Photographing Lighting

85mm 30sec f/16 ISO 200

I took this photo the other night and particularly special as it is my first exposure ever taken of lighting. Lighting can be a challenge to photograph because you never know when and where it will exactly hit. Of course you need to use a tri-pod and shot your camera at a slow shutter speed. After about an hour of being outside on the roof of my apartment building, this was the best exposure I was able to get. I used the Washington National Cathedral as a point to frame the photo.

The Arrival of Spring at the "Flagship House"

It has been about a month now since the arrival of spring. Washington can be a very pretty place in spring, certainly on the Mall at Tidal Basin with the Cherry Blossom trees. However, these beautiful trees can be found elsewhere in DC. Moreover, one can easily appreciate the beauty of springtime in Washington in other areas of the city such as the neighborhoods of Northwest. With that said, there is one street in my neighborhood of NW Washington with a house that I have admired since I moved back to DC. I call it the "flagship house". IMHO, this house has a certain character compared to other houses on the block. Such a character is further amplified by the changes of the seasons. I have photographed this house on a number of occasions throughout the year. However for this post I would like to show what the impact the season of spring has brought to this house in the evolution of one month. The first photo was taken on March 19 and the last photo was taken today, April 18th. All photos were taken with my Nikon 12-24mm lens with the aperture values between f/8-f/11.

3/19

3/26

4/1

4/3

4/4

4/6

4/11

4/15

4/18

JFK Center Performance - Dance Place Around Town - Part 3

For the last entry of the JFK concert Dance Place Around Town, I would like to show photos taken after the end of the concert where members of the crowd joined in to dance on stage. These included some of the younger and older members from the crowd. Due to the lighting fixture in the front of the stage, I was unable to get a full body shot. I cropped most images to hide the lighting fixture.

Dance Place Step Team

I am back after an absence. I am posting more photos taken during the Kennedy Center Concert that I attended a few weeks ago. These are photos of the Dance Place Step Team, the second performance from that concert.

West African Dancing at the Kennedy Center - Coyaba Youth Ensemble

Last Friday, I went to a free concert at the Kennedy Center that takes place everyday at 6PM. My next three blogs will be dedicated to this concert. For my first posting, I would like to talk about the first of the concert's two dance shows, the Coyaba Youth Ensemble. This dance show was based on traditional and contemporary west African dance.

The following photographers are from this show. They were taken with my fast telephoto lens, the nikkor 85mm f/1.8. Most shots were set at either at f/1.8 or f/2.0. Some are slightly cropped. I had sent the ISO value at 800, although I raised it to 1600 when I realized that I needed a faster shutter speed. Shooting fast subjects can be problematic in a lower light setting. Shutter speed matters in order to prevent too much blur, especially when using a telephone lens. It is preferable to shot in the shutter priority or full manual mode on your camera to better be able to manage the shutter speed.