I could not pass this image of a landing gear hubcap from Air Force One at the Reagan Presidential Library. It just popped out and grabbed me … and I was ready. I slightly darkened the edges to focus attention on the hub.
Boeing
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Category Archives: Details
Lesson From Tony and John
This image is based on a couple of lessons I have received in the past. The first one is from Tony Sweet: “When you see a cool background, find something to put in front of it”. The second lesson is from John Barclay: “When you see red … shoot”. Walking along a trail in the woods a patch of red leaves caught my eye. By themselves, they were not very interesting, but their combined color made me look twice. I walked around and saw this scrawny branch with green leaves hanging down. Again, by itself it was just ho-hum. But when I lined up the bright green against the red background, the image “popped” in my mind.
Tony would have further critiqued this image and suggest that the green leaf in the top right corner should be removed. He would also have commented that the small white dot in the top third of the red background be cloned out. Tony is a sticker on details. So here is the corrected file:
It does make a difference!
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Fonthill Study: Where Should I Put This?
I can imagine what a problem Mercer had with finding places to put his collection. Can’t find a place? Just put a net on your ceiling and stuff it full of interesting things. Here, Henry could lay on his sofa below, look up and view his Etruscan pottery collection.
For some reason this collection captures my attention each time I enter Mercer’s study. Not necessarily for the photographic interest but by my awe of Mercer and his ambition and drive to collect such a variety of artifacts from around the world. His fascination of pottery led him to develop and create his fantastic tiles.
The image below shows the perspective that Mercer could have viewed his collection from. I am sure there were a lot of good naps taken here in the comfort of his study.
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Fonthill Study: Notes
Henry Mercer kept impeccable notes on his research, work and collections. Many are kept on display throughout Fonthill. Every time I walk through his rooms, I find new details that I have overlooked or have not seen before.
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Fonthill Study: One Last Desk
Mercer’s fourth desk is my least favorite. This is my only image of this desk from my multiple visits here. My eye has always focused on the large windows and the chest.
Mercer’s study is an intimate and very warm feeling room. I imagine that if Henry got a little bored in his study, he could always go down to his more formal large library on the main floor of the castle. The Library will be a future set of posts sometime in the future.
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Fonthill Study: Another Desk
This third desk is nestled into a small alcove in the back part of Mercer’s study. I have not seen light reach this part of the study. Note the strange looking object hanging from the ceiling. It is an Arabic oil lantern. Mercer’s collection of ancient implements and artifacts around the world is amazing. There are very few walls in the castle that are not covered by art or artifacts.
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Fonthill Study: Desk #2
This desk with late morning sun shining across it is located on an adjacent wall from the desk shown on my last post. Depending on his mood and light, Mercer would pick where he wanted to work in his study.
The image below is taken looking down the desk from the end. At the end tucked away in a corner is a leather lounge sofa. I imagine it was a good place for that “afternoon nap”. Above the sofa is his collection of ancient and Early American pottery.
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Fonthill Study: Remington Noiseless
Henry Mercer’s Study is my favorite room at Fonthill. Mercer has 4 working desks situated strategically around the room to capitalize on the light as it progresses throughout the day. This image is one of the “standard” photographs taken of the room. I attempted to give it a little different perspective by converting to B&W and focusing the light on the typewriter.
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An Exercise in Balance
This image was taken looking straight up inside the Capitol Dome. It was a exercise in balance from two perspectives. First, I worked hard to balance the image from side to side and top to bottom. The image is not cropped. The second perspective was to keep my physical balance as I stood looking straight up with my camera. To compensate for my dizziness I had to shoot at 1/250 second at ISO 3200. The second perspective of balance was much harder for me.
I have been inside the Capitol several times over the past years. Access inside the building has changed over time. When we lived in the DC area in the mid-80’s, one could enter the building and explore without being on a scheduled tour. I recall times when I could just walk into the Senate and House galleries and observe sessions in progress. Not so any more, times change … many times not for the best.
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Iwo Jima Memorial
From the Air Force Memorial we shot down to the Marines Memorial. While I took several images of the overall sculpture, I felt like these two detail photos captured the feeling best for me. The above image reflects the consolidated effort required to win the battle. The expressions on the two soldiers faces shown below seem to project focus and determination.
Shadows from the high noon sun hid the details on the soldiers faces. I used NIK Viveza and Color Efex Pro to brighten their faces while still maintaining the shadows and not blowing out the highlights in the rest of the image. To accentuate the structure details, darken the blue sky, and keep the patina from the bronze, I first converted to black and white using NIK Silver Efex Pro. To finish the photo, I blended the B&W version back into the color image.
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