October
2009
Purveyor
of Light
October 10, 2009: Like any
good photographer, I live for light. I can't drive down the road,
or walk through my living room without noticing the light that surrounds
me. The key to creative photography is finding and knowing good light
from bad light. This first picture is a good picture of Nolan holding
Laura on the metro bus, but the light is very flat, and otherwise
boring. But I used a shaft of directional sunlight on the next two
photos that made them much more interesting. These photos were much
more visually interesting, and the light is warmer, and more inviting.
Even the early morning light turned a brick sidewalk into the Yellow
Brick Road.
Later
that night, we went back into the District for a tour of the night
lights. Luckily, my Nikon D300 is designed to produce quality images
in low light situations. I stuck with my usual Shutter Priority, set
my whitebalance to tungsten, let the camera pick my film speed with
Auto ISO, and then set my metering to spot meter, so that the camera
would know exactly what I wanted it to expose for. My favorite light
of the night was the light we created with our cell phones at the
Vietnam War Memorial. Our friends Haley and Emmy Corn's grandfather,
Jack A. Corn, was killed in Vietnam in 1968. We surrounded his name
with our phones and that gave me enough light to capture an image
on 3200 iso. Notice the variations in color created from the different
cell phones.
I
have to say, the Lincoln Memorial is very powerful, day or night.
You would have to be a deadman not to feel emotion at that memorial.
Flat boring light.
Warm directional light on Laura and Nolan.
The Yellow Brick
Road
Iwo Jima, The Marine
Memorial
Soldiers at the
Vietnam War Memorial
Cameron's hand on the wall
Laura's hand on
the wall
Vietnam War Memorial
at night
The Lincoln Memorial
at night
The Jefferson Memorial
The Washington
Monument across the Potomac
