Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC

clarinetJWD

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Yes, I do still shoot occasionally! I know, it's weird. Went down to DC on Friday to take some pictures of the cherry blossoms while they were still in bloom.

(Make sure you click to see the larger size. They're not really that big, but the scaling completely destroys the sharpness :S )

1. Jefferson Memorial
Jefferson%20in%20Bloom%20jpeg.JPG


2. Blossoms in IR
Blossoms%20in%20IR%20jpeg.JPG


3. Rule of Thirds
Rule%20of%20Thirds%20jpeg.JPG


Also, it seems Nikon used a super new IR filter on the D300 making it quite poor for IR shots (Took 15" at F/11 or so, even though it metered much higher than that.). This is the first time I got to do any IR with it ;) Think I'll mod the old D70.

Also, Also, Happy Easter!
 
1. Absolutely love this one... that's a hangar. Maybe a little crop off of the left, but great composition with the branches framing the building.

2. Sorry, not a fan of IR. I think this one would have looked much better in it's natural colors.

3. It's a tree... no real subject to draw the eye.
 
Gorgeous, as usual, Joe! I wish I could have come out there and gone with you!

I think the first is my favorite! :D
 
1- love it
2- not a bit fan either. the photo + comp is great.
3- works for me as is. I flipped it 180 just for the fun of it.

Thanks!
 
That first one is stunningly gorgeous. Wow.

[Seeing the cherry blossoms in DC is on my list of things I 'must do'].


Edit: The second shot is growing on me immensely. The composition is soooo lovely and there are still lots of subtle colours in it. You have such a good eye for composition
 
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Remember how we just about missed the cherry blossoms when we came over to DC for the TPF Meet-Up four (!) years ago?
The second is really nicely composed. There doesn't happen to exist a natural colour version of that one, too?
 
Thanks everyone! A few words about each photo:

1. I actually didn't expect this one to be the one everyone liked. I used a fill flash (Nikon SB-600, -1 stop), but didn't put on the diffuser because I was lazy. The result was some harsh shadows that almost stopped me from posting it!

2. There are a few reasons I went with the IR version of this. I generally don't do IR without reason, even though it is a style I really like. First, the water on the sidewalk and near the edge was really brown and dirty, and had some trash. By doing IR, it made all the water a uniform color, and blorred the floating trash enough that it rendered itself invisible. Second, I wanted a very clean reflection, like you'd get in perfectly still water. While I obviously couldn't completely achieve that, the 15" exposure time for IR made it so that it smoothed out the water, and got it as close as possible. Lastly, it's near impossible to get a picture in that area without people in it, so using a shutter speed that lets people walk by without being in the picture was ideal. There is a naturally colored version of it (unedited, but I might post it later), but there are a lot of shortcomings that kept me from using it.

3. I knew this would be pretty divisive, but some of my big influences are abstract and minimalist photography, so my focus in that shot was contrasting colors and textures. I like it, but it's definitely not for everybody ;)

Thanks for the feedback guys, can't improve without it!

Anty: It really is beautiful there during this time, worth the visit :)
Corinna: Yes! Actually, because the festival is anounced in advance, it's almost always at the wrong time. This is one of the only times the festival and actual blossoms coincided! :p
 
I did a couple more edits of the second shot. The first is a result of me discovering the magic of split-toning (Used it to get the highlights inverted so I could invert the sky without giving everything a nasty blue haze), and the second is the natural color shot. I didn't do as much post on the natural color one, because I don't like it as much :p

IR%20Blue%20jpeg.JPG


Natural%20Color.JPG


EDIT: I took the split toning approach to the original IR colored photo, and it has become my favorite version of it.
Blossoms%20in%20IR2%20jpeg.JPG
 
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I know (recently discovered) that my D5000 has both UV and IR coatings on the optical low pass filter. Consequently a UV filter should not be necessary but renders the D5000 useless for true IR photography.

And since the D5000 shares parts technology from the D60 - D90 and D300 I can see why IR photography is difficult with your D300.

Good job on editing the above #1 IR picture it looks great to me, very artistic!
 
I know (recently discovered) that my D5000 has both UV and IR coatings on the optical low pass filter. Consequently a UV filter should not be necessary but renders the D5000 useless for true IR photography.

And since the D5000 shares parts technology from the D60 - D90 and D300 I can see why IR photography is difficult with your D300.

Good job on editing the above #1 IR picture it looks great to me, very artistic!

Yeah, my old camera (D70) also has a UV filter (As do most, if not all, digital cameras), but it wasn't so absolute. Sure, you couldn't take quick shots, but it would be 1-3 seconds instead of 15. I'm asking for a visible light blocking sensor filter for my D70 to convert it to a real IR shooter. Thanks!
 
I can definitely see why you're not thrilled with the full-color, but the other two edits are awesome! That first one is just so . . . snowy!
 

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