Cherry Blossoms in Washington D.C.

Hi again, here's my first picture of the Cherry Blossoms of D.C. I'll have more tomorrow when I upload all of my photos.



I actually happened to have my aperture quite low in this shot (which widens the opening of the lens, making the picture brighter), but I think it turned out quite nice, outstandingly bright!

The Episcoapl National Cathedral

This morning I went to the Episcopal National Cathedral. It was as stunning as it was large. There were stain glass windows on every window, the acoustics were amazing, and the marble floors were beautiful! Here are a few photos of the interior:





And the exterior:



Castle like!

Washington D.C.

Hello all,

Today I embarked on a four day trip to Washington D.C. I'll be posting often with photos from the Capitol and the surrounding museums.

First off, here's a photo of the White house. I was quite surprised to see how close it was to the fence. I took this with my 28-80mm just to give you a feel for the distance.

Psychedelic Airport Tunnel

While traveling through the Detroit International Airport, I chanced upon this incredibly cool tunnel. Not only did the colors change as you went through, there was music that played with it!



It was quite amusing to watch other the other people in the tunnel. Some were gazing around in awe, others just stared ahead (get me the heck out of this thing!), and yet others walked around mesmerized with their cell phones out taking videos!

Basketball Hoops, Black and White

Hi all,

My apologies for not posting in a while. I just recently got back from visiting amazing Goshen Indiana. I'll be posting some photos from the area soon. For now, staying with the theme of Indiana, I'm going to post some of my experimental photos of a basketball hoop (Indiana is the birthplace of basketball).

First, we simply have a black and white image of a basketball hoop. I like this because it feels basic in such a good way.



Next, we have the same, but from another angle, and with a little more action; notice the ball that is heading toward the basket.



And finally, the same photo in color.

El Salvador - A glacier lake in the north-west mountains

I had the amazing opportunity to go to El Salvador this past summer. Not only an eye opening experience, it was an absolutely beautiful place. On a trip to the north-west mountains, we went past this amazing lake that was formed by glaciers. The sun and clouds were perfect, and the water couldn't have been a better color.



Here are more pictures I took of the lake.

Bird by Walden Pond

I came across this very outgoing bird on a walk around Walden Pond in Concord, MA. I almost didn't take the picture because I was sure that as soon as I aimed the camera it would fly away. However, it must have been pretty used to walkers; I was able to take the first photo and still had time for more before it flew away.



If anyone out there knows the name of the bird, I would be very appreciative of a comment about it. I'm fairly sure it's a young bird, since its colors aren't very developed. Its colors look fairly uniform except for a possible reddish brown mark on the inside part of the tail.

Sunsets off Crotched Mt. NH

I took this set from Crotched Mt. in Greenfield NH this past summer; again using my Pentax *ist DS and 28-80 mm Tamron lens. It was an amazing experience to show how much conditions can change in minutes, because before sunset, the view was barely worthy of a photo. At sunset, the magic spell was cast, and the view was spectacular. The tricky thing with taking this kind of photo, is finding the right balance of trees, sky, and mountains. You don't want too many trees because they don't do much in the way of color, but a couple in the corner give effect and just look great.





Add a hawk, and you have some real magic:

Boathouse on the Concord River

While on a tourist visit to the Concord History Museum (with my camera in hand of course), I found this great little boathouse on the Concord River.




I took this picture with my most commonly used Tamron 28-80 mm lens. The building looked old and unused, but it must have been well kept, and was definitely not about to fall over. I love the way the dock leads right out to the water. I prefer the photo in sepia, because it draws out the fact that it's a historical building.

Here's the photo in color. Many thanks to the handiness of digital photography.

Pathway by flowers

This is one of my favorite flower shots. I particularly like this one because it's shot so close to the ground that you get the feel of walking on the path. I also really like the spectrum of colors in this photo. While the focus on the reddish orange flowers is in the middle, there's great flow from the yellow ones in the foreground, all the way to the two shades of purple in the background.



I took this picture at the Acton Arboretum in Massachusetts using an old little 49 mm lens at a close focus. More specifically at the flower and insect garden. You can't see any in this picture, but this garden is absolutely alive with insects, primarily different types of bees and butterflies.

Welcome - My personal background

Hello and welcome to my photography blog.

I'm a young amateur photography hobbyist (primarily in nature) and blogger. So I thought I'd love to combine the two, and make a show of my art for the interested public and my friends. As a child I was always told I had a knack for cameras, but then, it was just family photos and vacation snapshots. When I was 14 my family bought a small 3.1 megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera. That was when my interest took off, and I began taking many photos of flowers in my local area, and landscapes wherever I went. Last winter I bought a Digital SLR (a Pentax *ist DS to be exact) with the advice of a family friend, and the help of some birthday money. Since then I have become more and more serious in nature photography, and have a wide scope of work. I'll be posting my photos here with short blurbs about where I took it, what I was trying to do, and what it was like.

I am always welcome to (and appreciative of) comments, questions, and suggestions, just comment on the page.


-John