Richmond, VA

My brother, Dave, and his wife, Shelley, are in Richmond this weekend and we took the opportunity to head to downtown Richmond for some cityscapes.  As you may recall from the "Citylypse 2010" tour, Dave and Shelley are fellow stock photographers and both are brilliant with night cityscapes.  We tend to make shooting city skylines a priority whenever we get together in most any city.  Shelley hadn't had the opportunity to shoot a night Richmond shot yet and it had been quite a while for Dave and I so we were determined to make it happen.

Am joined us and we headed for the floodwall.  We like to walk down along the rocks below the wall to get close to the water.  Tonight ended up being an incredible night as the James River was calmer than we have ever seen it.  Rather than the typical reflections of colored light that we get, we had perfect reflections of the buildings.  Here is my quick edit of one of my shots:

After church this morning we participated in the Richmond Kidney Walk.  This is our second year participating in the walk and is a great opportunity to raise money for the important work that the National Kidney Foundation does.  And this just so happens to be the event where Am and I had the opportunity to really talk for the first time last year.  Hard to believe that we are about to celebrate two months as a married couple just one year later!  Here is the Media General team at the Kidney Walk:

Add to that a good competitive evening of playing Sequence, homemade pizzas one night, grown up grilled cheese sandwiches the next night, and a whole lot of catching up and that makes for one great weekend!

Atlanta, GA

I traveled to Alabama this week to visit a couple of our print sites.  To save some cash, I flew into Atlanta and then drove the rest of the way.  When checking flights I discovered that I could save $170 if I waited and flew back on Saturday.  Bummer, that meant having to spend a night in Atlanta...a city in which I have never had the opportunity to capture a night cityscape.  So I decided to take one for the team and save the company some money by sticking it out in Atlanta last night.

The bad news is that I forgot a very key item - gloves!  And it was below freezing with a wicked wind chill.  The good news is that the lack of gloves didn't keep me from being able to take pictures - it just meant that I couldn't feel my hands by the time I was done.  Literally.  I couldn't feel my hands.  As hard as I tried, I couldn't collapse my tripod when I was finished.  I had walked two blocks before I finally was able to get my fingers to do what they needed to do.  It was crazy!  Yes, my Canadian friends, I am aware that those of us much closer to the equator are wimps - but it was still very cold!

I decided to take my cityscapes in the location where everyone takes Atlanta cityscapes.  Atlanta really only has one location where you can do a cityscape on water and you miss out on many of the cool buildings so I decided to save that location for when I come back in May.  The spot I chose is cool because you look down on a fairly busy section of roadways that go off in multiple directions.  So a nice long exposure gets those cool light trails. 

What I didn't take into account is that you are shooting from the top of a bridge.  While that doesn't matter when taking a cool cityscape for your personal collection, that doesn't work for stock photography unless you want to downsize your picture a TON.  You see, the bridge shakes every time a car goes over it.  With a nice long 30 second exposure, that means your picture doesn't come out crisp which is a sure-fire rejection.  So I couldn't capture the shot from the middle of the bridge where everyone else does which meant needing to take the picture from one side of the bridge or the other.  The other challenge was that there were not a lot of cars going into the city on a Friday night so there wasn't an even traffic flow.  So I chose the side with the most traffic. 

My normal night cityscape process involves taking shots every thirty second so I can go through and find the one that was taken at the perfect time when the sky was the deepest blue.  But the roadway I was capturing ran into a stoplight 100 yards behind me.  So I had to wait around 3 minutes between shots to get the traffic moving again so I would get the light trails.  Instead of my normal 50 or so shots to choose from, I had 6.  And there was a more important factor than the deep sky.  I had to figure out which had the best light trails - mainly which had the most traffic going into the city.  The final challenge was some dark clouds that didn't quite position themselves in an ideal spot. 

When all was said and done, I didn't quite get what I was looking for and I definitely decided I prefer water but I still got a shot I am happy with and that should be usable for stock.  Here's my first draft (still in Atlanta - will work on this more when I have my monitor in front of me):

P.S.  Less than 3 days until Independence kicks in!

Nieces Shoot

My niece, Savannah, spent some time over at my house this weekend so I took advantage of the opportunity and did a shoot with her and my other two neices, Gaby and Tessa.  We had a pretty hefty list of ideas but quickly found that there was no way we were going to get through them all and some just weren't going to work with a high energy toddler.

Savannah is 17 months old and, while absolutely adorable, has a very short attention span.  It is pretty hard to give direction and take your time with a toddler who is dying to get up and run toward the camera to play with the buttons!  Luckily I had lots of help.  Gaby and Tessa were absolutely brilliant.  They helped to hold her as still as possible while my mom and sister entertained her from behind me.

We didn't get a ton of pictures but the ones we did get were definite keepers (you can click on the images for larger versions).  Here are some of my favorites.  All of the images from the shoot will soon be up on iStock.

Deep Creek Model Shoot

Two weekends ago I gathered with 9 other iStock photographers in McHenry, Maryland at a fantastic lakefront home on Deep Creek Lake. We were joined by an incredible group of models - many with theater backgrounds - perfect for a stock shoot.

We started out the first night shooting a local conference center. We had the opportunity to shoot some shots in a conference room, at the hotel check-in counter, and out in the hotel lobby. Here are a few images from the resort:

The first full day was a shoot at the rental house on the lake.  We split into multiple groups and moved throughout the house and out by the lake.  It was an exhausting day but very rewarding.  I can't say enough about how great our models were.  I focused on relationship challenges - a theme that has worked well for me in the past.  Having some experienced actors and actresses as models really made this a lot of fun.  Here are some shots from the house:

Our final day was at Deep Creek Lake State Park.  We rotated among three tent sites.  Unfortunately I had to leave half way through to get back to Richmond in time to finish up some work but it was certainly fun while it lasted.

While I may not have taken any super sellers on this trip, it was certainly worth attending.  As I often find at iStock gatherings, the opportunity to hang out with and learn from other iStockers was priceless.  Thanks to all of the iStockers and models who attended!

Nashville, TN

I headed out Saturday for Nashville, TN for a conference for work (no, not a photography conference, this was a media finance conference for my real job).  The conference didn't officially begin until first thing Sunday morning so I had all day Saturday to explore Nashville.

You never would have guessed that they just endured such a tragic flood.  The city was clean and crowded, live music coming from each of the honky tonk bars on Broadway.  Everyone was upbeat and friendly.  While I am not personally a country music fan, I found the city to be quite wonderful. 

My research had shown that the best place for cityscapes was from Shelby Street Bridge - an absolutely beautiful pedestrian only bridge - which crosses the Cumberland River and leads from downtown Nashville to LP Field - home of the Tennessee Titans.  My scouting efforts showed the same.

As most of your know, I like to show up an hour early for my nightime cityscapes (skyline) - gives me plenty of time to set up and pick just the right spot.  This didn't work out quite as planned this go round.  I set out from my hotel for the bridge but found the sidewalks of downtown Nashville to be absolutely packed.  Turns out there was a James Taylor concert right next to the hotel.  I bobbed and weaved my way through the crowd (walking in the street quite often) and managed to miss a turn and wander all over downtown.

I finally arrived at my spot breathing hard and frustrated - only to find that I had based my calculations of what time to arrive on Eastern Standard Time - Nashville is on Central Standard Time!  I was there an hour and a half before twilight.  Way to go genius!

Being there early did have one perk.  I was able to meet a guy named Tanner.  Tanner was there with a bouquet of flowers.  Come to find out, his girlfriend was in Nashville visiting some friends.  He had flown into town and lined up with the friends that they bring her up to the bridge.  He planned to surprise her and propose!

As I was waiting for the perfect light, he was waiting for his future bride.  Twilight came on time - she did not.  I was growing more and more nervous for the guy.  He seemed like such a great guy and it would have ruined the night if she didn't show up or if she said no.  I was envisioning having to tackle him before he could jump off the bridge or something along those lines.

But she did eventually show.  When she saw him she was more excited than anyone I have seen in my entire life.  The answer was definitely yes.  That made the evening great regardless of my cityscape success.  Tanner - if you read this - congratulations!

But on to the cityscape.  Nashville cityscapes tend to look a little funny.  If you shoot from down by the river, you end up having to aim your camera up to a point that the buildings all slant to the middle of the picture.  The Cumberland River just isn't very wide and the buildings are quite tall.  The only way to get a straight on shot is to shoot from the bridge. 

But shooting from the bridge puts crosses a huge slant from the left hand side of the picture down to the right.  This leaves a lot of sky on the right.  The advantage in a night shot is this gives you a lot more of the deep blue that comes at twilight.  Overall, the Nashville cityscape isn't absolutely fantastic but it is quite cool.

Tampa, FL

I had the privilege of meeting with fellow iStocker, Joe (CJMGrafx) this evening.  We ate dinner at Bennigans - yep, there is still a Bennigans in Tampa!  I had a Monte Cristo in honor of my brother Dave (well, it was really because the Monte Cristo is just plain AWESOME, but we'll pretend it was solely out of love and respect for my brother).

After that it was off to my favorite Tampa Cityscape location (believe it or not, I do share my favorite locations with select people).  My goal was to try to nail a night cityscape panorama by taking multiple shots, post processing identically, and then trying to stitch the images together.  I don't have time tonight to go through this process (it is going to take a LONG time) but I did want to give a sneak peak of how Tampa looked this evening.  This really is one of my favorite cities to shoot - it is beautiful!

Virginia State Capitol

Have you seen the Virginia State Capitol yet this spring?  They have planted some absolutely beautiful tulips and other flowers that just pop when placed against the bright white Capitol and a blue sky. 

One of my flames on iStock (a flame is an image with 100 or more sales) is a picture from two years ago of the Capitol with the tulips.  In that case, I had gone down to the Capitol at lunch to take the shots and ended up lying down in the middle of the grass in a suit (coat and all) to capture the flowers and the Capitol.  Today I was at least in shorts and a t-shirt.  I think I like this year's even more than the one from two years ago.  Here you go:

Another part of the mission in downtown Richmond today was a self portrait for iStock.  iStock is about to celebrate their 10th anniversary and is putting together a website with portraits of all of their contributors.  We were each tasked with providing a self portrait that defined us photographically.  My original thought was to do an artsy shot in studio with dramatic spot lighting.  That was cool but really didn't do much to speak to my photographic style.  I decided to address it from a different angle.  What is it that I am known for in photography?  Well that was easy - cityscapes.

So I had my nephew, Gage, swipe my camera and shoot some shots of me in front of the Richmond cityscape.  I think Gage did a good job!

Norfolk, VA

I ditched work at noon yesterday and headed for Norfolk, Virginia.  Well, actually I headed for Portsmouth, VA to shoot Norfolk from across the Elizabeth River.  Norfolk and Portsmouth are pretty cool places to visit due to all of the ships and the rich Naval history.  Norfolk isn't huge but it does have a pretty cool skyline as well.  I had never been to Portsmouth and didn't do a ton of research (I know, that's not like me - but this was a last minute decision) so I really didn't have much of an idea where I was going.  I figured that since I was arriving around 2 PM, that should give me plenty of time to explore and scope out my spot for my night shot.

The first challenge I ran into was parking.  There was a ton of street parking with parking meters but I didn't find a public lot.  I only had one quarter which was worth a whopping 15 minutes of park time.  I dropped in my quarter and went in search of a longer term solution.  That's when I had a God moment.  I was about 100 yards from my truck when a man says, "hey, don't I know you?"  Come to find out, he is someone I had just struck up a conversation with the week before while visiting my dad.  We chatted for a few minutes when I informed him that I needed to head back to my truck to try to find somewhere else to park.  The man responded that he lives in a high rise apartment right there on the waterfront and I could just bring my truck there and he would let me in the parking garage as a guest.  The garage was just 50 yards from the spot I picked as the best spot for my night cityscape.  Coincidence?  I think not.

I set out to explore and wandered all along the waterfront to see the different views of Norfolk.  Along the journey I saw some cool ducks hanging out on a retaining wall along the river.  Every time I tried to get closer to them, they would walk further down the wall.  I finally ended up lying on my belly facing the ducks.  Every minute or so I would use my arms to inch forward.  I felt like I was on some military black op sneaking up on the enemy.  Two of the three ducks were not impressed and took off but one let me eventually get close enough for a cool shot with the city in the background.  Only downside was that my arms itched the whole rest of the day (make sure you click on the below picture - he was a cool duck!).

After exploring the entire waterfront and bantering with a lady shooting with a Canon (I hope I didn't insult her too bad), I found my way back to the high rise apartment.  I couldn't find a spot that I liked better for my dusk cityscape.  I hung out on a park bench and enjoyed the water as the sun moved lower and lower in the sky behind me.

Sunset was scheduled for 7:28 so I moved into place around 7:00 to set up my shot.  One thing I didn't anticipate was the drop in temperature once the sun dropped in the sky.  I had set out at noon in just jeans and a t-shirt and was actually a bit hot throughout the day but that same jeans and t-shirt left me shivering along the water once dusk hit.  I was literally dancing around rubbing my arms trying to warm up.  Quite a sight for the passing boaters, I'm sure.  Luckily I didn't keel over the freezing air (it was probably only 60 degrees out - but it sure felt cold) before getting my dusk shot. 

I did have one moment of panic.  About 10 minutes before the ideal light, a tugboat pulling a huge barge moved right in front of my shot.  The tugboat pulled away from the barge leaving it right in front of me.  It would have completely botched my shot.  Luckily, the tugboat was just repositioning and pulled the barge on down the river 3 hours later (ok, it was probably only 5 minutes later - but it felt like 3 hours!).

As the river cleared and sky darkened, I snapped Norfolk at dusk:

The great thing about Norfolk is that it is close enough to head back almost any weekend.  I want to try a slightly different angle that will move the buildings closer to each other and decrease the width of the river which will hopefully help some with the reflections.  Overall, though, a good experience!

Citylypse 2010 Summary

After 2,200 miles, $42.25 in tolls, $237.23 in gas money, $41 in cab rides, and 8 hotel rooms, Citylypse 2010 is officially over.  I am back in Richmond recouping after a very long trip.  8 cities in 9 days was quite the ambitious challenge but we proved it was possible. 

I now have cityscapes up on iStock from Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, & Louisville.  Cincinnati & Columbus will follow.  Now we just have to wait for the sales to kick in.  That generally takes a month or so and it will take a year or so to find out whether or not the shoot was profitable.

Thanks to all for following along and for the feedback.  Here is a summary of the cities I visited:

Columbus, OH

Just a short 2 hour roadtrip from Cincinnati was Columbus, Ohio.  Columbus is a somewhat spread out city with forks of the Scioto River winding through the downtown areas.  With so much water, the cityscape possibilities are great with each location showing different buildings and a completely different look at Columbus.  The tough part is getting enough into the pictures.  It is hard to get back far enough to see a lot of the city so I found myself shooting a lot with a wide angle lens.

The rain did hold off for us in Columbus (for the most part) but there were a lot of clouds.  We chose to shoot from North Bank Park last night.  I have never seen so much goose poop in my life.  It was quite literally everywhere.  You couldn't take a step without stepping in it.  I dug back into some brush and camped out for dusk.

The big challenge of last night came in the form of the geese themselves.  The branches of the Scioto River flowing through Columbus are quite calm so you get a great reflection of the buildings but the geese were swimming right through the center.  I tried sweet talking them but that didn't help.  I tried to bully and yell at them - they weren't fazed.  They just swam back and forth right through the center of my picture.

This may have looked cool but for the fact that these are dusk shots so they are 30 second exposures.  You don't actually see the geese - just weird streaks through your buildings.  I finally had a rare moment of brilliance.  I dug into my pack and pulled out a Nature Valley Oats & Honey bar.  I broke the bar up and began flinging pieces into the water well out of the view of my picture. 

Two of the four geese cooperated and swam over for a treat.  Unfortunately one of the two geese was very aggressive and kept the other two geese away.  He later chased one in the opposite direction so I was left with just one goose to attempt to clone out of my images.  I ended up going through 4 packages of Oats & Honey bars (with 2 per pack - those geese ate 8 Oats & Honey bars!).

The highlight of the night was when an enormous river rat climbed up on a branch 10 feet in front of me.  I had heard that rats could get pretty huge but I had no idea!!!  This thing had to be 8 inches long (body only).  He eventually plopped into the water and swam down stream.

When the magic 10 minutes of deep blue sky appeared, I nailed down this shot.  I am not a cloud fan but at least these clouds made the sky interesting.

This morning I took off for Genoa Park while Dave and Shelley returned to North Bank Park.  While I didn't get anything brilliant at Genoa, it was a neat view.  I shot with a 12mm lens which is VERY wide angle.  The clouds were moving and I was shooting with a 30 second exposure which captured the movement.  Here is the result:

The animal sighting of the morning was a river otter.  He was swimming down the river and stopped right in front of me to chew on something he had picked up along the way.  He was pretty cool.  I will confess, though, I originally thought he was a snake.  I really do not like snakes.  I am not scared of bears, spiders, or rats but snakes will send me running for the high hills.  Well, maybe not running, but I definitely don't care for them.  So I was psyched to see the otter's head pop out of the water when he approached.

Well, my friends, this brings our cityscape tour to its conclusion.  We are getting cleaned up now and will soon be heading back to Harrisburg.  I am thoroughly exhausted and feel like I need a vacation - I think my day job will feel like a vacation after this.  But this trip was definitely worth it.

As a good start to the "worth it", my Detroit cityscape just received an Initial Rating on iStock.  Initial Ratings are given by inspectors when they really like an image they inspect.  Out of my 1,030 images on iStock, this is just my 3rd Initial Rating.  Hopefully the sales will follow! 

Now on to the post processing.  I will post a summary of the trip either this evening or tomorrow.  Thanks for following along!

Cincinnati, OH

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day! It rained and rained and rained while we were in Cincinnati. It was nasty last night and this morning but those were the only chances we had so we did tried to make the best of it.

See if you can picture this. Me standing on the side of the Ohio River in the pouring rain as the water level is getting closer and closer to to covering my feet and the legs of my tripod. Boats going by are causing wakes that are splashing over my feet while I frantically hold on to my tripod in hope that my camera won't float away. My left hand holding an umbrella over my camera so it doesn't get wet while my right tries to get the positioning of the camera right and the settings modified. To an onlooker, this probably looked pretty ridiculous. But when you only get one shot at shooting a city, you do what you have to do.

As you would probably guess, the pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. My favorite of the bunch was fromt this morning when the rain slowed down a bit.

And I did get one with lightning flashing behind the city but it isn't sharp (think of how your visibility drops in the rain).

We are now sitting in our hotel in Columbus, Ohio facing yet another rainy day. Maybe we will catch a break and it will slow up for us - if not, I'll be out there with my umbrella in one hand fumbling through another shoot.

Louisville, KY

Louisville is a 5 hour drive from Chicago and you lose an hour to time zones so we didn't arrive until 4:30 PM. Add the fact that it was raining and we didn't have much in the way of scouting time. Generally I like to spend a couple hours looking for the perfect location to set up and lock down my shot. Today I didn't actually begin this process until after 5:00.

Luckily the options are not that plentiful so it was easy to scout out the location I felt offered the best opportunity. The bad news was the clouds were thick and a dark gray that would really hold back the reflections in the water and would make the backdrop behind the city drab. But prayers were answered and the clouds rolled away about 10 minutes before the perfect light (God was cutting it a little close - playing with my head!).

My location was down in some brush right on the Ohio River. It was a little nasty but got me close enough to the water to maximize the reflections. The one thing I didn't fully think through was the process of getting back out of the brush after dark. I have found that I do things like this a lot in life. I jump from one boulder in the mountains onto another below without fully processing how I am going to get back up. I wander in some where before dark not really thinking through how I am going to get out when there is no light. But hey, it makes my life far more of an adventure!

Here is Louisville, Kentucky from Jeffersonville, Indiana:



We will have one more shot at Louisville in the morning before getting back in the car and heading for Cincinnati, Ohio. Just Cincinnati and Columbus remain. I must say, I am going to need a vacation after this trip - shame I have to fall right back into the hours and stress of the day job. Most people go back to work feeling refreshed and rested after vacation. I will return to work with bags under my eyes and aching muscles. But it is definitely all worth it!

Chicago, IL

Ever since the first time that I visited Chicago, I have held that it is the one "big" city that I could see myself living in. Chicago has delicious food, a clean and relatively safe downtown area, great architecture and art, and is absolutely beautiful.

Unfortunately, day 1 in Chicago was rainy, very cloudy, and quite hazy. I didn't get even one usable picture all day.

Fortunately, day 2 was much better. We started the day with a Jumbo Chili Cheese Dog and a Large Chocolate Shake from Portillos. It took a year off my life but man was it good! I vegged for a couple hours after that since it was still extremely cloudy but then the miracle took place. The clouds that were called for all day began to move out. We took off for Adler Planetarium and set up for sunset.

The challenge for me with Chicago is the size. My "style" of cityscape is very close up. The only way to capture Chicago is to go wide. I went with one ultra-wide shot and one cropped in a little. What do you think?

Today we are off for Louisville, Kentucky. The weather is currently showing severe thunderstorms for our visit but we are hoping for at least a small break to give us a chance at capturing something. I'll keep you updated!

Detroit, MI

Photographer = Terrorist. That seems to be the opinion of the many of our border patrol - at least the ones guarding the dangerous border between the U.S. and...Canada.

We arrived in Detroit yesterday and checked into our extravagent hotel. In the cityscape below, we were in the tall center building on the 60th floor. That is about 10 floors above the lower buildings right beside and in front of the tall building. Great view!

After hitting up yet another Hard Rock Cafe, we went our separate ways. Dave and Shelley to Belle Island and me to Windsor, Canada.

Without a car, I planned to try to take a taxi across to Windsor. You can't go by foot and apparently many cabs won't bother with the hassle of crossing a national border so your choices are limited. I asked the valet guy how to get across and he said my best bet was to use a guy he knows who would drive me across and then pick me up and bring me back. All for the low price of...$100! He said it was pricey but there wasn't a better option. What our young valet failed to mention was that there is a bus for this very purpose that takes you across and brings you back for the astronomical price of $3.75. I'm guessing the "guy" the valet knew was his brother or best friend.

So across the border I went. The Canadian border patrol was a piece of cake. They asked some questions and sent me on my way. I wandered down to the riverfront but was bummed to find that a good chunk of the path was closed for construction. I really wanted to get an angle that had the tall GM building in the center with the remaining buildings somewhat split on either side. I resigned myself to not being able to get that shot and went ahead and set up my tripod.

It eventually dawned on me that I still had 2 1/2 hours until sunset so I decided to tear my stuff back down and wander around in search for a better location. That wandering paid off. I walked another mile or two down the shoreline and found a pumphouse with the view I was looking for. From there, I captured the shot below.



So where does the terrorist part come in...oh, that is still coming. After dark, I wondered back in search of the bus stop at the Caesar's Palace that would take me back to the U.S. I couldn't find it anywhere so I wandered back to where I got off the bus knowing there was a stop there. I couldn't find that spot either and had already missed the first bus that would take me back. That meant 30 minutes of waiting. I finally found someone to give me directions to the bus stop. It was on a dark street with a little 6 square inch sign 10 feet up a pole that simply said "bus stop." How is someone supposed to find that?

I eventually arrived back across the border and had to go through our customs and border patrol process. Keep in mind here, I am an American citizen with a U.S. passport who has been out of the country for a whopping 3 hours in Canada. I thought this would be a breeze. Not so much! I was treated like a completely psychotic terrorist. They grilled me on my every activity in Canada, my photography background, exactly what buildings were included in my pictures, and were especially focused on whether or not I was a professional photographer.

They asked question after question about whether or not I had included the tunnel in my pictures. I couldn't help myself - I responded that the tunnel is under water - duh! - and that I only captured the water flowing over top. So they turned their focus on that. What? It is a moving river, by the time I hit customs, not one drop of water in my pictures was still flowing over the tunnel. How is this a terrorist threat?

I eventually requested that they simply flip through all of my pictures (I told them they were quite good - they would enjoy them - they didn't find that humorous) and see for themselves. They refused - apparently it was more fun just to grill me.

I had to empty my pockets and they wanted to see all of the contents. This was especially funny because I have a cold and it is freezing outside so my pockets were all full of dozens of used kleenex. I tried to hand them to the patrol guy but he quickly told me to stick everything back in my pockets.

They wanted to know my entire vacation schedule after Detroit and why the rest of my party hadn't come into Canada with me. It was really an amazing experience - I wanted to shout "my tax dollars pay your salary, treat me with a little respect" but figured that wouldn't help my cause. It was really ridiculous. But I did get a good shot of Detroit so it was all worth the effort.

I finally got around to processing a shot from our morning shoot in Pittsburgh. It is a lot closer in to the city than our shots from the bridge.

We are now in Chicago, IL but it is extremely rainy so I have nothing to show for it. Last night we hit the John Hancock Observatory but didn't leave with anything usable. This morning we were at the Navy Pier in the pouring rain. Still nothing usable. Luckily we do have two days in Chicago. Hopefully tonight will provide an opportunity. We shall see!

Cleveland, OH

Next stop was Cleveland, Ohio. We arrived around 11:00 and began to scope out the best place for our night shots. We eventually found our way down into the Flats - a section of Cleveland that lies down by a canal and looks back at the city.

I was instantly hooked. There is an awesome, huge white bridge that I could tell lit up at night and led your eye right into the city. I made up my mind that I was going to shoot from there tonight. Dave and Shelley decided to head out near the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame while I headed back to the Flats.

Upon arriving in the Flats, I realized that I was slightly lacking in an ideal shooting environment. First, there were literally thousands upon thousands of seagulls swarming the sky between me and the city. Another onlooker remarked that it felt like we were at the scene of a National Geographic film. This, of course, worried me a bit as there were streaks of white flying all over the sky.

The second challenge came in the form of the ice. The ice had moved down the canal from earlier in the day and was floating directly in front of me. This messed with the reflections in the water but did make the shot a bit more interesting.

The final challenge was a cloudy sky. The clouds were thin but they were a bit grey. This generally prevents you from getting a good deep blue sky. They came in and out so I just kept shooting hoping to nail a shot when the clouds were not so thick.

On the safety front, in this case I was actually pleasantly surprised. Our waiter at lunch today (Hard Rock Cafe) said he wouldn't recommend going down in the Flats at night. He said the buildings are largely abandoned and a lot of people go there to get in trouble. Before heading out, I asked the desk attendent at the hotel and she told me there was nothing to worry about (yes, I probably would have gone either way - I know, I know, mom). Sure enough, the "abandoned buildings" were actually condos (albeit, definitely not high end condos). There were people walking their dogs and an older lady and gentleman taking pictures. Definitely not a dangerous environment.

Here is Cleveland:



Tomorrow morning will afford another shooting opportunity in Cleveland. After we come back and get cleaned up, it is off to Detroit, Michigan. The weather in Detroit looks a little iffy so our streak of great shooting conditions might come to an end. Keep praying!

On the personal front, I added a new ailment to my aching feet and legs. My lower back is now in agony. Add in my cold and I am a mess. We stopped at a gas station today and I bought Dayquil, Nyquil, and Advil. The lady at the counter looked at me with concern in her face and exclaimed "you must feel absolutely awful!". Yep! So the glamorous lifestyle of a professional photographer current entails leaving at 5 AM, returning at 8 PM, and lots and lots of pain. I love it!

Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh turned out to be a really great city - so much so that I almost forgave her for being home to the Steelers...almost. We walked what felt like a marathon in Pittsburgh but what actually clocks in at around 12 miles according to Dave's pedometer. My feet and legs definitely tell the tale this morning.

In the end, we chose the West End Bridge for our dusk shots. I was a little concerned about shooting 30 second exposures from a bridge - has never worked for me in the past - but we set up near a pillar and the bridge was quite sturdy and my pictures came out sharp.

The biggest challenge was several tug boats who seemed to think it appropriate to repeatedly make trips through the middle of my shot. I understand that it is their job but I definitely think they should have spotted me off in the distance on the bridge and made the decision to call it quits for the day so as to not ruin any of my shots. But since they didn't see it that way, I had to do my best to shoot around them. I ended up with two shots that I can't decide between. They both need some work but here is any early look:

I broke away from Dave and Shelley this morning to take some shots closer in to the city. I haven't had a chance to really look at them so you will have to wait on your first look.

I am off here in a moment to head down to the Flats in Cleveland. Dave and Shelley have already set out for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We are going to be shooting from completely different sides of the city. The weather looks good so hopefully we will both nail some good shots tonight!

Harrisburg, PA

Arrived in Harrisburg yesterday just in time to take off with Dave and Shelley for some dusk shots.

Do you ever feel like a rookie in an area that you should be an expert? Believe it or not, I do know my way around a camera but you wouldn't have guessed that last night. I picked my spot down by the river and set up my tripod. My routine is always to pick my shot and then literally take the same shot over and over again looking for the perfect light.

I found that shot and locked my tripod but then hesitated. I decided to get in a little closer so I changed lenses. So on went my 70-200. I started taking test shots only to find that every shot was either shaky or out of focus. I cleaned my filter, same result. I removed the filter, same result. I played with my focus, same result. I cleaned both ends of the lens, same result. I threw a tantrum, same result. After what felt like an hour (but was probably 5 minutes), it dawned on me that I had thrown a vibration reduction lens on a tripod and forgotten to turn off the vibration reduction. My lens was expecting some camera shake and was auto correcting - but my camera was on a tripod and didn't have any shake. Rookie mistake.

I then proceeded to take nice crisp shots but couldn't figure out why I couldn't get the shutter speed I was looking for. In this case I probably went 20 minutes before it dawned on me that I was in aperture priority mode (you can change the aperture but the camera picks the shutter speed) instead of in manual. AHHHHH! How did I managed to miss that? I cannot even begin to express how much this has me baffled. I have taken these night cityscape shots hundreds of times. I am going to have to blame it on the massive head cold that has me in misery (gotta blame something, right?).

"So you messed up for a couple of minutes, what's the big deal?", you ask. In the world of night cityscapes, you have a 10 minute window to nail the perfect shot. With 1 day per city, that leaves us 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening - if we have perfect weather both times. There is no time for mistakes. You must bring your "A-game" every time you are out and need to maximize every shot during those 10 minutes. Hopefully I have managed to get my mistakes out of the way on day 1!

Anyway, despite the mistakes, I did manage to land a usable shot. Here is my first quick attempt at post production. Presenting Harrisburg:

Tessa Shoot

Images are starting to flood into my iStock portfolio from my shoot with Tessa back on the 6th of February. Tessa was really awesome. She has great facial expressions and a great smile. The camera definitely loves her! Here's hoping the images take off!

Just 4 more days until Citylypse 2010. We are off to Pittsburgh, PA, Cleveland, OH, Detroit, MI, Chicago, IL, Louisville, KY, Cincinnatti, OH, & Columbus, OH. Stay tuned for updates on the tour and first glimpses into the images we capture!