More Tunnel Light

If this pic looks very similar to this one of my daughter, there's a reason.

Alex and his Mom described a picture they wanted me to make and showed me an example of one they had done previously; Alex looking down with the light coming in from the left, background out of focus. I tried photographing Julia in the tunnel to see how it would look before I suggested this to Alex.

I had Alex meet me at 7:00pm at Adriatica to do the shot. I noticed it was starting to get cloudy and could see a storm moving in in the distance. Alex arrived just as the rain started so I figured we might as well see what we can do anyway. The big problem was light. The dark clouds from the storm cut the light to almost 50% of what I was expecting to get.

This is where the 5D Mark II really came in handy. I borrowed a friends 50mm f1.4 and pushed the ISO up to 1600. This was the result. Not bad considering the light was very limited. In the raw image I could see just a little bit of grain when I zoomed in on the picture, but I was able to get rid of most of it using Lightroom, as well as converting the image to black & white.

Tunnel Light

This is a recent shot of my daughter taken at Adriatica. I had her stand at one of the tunnels that go under Virginia Parkway trying to get the effect of directional light.

Brick Ledge

This is from the same session as the last post.

I also fixed my Twitter link. Thanks Michelle!

"Fix your hair, please."

I'm fortunate to have an attractive daughter that when her father says "let's go take some pictures," she's always agreeable.

This was taken in Adriatica last summer.

Sculpting The Promise

"The Promise" is a sculpture "in the making" that is located in front of the Bell Tower at Adriatica. When it is completed it will depict the dove that brought the olive leaf to Noah surrounded by a fountain and will be dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. 

I can't help thinking that it's a bit inappropriate to have a sculpture dedicated to hurricane victims resting in the middle of a fountain, even though the fountain is meant to represent God's promise that he would never allow the world to be destroyed by water again.

Also strange and a bit humorous is the disclaimer on the sign with a rendering of the finished sculpture that says, "Artists rendering may not accurately depict finished development. The information heron is subject to change at any time without notice." With all due respect to the artist(s), who are not mentioned on the sign, I'm guessing it means that if they mess it up they reserve the right to turn it into a birdbath.  Based on the progress made so far, I think it will look just like the picture. Is there a law that says they have to include a disclaimer that says it may not look exactly like the artists rendering? It is a rendering, after all.

Bell Tower Of Adriatica

The nearly complete Bell Tower is the centerpiece of a development here in McKinney known as Adriatica. It's modeled after an actual bell tower in Croatia and stands 128 feet tall. It will house office space and possibly a museum on the top floor.

Here's another view after the sun was a little higher in the sky.