It Is Sad Really

This is a stairway at my office building. The building used to be a mall a long time ago but it doesn't have a highway by it and the local community couldn't sustain it on their own. Looking at this stair well you would think it is still abandoned. But it isn't it has been an office building for more than 10 years. It is a shame they can't take better care of it. “They” being the building management company and the people that work here.
I do appreciate the fact that the building was not left abandoned or leveled to make way for another building to be built right on top of it. The thing about an office building is it doesn't have to have easy access. The workers have to show up; shoppers have a choice.

Sometimes ferns look so alien

NIght Walk

I took a short walk last night. The reason for my walk is in a little bit of dispute. My wife came home from her jog with one of our dogs and said "I dropped the poop bags. Do you feel like taking a walk and looking for them?" This could have just been a simple case of not wanting to loose the bags and not wanting to leave plastic laying on the ground. However once I was on my way I called my wife and asked how long I should spend looking for these bags. She replied "Well your already out there so you might as well get some exercise ..." ulterior motive #1..."and since you are going to be right by the store you might as well pick up a beer for yourself." ulterior motive #2. Regardless of her motives she was looking out for me and that makes me happy.
Right before I left the house I thought I would bring my camera along hoping to catch the sun setting behind the railroad tracks that were on my way for my quest to find the poop bags. No luck on the railroad snset. I thought my photo op would be a bust it was getting dark so I resigned myself to just enjoy my walk.
Then I came across this little leaning tower. It looked like it could make a good picture but there wasn't much light... hey it's digital just take the picture and see what happens. I thought maybe and HDR process might work or I could just try to brighten it up in post, either way just take the picture. I didn't want to make it look like daytime so I figured brightening it in Photoshop would work if the HDR didn't. Photoshop has often failed me in the HDR arena and once again it fell short.
I can not place all the blame on Photoshop. I am sure some of it is operator error. I have tried some of the other HDR programs (free trials) and have had better luck so I think those are just more intuitive for me.
I was not going for the grungy or surreal HDR effect I wanted the that is that is a lot of detail for a picture taken at 8:30 at night effect.
As usual Camera Raw and some extra levels adjustments gave me a better result than PhotoShop's HDR.

Rainy Morning

Turns into rainy day
Clive and I missed our walk this morning due to inclement weather. However sitting on the porch swinging my boy isn't bad way to spend my pre-work morning. My wife has planted some beautiful (almost as beautiful as her) flowers and plants in our strip of dirt.

Cook out in the country

Went over to my sister in-law's for a cook out. Last time I went over there they had corn growing, this time it was soybeans. I guess that is country livin'

Hollywood Cemetery

Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA.
I have been re-woking some old images with my new copy of PhotoShop CS6

Street Light

I took this picture with the desire of making a picture of an ordinary thing look interesting. I have seen many photographers do it from taking pictures of the isles of a big box store to pictures of suburbia. I usually try to find an old interesting building to help my picture out but this time I wanted to use a planner subject and capture the brightness and simplicity of the day.

This shot was also taken a little off so I used the Adaptive Wide Angle filter to try to straighten some of the elements I the photo. I didn’t want use one of the straighten tools that just rotates the canvas because I lost the top of the street light. I hadn’t used this filter before so I am still trying to figure it out. If I decide I really like this image I might go back and try to do it a little better. But hey they are old buildings…

… they have a little sag to them.

On the left is the image as is out of camera. A little crooked and flat.

The image on the right is after the Adaptive Wide Angle filter and then I used content Aware Fill, and it actually worked pretty well the first time. I just had to tweak an area in the upper left hand corner.

If I decide I really like the image I might go back and fiddle with the Adaptive Wide Angle filter, always room for improvement.

Pump house

Clarke-Palmore House Museum, Richmond, VA.
This is a little hidden jem in Richmond. It is down 60 past Shockoe Bottom. It is tucked away from all the bars and industrial areas and set in a quite little patch of woods next to a small neigbourhood.
This is one of the out buildings around the 1930s Depression Era house.