A little life imitating art

Sometimes, just sometimes you manage to get the details right by waiting a bit. Cropping helps too. I spotted the worker on an earlier pass but the shadows weren't right to make the image "work" the way I wanted with the tromp l'oeil on the side of this buidling in Venice Beach that was getting a little touch up work done. A couple of hours passed and lo-and-behold the artist doing the work moved his ladder up higher AND the sun moved enough that the shadows matched direction.

Call it all in the planning for the shadows, stroke of luck with the artist moving his ladder up higher.

Slowing it down has its purpose too

Not everything needs to be frozen in space. Sometimes action photos benefit from slowing down the shutter speed so things in motion blur better conveying their speed than a freeze frame would.

I shot this image with a slow shutter to allow the shark and moving water to blur creating a semi abstract frame. If you look closer you'll notice some spots in the image are still and in focus furthering the illusion of speed and power of the passing shark.

The image was shot at "Shark Reef" at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. Worth the price of admission as they control how many people are in the exhibit at one time so you actually get a little time and space to shoot what you want.

This image was processed from a RAW file with Adobe's CS5 and color corrected so it would look "right" when viewed.

Lion Fish

Aquariums are great places to explore the underwater world without the expense of learning to scuba dive (not to mention the cost to get there).

Shooting in an aquarium has its moments where there are numerous challenges to overcome. Some are easier than others...like unwanted reflections off of the glass. Simply attach a polarizing filter and adjust until the offending reflections are gone. Voila...no one knows you were standing in front of a wall of glass with a horde of others, it looks like you were really up close and personal with no barriers.

This image was processed from RAW with the help of Adobe's CS5. The color tone and temp were adjusted to get read of the hue shifts due to the combination of natural and artificial light sources.

Other than that it is how it appeared through the looking glass there Alice old pal.