Sunrise Photo Shoot

Good morning, everyone.  So I got about two and a half hours of sleep this morning and headed out with Jill and her sister-in-law Becky.  We went to K Ave and 15th St., in downtown Plano.  I chose this spot, because my best guess was that the sun would rise straight down the street.  

Three things derailed this sunrise for me.  

1) The sun came up about 30 minutes earlier than I anticipated, so we missed out on the early morning haze.  2) The sun did not come up straight down the street like I had hoped, so the buildings didn't do me any favors.  3) Even that early in the morning, there were two cars parked on the street.  Oh well, if everything was perfect, there would be no challenge in life.

So today, with the sunrise blown, I saw this as a great opportunity to experiment with some shots.  Most people shoot at eye level, myself included, so in an effort to expand my photographic range, I shot a lot of these shots from down low.  For some of them, I laid down in the street and on some rail road tracks.  (Don't tell my Mom.  She would be quite upset)

This is Downtown Plano, TX.  You can see the two cars that decided to plant themselves in my shot.  A friend told me not to give up on the black and white HDR.  I have to admit that this picture came out pretty well.  I think I'll give it a few some more time.

I think this picture is what HDR is all about.  I love the way it brings out the colors in the front building and in the clock.  The can even see a little bit of the sun coming up WAY down the street.

.8 Sec. Exp., F/20, 80mm, ISO 100

This my best shot laying in the road.  I like the low angle perspective and the way the road bumps vanish into the distance.  I also like the brick road that the city laid out in this area.  They also fade into the distance in this picture.

1/8 Sec. Exp., F/16, 170mm, ISO 100

This is me laying out on the railroad tracks.  I set my F-Stop very high to get the focus to go out further into the picture.  I converted this to black and white with Adobe Photoshop Elements.  I also like the way the track seems to disappear and reappear the further out into the picture you go.

1/30 Sec. Exp., F/10, 17mm, ISO 100

This is the local DART train passing through my shot.  I had to be very patient to get this shot.  The trains do not run very often this time of the morning.  I was set up on a tripod and with the train moving to give the train motion blur.  I plan to re-create this shot some time in the future and let the shutter stay open longer to make the train blur some more.

So that's it for today.  I have a few ideas that I want to try this week.  I got some tricks to try from a new friend.  Until next time...