#52weekproject – Week 23: Mazama Village Campgrounds

Crater Lake, Oregon

52wp-W23 Crater Lake Mazama Campground 2014-09-27

Taken Friday, September 26, 2014.

Drove into Crater Lake National Park, well after sundown. After we set up our tents, I decided to set up my cameras for some long exposure timelapses of the sky, even though I was kind of exhausted. Really wanted to do this timelapse over Crater Lake, but driving back up those switchbacks in the dark from the campground didn’t seem appealing. Unfortunately, putting off til tomorrow what could have been done that day came back to bite me, as the following night was cloudy, and windy, so unfortunately, I didn’t end up getting any starscapes over Crater Lake. Looks like I’ll have to go back out to some other time!

I did crop the photo a bit to balance the image, and cut out the truck and the light from the bathroom. And, since I did do a timelapse with this, I was also able to stack the photos into a startrails photo. Using a different method than I have before, I stacked these in photoshop, grouped them as a smart object, and set the Stack Mode to median, which I think gave a more pleasant result than I typically get (the trails usually look more jagged and noisy). I’m still learning some of the post-processing on these photos, but overall, it’s pretty solid! Let me know what you think, or if you have any tips, or tutorials to share!

Mazama Village Startrails stacked

#52weekproject: Week 22 – Looking in the Loop

52wp-w22 - lookin in the loop

 

Taken on Friday, September 12th, 2014. Left work late on a drizzly Friday, when I took this photo on the corner right by my office. I was killing some time waiting for my cousin to come into the city on the Metra, so I had some plans on taking some more train photos in the loop from a parking garage I had spotted earlier that week. While I was checking my settings, I decided to take a few test shots and was checking my manual focus skills when this lady spotted me with my camera. I don’t normally take street photos like this, because it feels a little creepy to take pictures of people I don’t know. But I kinda liked how it turned out, so that’s why I’m posting it here.

If I could change a couple things, I’d have moved a bit to my left, so she would be directly in the middle of the crosswalk lines, where the eyes are naturally drawn by the leading lines, and have the taxi just a little further to the right to balance the picture. The wet streets adds some good contrast, but I would have loved to make it rain a bit more (like I do in the clubs).

Here are a few other photos I took.

52wp-w22 - train in the loop

 

52wp-w22 - uptrain

#52weekproject: Week 21 – ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

This is so long ago, it’s not even funny. The whole ice bucket thing came and went. And here I am finally sharing it.

Week 21 - Ice Bucket

Taken on Saturday, August 30th 2014. Took a still from the video I made for the Ice Bucket Challenge, but I think it still counts. (You can find the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nisAFWIjUvM).

I had my dad and my sister help me out, but I’m sure my dad was pretty confused as to why I was doing it, since his exposure to the internet is usually limited to emailing me about computer or camera questions, or watching Vietnamese music videos on youtube with my mom.

Anyway, long story short, I donated $100 to Charity:Water, and $100 to Action Against Hunger to support a couple of other causes I feel are just as important.

 

http://www.charitywater.org/

http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/