Playground (AKA No more Trees!)

Falling asleep Friday night, I wondered where I could go the next morning to shoot. I wanted to try to get away from all the woods and trees that I have been shooting and try something different. Of course, it's not that I'm tired of shooting in those environments, it's just that I want to keep trying new things and challenging myself.

I thought of the playground as a place with interesting shapes and lines.

When I woke up this morning, with the light peeking in the window, I desperately wanted to pull the covers up and hunker down for another hour or two of sleep and sports radio. But then I remembered: playground! I also remembered that I had stashed a diet coke in the refrigerator last night before I went to bed.

I got up, threw on some clothes, grabbed a CD for the car, and of course the diet coke. As I drove down the road, less than a mile, the weather was overcast and everything was still damp from a night of rain. Good shooting conditions.

I tried to use my tripod, but it is a piece of shit leftover from the videocam days of shooting our cute little kids (they are not as cute anymore!). So now I'm on the hunt for a good tripod, or maybe even a monopod to start out with.

Here's some of the fun I had:













































One of the things that I like to do after shooting, if I have time, is to drive around and scout other places and things to shoot. I had been wanting to shoot this lake that is in the middle of our community, so I drove there to see how I could get to it and what I might like to shoot.

But instead of scouting, I just began to take pictures! There is lots more of this lake, and the path that goes around it to explore, but I'll post the shots I got when I get them processed.

Location: East Village Playground
Time: 7:30 AM

It Rains

From yesterday, at dusk, in our store's parking lot. The rain and reflections and lights were too much for me to resist. I'm getting better with night shots. I did not use a tripod on this one and got away with it.


f/4.5, 1/20 SEC, 47 MM, ISO-800

And I really like what the Ink Outlines filter produced, it makes rain reflections so striking.