Another Snowy Day in Fayetteville

Well, the snowstorm that is all over the south came to Fayetteville NC, today. Of course, they closed the schools and everyone got too scared to drive more than 2 MPH, don't know why they didn't just stay home if they are that scared. I did not venture to Walley World or the grocery stores, but I am sure there is not a loaf of bread or oz of milk left. So, can some tell me what do they do, make milk sandwiches?...lol. Anyway, I dropped Sharon off at work and headed downtown. I wanted to see how the Market House looked in the snow. I was doing great, got there with no problem, found a great parking place and got my gear together. Didn't make it more than 15 yards before I stepped in a slush puddle..ha... well, I was looking through the viewfinder and moving just a bit to frame a shot, and the rest is soggy history. It would not have been so bad in my boots but of course I had my deck shoes on.
The rest of the morning went great, got several good shots around Hay Street and then went to the Marquis Market for coffee. While I was there I worked on developing the photos. Becca a friend from our regular coffee shop was also downtown getting some snow shots and stopped by the Market for a bit. We compared notes on our shoots, and the snow. Well, here are the images that I have done.:



I have more shots to go through, but that is all I have developed so far. Will Post more Later.

Playing With Yesterday's Photos

I got to playing around with some of the other photos that I took yesterday. These were the ones that weren't really bad they just didn't make me happy. So I played around with removing all color but one, then over saturating and illuminating that one color. So here is what I ended up. I am still experimenting with it so maybe more to come later.

Rain Day at the Coffee Shop

It is rainy and cold here today. Perfect weather to hang out in the coffee shop. After I dropped Sharon off at work ( work on a Saturday.... I Know!!!! ) I headed downtown. Thought I would try the Haymont Grill out for breakfast, well been there done that. Wasn't bad just nothing to write home about.

So went down the street to Rude Awakenings coffee shop to have a Spice Chai Latte ( I Love Those now). Sat in the front window so I could get some street shots of the passer-bys. well as I mentioned before it was wet, cold and miserable so not very many people out this morning. But I did get some blur shots of cars going up and down Hay Street.


I wanted to get a change of venue so I went down the street to the Marquis Market, to do basically the same thing. Had some coffee made a few pictures, you know just hung out.




Well, of course it would not be right to go downtown and not get a shot of the Market House.

2014 Last Show

2014 went out with a bang.......well, in the sky over my neighborhood. This is what I saw as I started the car to take my wife to work yesterday morning. I grabbed the Sony and let it rip on P so a little grainy but I got it.



It was pretty cool to see. These are straight out of the camera. The only thing done to them in PS was to reduce the size for the web page.
I might go back and work them a little but what you see is pretty much what I saw that morning.

I also went to the Coffee Scene a local shop and stayed awhile but really only made one that I liked.



Then I went to the Mall.....yeah I know, but it is where the people are in this town. I stayed several hours and got some shots. Not real sure about them yet. I will come back to them. I have a series that maybe will turn out to be a theme, or a short story, but will have to see how they develop. I will let them rest and stew awhile.

Just Some Street

Out this morning downtown and working on my street Photography. Not a lot of people out this morning, but will work up to more people as I go. No explanations just the Photos.

Refraction and Bokeh

It is really a blah day outside today. Rainy and cool, and I feel every bump, bruise, tear, break and every hard landing from the last 54 years. So I stayed in and did some work with my new Sony ILCE 5100. Playing around with Light refracting through water in a glass, and the Bokeh effect I can get with different apertures. Sharon was doing some of her magic with the watercolors and made a great model for the background.



Still need to practice this, want to do this downtown in front of some of the neon signs.

Update 12/29/2014

My wife liked the third photo the best,but she thought that it would be better, or less distracting if I would tone down or remove the light by her head. Well, I tried to just tone it down using the quick mask mode in PS, but the light is too overexposed and blown out. There is just no information there to work with. So I decided to just use the spot healing brush tool and blend it out of the photo. Here is the original and the Redux: