All Along the Boulevard...

While hoarfrost and ice is not the best weather for commuting or keeping the grid online, it certainly does make for great pictures.  

Mary Patterson took this picture of her neighborhood.  

Enjoy

Icy Reception

Lara Williams made this image after our latest ice debacle.  

Enjoy

I See it's Icy

Yesterday's Ice was wet and showing off for the camera.  There were icicles everywhere and even though the elusive sun didn't grace us here in Washington, there were plenty  of great shots just waiting for someone to make a great photo.  More to come...

Foggy Evening

This is an image that Julie Mangold made of last night's fog enveloping the square.  What I particularly like is the story of solitude it tells me.  There are many faces to our venerable square and this one makes me want to live in one of the great apartments there.

Enjoy

Drop

What's in a drop of water?
              Click for a better view

Mexico Trip

For those that are wondering, there really is a Mexico trip in the offing.  Currently, I am thinking of March 2nd to March 11th.  That is still a bit fluid depending on airline deals, hotels, in-country travel, and a myriad of other stuff I am trying to tie down.  I'm assuming 6 people for the sake of pricing more or less will change the amounts shown here. Tour/class fee is being developed along with the rest of the itinerary.


Here's a skeletal view of what is being planned (much more in planning).

Air flights ± $355 round trip/taxes and fees included

• One free checked bag and the normal carry on stuff
• Leaves 5:19 am from Cedar Rapids (CID)
• Arrives 1:35 pm in Cancun (CUN)
• Don't even think about this without a valid passport

Ground transportation to first hotel $35 for the whole group

First Hotel  Imperial Las Perlas Cancun $50 per night Double Occupancy

• 2, 3, 4,  5th or 6th check out and go to Isla Mujeres
• This first hotel is a mid-level hotel it has:
  

1.     on the beach
2.     all meals and snack included
3.     Large rooms with goofy Mexican TV and Fridge
   
4.     all the beverage you can deal with
5.     Cool palapa restaurant that is over the water
6.     Cool beach bar
7.     Non motorized water sports (sea kayaking sailing, etc.)
8.     Pool
9.    White sand beach
10.    Gift shop

• 5th or 6th ferry to Isla Mujeres $4:00
  
• check in at Na Balam Suites on the beach 3 nights $70 double occupancy (this one is not all inclusive)
  
• days on the beach priceless
• golf cart $15 bucks a day shared
• Downtown Isla at night $ 25-30 great food great street theater
• Breakfast $5
• Lunch whatever
• Snorkeling  emailing Capt'n Tony for current prices  I seem to recall it was about $30 and included an awesome lunch at the south end of the island.

Back to Cancun

click to see the restaurant

More to come... working on details for the trip to the Classic and post classic ruins at Chichen Itza, and some other stuff that I will talk about as information becomes available.

Hoarfrost Macro Fun

Those of you that woke up before noon today here in Washington may have noticed thick fog and just below freezing temperatures.  That is the formula for hoarfrost and all the cool things that result. The bit below is hoarfrost on our clematis.  I used fill flash, a wide aperture, macro settings.

The background is the roof of Barb's car - with a wide aperture it gives the background a cool gradient feel.  Enough of that if you want the techy stuff here it is:

• Speed 1/180s
• f 8.0
• ISO 400
• FL 150.0mm

 

Enjoy!

Capturing Light

Here's another example of light and shadows - but it also is a balance of focus and blur.

We'll cover this in much greater detail in the classes that start tonight.

Thanks for looking.

Reviving Old Photos

Don't get me wrong I love the retro look of aging photos, but sometimes it's good

to revive them a bit to get some of the color and original feelings of the shot.

The same post production tools that we are going to use in the upcoming class can
be used to revive old photos.

The picture of the "Do's and Don'ts" that I got from Corbin Booth yesterday for the photo
quiz is a good example of reviving a photograph.  The 40 year old picture had faded enhancing the red dyes the most - that's normal, also at one time it had been hung on a bulletin board or similar and had a tack hole at the top.

Below is a before and after

Click on the photo above for a better view

I just thought I'd share, thanks.

Another Winter View

Since Facebook is yanking my chain

I felt I needed to post

Another winter view.

Sun and Snow

The sun and snow present interesting challenges.  The light is very much like white sand in the tropics, and unlike it at the same time.  Snow and sun does interesting things to blue.  A bit of touch up in Photoshop can tune up a disastrous white balance into something worth keeping.

Original photo with auto metering.

Better histogram - levels adjusted.

Quiet Thursday

Black and White

Central Park

January 7, 2010

A quiet Thursday Morning in Downtown Washington's Central Park

Enjoy!

Snow on its Way

Here's 
some
Currier &
Ives - like with
cars instead of horse
and buggies -

Feeling the Cold in a Photo

With the temperature fiercely refusing to budge past what the surface of Mars would be like in the Spring - it was a good time to go out and see if that cold could be captured.  

Judge for Yourself...

                      A little different view of Iowa Cold

Enjoy, and do check out our classes discussed below

January Classes

Here comes a lot of information --

Studio 909 is offering a series of courses beginning in January 2010.  The first course is geared toward improving your relationship with your digital camera.  It will be taught in four classes beginning January 14, 21, 28, and February 4, from 7-9 PM here at the studio, located at 909 S. Iowa in Washington (other dates and times to be added as needed).  

This class will:

• help you with your camera's settings and functions;
  
• methods of visualization and composition to move out of the "Snapshot" mode;
  
• use post-production software to take advantage of your digital images, (short version - cool stuff you can do with the computer), and
  
• to begin painting with light.

More info? email me at craig@studio909.net or twitter @cjswift

Now for the first course, listed below are few FAQs to get you started.  


You can always email craig@studio909.net or twitter @cjswift.

FAQ:

O.K. that's cool, but what will I need to take the class?

• A digital camera

That covers a whole lot of equipment - let's be more specific. 1) You will need a digital camera that has a USB port and the cord that goes with it. 2) The camera should have a rechargeable battery pack, if not get a battery charger and at least one extra set of batteries. 3) A camera with some functionality, that means you can do something besides "auto setting" if your unsure contact me and we'll talk. Very very affordable cameras will fit within this category. 4) Some kind of flash memory.

• A PC or a Mac 
  

You will need a home computer with an internet connection. This can be Mac/PC/whatever, but a relatively recent OS (Operating System) would be good, for those with PC's at least XP.

• Free Software

You will need to download two software sets that are free and simple to use.  These are Picasa from Google, and Paint.net (an open source program that runs on just about anything and will introduce you to post-production [cool manipulation of your images]).

• Jump Drive

We will be transferring a lot of data and it's the easiest way to do it without too much fooling about.

• Several gigs of hard drive space you can dedicate to the class     

Digital photography eats hard drive space like (fill in the blank) you should have a few for the class. 

• What's this cost?

The cost of the first course is $25 per class or $ 100 for the four classes.  Payment arrangements are flexible - just contact me with one of the methods below.↴
None of this is rocket science, or I wouldn't be able to do it, if you have a question, contact me with one of the methods below:


email me at craig@studio909.net or twitter @cjswift  

Upcoming:


Later this winter we will be traveling to the Yucatan Peninsula for an all out photo bash of Maya ruins, white sand, tropical color, and much more.  We will have additional information with dates, costs etc, in a few weeks.  This is a trip not to miss, unless you don't like adventurous travel, soft warm tropical evenings, unbelievable tropical colors, jungle ruins, and great time with a great group of people.  Stay tuned...