4th of July photos

It's been a couple weeks since my last post, so I think I'm going to double-up this evening. To start, here's a few pics I took during Fourth of July fireworks in Manassas, Virginia. I don't think I've mastered capturing the fireworks yet, but I'll get there.

Cloud shots

The other day I took a few shots of clouds hanging out around my office. Here are a few that I really enjoyed. The one, twin clouds, reminded me of the Star Destroyers chasing the Millennium Falcon in A New Hope. And the other one kind of reminded me of an animal paw. The other one was just a cool cloud spray that I shot while I was directly under it.

Rainy storm

Every few days in Maryland lately, we've had thunderstorms. One night a week or two ago, I decided to take a few pictures while shooting out of my bathroom window. I was trying to capture some lightning (and failed), but there was one picture that I thought came out nicely. I particularly like the lonely, somewhat gloomy street lamp and the misty feel to the pic. For some reason, now that I'm looking at it again, I can't help but think of the Goonies. Also, I touched this photo up a bit to make the trees stand out a little better, thank you Photoshop Elements.

Fun with glass

Okay, so I have these short rocks glasses that have fun, thick bottoms and weird curvy shapes on the sides (for gripping). Anyway, I have been trying to figure out a fun way to photograph through them for some time. So, I threw caution to the wind the other night and using the 18-55mm lens, I went to work. I only took a handful of pics. But here are 3 that I thought were really cool. I tried a few with the flash and without. Oh and the green picture is not of the rocks glass, it's actually the top half of a Hershey's Kiss candy dish I received for Christmas one year. Fun times.

Wallpaper

So, my lovely sister asked me to take some photos at a family function this past weekend and since I am reluctant to put pictures of people up on the web, I thought I'd share a pic of an inanimate object that I really enjoyed. It's a set of chairs (as you can see) sitting in the front yard of my sister and brother-in-law's "river" house over looking the Potomac. This was the first time being down there for me and it was quite nice...secluded, serene, just the way I like it. Anyway, I liked this pic, and it's currently my desktop image. Enjoy.

Flowers at the store

Okay, so in a previous post, I mentioned my fascination with out of focus shots. The following pictures feature more of that technique. My objective was to again paint a sort of picture using the camera. In these photos, I feel like I had more color to work with, which was cool. And I think they came out pretty well. The first pic (depending on how they display...you'll know which one I'm talking about) is the flower itself, just a plain shot. The others were made using different apertures and by moving the camera in toward and away from the flower. Enjoy.

photo contest

This is the photo I submitted for a local Calvert Co. photo contest. If it's chosen, I think it might make it into a calendar or something.