upstairs when this sky caught the corner of my eye through the window. My gosh...can't wait now, can I? I jumped out of the shower, threw a towel on and, soaking wet, raced downstairs with Bigger Cahoona in hand. After snapping away for a couple of minutes ended up with a few keepers, of which this was my favorite.
Well, fluorescent bulbs flicker...the reason they give some people headaches. This is also explains why the frame below, shot at 1/1600 of a second, shows some bulbs on and others off, which happens too fast for our brains to process, which is the reason they look continuously on to us. But they couldn't fool the Bigger Cahoona! Interesting how technology can capture things we don't even see or notice:
I debated publishing this one but decided What the heck... Here we have the rooftop garden with some cityscape in the background.
Next we'll move inside for a couple of interiors along with a brief science lesson.
In the case of the restaurant sign, which is a little blown out, I'm hoping that a darker exposure within the bracketed set is available so that it can be replaced, but we'll see...
...and here we go with a shot that's dark enough to be called a night shot (as opposed to twilight). Ever since taking on this photography thing I've been hungering for an opportunity to get a good cityscape of Houston at night, and here it was! Everything was in place - good weather, great vantage point, time enough to take my time, and a nice ledge to prop the Bigger Cahoona up with my elbows. I'm very thankful to have been able to capture "bucket list" shots such as these.
Zoomed in to 82mm for the pic below. I didn't dare go any closer, as camera shake would have substantially reduced clarity:
Bracketing sure saves a lot of pictures, and to me has become an indispensable feature of the Big and Bigger Cahoonas. First used in a series from 2016, I learned that bracketing for exposure simply varies the shutter speed, which is great when the afternoon sun is out or in shots like this. After capturing all exposures, you know that at least one of them will probably be passable.
Though taken a few minutes later, the picture below is almost identical and dark enough to segue into the night shots that follow:
I wasn't happy with the sky as it was captured originally (at bottom below) so replaced it using the gradient tool vertically, copying the colors of the sunset from other pictures. But I wasn't entirely happy with that either because the sun was setting to the west, at the right from our perspective. So I went back and applied the gradient diagonally, yielding the final product above. Clicking on the picture above, then using the arrow keys to switch pictures back and forth gives a pretty good comparison of the modified sky.
As it turns out, the experience provided more opportunities than expected. The pic featured here shows the panoramic view available to us when we got there, and as the evening wore on I got the opportunity to get some good night shots of same. In this series the focus will be on daylight, then twilight, then night shots, plus a few interiors of the amazing building we were touring.
And this also will be the last post from our trip to Minnesota. A memorable trip, thanks in part to the pictures I was able to capture but for the most part due to our time with our son, his wife Ellen and newly-acquired familial friendships forged with her parents.
Next will be cityscapes of downtown Houston from atop one of its buildings...
