Photo Story

Heritage Village Largo Florida HDR photographs

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Railroad station at Heritage Village Largo Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mountedOne of the most popular places for local photographers to go and make photographs is Heritage Village in Largo.  As is often the case with these commonly photographed places, I had never been there until this past weekend where I had my first opportunity to make a brief photo survey of the old building interiors and exteriors, with the former being much more interesting.  The railroad station shown in the above and below images was perhaps the most interesting of all since it was fully decorated with old time suitcases, signs, etc.

Railroad station at Heritage Village inside out view with suitcases - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mountedThere is no question that suitcases of the past with how they showed wear and tear are far cooler baggage than modern luggage and their bland plastic housings.  However, I cannot say I would want to lug one of those bulky suitcases around with it banging against my leg.  Of course none had wheels for pulling effortlessly behind oneself.  

Classic Florida log cabin at Heritage Village - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mountedI imagine many people still live in log cabins similar to the one above, but with perhaps a few more modern touches inside.  

Early 20th century style classroom at Heritage Village Largo - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 7-exposure HDR tripod mountedThis old classroom was very cosy and free of electronic distractions.  I could fit comfortably in the desks and appreciated their ambidextrous design.  Being a lefthander, I suffered through many right-handed designed desks in elementary through high school.

Big tools at Heritage Village in Largo - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 3-exposure HDR tripod mountedI thought to myself how strong farmers from a century ago must have been to be able to wield such large and heavy tools.  None of the tools were available to touch.  I would have liked to have given them a try!

Dreaming in black & white portrait of a young woman

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Dreaming in black & white portrait of a young woman - Nikon D80 Nikkor 50mm @ f/2 ISO 200 1/200thSome photos you edit immediately, some you get to years later, others you put aside because you know eventually you will want to edit them.  The latter is the case for the above photograph.  It was made two months ago, but it was not in the right mind frame to edit it until apparently today.  Occasionally I would look at it in my Random folder in Aperture 3 and think, do something with this photo now?  No, not yet, but keep it here, I will do something someday.  

I wanted the image to have a dream-like feel to it, so the choice to process it in black & white was natural.  I chose a push process filter in Nik Silver Efex Pro and to that applied a yellow filter to really soften the whites and leave just a few shadows for contrast.  I used the glamor glow filter in Nik Color Efex Pro to also soften the image.  

In composing the shot I did not want the young woman's face to be seen directly, as that would lead the viewer away from vague dreaming and more to wondering who she was.  The profile view shows a little, but leaves a lot a mystery, especially what might she be looking at or what is the expression on her face?

Photographing clouds is always good

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Just clouds -- Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/200thI was up early this morning not necessarily on purpose.  Rain had passed by recently.  Everything was still early morning tranquil.  I saw a great egret standing on the dock not looking to pleased about having been rained on.  I took my Nikon out to get a shot of the bird in the still very good morning light.  I approached slowly, but the egret was having nothing of it and flew off.  

So now I was standing there with camera in hand and seemingly nothing to photograph.  Fortunately, I really like to photograph clouds and to the west were some getting touched by lingering sunrise beams.  I changed my settings in a quick moment from the ones I was hoping to use to photograph the great egret to the best settings for getting a detailed cloud image.  

Instead of heading back inside with nothing, I have a simple cloud image to look at today and help me daydream and wonder what lies beyond their puffy peaks.

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.