Photo Story

St. Petersburg Florida Lens Flare Park Sunset

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Lens flare sunset over North Straub Park - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/320th processing in Color Efex Pro & Topaz AdjustMy favorite time of day is the transition from day to night.  In my mind I imagine all the day time creatures shutting it down and getting ready to yield dominion to all the night time creatures.  During the transition period things overlap as the sun approaches and passes the horizon.  This great physical change always produces a large mental change.  I have always wondered why just the lack of being able to see at distance, which really is all the sun setting causes, results in the world feeling entirely different?  In addition to the lack of light it must be that other creatures hold sway over the night, and this causes peculiar feelings among day creatures that overlap too far into the night.

I made this lens flare dominated photograph of the setting sun burning its way visually through a tree in downtown St. Petersburg's North Straub Park as it shows just the start of that transition time.  Some shadows are starting to increase in size and the signal is out for day time creatures to start to head home.  There is just a peak of the human world in the shot, which no longer abides by the timing of the sun.

Hanko Japanese Stamps used as signatures

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I used to walk by this display case of hanko stamps every day when I lived in Tokyo.I cannot recommend enough that one should live at least one year abroad.  Living here in the U.S. there is no sense of just how isolated things are, especially if you do not live in a big city like New York or San Francisco.  If you are a curious person and like to explore, then living abroad is a must.  One thing I discovered while living in Japan is that official documents need to be stamped using the person's family hanko stamp much more than they actually need to be signed to become official documents.  Think about how important one's signature is here in the U.S.  Not so in Japan.  When I first setup things like a bank account, they asked me for my stamp.  I of course did not have one.  Eventually a friend gave me my own with an approximation of how my name sounds in Kanji characters (see below photo).  I even had one with just "Jason" on the end of it which I used sometimes!

My own hanko stamp given to me by a Japanese friendThere are specialty shops just for hanko stamps.  There are a lot of such specialty shops along the streets of Tokyo for many things that we just do not have in the U.S.  Often they are very tiny shops, not much larger than walk-in closet sized.  I always found them super interesting and kind of mysterious.  The hanko stamps in the top image were in a display case out front of a hanko shop on a street I lived on for four years.  I walked by them every day and would always peek inside the small shop to see the craftsman as his workbench.  It just occurred to me now that I wish I had photographed the shop itself too!

The Pier Trolley at St. Petersburg Florida Fine Art Image

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The Pier trolley in its own lane on The Pier causeway in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/250th on Induro CT214 tripod with cable release

Sometimes a shot just appears and if the photographer is fast enough, it can be captured.  Such was the case with this photograph featuring The Pier in the background and The Pier Trolley coming (very closely) toward me as I made this image from the narrow median dividing the causeway for public usage and trolley only usage.  The seagull in the shot I can take no credit for.  It was just a happy coincidence the bird ended up in the shot.

I was not out specifically to make images of my own as I was in the middle of teaching a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson, but after I helped the student set up her shot (same as above) I had a chance to quickly get my tripod into position to capture this scene too.  I already knew as we approached I wanted both of us to have our tripod legs fully closed so as to be as low to the ground as possible.  I wanted an exaggerated point of view.  At the time I had no idea any trolleys would be passing by.  I was hoping simply for a shot of The Pier using the curb as a leading line.  Again, when an opportunity presents itself it really helps to be quick with your photography gear to give yourself the best shot at getting the photo.

Lightning Photographs over Smacks Bayou Snell Isle St. Petersburg Florida

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Lightning branched out high and low over Smacks Bayou Snell Isle St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/16 ISO 200 25.2 sec (but card covered most of the time) tripod mounted with cable releaseThis evening I finally had the opportunity to photograph lightning conveniently right from my own back patio.  While I was eating dinner I watched and listened to a strong storm approach.  First came very heavy rain, always needed for the flaura and fauna of the area, and it also cools things down nicely outside.  

Lightning trickling out from the clouds above Smacks Bayou Snell Isle St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/16 ISO 200 31.8 sec (but card covered most of the time) tripod mounted with cable releaseThe rain for the most part ceased, but numerous lightning strikes were still visible from exiting storm.  These conditions allowed me to first get out onto my back patio and then even out into the open to try and capture a few of the lightning bolts dancing all over the sky, as many bolts did not touch the ground, but rather spread like cracking ice parallel to the horizon.

A single strong lightning strike over Smacks Bayou Snell Isle St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/16 ISO 200 1.2 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseI used the same techniques for photographing fireworks to make these lightning images.  I detailed the shooting process here.  I hope to have more chances for different kinds of lightning shots as the summer thunderstorm season continues into August.

Feather strobist macro images done in home

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A found feather photographed right in my living room - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm vr micro @ f/8 ISO 200 1/250th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in brolly behind feather to the rightWhere does one get photograph ideas?  Well, often from looking at other photographs.  I remember in passing seeing just a feather photographed on a dark background.  So when I was walking around Crescent Lake Park last weekend, home to many birds, and I saw some feathers on the ground, I took two home to experiment with.  I am not 100% satisfied with the results, but I learned more about what kind of shots I can make right in the tight quarters of my own living room.

A found feather photographed right in my living room - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm vr micro @ f/8 ISO 200 1/250th Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power in brolly behind feather to the rightNow that I have tried this feather photograph experiment I realize in the future how I would position things differently in order to produce results more like I previsualized.  Finding more colorful feathers might add more to the shots as well.

I stuck the feathers through the top of a tissue box to get them to stand up straight and position the brolly on a light stand well behind the feathers so as to have minimal light spill on the wall behind the feathers which I wanted to be as dark as possible.  If you already have a DSLR and an external flash, then getting the gear seen in this photo (brolly, light stand, umbrella head, radio triggers) to allow you to start having strobist fun, would require around $100.

Thunderstorm approaching St. Petersburg Stormy Sky

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Click image for larger 2000px version - 4-shot panorama stitched together in Photoshop CS5This is almost a real-time weather report panorama image as just a few minutes ago this massive thunderstorm was approaching St. Petersburg, Florida from the east.  In the time it took me to stitch it together and edit it in Photoshop it has began its pouring of a deluge of rain and striking of thunderbolts.  The rain is much needed here and hopefully the storm will pass quickly so Kiki and I can still go to the dog park as usual in the evening and I can play in the weekly ultimate frisbee pickup game even later in the evening!

Making a panorama image like this is not difficult in Photoshop CS5.  Using an 80-200mm lens, setting my exposure in manual mode, then locking in the focus, I took the four shots handheld using the gridlines in my Nikon D300's viewfinder to lineup the overlap needed between each shot.  Then using the Photomerge feature in CS5 it was just a matter of choosing spherical in the settings and letting my MacBook Pro's CPU do the heavy lifting.

How to Photograph Fireworks - 4th of July Fireworks St. Petersburg Florida 2012

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4th of July Fireworks over downtown St. Petersburg Florida 2012 - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/11 ISO 200 10.5 sec tripod mounted with cable release covering lens frequently with a cardThere is an art and methodology to photographing fireworks that if you have the necessary gear is pretty fun.  To photograph fireworks properly you need:

  • DSLR camera with bulb mode
  • Lens with appropriate focal length for your location
  • Very stable tripod
  • Cable release
  • A stiff card large enough to cover the front of your lens

Other tips for shooting fireworks:

  • Choose a spot with a clear open view (obviously!)
  • Choose a spot that is upwind (so smoke does not blow into your shots)
  • Include foreground elements (do not just shoot the fireworks themselves)
  • Do not record overlapping fireworks (will just look blown out in one spot)

4th of July Fireworks in St. Petersburg Florida 2012 - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/11 ISO 200 27.4 sec tripod mounted with cable release covering lens frequently with a cardThe actual process for making and recording a multiple firework image:

  1. While still light out focus on something where the fireworks will be
  2. Set your focus to manual focus so you do not have to worry about autofocusing in the dark
  3. Use manual exposure mode set to bulb mode and f/8 or f/11 & your lowest ISO
  4. Hold the shutter open with your cable release when seeing a streak going into the air
  5. Cover the front of the lens quickly & carefully with the card
  6. When the firework explodes remove the card for a split second
  7. If another firework explodes in a different spot, remove the card again
  8. Repeat step 7 a few times then release the shutter

4th of July fireworks finale in St. Petersburg Florida 2012 - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/11 ISO 200 28.8 sec tripod mounted with cable release covering lens frequently with a cardI also try to avoid removing the card for fireworks that are just bright balls of light as these tend to overexpose and just look like all-white blobs.  Overly bright fireworks can also reflect light onto smoke in the sky ruining the shot.  The ideal is to catch a streaking firework trail going up, a low firework explosion, a middle one, and then a very high one.  This evening they tended to explode in the same spot like three times in a row, which is no good as the overlapping makes them start to again look like an all-white blob.  If you are patient, study the patterns of explosions, and use good technique exposing the front of the lend with the card, then you will give yourelf the best chance at creating a satisfying fireworks multiple explosion image.  

Post a link to your fireworks shots in the comments below!