This has got to be, hands down, the best image of an eclipse that I’ve ever seen.
Cathleen Allison – Eclipse Photo
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Abandoned Coal Mine / Processing Facility
I’m currently in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a very scenic place. There is lots to look at here – the countryside is very beautiful, the mountains are gorgeous, and there are plenty of parks with hiking trails, waterfalls, beautiful forests, etc.
So one thing I didn’t expect to find here was an abandoned coal mine. It’s probably the biggest abandoned building I’ve ever been inside, not to mention the most dangerous. A couple of buddies from work went there with me – in a couple of shots, you can see Doug setting up for shots of his own. I used my brand new Sunpak tripod. The thing is awesome – it was just under fifty bucks at Best Buy, it has a pistol grip head that has a complete range of movement in a sphere, and it has retractable spikes on the feet for use in outdoor environments. I love the thing.
So back to the creepy old mine (sounds like an episode of Scooby-Doo eh?), we stumbled and burrowed our way around for the better part of three hours. There was lots to see – old equipment, boilers, electrical boxes, some sort of generator / turbine assembly, and a set of four absolutely huge furnaces. Lots of light play was going on, many opportunities for framing shots through windows, and in general it was an incredible all around experience.
If you ever find yourself in Wilkes-Barre, head south from town on highway 309 and wind your way through the village to see this incredible piece of history.
Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge
The always outstanding Retronaut.co has some fantastic images that were taken during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, in the years leading up to 1937. The bridge got it’s name from the Golden Gate - the body of water that connects the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean – and is one of the worlds most photographed bridges. See here some of the very first of those photographs.
WonderLand – Aimishboy Photography
Incredible macro photography from Nadav Bagim, of Israel. He sets up miniature scenes on his kitchen table, adds an insect or two, and the results are nothing less than fantastic. The color that he manages to bring out in his photos is amazing in it’s own right, but add that to the nature of each scene he’s created and the way he’s managed to give personality to the subject of each photo, and you can see that there is something extra special here.
Ft. Fisher, NC – Rocks and Sky
Here I stand,
Once again,
On my tiny speck of dust.
Peering out of the blackness,
Looking at the lights,
With a heart full of wonder.
And just for an instant,
I perceive the Cosmos,
And I blow the stars away
Like dandelion seeds.
Beached Whale on Carolina Beach.
A small whale washed up on the beach here in Wilmington. It apparently is a Minke Whale. There is no cause of death at the moment, but officials from the local aquarium are picking up the carcass at some point to do a necropsy. The whale was torn up quite a bit, with a huge section of flesh torn out, most likely by sharks. In recent weeks a fairly large great white shark has been spotted, and also a sperm whale, off the southeastern North Carolina coast.
Technical details – I only used flash in one of the images seen here, it should be fairly obvious which one. The others were exposures of around thirty seconds or so, using moonlight and light coming from the boardwalk behind me. This enabled me to almost completely eliminate the yellow police tape and spectators walking around the whale, as well as giving a nice cool blue tone to the picture. I love shooting this way.
Shoot Stunning Night Photos Like a Pro
A fairly decent article on night shooting from Wired.com author Jakob Schiller.
A little light, a little luck.
Here’s a shot of a bridge that I took deep in the mountains of Alum Rock in San Jose, CA. I just came across this sitting on my hard drive and realized I’d never really shared it with anyone. Now, this was taken with a Droid X, but it’s a pretty decent camera for a phone and the light was just amazing when I took this, so it turned out very well. Ethereal, almost like a painting. I wish I could duplicate this, but the technical ability to turn out pictures like this at will eludes me. One day…
Woolworths in NYC ca 1913
I just came across an amazing photo of a scene in New York City of the Woolworths building in 1913. It’s a nice large image, so you can get in there and see some detail. It’s interesting to see the line of traffic on the street to the right side of the photo.
Itinerant Photography
An interesting phenomenon that I’d never heard of before. Back in the 30′s, itinerant photographers would photograph many aspects of a town and it’s residents, then try to sell prints to said residents.
Here is a fairly large gallery of photo’s from this time period, hosted by the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center. It’s a fantastic look at how life was in the early part of the 1900′s. These photo’s are from the Corpus Christi area circa 1930-1940.