Halffast Light Chaser: March 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The Walled Town of Monteriggioni - Tuscany

Monteriggioni is a medieval walled town, located on a natural hillock, in the Siena Province of Tuscany - built by the Sienese in 1213 as a front line in their wars against Florence.

Except for some work done in the 16th century, very little has been done to Monteriggioni's walls or buildings since they were first erected. Monteriggioni's walls and the buildings that make up the town within are the best preserved example of their kind in all of Italy, attracting tourists, architects, medieval historians and archaeologists. The town appears to float above the valley at night due to the hillside walls and towers being lit from below with light.
-Wikipedia

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Friday, March 26, 2010

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Thursday, March 11, 2010

No. 17 - San Gimignano Tuscany

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

-Bilbo Baggins

This Was Personal

On a trip to the zoo I found myself alone for a moment in the building that houses the big gorillas. I could hear that something was about to come through the door to the room where the big apes hang out. I had the 70-200mm lens on and was shooting at 1600 ISO, at f/4, which gave me only 1/10th of a second shutter speed, so I stepped over the rope barrier ( I know, I know – you’re not supposed to do that) so I could rest my lens hood of the glass to steady the camera. The light was really bad and the glass or Plexiglas was really dirty.

At that point, this big silver back came out and saw me out of the corner of eye. In a heartbeat he crossed a distance of about 15 feet and slammed the glass with the edge of his fist right where I was standing. He then nonchalantly walks over and leans back on a big concrete tree, and gives me this menacing look. I have to admit - I blinked first and backed off, but not before getting this one shot. He made it clear that I had encroached into his space and shot me that look as a warning. I’m pretty sure that this look was personal.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Forest Floor in Autumn

This is a good example of how a polarizer filter could have improved this image by reducing the reflection off of the leaves and further saturating the colors.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Taking Flight

As always, click on image to enlarge

Captured this image by using a slow shutter speed (1/30) of a flock of seagulls taking off when I jumped out from behind some bushes.

This is one of my favorite abstract images because it doesn't record birds taking off, but implies it by the suggestion of beating wings.

Digitally added blue filter.