Monuments in Washington DC

The Washington Post has an article on the general state of disrepair in which the National Mall finds itself. I was thinking about that as I walked through The Mall a couple of weeks ago. The state of repair I observed seemed to be just about on par with some of the public gardens I visited on my trip to India several years ago.

I took the picture to the left because the state of disrepair struck me. This is the WWI Memorial. In fact, it doesn't even say WWI on it. It just says "The World War". After that much fun, who would want another?

I think public areas and monuments are important to a society. They serve as concrete reminders of the events and people that have forged our current identity. The remind us of the people who helped make us who we are today regardless of whether that is good or bad.

I'm glad to hear that the federal government is ponying up some cash to maintain these reminders.

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Washington DC Photos-15

Washington DC Photos-15
Originally uploaded by schauba

This is one of my attempts at HDR photography. I think you must be careful with HDR or it gets tacky in a hurry. I'm thinking of those shots that seem to include a halo around every object in the picture.

For this shot I kept it simple. I just did a bracketed exposure at +/-2 stops and ran the three images through Photoshop's HDR tool. When I converted image to 16-bit I choose the "Balanced Histogram" option. This looks like mostly like the WWI Memorial when I saw it, i.e. sans halos.

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Washington DC Photos-3

Washington DC Photos-3
Originally uploaded by schauba

This was a fun shot. I was at the Washington Monument trying to figure out something that was at least a little original. This was the best I could come up with. I think the perspective and lines really make the shot. The Monument and flag pole really lead the eye right to the flag.

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Liberty 2008

Liberty 2008
Originally uploaded by schauba

It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that but life has been hectic lately. Part of the hecticness involved a trip to Washington DC. The upside is that I got several good shots while I was there and this is one of them.

They were doing some construction on the street in front of the Lincoln Memorial and I happened to look up through the chain link fence to see it . Considering the aggressive infringements on civil liberties over the past eights, the symbolism seemed obvious so I snapped a couple of frames.

The original was in color, but I thought the black and white made emphasized the starkness I was looking for. I made a few other adjustments, to contrast, blackness, and exposure. I also cranked up the vignetting. I love vignetting.

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Some Thoughts on Evaluating Workflow

I just read an interesting article over on Black Star Rising that discussed grading photographic work in the academic world. It was interesting to see how someone who grades photos for a living plies his trade. The big ego booster for me is that his technique is very similar to mine.

Here is my photo evaluation process:

Go/No-Go Pass

This is the initial review. I look at the photo for about three seconds and determine if I like it. If I like it, it gets Lightroom's little white flag. If not, it gets Lightroom's little black flag with the "X". This usually cuts the pool of good shot candidates down by at least half.


Seeing Stars

Next I use Lightroom's Star ratings to place a quality score on the remaining images. One star sucks and five stars rocks. Here is the rough criteria:

1 Star - Bad snap shot. Someone walked in front of me, slightly out of focus, way too dark/light, unexpected results.
2 Stars - Bad snapshot but salvageable with serious Photoshop magic is required to yield anything I'd consider framing and hanging on my wall.
3 Stars - A good snapshot. My Mom could put the camera on Auto and taken the picture. Composition is OK and exposure is technically correct. I can put these on Flickr and not be too embarrassed.
4 Stars - These cause me to stop briefly and say "Huh. That's pretty good. A non-family member might consider hanging this in their home." Good composition, technically correct exposure, the shot came out as I intended.
5 Stars - I successfully channeled Ansel Adams long enough to snap the shutter. There are not many of these. There are maybe five of these in my catalog and I was probably too generous with my evaluation.

Adjust and Review

I'll go back through the photos with 2 stars and see if they are worthy of salvage and if salvation is possible. I'll go back through and increase the Star Rating if it is appropriate.

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