365 Photos: Week 22 On the Road Again

October 16-22, 2012

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Week 22 had me on the road again in Boise, ID, Spokane WA, and finally back home to Anchorage. I was traveling for a conference to Boise with Arts Northwest, and I stopped in Spokane to see Jersey Boys. I scout Broadway shows to bring to Anchorage, and Spokane was close by to Anchorage, relatively speaking.

I loved being in the Pacific Northwest for fall. It was so beautiful. The trees. The leaves. The blue skies. It was gorgeous. I got to do a little leaf peeping along Boise’s green belt. It was fabulous.

Since I’ve been doing the 365 Photo Project, when I am staying in hotels, I usually try to get a safety shot from the window at the surrounding cityscape. With the 365 Photo Project, I feel better when I know I have a safety shot for the day, especially when I am working all day and creative moments of photography don’t present themselves.

Tuesday was a surprise shot that I got with my iPhone. I wanted to know the story of how the Redbox machine got beat up. This was more of a diary shot.

I like humor in photography. The Redbox was for humor, and Wednesday was a shot at humor. The city of Boise really likes its library! I loved the use of the exclamation point. I once heard a wise man say that you are only allowed three exclamation points in your WHOLE life. Boise is down to two. Well played, however, Boise. Well played.

On Facebook, someone thought we should go further with the exclamation point.  Performing Arts Center! City Hall! DMV!

Thursday afforded me a chance to walk around Boise. I took a bunch of pictures. The red tree was stunning. I shot it from many angles to get it right. I loved the colors.  We don’t get the red in the trees in Alaska, so this red tree was stunning to me.  I shot it from many angles, and felt this was the best.

The yellow leaf also gave me some fun contrast. Nothing new here, but it forced me to stretch a bit.

I am over indulging for Friday. I’ve never been to Spokane before, so finding one image for the day was tough. This is the first time I’ve done three in a day.

The first is the falls, which are pretty iconic to Spokane. I felt like my day there needed to have one shot of the falls. I walked all over trying to see the different angles. I think this pretty much captures it.

The second was more arty. I liked these wheels and the wall and square windows.

The last was just for fun. There was this cool spiral art piece that was broken down into squares with the story of the falls and coyote. I liked the words Fat and Happy. Public art can be fun!

I like airplanes. When in an airport, I photograph them. An airport shot often becomes a safety shot. I didn’t really shoot otherwise that day. I liked flying on Horizon Air because it got me out on the tarmac which afforded me better shots.

Week 22 saw the sun setting earlier. On Sunday. The sun was setting at 6:30. I wanted to try to get something to show the time shifting. I’m finding that I will have to be shooting earlier in the day or get used to the idea of pulling out the flash.

The final shot of the week was of the decaying day lilly in front of our house. At the time of this shot, we’d had snow, but not the sticking kind. This flower is in a shaded area of the driveway, so the snow was hanging on because there is no direct sunlight. Fall passed quickly, now winter is coming to Alaska.

365 Photos: Week 21 Shorter Cooler Days

October 9-15, 2012

Week 21 saw the days in Alaska making the turn to shorter and cooler. I began to see that the 365 Photo Project was going to get more challenging. Week 23 really saw that come true, but that is yet to come.

Week 21 saw some of my favorite shots so far in this project.  Northern lights, frost on leaves, sunsets, and fog.  It was a beautiful transition week in Anchorage.

The week began with a little visitor at work. Her mom was in volunteering for us, and this little one roamed through the offices. It was very cute. She and I told stories, and she did a drawing of me. Kids are very fun to photograph, when they want to cooperate. I love the “can I see?” right after taking a picture. Kids these days! They don’t know it used to take a week to see a photo.

On Wednesday, I have two photos. One from the morning and one from the evening. Truly, I like the sunset over Cook Inlet better, but I love both these shots. There were low clouds or fog hanging around that morning. I took a bunch of shots to try to get the Atwood building just right. A 50mm lens is hard to work with when trying to shoot buildings from real close.

The other picture was taken at sunset, obviously.  We were having an private home concert with a men’s vocal group named New York Polyphony.  This was a rare clear night and I couldn’t help but shoot some sunset shots. The colors were amazing that night and the clear sky was unreal. This was a long exposure shot. I really like the colors and the trees against the sky.  That’s one of the many volcanoes in the region.  I can’t remember the name of it.

Thursday was a long work day with no deliberate chance to shoot.  We took our niece and nephew to see Shrek.  On the ride home, I captured Kallie in the back seat of the car as she was texting.  I like the light in the dark with this image.

On Friday, the Northern Lights were out in force.  When I lived in Fairbanks, it was a rather common sight to see.  Further south in Anchorage, it is a little more rare.  Reading Facebook that night was fun because everyone was so excited.  And the lights seemed to be out all over the state form all the posts I read.  I posted about the experience with more of those shots. It was cold, but well worth it for the shots I got.  They were my first aurora shots, and hopefully not my last.

I was up early on Saturday and shooting the frost covered morning.  I love the look of frost on leaves and grass, especially on a sunny morning.  Once again, I found it hard to choose just one image.  I think I like the brown leaves more.

Sunday saw me traveling again.  I flew to Boise for the Arts Northwest Conference.  It was quite a haul to get there.  Because of a security concern, the airport was closed, and I missed my first flight out.  This shot was taken on an exceedingly rainy evening in Seattle.

The last shot of the week was taken in Boise.  It was so nice to be in a place with fall!  Colorful leaves and warm temperatures made for a lovely week in the city of trees.

365 Photos: Week 20 Blue and Gray

October 2-8, 2012

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When I looked at the pictures of Week 20 of my 365 Photo Project, I was trying to come up with a theme for the shots.  Many are autumn style shots, but I noticed a great deal of blue and gray.

The first shot of the week was taken backstage at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.  Shrek had just loaded into the building, and these were the company’s traveling cases stacked in a hall.  The show loaded out of four 53-foot trailers.  Earlier, I posted about a series of shots taken by the Alaska Dailly News. The backstage of the PAC is very gray, as you can see.

The rain came back after the snow.  We really had a terrible summer and fall in Alaska.  Because daylight shooting hours have reduced so much, I am much more aware of taking shots when I can get them.  I’ve learned that waiting until the end of the day really limits what I want to do.  And for whatever reason, I’m trying not to use my flash.  So this was a rainy day shot from my office window. It was an incredibly gray day, as you can see.

This next shot is what I mean about diminished light.  This was only taken about 8:00 or so.  I was a little desperate this night, and this was what I got after having dinner out. I was hoping for more color in the sky, but I got mostly blues and grays.

I didn’t intentionally do two flags on back to back days.  It just worked out. On the way to coffee the next morning I was taken with the color of the Alaska flag in the lights.  The blue was beautiful.  I like the three blues of the sky, the reflection in the windows, and the flag.

Saturday was yet another gray day in Anchorage.  I did a morning workout and then walked around the streets of downtown Anchorage looking for some fun shots.  We’d had some rain and so I saw all these leaves on the sidewalks and they looked like they were running paint lines.  I really thought it was cool.  I like the color popping on the gray sidewalk.  I tried this in black and white, but the color version was much better.

Sunday saw us doing our usual routine at the coffee shop.  While this isn’t wildly blue or gray, he is wearing blue jeans and a gray top.  I was working with long exposures.  I ended up taking a bunch of shots with the focus point being the coffee cup and the motion all around.  I think that might be a fun project.

Finally, there was the gray shot of Monday.  This was an end of the day shot where I was desperate.  That tree has been shot earlier in the project.  I did like the bare contrast of the branches against the gray sky.

Like I said, blue and gray for a week.

365 Photos: Week 19 First Snow

September 25-October 1, 2012

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Week 19 saw more autumn shots, and snow. I usually love the first snow, but September is not when I like to see it happen.

Regardless, there is almost a week of photos to get to before the snow.

The early part of the week was crazy with work related stuff. Our first concert of the season was on Friday, September 28 with the Ahn Trio. When work gets hectic, I end up not doing any shooting until late in the day. Usually it’s from my office to my car when I start to think about shooting. Lately I haven’t been trying to take an early morning safety shot to take the pressure off when I get home.

The first shot of the week was one of those days. I had noticed the fall colors on this tree earlier in the day, but failed to shoot it when the light was on it. I got this so-so shot.

I liked Wednesday a bit better. I like the grid of the building and the bare organic look of the tree. There are fewer and fewer leaves on trees these days. I thought about this image in black and white. But the yellow of the few leaves are nice.

Thursday was a day where I took a late afternoon safety shot of snow on the mountain side, but ended up with this image of my friend Angella Ahn performing at an in-home concert. It was an amazing night to hear a piano trio play in an intimate setting.

Friday was the day of our first concert at work. It’s a big day in out world. It’s was a timed shot that I set up, so I still took it even though I was in it. Erynn got us all silly hairpieces and mustaches for gifts. This is my staff and how we roll at work. I was working with the 50mm lens so I wouldn’t have to use a flash.  It was opened way up, so you can see the depth of field was nil.  It was part of a series of burst shots that we did. We have fun!

Saturday was that snow I talked about. It made for a beautiful morning, but a rude awakening. It did melt for the most part. But still. I took a bunch of shots that morning. I liked some that I got of flowers poking out of the snow. Ultimately, I liked the berries best.

Sunday was a foggy morning. You can see that much of the snow is gone. I shot this in the park behind our house with my iPhone 4S.  I had uploaded images from my camera the night before, and when I grabbed my DSLR when we left for coffee, I forgot to pull the card out of the computer.  Evan offered to take me home, but I just wanted to get the shot and be done.  I used GorillaCam as my camera.  It does take a nice image.

The last image of the week was taken in my front yard and is one of my favorites. I like it because I feel it shows some progress for me in how I am improving as a photographer. The red of the bushes is really noticeable now, and I love the color. It’s really about the most beautiful thing going right now. This was a desperation shot upon arriving home after a long day. Having less and less light makes it harder to get out and shoot after work.