Here is an example of an outdoor plaza where I wanted to place the emphasis on the architecture and not have the people as the main focal point.  The viewer’s attention should be mainly on the buildings while still conscious of human activity.

Wandering down a narrow street in Mainz, Germany, I found this beautiful green door framed in a rose colored stone.  I shot it with a cyclist zipping past allowing him to be blurred.  This keeps the attention on the door while placing it in the context of a busy city.  I felt that the yellow glow behind the door made it appear to be a welcoming place.  Looking at this picture a few months later, I now notice that the door frame was newly painted up to about the top of the window.  I wonder if they finished painting before winter.

Immediately following the golden hour, comes twilight – a time that is neither dark nor daylight.  This is also a time known in Germany as the blue hour – a time when the sky is a deep beautiful blue.  During this short time, which typically lasts far less than an hour, is a good time to photograph some amazing colors using your camera on a tripod.  I really liked this scene in Mainz Germany with the deep blue of the sky reflecting off the cobblestone surrounding this well.  I found the color contrast between the orange sandstone of the well and the deep blue of the sky particularly striking.  I also like how the lines of stones on the ground point toward an area in the image which is a third of the way up from the bottom and a third of the way over from the right.

Rule of Thirds (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds)

Blue Hour (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Blue_hour)

Photography is all about capturing light on an electronic image sensor.  That makes the over 30,000 Christmas lights covering all manner of plant life at Spokane’s Manito Park Gaiser Conservatory especially interesting to me!

We photographers get wrapped up in buying expensive lenses which are precision instruments to accurately capture our subjects. We (usually) want to take the sharpest pictures we can.  When I’m shooting air-to-air from my KC-135 at a fighter jet on my wing like an F-15 or F-22, I’m shooting through a thick piece of plastic – my windscreen! This item has not been manufactured to the same optical standards as my lens. It’s purpose is to hold cabin pressure and to allow me to see out – not to allow me to shoot sharp pictures.  It’s the weakest link in the system of taking a picture of another airplane. When the photons of light travel from my subject, through my plastic window, and then into my lens finally striking my image sensor, the window is now a part of the lens system thereby degrading the image.  I need to account for this to get a sharp image.  This is an inexact science as different parts of the window are sharper than others – and I can’t necessarily tell which parts are optically sharper.  I can minimize the effects when my lens is perpendicular to the window.  Since my window is tilted inward toward me, the best position for my subject is when it’s abeam and slightly higher than me.  When my subject is moving back to get into the refueling position behind me, I have to point my camera back at maybe a 45 degree angle with respect to the window.  Also, as the subject aircraft moves aft, I have to shoot out the window not nearest me which causes a greater gap between my lens and the window.  This greater distance degrades image quality – dust and reflections become more easily visible.  Another factor to consider is F stop. I use the charts at photozone.de (http://www NULL.photozone NULL.de) to determine the optimal F stop for a given lens. Wide open normally results in less sharpness than stopped down a little.   F/8 often times is an optimal setting for my lenses; however, I don’t want my lens stopped down so far that my shutter speed suffers to the point of allowing motion blur.  I’m not sure why, but it seems that longer focal lengths (beyond 85mm) start to get fuzzy results.  I would recommend against shooting through windows in the fuselage as they are not very good and your results will disappoint.  If you aren’t flying, you can squeeze into the empty space behind the pilots and get pretty good shots.

Here’s what I do to maximize sharpness:

• Set ISO 200 (or the lowest recommended in your owner’s manual – sometimes it’s 100)
• Set f-stop to about f/8 – hopefully the shutter speed is 1/500th or better
• try to shoot when the subject aircraft is in a position that allows shooting through the near window, at nearly a perpendicular angle.
• minimize the distance between lens and window
• use a maximum focal length of 85mm
• If you have super sharp prime, use it – 50mm and 85mm are best!
• you may consider a tiny bit of exposure compensation to lighten up the area under the fuselage – maybe a 1/3 of a stop overexposed.

Below, I have some examples.  In the first example, everything came together for a sharp image.  The aircraft is abeam and slightly high allowing me to put my lens perpendicularly up against the window.

Sharp Image: 1/1000th @ f/7.1 and ISO 200 Lens: Nikon 16-85mm VR

In this closeup, we can easily read the tail number of this aircraft, “144″.

Sharp Image Detail

Now in this image, the aircraft has moved back at a sharp angle to me.  Everything is going against getting a sharp picture.

Blurry Image: 1/800th @ f/8 and ISO 200 Lens: Nikon 16-85mm VR

Below is a blowup of the above image to prove that it’s not very sharp.  Can you read the tail number below the pilot?  Nope, me either.

Blurry Image Detail

Last year, one of Royal’s owners wanted a photo session in hopes that he could win the  “Most Beautiful Headshot” contest for Morgan Horse Magazine.  I took a few hundred pictures of  Royal at his southwest Spokane barn during the golden hour.  Royal was all tacked up and looking sharp for his equine photo shoot.  After the formal part was over, we untacked him and set him free to run around.  I actually shot the winning picture near the very end after he was finished running and was turning around in the corner as if to say, “I’m done – let me go back to my stall to eat.”  Much to my pleasant surprise, this photo won all three categories:  Breed Character, Emotional Impact, and People’s Choice.  The magazine contacted me several month’s later to inform me that they would like to use the image in their Morgan Horse marketing campaign at the Kentucky Horse Park.  If only Royal could understand…but who needs inflate a horse’s ego!

While prepping Royal, I captured this image of Christina straightening his forelock.  The image turned out to be a little out of focus, which inspired my use of Photoshop’s watercolor filter.  Normally such mistakes wind up in the trash, but I liked the colors here and I feel that it captures the connection between horse and rider in a slightly dreamy way.

Most of what I got during the formal shoot consisted of stuff like this.  Pretty decent.  I used my favorite lens – the Nikon 70-200 VR which makes a nice creamy bokeh – a Japanese word describing the quality of the out of focus region of the image.  Of course the newer version of that lens has come out, but it’s like 2300 bucks, and I have no complaints about this older lens.

Here’s the winning shot placed into the advertisement at the Kentucky Horse Park.  Royal is a star!

I’ve never taken pictures underwater until this past weekend – It was so much fun!  I was bobbing up and down in the waves trying to figure out the menu settings and adjusting the ISO.  The camera was rated for 60 minutes in the water so I worked quickly.  The first half hour was spent taking bad pictures while I tried to figure out what I was doing.  I shot these pictures after I figured out what I was doing.  Although I enjoyed this new challenge, I had to return the camera to the store since one of its seals developed a small leak.  Nothing was damaged, but I didn’t trust it – I didn’t want to risk the seal on a $300 camera.

Just a few airplanes that I photographed this evening for your viewing…

These images were shot on Guam during the golden hour – the last hour of daylight when
the colors are accentuated.  Note the long shadows.  The Omega tanker is a civil
contractor providing refueling to Navy F-18s (below).

This piece was installed in a South Hill Spokane home during a recent interior home remodel.  It’s noteworthy for two reasons:  the workmanship of the cabinet/table and the wall that has a wave pattern.  A special light  shines down from above onto the wave wall that slowly and subtly changes color creating a soothing and relaxing environment.  The light wave wall was designed by Escent Lighting (http://www NULL.escent-ltg NULL.com) and the cabinet/table crafted by Hanson Carlen (http://www NULL.hansoncarlen NULL.com) both of Spokane, Washington.

The extendable table is retracted making this piece appear to simply be a cabinet.

In this side view we can see the table extended out from the cabinet.
Half the table is placed into the opening revealed by the side door when not in use.

The wall’s three dimensional texture allows for a
wide range of shades of color from one color of light.

The Spokane Convention Center is bordered on its south and east sides by a colorful sculpture, a “Current Event” representing a river of fish.   This wrap around sculpture is best captured at night when its electric reds and blues can be appreciated.  Properly documenting this project was a challenge as it is about 700 feet long and borders a very busy road.  The other challenge was the drunk who came after me wanting my new and expensive 70-200 lens.  I lost him when I ducked into a nearby restaurant.  Maybe in the future, I’ll carry pepper spray.  Hindsight being 20/20, I should have gotten his portrait, but he probably wouldn’t have signed the model release.

Anyway, this piece serves a dual purpose -  in addition to being art, it screens the view of the loading docks from the street.  This piece was designed by the well known Spokane artist Ken Spiering and was completed in the fall of 2006.  Ken Spiering is best known for the interactive sculpture “Radio Flyer Wagon” in Spokane’s Riverfront Park.