Car Photos - The new Mercedes-Benz CLA

Mercedes Benz recently introduced their new CLA model to the U.S. Market. Lynn and I had lunch with friends that had just taken delivery of their sporty new car. This was definitely a photo op. The new CLA wreaks sporty. I took this picture as our friends were parking their car for our lunch.  I love the German crest on the front plate and the sunlight illuminating the headlights . I think that this photo screams "I want one!" What do you think?

I am usually challenged when I try to get good auto interior photos, but this interior screamed of impact. I particularly like the dark and light contrast of the interior fabric. And, my friends added a nice touch with their Turkish floor mats. I used a Gaussian Blur on the background of the top image to focus on the CLA's style. These photos were taken with my tiny compact Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LF1.

San Diego Skyline from the 34th Floor

Every time that I get an opportunity to photograph a cityscape/skyline from the highest point in a city I jump at the opportunity.  Such was the case recently on a trip to San Diego. I love the view here with traffic (upper left) from San Diego International Airport (Lindbergh) as well as the Interstate 5 corridor funneling right into the heart of the city.  Interestingly, San Diego International is the busiest airport in the country with just one runway handling all of the traffic.

A friend invited Lynn and me to lunch at the University Club on the 34th Floor of the Symphony Towers in downtown San Diego.  Before he and his wife arrived at the restaurant I took these photos.  

Later we took our final tour of the trip on the Old Town Trolley where I took the photo above.  Once again the freight yards feed into the heart of the city revealing that beautiful skyline at the top of the picture.

This final photo was also taken from the Trolley on Coronado Island.  What a tranquil scene with the lines of sailboats at anchor with San Diego in the background. All of these photos were taken with the Olympus OMD-EM5 camera and the Olympus 12-50mm lens. The next time that you take the camera out in a new travel destination look for a unique perspective from which to photograph.

Railroad Photography - Denver

Photographing the railroad has become one of my recent passions.  On one of my recent trips to Colorado I spent the day shooting the recently renovated Union Station in downtown Denver.

The station makes for some great HDR opportunities.  My friend Jim and I were able to talk an influential employee into photographing from upstairs in the station which is now a hotel.  I like shooting from this different perspective.

Converting photographs of old places to black and white offers a nice sense of place to historical buildings.

I love this old original safe on the second floor of Union Station with the stacked suitcases from another era.

The beautiful Denver Union Station upstairs bar (above) and (below) one of the private cars available for corporate or private luxury traveling on the rails.

This is a photo of a poster over the underground pathway that leads from the railroad tracks to the station.  I reversed the photo so that you can read the writing on the top of the poster.

Today the California Zephyr is the only passenger train that goes through Union Station. It's journey takes it from Chicago through Denver to San Francisco.  A scenic trip on the Zephyr is on my bucket list.

All of these photos were taken with the Olympus OMD EM-5 using only one lens, the Olympus 17mm 1.8 lens.  For a future Denver trip I am going to focus on the massive rail yards.  I will appreciate your comments.

Fun visiting & Photographing Grandkids.

We are so fortunate to be able to travel frequently from our home in Florida to visit our granddaughter in Colorado. It is fun watching Savannah grow and creating a photo diary of her progress from baby to toddler to little schoolgirl. Schoolgirl...that is her new phase. She starts kindergarten in just a few days. Trying new looks is all part of it. 

These are a few of my iPhone photos from our current trip, adjusted in Snapseed. 

Savannah chose all of the costumes herself. Enjoy!

Opossum Family

This sighting was a first for me.  I came across this mother opossum yesterday while on an early morning walk.  At first I thought that the animal was moulting, but a closer inspection revealed that this was a mom with many babies.  I got off a couple of shots.  This was my favorite.  Shortly the opossum noticed me and took off into the bush.  I took this picture with my tiny (just slightly larger than my iPhone) Panasonic LF-1.  RAW in Aperture priority, f5.9, 43mm, ISO 200. When I got home I researched the opossum family and learned that a mom will birth as many as 15 babies and will carry them like this on their backs and in her pouch for up to 3 months. When opportunities  like this come up It is not important which camera you have with you.  It is only important that you have a camera!

More Africa in Monochrome

I have recently been intrigued with how interesting African wildlife looks in monochrome.  I took this photo of a beautiful leopard while on safari at Okonjima Private Reserve in Namibia.  This was our first opportunity in four African safaris to actually see a leopard in the wild.  I took this picture with a Nikon D300 and the original Nikon 80-400mm lens.  ISO 800, f5.6, 1/2000 second.  I converted the photo to monochrome in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

This image will shortly be displayed on my daughter's wall in Denver as a 16 X 20 inch print.

Whimsical Fun with a Fisheye Lens

Fisheye lenses aren't for every occasion, but they are certainly a good idea  in certain instances like this one where I wanted to get everything (house, deck and pool) in the photo.  You can even see my shadow in the pool since I got up on top of the slide to take the picture (:g).

I like the way that the fisheye bends the trees in a whimsical fashion.  Hey, if you are looking for an arbor of trees without any luck you can always take along a fisheye and create one!

Fisheyes are great for panorama photos.  Here I wanted to get the old historical building, the beautiful palm trees and a hint of the modern building next door.

In this case I think that the fisheye effect gave the photo of this Mexican restaurant a more tropical feel as the deck and its tiki like umbrellas wrap around the building.

In this fisheye photo of my kitchen I added a white vignette to enhance the effect. My fisheye lens is an 8mm Rokinon (all manual...no auto settings).  I keep the lens set at Infinity and f5.6.  This is a Nikon mount lens.  I used it for these photos on my Nikon D300 camera.  The Rokinon lens is really built strong. It looks great, and the optics are terrific but it costs a pittance of what it's Nikon competitor sells for. Rokinon offers fisheye lenses for other camera bodies as well.  I added one to my wishlist for my Olympus EM-5 too.

 A fisheye is a great lens when you want to give your photography a creative charge.  I like to put mine on the camera,then I leave all of my other lenses in the bag at home and just spend a few hours seeing what I can create with the fisheye. What do you think?