It has been a while since I have had an entry here. Life has been composed of one crazy day after another. On that token, I decided to go back a bit in time a post a picture that I shot quite a while ago.

I had to go down to the TTI terminal one night to take some pictures of a container for one of China Shipping’s customers. I took this opportunity to snap a few shots of the cranes and staging area. This is the area where trucks line up to either pick up import loads or drop off export loads. The sun had just barely set, and there was still that twilight glow in the sky. With the crane and terminal lights, it looked pretty cool.

Now this was back before I had a digital camera, so I didn’t even really know how the shots were going to turn out. It is really weird to think back when I first started out in photography. There was a refreshing quality to not know how a shot was going to turn out, forgetting about it, and then when you got the prints back, being pleasantly surprised.

Now you can, shoot, review, shoot some more, and even do basic corrections without having to even think about basic photographic principles. I like to think that my photos were somewhat better back in those days, mainly because there was a cost associated with every frame. You had a vested interest to make sure the shot was composed properly because it was costing you money every time your finger hit that shutter release. It made you think before you took the picture, instead of after the fact.

I wonder if Costco even processes film anymore…

TTI Staging Area on Film, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

I was trying to download the new iPhone 3.0 operating system for the better part of today, but couldn’t because it kept timing out on me. I narrowed it down to a faulty process in my main network router. I finally got the update downloaded and am in the process of installing it.

I freaked out though when I realized that I had not blogged today. I try to post a new picture of my work every weekday. I leave the weekend for relaxing with my lovely Joan and troublesome Bosco, and also to process additional photos for the coming week.

So for today, we have Rosie who was sitting in the shade and enjoying a nice snack on the grass. It could have been a bird, a bug, or just a gentle breeze that flew by, but something caught her attention in a very abrupt way. All of a sudden, as I am taking some shots of her, she snaps to attention and sheds away the pathetic look she generally has. It almost looked as though she was ready to go on the hunt (Dick Cheney style!!!).

In this shot, she actually looks noble and elegant… well, as much as Rosie can at least… I took 3 quick +/-1 shots of her which ended up as a rather nice HDR. Even though my most favorite dog to photograph is our one and only Bosco, Rosie is a close second.

Rosie on the Hunt, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

Joan and I recently took a cruise to the Bahamas for our one year anniversary. The cruise stops at Royal Caribbean’s private CocoCay Island and Nassau. In Nassau, we really wanted to see what all the hype was about with the Atlantis Resort. We decided to take a tour being offered by this big, burley, Bahamian guy waiting on the docks with about a hundred other big, burley Bahamian guys. There were 11 people in total, so we figured that if we get kidnapped, at least there are 9 other people to share in our misery. But the guy turned out to be really nice and actually knew a lot about his home island.

He took us around to some of the tourist highlights, including “over the hill” (if you have been on one of these tours, you will understand… It’s kind of a right of passage…), and then on to the Atlantis Resort. We spent a short time there, taking a look at the fish and the casino. We wanted to at least say we have gambled in the Bahamas, so Joan and I both played $1 in the penny slots. So typical of us isn’t it?

Anyway, while walking around the casino, on the cashier booths, they have these giant sculptures. One looked like a giant blue marble and the other was this giant glowing red snake looking thing. The HDR switch got flipped in my brain, so I took a +/-1 exposure range and tucked it away for later. This is actually a glass sculpture designed by Dale Chihuly, appropriately called “Temple of the Sun.” The HDR processing washes out a bit of the vibrancy of the shot, but the overall effect is one which I am quite pleased with.

Temple of the Sun in HDR, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

San Gimignano is a small medieval town in the Tuscany region of north-central Italy. Joan and I were on our honeymoon when we stopped here with the tour group we were on.

Our tour guide, Matt, claimed they had the best gelato in the world. Judging from the line they had out the door of the gelateria, my skepticism was lowered.

So there we sat, beside the fountain in the main courtyard, with the soft Tuscan sun beaming down on us, eating the best gelato in the world. Well, to be honest, the gelato was good, but maybe my taste buds were off that day, because it tasted about the same as the rest.

Nevertheless, Joan and I enjoyed this cool little place. All the brickwork in the walls and towers is amazing. On our way out of the town, back to the tour bus, this door caught my eye. Something about doors really intrigues me. Maybe it is because they can have so much character built in. They almost are able to tell a little story about whats behind them and who has been through them.

In any case, this little door was in a unique place in the city, the light was bouncing off the surrounding walls and pooling on this one point. Because I had just got my Canon 40D before we left for Europe, I was still playing with all the settings and trying to find the sweet spot of the killer lens that came with it. I had it on auto-bracketing, so I got a nice +/-2 exposure shot of this door. My images were coming out a bit dark, so I thought of the three, I was bound to get one good shot, which I did. Although, it is not this shot you see here…

I have been following Trey Ratcliff for some time now. I find his HDR shots to be absolutely astounding. Please take a look at his awesome blog Stuck in Customs (http://www.stuckincustoms.com). For those not familiar with it, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Basically, it is a compilation of photos of a single scene, which when brought together using special software, brings such life to what might be otherwise boring photographs.

The tones of color and detail in the photo explode because you are essentially pulling the best qualities out of these different pictures and melding them into this final product.

Using this technique, I applied it to the different exposed shots of this wonderful door. The result is one which i think is interesting. Maybe not the best, but I am anxious to get out and snap some new shots to see what i can come up with in post production.