Radiant View Photography Photo Blog

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-23T20:50:00.000-05:00

National Capitol Christmas Tree and US Capitol Building, Washington, DC

One of my families favorite activities this time of year is to visit the Christmas Tree at the US Capitol. If you are in the area, it's well worth the visit.

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

National Capitol Christmas Tree and US Capitol Building, Washington, DC

First Snow

2011-10-30T20:23:00.000-04:00

First Snow at White Sulphur Springs Heritage House

This past weekend, my family went to a weekend getaway at White Sulphur Springs, Eastern conference center of Officers' Christian Fellowship. While there, we received around 10 inches of snow. Snow of any amounted is unexpected for the end of October, but great fun for photography and enjoying the time away.

OCF just opened the Heritage House conference center this past spring, so not only was it the first snow of the year, it was the first snow to fall on the newly opened center.

Night falls on the first snow at Heritage House

2011 Nature Visions Expo

2011-10-25T20:31:00.002-04:00

I learned yesterday that three of the images I submitted to the 2011 Nature Visions Expo were juried into the Expo. The three images are posted below, although a couple of them have been featured in previous post. You can see my images that were accepted into the 2010 Nature Visions Expo in this post.

The Nature Visions Photo Expo will be held the 11 - 13 November at the Hylton Performing Arts Center located on the Prince William County Campus of George Mason University. They will have several speakers, including a keynote address by Art Wolfe.

Saguaro cactus and star trails around the north star.

Eastern Box Turtle, taken near Pittsburgh, PA

Eye of the Turtle

Cook Forest State Park, near the Allegheny National Forest.

Forest Dreams

BCC 5K Run and Fall Fest 2011

2011-09-17T22:19:00.000-04:00

Joshua S and Kiernan C start the BCC 5K

Broadlands Community Church in Ashburn, Virginia held its second annual 5K run and fall festival this weekend to benefit the Ashburn Volunteer Fire Department.

Christine M finishs the BCC 5K

Ellie helps out with the games during the fall festival

A few more pics are in the video below.

Full Moon over DC

2011-09-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

My daughter and I went to photograph the full moon over DC this evening. Almost every year in September, the full moon rises at just the right spot so that it is aligned over the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and Capitol Building. We positioned our cameras in front of the Netherlands Carillon and waited for the moon to rise. Here are four of the pictures I captured, all straight out of the camera with only minor adjustments in Adobe Bridge.

Becca and Taylor Wedding

2011-09-11T20:58:00.004-04:00

I had the pleasure this past weekend to be the assistant photographer to Angela Goodhart at the wedding of Becca and Taylor. Becca and Taylor are a delightful couple to photograph, so full of energy and ideas. They really made photographing the wedding an enjoyable event. I focused on preparation shots of the groom and groomsmen while Angela focused on Becca and the Bridesmaids' preparations and the formal portraits after the ceremony. Angela did a terrific job working with the couple and bringing out their youthful energy; I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to assist her.

Becca and Taylor

Their wedding was held at Rose River Farm near Syria Virginia. Rose River has absolutely gorgeous mountain scenery and Becca and Taylor were blessed with beautiful weather for the outdoor wedding. I could not think of better location or a more enjoyable couple to photograph as my first assistant wedding assignment.

More pictures below. Plus you can see a video containing both Angela's and my pictures on Angela's blog.

The Groom and Groomsmen coming out of their Yurt Cabin

The Groom and Groomsmen

Watching the Bride come down the aisle

Going for the garder!

Virginia Military Institute

2011-09-05T10:26:00.000-04:00

While in Lexington, Virginia over Labor Day weekend, I made an early Saturday morning trip to the Virginia Military Institute Post. Even at the early hour of 6 AM, the cadets were quite active, especially new cadets living on the 4th (top) floor of Barracks.

VMI Old Barracks

Cadets streaming out of Barracks for morning formation

Cadet walking past Jackson Memorial Hall

VMI Cadet Battery

Charlottesville Virginia

2011-09-05T10:23:00.000-04:00

Over Labor Day Weekend, my family took a trip to Charlottesville, Virginia. We walked around the University of Virginia Campus one evening and toured Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, the next morning. I was struck by the architectural similarity between the UVA Rotunda building and Monticello.

University of Virginia Rotunda

University of Virginia Academical Village

Monticello

Fort Point

2011-08-28T13:12:00.000-04:00

Golden Gate Bridge before sunrise

Another trip to San Francisco and a few more images from the area around the Golden Gate Bridge. This time I concentrated on the southern side of the bridge in an area called Fort Point. Fort Point is where the first ship to enter San Francisco Bay dropped anchor in August of 1775. Unfortunately, I arrived there just in time for the iron door into the fort to be clanged shut in my face (literally), so I didn't get to see the inside.

Golden Gate Bridge around morning twilight

Perhaps next time I visit there, I can get an image of the top of the bridge sticking out above a fog layer. For more images from the Golden Gate area, see my previous posts titled: Golden Gate at Sunrise, Golden Gate Bridge, and San Francisco.

Sunrise over the Potomac

2011-07-31T15:39:00.000-04:00

My daughter and I went out early Saturday morning to capture the sunrise over the potomac river at Algonkian Regional Park in Sterling, VA. This is the same location where I posted sunrise shots from almost a year ago. This time, the clouds provided much more colorful images. As always, I appreciate your feedback.

Old Car in the Woods

2011-07-23T22:25:00.000-04:00

I came across this old abandoned car in the woods one day. It's in pretty sad condition, but made for some interesting photographic opportunities

Allegheny National Forest

2011-06-25T18:41:00.002-04:00

I captured these images during a recent trip the the Allegheny National Forest. I loved the way the early morning light was hitting these trees. This image was created by deliberately moving the lens while pressing the shutter to emphasize the straight form of this particular area of Cook Forest, located near the Allegheny National Forest. Cook Forest and Allegheny National Forest are located in north west Pennsylvania.

Morning Light

I was drawn to the contrast in size between this young pine tree and its full size parent next to it. It reminded me of the way young animals stick close to their parent.

One day, I'll be big too

I was surprised to see this life guard chair out in the middle of Cook Forest. Turns out it was there for a French and Indian War reenactment the following weekend, but it just looked so out of place I had to capture it.

Where's the pool?

I came across a tree that had been uprooted. This particular portion reminded me of a bird about to take flight from roots of this old tree.

Swan

West Virginia Workshop

2011-06-19T16:28:00.002-04:00

Sunrise at Dolly Sods

During Memorial Day weekend, I participated in a West Virginia Photography Workshop with Joe Rossbach and the Loudoun County Photography Club. We had a great time focusing on our photography for the weekend. Here are a few of my images from that weekend.

Elakala Falls, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

Blackwater Falls, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

Fern, Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

Douglas Falls near Thomas, WV

2011 TECH Banquet

2011-05-17T21:03:00.000-04:00

I had the privilege to photograph the 2011 TECH Homeschool Banquet last week. I really enjoyed interacting with all the parents and students. You can view the images by going to my webpage, www.radiantviewphotography.com, and click on "event photos" on the left hand column. Here are a couple images and a few more after the jump.

Lines

2011-05-09T20:50:00.000-04:00

Back in January, I did a photo walk during the early morning hours in Leesburg, VA. One of the images I captured was of this window in Market Station off Harrison Street. You can see the original image in my January post.

Lines

I really like the lines and texture of the image, so I entered it into the Loudoun Photo Club's "Doors and Windows" competition in April. To my delight, it won 1st place in the Advanced Monochrome category and Best in Show overall. Roy Sewall, a local photographer specialize in the Great Falls and Mather Gorge area, was the competition judge.

I processed the raw image through Adobe Camera Raw to bring out the texture of the wood, then used a couple curve adjustment layers in multiply blending mode to further enhance the texture and bring out detail in the background shadows. Finally I used a Photoshop black and white adjustment layer to covert the image to monochrome.

Garden of the Gods

2011-05-07T18:02:00.001-04:00

Garden of the Gods Park

I recently visited Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The park has some wonderful photographic opportunities. I hope you enjoy a selection of the photos I captured.

Siamese Twins Rock Formation

Balanced Rock

A hard existence for this tree

Garden of the Gods Park

I saw this view of Pike's Peak on my 1st day at the park while exploring the Siamese Twins Formation. I visualized a shot with the morning's red sun lighting up Pike's Peak in the background as well as the rock's face in the foreground. As it turns out, the sun wasn't quite as red on Pike's Peak as I hoped, but it still made a neat shot. You can see the shadow on the lower part of the rock face that indicates how far the sun had risen. This is a composite (focus stack) of two images, one focused on the rock face and the other on Pike's Peak.

Siamese Twin Rock window view towards Pike's Peak

Golden Gate at Sunrise

2011-04-06T20:56:00.000-04:00

I had the opportunity to photograph the Golden Gate Bridge. This was my first time at the bridge during sunrise. As on my first visit, I was fortunate to have remarkably clear weather, although my shooting angle was essentially the same as the last photo in my second visit. Since I was shooting into the sunrise, I was pretty much done by the time the sun actually rose above the horizon. I was glad of this later when I encountered the traffic delay from an accident on the way to SFO for my late morning flight.

Golden Gate Bridge at Sunrise

This image is a merge of three images taken in portrait orientation and then combined using Photoshop CS5. Each exposure is 30 seconds long.

Cherry Blossoms at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

2011-04-03T21:14:00.001-04:00

This morning I joined over twenty other photographers from the Loudoun Photo Club for a field trip to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens to capture the blooming Cherry Blossoms. We had beautiful weather. Here are a few of the images I captured. I would appreciate any comments.

Great Falls at Flood Stage

2011-03-12T20:02:00.000-05:00

Great Falls near flood stage, 12 March 2011

After the several inches of rain the Northern Virginia area received this past week, the Potomac River and Great Falls approached flood stage. Predictions were that it would exceed flood stage on the evening of 12 March. I went early that morning to see how it looked. Thankfully the Virginia side of Great Falls National Park was open even though the Maryland side was closed.

The photo at the top of the page was taken this morning. Note the tree on the left. The photo below was taken on Christmas Eve last year. That same tree is the one in front of the photographer in the blue jacket.

Comparison shot of Great Falls from December 2010

A few more photos of the rapids is after the jump.

50 images with a 50mm on day 50

2011-02-19T21:22:00.001-05:00

Canon 50mm F/1.4 lens

I heard about this challenge a couple years ago, but this is the first time I've been able to participate -- perhaps because it finally fell on a weekend. The challenge is simple: capture 50 unique images with a 50mm lens on the 50th day of the year -- 19 Feb. What is unique about a 50mm? The "nifty 50," as it is often called, is known as a "normal" lens. "Normal" because it is approximately the same field of view as what the human eye sees. Longer focal lengths (telephotos) zoom in more than the average human eye and shorter focal lengths (wide angle) see more to the side than we do. Since 50mm prime lenses are very common, they are also relatively inexpensive (hence the "nifty" name), making them a prime candidate for a beginning photographer to add to their camera bag.

Shadows

Here are a few of the images I captured this year. You can see more after the jump and even more on my flickr page. I'll end with the image below of daffodils just starting to break through the ground. It's not my best image, but it's my favorite of the day as it means the warm weather and the colors of spring are quickly approaching.

Spring is near!

More images after the jump and on my flickr page.

Lensbaby Lunch

2011-01-30T19:29:00.000-05:00

I took my Lensbaby Composer and camera with me to lunch at Red Robin yesterday. The Lensbaby is a 50mm manual focus prime lens whose unique characteristic is a "sweet spot" of focus that you can move around the frame by bending the lens. It takes some practice to use, but can produce some really unique looking images.

Red Robin Banzai Burger shot thru a Lensbaby Composer lens

Winter Snow Revolt

2011-01-27T19:40:00.002-05:00

Composite of multiple exposures while rotating the camera

Like many in Northern Virginia, I was caught in the traffic snarl during yesterday's "Thunder Snow Storm." I have never experienced anything quite like it before and don't want to again -- and I was more fortunate than some. For those not in the area, the precipitation started just as some people were being released early from work (around 3pm). It changed quickly from rain to sleet to wet heavy snow with snowfall rates of 2-3 inches per hour. The combination of the sudden flux of traffic and the snow brought traffic to a dead stop. The snowplows were useless because the roads were clogged with immobile cars. Basically, I left work at 4:30pm and was in standstill traffic for the next five and half hours. Finally at 10pm I was able to turn onto a side street back towards my office. I was only about a mile away, but it took me another 30 minutes. I spent the night in my office and went home in the morning around 6am. I passed over a dozen cars that had been abandoned, either because they were hopelessly stuck or had run out of gas. I heard on the news that it took some people 10-12 hours to make it home. Completely unreal.

Lensbaby trio

While the snow on the trees was pretty, I just couldn't bring myself to take any pictures of it after that experience. So, after I got home, I revolted against the colorless snow, went to the grocery store and bought a bouquet of flowers. I spent much of the day photographing the flowers using either a Lensbaby or a Canon 70-200 F/2.8 with a 55mm extension tube. The extension tube allows a closer focusing distance (~12 inches) than the 70-200 normally allows (1.4 m).

Bed of pink

Reaching for the light

I hope you will join me in revolting against the winter snow and find something colorful to help you remember that spring is less than 2 months away.

Photo Walk in Old Town Leesburg

2011-01-23T19:25:00.000-05:00

Despite the cold (9 deg F) weather this morning, I did an early morning photo walk in Leesburg, Virginia this morning. I love taking pictures at early morning hours as the long shutter speeds brings out colors that our eyes just don't see. Plus, the cold and early morning hour meant that the streets were deserted, which makes setting up a tripod much easier. Here are a few shots from this morning's outing. More images from this morning are available on my flickr page. I welcome your comments.

Loudoun County Courthouse at twilight

Lines

The Pink Door

Corks

Golden Gate Bridge

2011-01-05T18:02:00.000-05:00

Panoramic of the Golden Gate Bridge

During another business trip to the San Francisco area in mid-December, I returned to the Golden Gate Bridge National Recreation Area to try and capture some images of the bridge from different angles. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I missed the overlook I was trying to find during my previous trip in September and wanted to try again.

For the image above, I stood on top of a overlook off of Conzelman road for about an hour waiting for the sun to set. I was praying the sun would pop out from the clouds/haze and illuminate the bridge just long enough for a few shots. My prayer was answered about 30 minutes before sunset. The sun stayed out just long enough for me to capture a set of 7 images, which I stitched together to form the panoramic above.

While there, I also stopped by the Ridge Battery and Battery Spencer and captured the images below. These were gun emplacements set up shortly after the Civil War to protect the San Francisco Bay. You can still see the earthen walls they build to provide protection from enemy fire.

Golden Gate from the Ridge Battery

Golden Gate Bridge from Battery Spencer

Great Falls at Sunrise

2010-12-29T22:08:00.000-05:00

While I was off work a few days during the Christmas season, I took the opportunity to go the Virginia side of Great Falls National Park and take some pre-sunrise and sunrise pictures. The wonderful thing about taking pictures 30 minutes or so before the sun rises is you can easily extend your exposure time to 10 seconds or more. This allows the normally turbulent water to appear smooth and silky.

Pre-sunrise image of Great Falls. 10 second exposure

Red sunrise sky reflecting in the water above Great Falls

High Dynamic Range image of the pre-sunrise sky at Great Falls

It turns out that I was not the only one out there, although I was not as adventurous as he to climb out on the ice rocks so close to the falls.

A fellow photographer capturing the ice on the falls

I wish everyone a Happy New Year and thank you for visiting my blog and leaving comments on my work.

Total Lunar Eclipse 20101221

2010-12-21T18:58:00.000-05:00

We had a total lunar eclipse early on the morning of Dec 21st, a rare event to coincide with the 1st day of winter. Unfortunately, the weather was not the best with a layer of clouds that drifted in and out of the view finder. More importantly, the rush of Christmas preparations prevented any dedicated all night photography outing. So, using a variety of tools including The Photographer's Ephemeris to estimate how the moon would move in the sky, I set the camera up before I went to bed. I set the timer to start taking pictures around 01:30 when the moon entered the Earth's umbra (shadow) and programmed the timer to take a picture every 2 minutes for 99 times (the max on my timer). That placed the last picture around 04:40, just before the moon left the earth's shadow on the other side. Using my experience from the Lunar Eclipse in February 2008, I used an exposure setting of F/4, 0.5 seconds and ISO 400. While this was a good exposure for the moon during the eclipse time of total eclipse, it cause the moon to blow out before and after. The clouds didn't help any either.

The image below is a composite of selected (19) of the 99 images I captured. The lens was a 24mm lens in portrait (vertical) orientation, so the motion you are seeing is how the moon moved down the sky between 01:30 and 04:40 this morning. Not my best image, but not bad either given that I just set the camera up and went to bed.

Total lunar eclipse from the early morning of Dec 21st 2010

Giving Back

2010-11-28T17:15:00.000-05:00

The past week, Angela Goodhart of Goodhart Photography and I teamed up to give back to God and our community this Thanksgiving and Christmas season. We worked with the wonderful staff of Inova Loudoun Nursing and Rehabilitation Center to provide free portraits to some of their long term residents.

Angela and I really enjoyed working on the project and I got to learn a great deal about "formal" portrait photography -- something I had not done extensively before. But the greatest joy was getting to meet the residents of the facility and using the gifts and talent God has given us to bless them this Holiday season.

The idea for this project was inspired by Craig Tanner of "The Mindful Eye." One of his Daily Critiques a couple years ago was on a portrait that someone had taken as a service project in a senior center. Craig challenged his audience to find ways to "give back" to the community through their photography. Angela and I built on that thought to provide these free portrait sessions and prints.

We used a two-light set-up with the main light on camera left and the fill on camera right, about 1.5 stops down from the main light. Both lights were about 45 degrees between camera and subject.

Thanks again to the wonderful staff at Inova Loudoun Nursing and Rehabilation Center (and especially Mabel) for not only helping to make this project possible, but so much fun. And thanks as well to my daughter for helping set-up the backdrop and lights and recording the name of each resident so we can easily get their portrait to them.

Merry Christmas,

Tim

Florets

2010-11-18T21:08:00.001-05:00

My family and I went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington DC earlier this week. Cameras were not allowed around the printing presses, but were allowed in the atrium and gift shop. The ceiling of latter was very ornamented. I guess they don't have much problem coming up with money to pay their contractors.

Ceiling of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Nature Visions Photo Expo

2010-11-11T07:14:00.000-05:00

Three of my images will be featured in the Nature Visions Photo Expo this weekend (13-14 November 2010). The expo will be held Saturday and Sunday at the new Hylton Performing Arts Center on the Prince William County Campus of George Mason University. Hours are from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm. If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to visit and look at all the images accepted into the expo.

I'm Watching You

Lotus on Canvas

Fall Triangle

Saguaros, Sunrises and Star Trails

2010-10-27T21:06:00.001-04:00

Saguaro at Sunset, McDowell Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix, AZ

I just returned from a 3 day trip to Phoenix and was blessed by a gorgeous sunset the first night and beautiful clear skies the next two nights. Pictures of long exposure light trails, with the stars swirling around the North Star, have always been favorites of mine. I have tried, unsuccessfully, several times over the past couple years. I finally succeeded early one morning a couple weeks ago with a star trail over the Potomac River. However, I couldn't get a long enough exposure before the sun rose. More importantly, I lacked an interesting foreground. The Saguaro Cactus and desert night sky of Arizona could solve both of those issues.

Light Trails at McDowell Mountain Park near Phoenix, AZ

I arrived in Phoenix to cloudy skies -- not promising conditions for star trails. I went to McDowell Mountain Regional Park anyway, if nothing else just to scout out the area. I arrived just after sunset. While there I played around with some long exposures, light painting saguaro cacti and finally capturing a 6 minute exposure of the night sky as I drove the car back and forth along the road -- with only the parking lights, no headlights.

More images and light trails after the jump:

The next morning, I went to White Tank Mountain Regional Park -- which was about an hour closer to my hotel than McDowell Mountain. The clouds were still around and I was greeted with a beautiful sunrise.

Sunrise at White Tank Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix, AZ

White Tank Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix, AZ

The skies cleared beautifully during the day on Monday, but I didn't get out of my work meetings in time to venture to McDowell Mountain that evening. Opting for the closer White Tank Mountain to attempt a star trails image, I set up my camera and started clicking away. I intended to use my flash light to paint some light onto the saguaro towards the end of the exposure -- about 40 minutes. I never had to do that as the park ranger pulled up just before 8 pm to kick me out of the park -- the lights of her vehicle lit the cactus up almost perfectly.

Star Trails and a Saguaro Cactus

I returned the following evening to the same location for a 2nd try. This time I used my 50mm F/1.4 lens instead of a 24-105 zoom and chose a portrait orientation rather than a landscape. I calculated how long I would have before the ranger showed up and set my timer for a one-hour exposure. I also gave myself enough time to paint the cactus with my flashlight during the last couple minutes of the shot -- finishing just as the ranger pulled into the parking lot.

Star Trails and a Saguaro Cactus

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback on my images. Please use the comment section below to leave comments.

Columbus Day Weekend Shooting

2010-10-11T21:44:00.000-04:00

Sunrise over the Potomac River

With the long Holiday weekend, I went out a couple mornings for some early morning photo sessions. I was largely motivated by the Mindful Eye Community Assignment on long exposure night photography. This assignment required an exposure time of 4 minutes or longer.

The first shot, shown above, was of the Potomac River at Algonkian Regional Park about an hour before sunrise. The sky was perfectly clear, the river calm, and the sun rising to the east provided a beautiful gradient of color across the sky.

More images after the jump.

What I saw when I got to Algonkian that morning, but didn't have time to capture before the sky began to lighten, was a wonderful place to capture a star trail with the stars circling around the North Star. I had been wanting to create an image like that for some time, but have never been out when it was dark enough and had a clear view of the northern sky. So, I went back to Algonkian another morning and had just enough time to capture the image below. It's a composite of four 4-minute exposures to create an effective 16 minute exposure.

Star Trail at Algonkian Regional Park

I created the next two images while the sun was rising. As it got closure to sunrise, I was having trouble capturing the full range of gorgeous colors in the sky and the thin layer of fog on the ground. So for the 2nd image, I took several different exposures and combined them into an HDR.

Sunrise at Algonkian Regional Park

HDR of Sunrise at Algonkian

As always, I welcome your feedback. Please use the comment box below to let me know which of these is your favorite.

Raptor Conservancy of Virginia Photo Shoot

2010-09-27T21:34:00.000-04:00

Eastern Screech Owl (Red Morph)

Getting up close-up shots of those majestic hawks, falcons and owls fills nature photographers dreams and inspires them to go out and spend thousands on super long telephoto lenses. For those who haven't made that financial commitment yet, the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia is a wonderful resource. The conservancy is a non-profit organization dedicated to the rehabilitation and release of injured, ill or orphaned native VA birds of prey. If the bird can't be released due to permanent injury or some other reason, they use it to educate the public about raptors. One way they carry out their mission is through photo shoots with some of their permanent resident birds. These birds are very accustomed to humans, which allows the photographers to get close up shots with normal telephoto lens.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in one of their photo shoots at the Claude Moore Park Photography Expo. I shared a session with 2 or 3 other photographers which features two Eastern Screech Owls (red and gray morph), a Barn Owl and a White Faced Scops Owl.

If you ever have the opportunity, I encourage you to participate in one of their photo shoots. I believe they are planning to be at the Nature Visions Photography Expo in early November.

Some of my favorite pictures after the jump:

Eastern Screech Owl (Red Morph)

Eastern Screech Owl (Gray Morph)

Barn Owl Talons

Scops Owl

Barn Owl

Claude Moore Park Photo Expo

2010-09-20T19:40:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to announce that a couple of my photographs and three of my daughter's will be shown in the 4th Annual Claude Moore Park Photography Exposition. If you are in the Northern Virginia area this weekend (September 18th and 19th) , I hope you will stop by and view these and all the images of the local photographers.

Being shown at the Expo include an image of an Eastern Box Turtle that I captured at Balls Bluff Regional Park.

Eastern Box Turtle, Accepted into juried show

I am very pleased that my image of the cadet cannons at Virginia Military Institute received Honorable Mention in the Advanced History and Heritage Category.

VMI Cadet Cannons, Honorable Mentioned, History and Heritage Category

For the 2nd year in a row, my daughter earned more, or at least better, ribbons than I did at the expo. Her image of Great Falls received 2nd place in the Youth Nature's Backyard Category.

Great Falls, 2nd Place, Youth Nature's Backyard Category

In addition, her image of a Butterfly at Brookside Gardens was accepted into the show in the Youth Winged Wonders Category.

Butterfly on Pink, Accepted into juried show

Broadlands Community Church 5K Run and Fall Festival

2010-09-18T18:51:00.000-04:00

The Broadlands Community Church hosted its 1st annual 5K Run and Fall Festival on Saturday, September 18th, to benefit the Inova Hospital Pediatric services. Over 160 people people participated in the 5K run. Click below for a small video of some of the pictures I captured during the event.

A few pictures are featured below. Check my Flickr page for more images.

Overall 5K winners

Making Cotton Candy

Games for the kids

What's for dinner

2010-09-08T22:03:00.000-04:00

Here's an image I created over the weekend. The Mindful Eye, a photography Forum I read nearly everyday, has an ongoing member challenge of "Food and/or Drink" and a Community Assignment of "RGB Color." My family and I came up with the idea of the picture below that I could use for both assignments. What could be a more balanced meal than chocolate mm's from all the major food groups (or at least colors).

What's for dinner

To create this image, I obviously started with a bag of mm's -- actually two bags, that we separated into colors. The table setting is on a piece of black fleece fabric and I capture the image with regular room lights. To help remove some of the glare from the glass, I used a trick I learned in the book by Fil Hunter called Light, Science and Magic. I placed a polarizer filter on my lens and captured two images, rotating the polarizer 90 degrees between captures. I then combined the two images in Photoshop.

What do you think? I look forward to your comments.

San Francisco

2010-09-05T13:19:00.000-04:00

I had the opportunity to travel to the San Francisco area on a business trip last week. I had been wanting to capture an image of the Golden Gate Bridge, so after my plane landed late Wednesday afternoon, I hurried to try to get to the bridge before sunset. Unfortunately I missed the overlook I was planing to go to and ended up further down by Fort Barry. My first set images were clouded by the brown smog from the city.

Golden Gate Bridge

I also captured a view what I think is Rodeo Cove. I captured 5 different exposures and combined then using Photoshop CS5 HDR Pro to give it a very ethereal feel.

Rodeo Cove

After leaving Fort Barry, I drove back to the Golden Gate Bridge area and found what appeared to be a fishing pier on the northeast side of the bridge. It still wasn't the angle I was originally looking for, but it provided a nice view of both the bridge and the San Francisco skyline.

Golden Gate Bridge

For this last image of the Golden Gate Bridge, I used a long (~30 second) exposure and then processed the image in Adobe Photoshop Raw Converter to set the white balance to fluorescent to get the colors to look right.

San Francisco Skyline

Thanks for looking and I look forward to reading your comments.

A New Start

2010-09-04T22:57:00.000-04:00

I had previously been hosting this photo blog at blog.radiantviewphotography.com on my own web space. But, keeping the blog updated and, especially, updating the blog software whenever WordPress released a new version became tiring -- especially since the "automatic" updates never seemed to work, probably user error. So, I thought I would try blogspot. At the least it will prevent me from having to update the blog software and hopefully it will be easier to keep updated as well.

And just to get the photoblog started, I'll post one of my first, and still favorite, images taken of the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. as the full moon was setting.

More to come.