I used a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second for this one but with flame being so bright as it is I probably could've gone faster for a bit more detail. I figured having something in silhouette would add some interest to the shot so some chain that was hanging as a barrier worked well.
I'm not 100% sure what this is for. In any case, the shot was taken in the late afternoon but it was still rather bright here. I had to darken it down a lot to bring out detail of the metal (which happened to work great with the brick, gave it a cool wet feel rather than a bright washed out look) but the keyhole kept darkening right down to a black circle. It took a while but I separated a small square around the keyhole to a new layer, darkened the rest of it, flattened the image again then just used a clone stamp to fill in around the edges of the keyhole. Thankfully flat shiny steel is very forgiving. What I thought would be a ten second touch up job turned into half an hour of yelling at Photoshop.
Just something I found in cement steps hidden out by the lake. I think the unkept look of the steps (pine needles, moss) because they're so rarely used really says something.
This was taken in a parking lot next to a large puddle. I darkened it down quite a bit to add to the contrast. Doing that brought out the details of the sidewalk that were washed out before. I also use this image as the background to my phone.
This is in a local sewing shop. The light was coming in at a good angle and I thought the look on its face was a little whimsical and dreamy. The hand being broken badly.. Well, I just don't know what to say about it.
This is looking through a garage door opening of a dry cleaner in Plattsburgh, NY. It was a really hot night and the shop was closed, so there wasn't any activity or people right up front in the shop. The desk/register spot is in another door to the left, so I felt this had a bit of a unique industrial feel to it. I darkened down the image a bit, giving it a natural black border, but I kept the fluorescent light feel to it. No, that's not a person in the back, its just some machenery (several people have asked).
This was in Burlington V.T. during the Discover Jazz festival early this past summer. The guy was actually quite animated, but I was able to take a shot while the people waiting for food were just looking on while he did his work, making it look much quieter than the scene actually was.
That's a foam hot dog hat, which I think makes this photo a bit memorable.
