jgrussell – my world

More playing with water tonight, and oh! did I ever learn a few things. First, I learned that you don’t have to have a very fast shutter speed to stop action when you’re working with flash. Second, I learned that the background is very VERY important in a shot like this and, third, not everything can be fixed in post processing. I love the action in this shot — dropping a cherry tomato into a glass of water — but using a paper towel as a backdrop was NOT a good idea. It’s a truly ugly background, can’t be easily cured in Photoshop, and takes away from the shot. But hey… the whole idea here is to learn, so I guess it’s a net plus for the day.

Playing with water

More trying with the water drops tonight. The whole process continues to be very difficult, very hit or miss. It calls for precision and for patience — which is not my strong suit (I’m one of those folks who pray for patience and then end the prayer: “And I want it right now!”).

But these shots didn’t turn out too badly:

Water drops

Water drop pillar

Lots of people on a photography forum I hang out on are doing water drops. I tried it. It’s not as easy as it looks. One thing I need for sure is better light.

Water drop

Water drop

It looks very much as though the cardinals are here to stay. The male is hard to catch for any length of time. I swear I think the female occasionally knows I’m there taking her pictures and poses for me.

Female northern cardinal

The world in miniature is pretty darned cool.

Cherry tomato

The lighting wasn’t all that great on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia, so I had to settle for a shot of this … shall we say … unusual railing at City Hall.

Do NOT sit on the railing!

I’m late getting these entries up — I was in Philadelphia over the weekend for a mock trial competition (where my students did themselves proud by making the semi-finals). I couldn’t stand watching the trial one more time and popped out to grab a shot or two of Philadelphia’s remarkable City Hall:

Philadelphia City Hall

Action at City Hall

City Hall clock

There was a beautiful sunset in Newark tonight that I was able to capture in part through my office window:

Nightfall on Newark 1

Nightfall on Newark 2

Nightfall on Newark 3

Nightfall on Newark 4

I recently bought a macro lens, but was having SUCH a hard time getting the focus right. I was seriously considering getting rid of it, but decided to try one last thing before I did. So I bought an inexpensive ring light from B&H just to give it a try. Sigh… shoulda known. I’m not gonna be selling this lens any time soon…

Better living through drugs

And no, of course, not that kind of drugs. These are my very tiny thyroid pills.

Finally got over to the area of The Rock — Newark’s new Prudential Center — on a night with clear weather and no event going on, and managed to grab a quick shot.

The Rock - Newark's Prudential Center