Tag: Canon AE-1

What Do You See From Your Window?

Posted on by Nelson in Uncategorized

  These were all taken on a cold Winter evening over the course of a spectacular sunset. I had already taken a few shots of the sweetgum balls you see in the first photo, so my AE-1 was already out and ready for more pictures. I looked out my window and saw a sunset that seemed to become more glorious by the second. The sky close to the horizon started to take on the color of lava running out of a volcano.

Sweetgum balls! This was the first time I ever saw them on the tree! Normally, I found them on the ground with my bare feet. Oops.

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Vignetting below, presumably from shooting wide-open aperture.

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The photo below looks like it was taken on another planet, if you ask me. The orange and red areas of the sky give a sense of distance in an unexpected way.

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The photo below is one of my favorite photos. Everything lined up to give me all the elements I wanted. How often does that happen? (A tripod and zoom lens didn’t hurt either.)

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First Visit: Oakland Cemetery

Posted on by Nelson in Uncategorized

Before I get too far into this post, I want to give a *HUGE* thanks to Lisa over at FoodTable//LaVieEclectique for awarding me with the Liebster blogging award! It’s nice to get a little recognition, and this totally made my day. Thanks again, Lisa! And to anyone else who reads my blog, you should check out Lisa’s blog as well as the blogs of the other people I follow. They’re all great reads from very talented people.

I haven’t posted in a few days, so this one is a bit picture-heavy to make up for it. I hope you enjoy them. There are really too many of these to put in one post, so it will be a two-parter. I’ll post the others tomorrow.

 

I’m not exactly sure what these blooms are, but they were everywhere around the cemetery. I thought they deserved a little representation as being a vibrant sign of life in a place that has a reputation for being only about the dead.

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This statue is one of the last things I see every time I go to Oakland. It’s near the front where my car is parked, but the cemetery’s path takes you on a loosely-circular path that brings you to this statue at your walk’s end. I was so excited when I looked up and saw this shot just begging to be taken. The hazy sky and buildings of downtown Atlanta were a perfect background for this statue. 

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This was the first photo I took upon my arrival at the cemetery, once I had visited the visitor center to get a map. Yes, the cemetery is big enough to require a map. This statue has such a “real” physical presence, and I think I caught it pretty well with the composition. 

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These flowers were growing along the first leg of the path through the cemetery. Daisies, I think? I’m not up on my flower knowledge. If you know what they are, let me know! 

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I’ll be posting more from this visit to the Oakland Cemetery tomorrow. I’ve posted photos from this cemetery before, but I just keep finding more and more of them. There is so much to see, and I’d love to show you as much as I can! Have a great day and look for more tomorrow!

Louisiana Scenes

Posted on by Nelson in Uncategorized

These shots were taken in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2003. I had owned my first SLR, a Canon AE-1, for all of a few months. I decided to bring the camera with me on this particular trip in 2003. I’m glad I brought it with me, and I’m also glad I picked up a polarizing filter on my way out of town. You can see some rather extreme effect from polarizing in the state capitol photo at the bottom of the post and in the cathedral photo. At any rate, here goes.

This cathedral is located in downtown Baton Rouge. I took this photo from many angles, but couldn’t find anything I liked better than just head-on. Tip: Don’t leave your glasses in the car when you’re using a manual-focus camera. Even though it is a bit out of focus, it’s still a great shot with the gradient sky making the foliage really stand out.

These tug boats have been docked this particular area of the Mississippi River for as long as I can remember. I was glad to finally have a camera with me to capture them. You can definitely tell there’s some haze in the photo, but I don’t think it takes away from the feel of the photo. I’ve since learned that a UV filter is your friend.

I’ve always called this photo “The Mark of Zorro” because of the obvious “Z” formation in the photo. It could possibly have been composed a bit better, but I don’t think it would have achieved its “Zorro” had I changed anything.

This is a shot of the Louisiana State Capitol taken during a part of the day where the proverbial planets seemed to have aligned to give me this great sky. Not a single cloud, and the angle of the sun was absolutely perfect to quite literally black out the skies around the building. I enlarged this one and it’s on my wall.

Not too awful of a series considering I had virtually no clue what I was doing. In a way, I think it was better that way. I couldn’t overthink settings like aperture and shutter speed at the time because I really didn’t have much of a clue about how they affected photos. I do admit these were taken while using the Automatic Exposure setting on the AE-1.

Feel free to drop a comment if you want. Until tomorrow’s post, have a great Saturday!

Louisiana State Capitol

Posted on by Nelson in Uncategorized

Louisiana State Capitol

I won’t lie. Being from Louisiana, I love photos of my home state’s capitol and the grounds surrounding it. The place is such a mix of old and new. I went for a postcard feel on this one, and i think it turned out fairly good. This is a photo scan from several years ago. If I ever find these negatives, I’ll do a negative scan for comparison.

Taken with Canon AE-1, circular polarizer, and Fuji Color 100 film.