I’ve just come back after attending a meeting in Bethesda, MD and took the opportunity of spending a little time in Washington DC. DC has some magnificent public buildings including the Union Station. The following pictures are of the Washington Union Station and the Columbus Circle just outside this magnificent edifice.
All photographs from a compact Panasonic TZ-30 camera, processed in NIK Color Efex Pro.
Narcissus jonquil and Narciuss tazetta are two daffodil cultivars endowed with flowers that have a heady perfume. These members of the Amaryllis lily family are probably hybrids of Japanese daffodils. Each flower in the pictures below is about 1.8cm in diameter, but their heady fragrance can be felt metres away.
Any picture can be clicked upon to see a larger version.
Technical Details:
Nikon D700 with Speedlight SB-600 external flash Sigma 105mm f/2.8 lens Post-Processed in Adobe LightRoom 4.3 and NIK Color Efex Pro 4
“Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
Chaste Snow-drop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!”
William Wordsworth (To a Snow-drop)
Snowdrops traditionally herald the beginning of the end of winter. Delicate white flowers peeking out from a modest plant that is often overlooked when the other plants wake up from their winter slumber.
This looks likely to be the most christmas-like Easter here in England this year. Snowfall this week and more expected over the Easter weekend make it hard to believe that spring is actually here. These daffodils from my garden are proof that, whilst we may not think of spring, the plants have certainly made up their minds.
All these pictures taken outside at dusk. The black background in the photographs are a result of using an external flash combined with a high aperture setting. Final black corrections in Adobe LightRoom applied to create a fully dark background.
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower – Albert Camus
The quayside is a popular boarding place for a spot of punting on the Cam. On the day this picture was taken, the sun suddenly came up from behind bathing the place in brilliant sunshine. 3 shot HDR.
One of my pride and joy has been able to sustain an oriental hibiscus plant (indoors) through the vagaries of British weather, and in return I’m blessed with vibrant red hibiscus flowers 3-4 times in a month, sometimes more. Here is a study of a hibiscus flower in original (untouched or processed, exported from Lightroom), B&W rendition (processed in Silver Efex Pro), processed using Color Efex Pro filters to bring out detail.
I like the picture as it was from the camera (untouched). Why process a picture if it doesn’t really add anything more to the photograph?
Thanks for stopping by, and please do leave a comment on what you think?
Technical Details
Nikon D7000 (Manual Mode), ISO200 SB600 Speedlight External Flash in Slave mode at right angles to lens Sigma 105mm/f2.8 macro lens 1/100 sec, F32 to ensure picture sharpness and black background Post-Processed (where done) using NIK Software LightRoom plugins.
NEMO is a science centre in the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is an iconic structure that is shaped like a ship, that also celebrates glorious dutch maritime history. The building has been designed by the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano.
All photographs have been post-processed by the use of NIK Color Efex Pro 4.0 filters to enhance contrast and detail. Click on any of the pictures for a larger view on Flickr.
A boat in choppy high tide North Sea waters at Sheringham in Norfolk. At low tide the sea recedes to well beyond the markers leaving a pleasant sandy beach.
Via Flickr:
A boat in choppy waters. Sheringham, Norfolk
The temperature across East Anglia touched a chilly -6C over the last two nights. Winter is well and truly here in Cambridge. The rapid drop in temperature meant some great opportunities for photography across my place of work. The pictures below are all from my iPhone 4S. As always you can click on the pictures to see and appreciate these flowers of ice.
All pictures with an iPhone 4S (it was too cold to carry anything else!). The images were post-processed in Color Effex Pro 3.0 plugin inside Adobe Lightroom 4.3
Juridicious 