Wide Angle Wichita Falls

The holidays were a busy time for us. There was site seeing to do, work was brisk with holiday parties to illuminate, and then there was the holidays themselves. We traveled to Wichita Falls to spend Christmas with my in-laws. I used to joke that there were more people in Williamsburg, Brooklyn than Wichita Falls. There are a little over 100,000 people that live in the Falls, and I've always been drawn by its architecture from the teens through the thirties. 

Wichita Theatre
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/160sec, 160ISO, 11mm

I had grand ideas when I was packing my bags. I packed my camera, a couple of lenses, filters, my remote trigger, the bendable Joby GorillaPod tripod and the MeFoTo Tripod. However, my 3 year old daughter caught something and was sick a couple days, which next hit my wife, and then finally myself on my last day in the Falls. Opening of gifts was captured, but I only had one session that wasn't a family function.

Empty
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/250sec, 160ISO, 11mm

 Friday after Christmas, it was warm and in the mid 60s. Saturday we woke up to falling snow. The original plan was to go to the Wichita Falls Railroad Museum, which is only open briefly on Saturdays. Their phone message says that they close in the case of rain, but nothing about snow. We headed that way, and found out it was closed. 

Times Square
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/200sec, 160ISO, 11mm

I wanted to photograph some of the unique buildings in the downtown area. My daughter had fallen asleep in her car seat, so we knew we were stuck in the car anyways. I drove around looking for interesting buildings. Downtown was empty and parking was not an issue. I left my car in one location and walked around near the post office, photographing it and several nearby buildings. 

First Bank
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/125sec, 160ISO, 11mm

A police officer had driven past, and circled around. He stopped and pulled over. He was stopping to see if I was lost and needed directions. Explaining that I was in town visiting, I wanted to photograph some of the buildings downtown, and was not lost. We talked briefly about the past of downtown area, numerous attempts to revitalize it, and he told me that I had to go look at the World's Littlest Skyscraper. I informed him I was familiar with it, had been by on previous trips, and was on my agenda for the photo walk I was having. He bid me good day and continued on his way.

Post Office
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/200sec, 160ISO, 11mm

The Newby-McMahon Building is also known as the World's Littlest Skyscraper. It measures 40' tall. The investors thought they were getting a 480' tall building, but the blueprints that the investors signed off on had inch marks next dimensions.  

480" Tall
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/160sec, 160ISO, 11mm

These are a sampling of the images I captured over the couple of hours in downtown Wichita Falls. My photowalk was brief in the cold. Happy to get a couple of buildings captured, as that was one thing I wanted to do on vacation.

Bar-L
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/125sec, 160ISO, 11mm

Image courtesy of: SnapKnot - Local Wedding Photographers

Wide Angle Wednesday Holiday Sight Seeing

Bryant Park Rink and Christmas Tree
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/50sec, 1250ISO, 11mm

Twas the night before Christmas, and my blog has been silent. Not a recent story had been posted. The pictures sat on the hard drive, all secure in their partitions. 

Patience Standing Guard
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/50sec, 1600ISO, 11mm

A month has passed since the last post. The city has been transformed into a Christmas Wonderland. Tourists flood the streets to see the sights, and my family and I joined them over a couple of nights. 

Rockefeller Center
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/50sec, 1600ISO, 11mm

It is a shame that the city isn't decorated with lights year round. I guess that is what makes this time of year special, is that the lights are only up for several weeks.

The Magic of Macy's
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/40sec, 1600ISO, 11mm

Wide Angle Wednesday Post on Friday

Once again, life has gotten a little hectic, so I am late posting my Wide Angle Wednesday Post. I have been working since Sunday, and this coming Sunday will be my next day off. I am looking forward to the Thanksgiving break. 

Readers may remember this post of Grand Central Terminal. I had failed to clean the filter protecting my lens. So Sunday, after leaving the Waldorf Astoria, I walked by Grand Central Terminal and attempted a new long exposure of the iconic structure. 

This time, I was using a new tripod, the Joby GorillaPod. This little tripod has bendable legs. From the location I wanted to shoot, there was a police baricade, so I wrapped the legs around it and started framing my shot. I had to time it just right, as a couple of attempts started as the light turned red and the light trails were too short for my liking. 

Unfortunately, it started to rain, and I had no way of keeping the water off of the lens, leading to spots in the image. I packed up and headed to my train. The ideas I had for other locations will have to wait until another late night after work.

Looking Northwest
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 13sec, 100ISO, 13mm

Wide Angle Wednesday Breakdown Edition

A week and a half ago, I was driving home from an event. The bolt that provides tension to the alternator belt had sheared off, and I was running on battery power. I made it 10 miles from the venue in Westchester, but still had 18 miles to go when the battery ran out of juice. I coasted to the shoulder of the Sprain Brook Parkway and dialed AAA. I was still in Westchester County.

Trouble with Trouble
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 30sec, 100ISO, 16mm

I had plenty of time to wait, and I had my camera with me. I chose to take a couple of long exposures. As they say, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade! 

Everyone Zipping By But Me
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 30sec, 100ISO, 16mm

Wide Angle Wednesday Work Edition

As I've stated before, I photograph the events my company produces. My tools are my trusty Canon 60D, a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, a MeFoTo tripod, and a cable release. Everything gets edited in Lightroom to ensure the color is accurate. I try to get photographs posted to our company Facebook page the following week of the event.

BizBash, an events industry publication and resource, holds their Event Style Awards every fall. This year, they made the awards national, as opposed to regional as it had been in the past.

We submitted some of our recent events this year for Lighting Design. I also entered one of our photographs for Best Event Photo. It was chosen as a finalist, one of three photographs. 

I attended the awards ceremony yesterday. We won!

Waldorf Astoria Wedding
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/10, 3.2sec, 100ISO, 11mm

Here is the BizBash announcement: http://www.bizbash.com/best-event-photo-waldorf-astoria-wedding-submitted-pegasus-productions-realizing-vendors/gallery/150071

More Autumn fun!

Orchard
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/200s, 200ISO, 53mm

This past weekend we visited Beardsley Orchard and Cider Mill and Jones Family Farms in Shelton, CT.

Beardsley
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/200s, 125ISO, 113mm

As I said previously, I love autumn and all of the activities, apple picking, leaf peeping, pumpkin picking, apple cider donuts...

Colors of Fall
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/800s, 800ISO, 50mm

This trip was planned over a month ago, and I had been looking forward to it ever since we picked a date.

Some Enterprising folks made off with all the non-rotten apples!
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/200s, 200ISO, 72mm

It was the last day of the apple season, so pickings were very slim. And by slim, I mean almost everything was gone. Plenty of rotten fruit, but hardly any worth picking. We left the orchard with the least amount of apples we've ever gotten. 

Barn
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/125s, 200ISO, 55mm

Beardsley has some great cider, and more importantly, one of the best cider donuts! So we did not leave disappointed.

Perfect Color for Fall!
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/250s, 200ISO, 62mm

We did get a pumpkin and take a hayride at Jones Pumpkin Seed Hill. 

Hayride View
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/160s, 200ISO, 18mm

Grape vines for the vineyard
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/160s, 200ISO, 44mm

Gorgeous Fall
Canon 60D, EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, f/8, 1/200s, 200ISO, 55mm

Wide Angle Wednesday

Grace
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/8, 1/200sec, 640ISO, 11mm

A wide angle lens really helps me capture the soaring nature of the buidlings of Manhattan. These photographs were all taken not too far from the base of each of these buildings. The Grace Building looks even more massive when you compare the tiny people to the towering structure it appears to be in the above photograph.

Between A Rock and a Rink
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/4, 1/30sec, 1600ISO, 11mm

30 Rockefeller Center, above, is one of the sites in New York City that attracts visitors. The above photograph was captured one Saturday night in the beginning of August, right after the sunset and the sky was beginning to turn dark blue. The shadow of SplitRocker is visible as it was on display at the time.

Empire Views
Canon 60D, Tokina Pro DX-II 11-16mm f/2.8, f/2.8, 1/30sec, 6400ISO, 11mm

Empire State Building as captured across 34th Street. I had to set my ISO to almost the highest setting, so noise is very present in this image. Aperture was left wide open and I set it on the lowest shutter speed I could hand hold and get a crisp shot. If I had a tripod, I could have captured a lower noise image, but having a noisy image is better than none at all.