The blue hour

M

y son is an outstanding photographer. I guess that’s what happens when you grow up with a mother who is a professional photographer and a father who is an avid photography enthusiast. He’s quite comfortable with the camera—from either side.

My son, the photographer

David learned early on to try out unique angles and to get in close to his photography subjects. Once he saw that looking at things from a unique perspective greatly improves photographs and makes them stand out from other people’s snapshots, he quickly gravitated to extreme angles and macro photography. When all the other tourists at Mt. Vernon were photographing the vegetable garden through the gate in the 10-foot-high wooden fence, David climbed that fence to capture the garden from a very high angle. He came back, not with a photograph of the garden but with a close-up macro shot of the little round painted wooden ball at the top of the fence post. The paint was peeling and the angle of the sun cast wonderful shadows showing the texture of that peeling paint and emphasizing the grain of the wood underneath. He then walked into the garden and laid down on the dirt to get close-up shots from ground level of the tops of the turnips sticking up out of the ground. Later that day he waded through the crowd of tourists who were taking pictures of the historic kitchen and stepped inside the fireplace to take a picture up through the chimney. They were all beautiful shots and no one else got pictures anything like them because no one else decided to climb the fence, lie down in the dirt, or step inside the fireplace behind the tour guide.

Photographs that capture our attention tend to be these types of photographs. They are the photographs taken where and when most other people wouldn’t consider taking them.

Most photography hobbyists take their pictures when the sun is high in the sky, providing bright lighting that makes colors nice and brilliant. And they tend to put their cameras away when it’s foggy or rainy or snowing. They also put their cameras away at twilight because it’s hard to hold the camera still enough in that dim lighting to capture a crisp picture.

Savannah, Georgia - August 21, 2012 - 7:36 PM
Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens
24mm focal length
ISO 1600, 1/13th @ f/2.8

And so... it is one of my favorite times to take pictures. Twilight is the time of day, every morning and evening, when it is not full daylight and it is not complete darkness. The sun is below the horizon, but is still lighting the sky. This time period is known as “the blue hour.” And the lighting conditions during this time have been known to photographers as “sweet light” for years. The light is very blue and casts a bluish tint on everything around. The low light level allows for the sky to be rich and deeply saturated rather than overexposed, as it is in most daylight pictures. It is a wonderful time to take pictures.

Savannah, Georgia - August 21, 2012 - 7:23 PM
Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens
28mm focal length
ISO 800, 1/25th @ f/3.5

Savannah, Georgia - August 21, 2012 - 7:18 PM
Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens
30mm focal length
ISO 800, 1/50th @ f/4.0

Savannah, Georgia - August, 2012 - 7:24 PM
Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens
24mm focal length
ISO 800, 1/25th @ f/2.8

My son in Williamsburg

I love history. I especially like “living” history. In other words, as much as I love books, even history books, I particularly enjoy visiting historic places and watching the actors dressed in period costumes and listening to their presentations. It really makes me feel like a have a much better understanding of those places and times.

Historic Williamsburg, Virginia, is one of my family’s favorite historic places. While all our friends get excited about traveling to Williamsburg to visit the Pottery Factory or the Big Wolf Lodge, we plan our visits around the historical sights.

My wife is a genealogy hobbyist and has discovered some amazing things about our ancestors—including the fact that one of her ancesters fought in the War for Independence under General George Washington. He became very depressed after the war was over and was eventually admitted to the first insane asylum in the United States... in Williamsburg. We had walked past that building many times before, but the last time we visited Williamsburg we decided to go inside that building where her ancestor had been treated.

The building has been made into a small museum where you can see the tools they used for their “therapy” and the rooms the patients would have stayed in. They had a few different rooms set up according to the time periods during which those rooms would have been used. None of them were very nice. We were able to determine what my wife’s ancestor’s room would have looked like. It was interesting... and a bit chilling.

Just last summer I took this picture of my son in front of that building.

My adopted son has had severe difficulties every since he was a very young boy. We took him home with us the day after he was born and as soon as all the legal steps had been accomplished, we adopted him. But he has had tremendous trouble trying to overcome the issues left by the recreational drugs his birth parents were taking. Some of his issues are somewhat common, although they exhibit themselves in a severe way with my son. But some of his other issues are not common at all, and they are, again, quite severe.

I am so thankful that the medical community has come so far in recognizing neurological illnesses. My wife’s ancestor was quite likely suffering from what we now know as PTSD. But back in those days, they saw only severe depression and they admitted him to a terrible place that used pain reinforcement, fear, and intimidation as their only methods of “therapy.” My son, in spite of all his issues, is a great kid. And we have received a lot of help from the medical community. I’m glad he has never had to stay in a place like this hospital in Williamsburg.

And this picture has nothing whatsoever to do with what I’ve written so far, but it’s the Governor’s mansion in Colonial Williamsburg—complete with one of those living history costumed folks I mentioned. I took this one two years ago.

Where, oh where is spring?

T

his has been an incredibly cold winter. But they say all things must come to an end. I’m not quite sure who “they” are, but I think they may be wrong about this one. Winter just doesn’t seem to want to let go—kind of like the White Queen in Narnia. It feel as though it will be “always winter, but no Christmas.”

So today’s picture is of a warm scene—a romantic couple strolling along the beach in St. Petersburgh, Florida.

Oh please bring back springtime!

Madeira Beach, St. Petersburgh, FL
August 23, 2012 7:00 pm

Canon EOS 7D, EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens
50mm focal length
1/100 @ f/7.1, ISO 100

Skyline Fog

I

live about three miles from the northern entrance to Skyline Drive. Known as “a road to nowhere,” Skyline Drive is the most traveled scenic highway in the world. With a top speed limit of 35 mph, it takes quite a while to tavel the full 105 miles of the drive—especially because it is very hard to pass the scenic overlooks without stopping to drink in the intense beauty of God’s creation here in the Shenandoah Mountains.

But it isn’t always about the view.

Living this close to the drive, I have the opportunity to notice weather patterns and take a quick drive up into the mountains of Skyline Drive to photograph things that many people will never see in their lifetime. It is a tremendous blessing.

I love Virginia!

Skyline Drive in the fog

Gorgeous bright flowers with fog coming over the mountain

Canon EOS 7D, EF24-70mm f/2.8 L USM lens
24mm focal length
ISO 200, 1/25th @ f/22

Front Royal Ranger Station engulfed – Front Royal, Virginia

Canon EOS 7D, EF24-70mm f/2.8 L USM lens
45mm focal length
ISO 200, 1/15th @ f/16

Thou has brought me many flowers

Okay... It’s a silly title (actually the title of an Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem), but I needed to say something so I could post this picture.

This is actually a potted plant outside the central hub of Disneyworld’s Caribbean Beach Resort.

Canon EOS 30D, EF75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM lens
230mm focal length
ISO 160, 1/200th @ f/6.3