Elephants on Parade

I photographed the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus pachyderm parade (a.k.a. elephant walk) yesterday. No matter how old you are it's still a wonder seeing those massive animals marching together, especially through the streets of downtown DC.

I think the last photo helps capture the sheer be-wonderment of the little ones.

There's also a slideshow at the end with a few more.

A Trip to the Dog Park - Snowpocalypse2

A panoramic and from my trip to the dog park:

Water Dog

Besides being famous for living in the White House, Portuguese Water Dogs are also supposedly good in the water because of their webbed feet and ancient training to assist fisherman. Now we humans know all about this, but try telling that to a young pup who hasn't spent much time in the water.

The shoot was for the owner's boat (always need good pictures when selling a house, car, or boat....well if you ask me you need goo pictures for anything) but I'll put those pictures up in a different post. This one is Nimbus the Portuguese Water Dog living in in Mass.

Help the Homeless Walk

Just got back from the Fannie Mae Help the Homeless Walk. The hardest part after photographing an event is trying to pick out 3 or 4 pictures to share and try tell the story. But luckily as I have some editorial control over this, I can share 6 if I want and share some lighting and composition tidbits.





I couldn't believe how long it took me to find a man-hole cover next to the line!



I decided to try and shoot some stuff not on manual, when you're running with your subjects the lighting is constantly changing. So I shot the photo below in aperture priority and shut-down my aperture ) to f/18 until I could get my shutter speed within my sync speed (not messing with high speed sync today). I dialed in -2 stops of exposure compensation on the camera to get the sunny sky somewhat manageable and held the flash with my left hand on TTL connected with a TTL cord and dialed in +3 flash compensation to try and register something over the sun. I kind of wish there was a +5 on the flash for this shot! But I got pretty close.


I could treat this a little differently as the street performers cheering people on weren't exactly moving. Didn't have quite so much sun to deal with as I positioned myself so the sun was coming in from the right (look at the shadows) so I could also get a little more blue out of the sky. Back to manual exposure, and TTL flash (+something). Flash held down towards the ground and fired up.

Fattening up for the Winter

I really have nothing to add to this post.

Pemba

Pemba is an adorable creature who watches over our neighbor's twins and was creating some lasting memories in the bush before they were cut down.  You think kids are bad to get to sit still....try taking a stick away from this one.

The life of luxury

This little guy ride in the back of a personalized do carrier built into his owner's vespa.  Twice a day he driven down to the beach to sit on a bench and look at the ocean.

Lucy at the Park Near Eastern Market