City Reflections

Tonight I’m revisiting the previous topic of reflections.  I find myself in Pittsburgh daily and there are so many great buildings in this city.  Some of them are entirely glass on the outside and that makes for some great reflections.

Keep looking at what you don’t see and eventually you will see the unseen.

reflection reflection1 reflection2

Three Generations of the Amazing Batmobile

Todays post might take some of you back in time to the days of the caped crusaders fighting evil in Gotham City.  If you remember back to the the TV show and the cartoon blips with “BANG!!”, and “POW!!!” in them you will definitely remember the first of the three generations.  The second came many years later and the third is from the last two movies.

To the Batcave Robin

Bat1 Bat2 Bat3

Abandon

Tonights post is in response to a question I saw on another site.  It was in reference to photographing abandon building and houses.  The person was asking for information and opinions about how to go about photographing these places.  I have over the past year or so ventured into a few of these places.  And I will give everyone the same advice I gave the gentleman, be safe in your adventures.  These places are abandon and there is no telling what you might run into.  The house featured in todays post was missing much of the floors on the ground level.  Most definitely not a place to venture into alone.  Which brings me to my second bit of advise.  Don’t go alone, it’s always better to have a partner or two when you are looking around inside these places.

So if you go out and photograph abandon places please be cautious and have a great time.  It’s absolutely amazing what you can find in these places.

Leave a comment and tell me about your experiences in exploring abandon places.

Abandon1 Abandon2 Abandon3

That Amazing Machine Called the Bicycle

Tonights post is about that amazing machine called the bicycle.  Not only is the bicycle a great means of transportation, recreation, relaxation, and fun, it is a great subject for photography.  In the city there are plenty of opportunities to photograph bicycles that are conveniently placed just about anywhere there is a parking meter or pole for the owner to lock their bike.  When the sun is out they make excellent shadows on the ground.  How many of you have looked at the ground for the shadows a bicycle makes?  Next time you see a bicycle chained to a pole stop and take a look at the shadow that the bike cast.

Hope you enjoy.

Bike 1 shadow 2 Shadow 3

 

Shadow 1

1955 Chevy on Fire

Tonights post is a simple one.  Just a single picture of the car that my dad loved.  For those of you that know me, you know that I love cars.  And you may have deduced that from some of my post on here.  Well take that to the Nth degree when it came to my dad.  He loved cars with a passion and the 1955 Chevy was one of his favorites.  He had several over the years and he always told me that he would love to have one again.  Well that day never came for him, but maybe someday I’ll be in a position to own one of the cars my dad loved so much.

55 on Fire

Carving an Ice Dragon

Todays post is a few photos from the Ligonier ice festival.  I was there on Sunday and got a few shots showing the concentration of the sculptors.  I was amazed at the speed at which they were able to take a block of ice and form it into a sculpture using a chain saw, grinder, and Dremel tool.  It was fun to watch and this year the weather wasn’t that bad.  It was about 35 degrees or so which isn’t that bad considering the last time I was there it was about 10 degrees.

Hope you enjoy.

The Rat Rod Gets the Attention

So today I went to the World of Wheels car show in Pittsburgh.  I walked around the show photographing cars that cost more than most houses.  I’m talking about pristine cars, beautiful, perfect in every way.  But which cars do you think had the biggest crowd around them?  The Rat Rods.  For those of you that don’t know what a rat rod is this is the wikipedia definition:

rat rod is a style of hot rod or custom car that, in most cases, imitates (or exaggerates) the early hot rods of the 1940s, 1950s, and early-1960s. Most rat rods appear “unfinished”, regardless of their status, as only the vehicle’s bare essentials are driven.

So todays post will have a couple of rat rods and I will post some of the other cars over the next few days.

Tomorrow I’m heading out to the ice festival in Ligonier, Pa hopefully I’ll find a few interesting things to post.

The Intricate Parts of an Automobile

Tonights post is a prelude to my day off tomorrow.  The World of Wheels car show is in Pittsburgh this weekend and tomorrow you will find me meandering through the cars with camera in hand.  I’ve posted before about my love of the automobile and the ties that I have to it and my father.  Tomorrow will be no exception, although he is gone now I know that he would have truly loved this show.  I hope you enjoy the photos as much as he would have.

Here are a few cars from past shows.  Tomorrow I will post some from this years show.

When it’s Cold Outside Try….

When it’s too cold outside like it has been here the last couple of days one of the things that I like to do is still life photography.  I will take over the kitchen and turn it into a studio with my lights, backdrops, and other items all just to take a few pictures of something I saw sitting around the house.

For the technical readers I use Elinchrom studio lights model Bx500ri with soft boxes, grids, and mini spot attachments.  I have been using these lights for about a year or so and have found them to be simply amazing.

Below is a few of the photos I shot using these lights and my Nikon D300.  Hope you enjoy.  And as always comments and questions are welcome.