These images I captured on an August morning 14 years ago in Tampa. I went to one of my frequent spots on Ballast Point. I wish I could claim I had been clever and went out this morning for these conditions, but that would not be true.
Incoming clouds and storms created a contrasting scene in which the rising sun lit up the sky and surrounding areas, but downtown still remained lit as if it were still night time. Despite the incoming storms, Hillsborough Bay was still calm and reflective.
Upon review of these images I really wish I had focus assist on this DSLR as many are quite soft or technically out of focus. Nevertheless, I still enjoy these images so much I decided to keep them.
May has been a quite busy month for me. Between my SO and work, I haven’t had any free time for myself until this morning. I wanted to try a new spot this morning, but construction had closed my main route to get there. I was trying a back road when I noticed the clouds. I thought there was a chance for some colorful skies, so I opted to go to another spot I already knew to get some shots.
I was having an off morning, because this spot isn’t near parking, and it took my three trips to the vehicle to get everything ready. Fortunately, it was a calm morning which allowed for a reflection on the bayou, and I did get some good color in the sky. Here are some shots from this morning:
Sony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 60mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 1.3 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 39mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 0.6 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 42mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 0.6 sec
The bridge I took this from definitely vibrates as traffic passes, so timing shots and getting sharp images wasn’t all that easy, but I was able to get a few shots off in between.
I do like the lush bayou banks with the city standing behind, the sky and reflections really helped.
I’ve been wanting to use the tele lens a little more lately. I really like my standard zoom for capturing the whole scene, but I need more practice on picking out the details that catch my eye.
It was a cloudy morning, but the ceiling cleared the skyscrapers considerably. The City Hall building was lit in blue, and we could see the lights on the clouds above the city.
After taking some shots of the city, I stopped by a transit station, and the bust station structure with the deep blue clouds caught my eye.
Sony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 100-400mm GM | 158mm | ISO 100 | f/5 | 5.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 100-400mm GM | 215mm | ISO 100 | f/5.6 | 5.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 100-400mm GM | 400mm | ISO 100 | f/5.6 | 5.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 100-400mm GM | 400mm | ISO 100 | f/5.6 | 5.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 100-400mm GM | 100mm | ISO 100 | f/4.5 | 2.0 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 43mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 2.0 sec
I recently traveled to North Carolina. This was a voluntold type trip in that I was only there because my SO said it was highly encouraged, which is to say more than mandatory. Despite having to be there for another reason, I still searched to see if there were any lighthouses nearby. There was one in the general vicinity. It was not the coolest lighthouse I’ve seen, but it would be a fine subject.
Fast forward to the weekend of, and things were not working for me. I had a hellish day of travel due to flight delays, rental car place being out of cars, having to change hotels last minute. That put me behind schedule, and I only had one opportunity to escape and go do my thing. It’s the night before, I’m exhausted, I’m checking out the weather, and there’s a storm blowing in. Weather report indicates it’ll get in too early, but I was excited to have a chance to get a good sky.
I live in the Central time zone, I had my alarm set for 5:00 AM Eastern, after a night in which I only got a few hours sleep. Despite being very tired, I didn’t want to waste a golden opportunity.
Sony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 24mm | ISO 100 | f/5.6 | 10 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 24mm | ISO 100 | f/8 | 30 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 24mm | ISO 100 | f/8 | 1/6 secSony Alpha 7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | 24mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 1/4 sec
The morning was brilliant. The colors, the clouds, the subject. I was very pleased with the results. The storm that was rolling in wasn’t but 20 minutes behind me. Definitely glad I made the trip.
These photos were taken over a decade ago on my old Olympus 4/3rd Digital SLR. This was taken in December of 2009. The wind speed had gone down with the sun, but some fog was appearing over the land where it was cooler than over the water.
I was woken on this morning by a thunderstorm, and thought, well I’m not going to get any pictures today. I pulled up the radar, and it was a smaller storm moving through pretty quickly. Then I thought, this might actually work out for me.
In typical Houston fashion, I tried running to one of my favorite spots only to find the streets had been closed. What made that more excruciating was that on the way, I loved the view, but I lost another 10 minutes trying to work around the road closures. When the light is changing quickly, that 10 minutes feels like a lifetime.
I didn’t park where I really should have, and was rushing to avoid any problems with the place I did park. It ended up working out because the light I wanted had passed anyways, but below are three shots from this morning.
Sony A7R IV | Sony 24-70 GMII | 35mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 3.2 secSony A7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GMII | 70mm | ISO 100 | f/11 | 1 secSony A7R IV | Sony 24-70mm GM II | ISO 100 | f/11 | 15 sec
