No matter what, usually when I get new pictures I just can’t wait to get them “developed”. Whether it’s digital or on film, new pictures do get me excited. The birth of new creation is always fun. I guess that’s why I can’t wait. As it is, though, it’s 1:30 am here.
Tonight my wife and I did a little Christmas shopping. Well, she did a little Christmas shopping. I bought a couple of CD’s and decided to take some pictures of the Christmas decorations in The Galleria with my DSLR. We were going to take some pictures earlier today of the southern end of Montrose Boulevard in Houston, but like a dumbass I forgot my tripod and grabbed the wrong lens. I grabbed my super wide angle instead of my medium zoom. It’s ok, though… we went down to South Montrose anyway and visited The Menil Collection Museum to see some contemporary art. Perhaps next weekend we will go to the Houston Center for Photography Center (reminds me of the American Dodgeball Association of America from “Dodgeball”).
Anyway, I got some good pictures with the DSLR. My biggest concern with them, however, is the amount of color fixing I had to do with them. When I use the “Standard” style setting, the pictures have a reddish tint to them. Today I tried the “Neutral” setting. The reddish tint was gone, but the colors were a little more washed out. I had to do a lot of saturation level tweaking (on individual primary colors) to get it right. I guess I need to experiment a little more (perhaps white balance?).
At any rate, here are a few of the pictures I took earlier this evening:
The Galleria places a very large tree in the center of the ice-skating rink every Christmas. I don’t know it’s real or fake. I just wish the decorations were a little more colorful.
These last three are a few of the rather large ornaments that flank the tree. These are suspended from the ceiling of Galleria I, where the ice skating rink is located.
I know that when it comes to photography the person behind the viewfinder counts more than the piece of glass on the front of the body. However, a good lens helps the picture that much more. I took my super wide on this outing, which was not my intention. The super wide has an aperture range of f/2.8 – 4. My medium zoom has a fixed aperture of f/2.8. The variable aperture on the super wide didn’t help my depth-of-field. On several pictures I got a depth-of-field much deeper than desired due to the fact the maximum aperture closed due to zooming.
I have to go back tomorrow (or is it tonight?) to pick up 2007’s special ornament. I think this time I’m going to take the medium zoom along with my 50mm f/1.8 lens. Hopefully I can get some better depth-of-field.
As always, I need comments. The comments help me grow as a photographer.
I’m heading out there tomorrow to try to get some shots of the tree. Interesting thoughts on your lenses. Maybe I’ll throw my 50mm in my bag just in case.