Hot air balloonThe annual Balloon festival at Winthrop,WA
 

Have you ever been to Winthrop, Washington on the North cascades ? It is a beautiful little town on the cascade mountains, East of the cascade range. There is a Hot Air Balloon festival that happens during the first weekend in March every year. Around 40 to 50 balloons take off in the morning and it is a colorful scene to watch. It is cold up there and the ground is generally covered in snow and ice during this time, of the year.  I have been to this festival last year and witnessed the event. They plan this an year ahead, but several climatic conditions needs to be satisfied in order for them to fly. The sky should be clear with no or little clouds, the wind speed must be less than 5 miles. They inflate the balloons before the sunrise and they go up in the air around the time when Sun comes up in the horizon. They fly for around one to two hours and come back to the ground when the sun becomes hot. You could drive along north cascade highway ( WA 20 ) to reach there from Seattle. But, that highway is closed in winter, and it is not open until end of march.  So you have to drive through Lake Chelan along  a long  route, from Seattle -> Leavenworth -> Lake Chelan -> Winthrop. It is a long ride, but it is worth the effort. 
 

What is interesting about the picture showcased here ? It is the perspective, you look at the same balloon from different angles and at different distances, you get different images.  I find the balloons very colorful with contract n colors a nice object to photograph.
 

Exposure : 105 mm, ISO 400,  1/500 sec, F8, -1/3 exposure compensation
 

Link to the picture gallery :  http://www.muraleephotos.com/p680439742/h6d617763#h6d617763
 

Contrast, colors, perspective.
 

Suzallo library The reading hall of Suzallo library in Seattle.

The campus of  the University of Washington  (UW) in Seattle is a really beautiful place.  I visit this place two or three times every year. There are so many interesting things to see here, not just because I am a student there. I will need several blog pages to describe what I have enjoyed seeing there, and Suzallo library is the best among all. It is the main library hall of UW, and it was constructed over a century ago. The interior of the reading hall on the second floor is wonderful and amazing. There are several old beautiful buildings in the campus,  Suzallo library is my favorite. It is near the UW Quad, and also there is a pond nearby on the opposite side of the Quad.   It is a reading hall for the students, but I have seen people from outside visiting. Look at their web site and learn the timings before you plan your visit. The library is closed when the University is closed during vacation times.

There are several photographic elements to discuss in this image. Most important among them is Symmetrical Balance, it is an interesting composition guideline that helped me get interesting pictures several times in the past. We can find symmetry in nature, and also in buildings and other architectural constructed by man. Reflection of objects in water or glass can create symmetry. An image that shows symmetry is interesting. Look for symmetry when you go out next time, and it is fun when you find some.  If you are photographing inside the library, it is a quiet place, and the camera shutter can produce sound that can disturb the students. So, make sure to use the 'Quiet Mode' in your camera, which will make a less audible noise while you trip the shutter.

Exposure : 24 mm, ISO 100,  1 sec, F16

Link to the picture gallery : http://www.muraleephotos.com/p944035014

Symmetric balance, Quiet mode in camera

St James cathedralSt James cathedral in Seattle

It is a rainy or cloudy day with no sign of Sun out in the sky, but you are free this weekend and you like to go out and  see something interesting, what you can do ? Find a place to do some indoor viewing like the St James Cathedral in Seattle.  This is one thing I like about this beautiful city, I can always find something new to see, there are so many opportunities out there, indoor and outdoor depending on climate. St James cathedral is in Downtown Seattle, and it is easy to get there.  I learned about this beautiful Roman Catholic church six years after living here, it was constructed over  100 years ago, and the architecture is marvelous.  One can always appreciate the struggle with which they developed the beautiful interior, knowing that technology was not that developed at the time it was constructed.  I attended an organized tour inside the church, we can book a tour by getting the details from the web site of the church. It looks like the view from the church towards the ocean was beautiful with no buildings blocking the view at that time, but now the whole place is filled with high-rise buildings and we can hardly see the water from there. If you want to use tripod for taking photos, it is allowed when there is no service happening in the church, but you will need to get permission in advance. 

I went there two times to this place couple of years ago. Once it was on a rainy day and another time it was a sunny day, thinking that bright Sun will give me better opportunities to photograph the interior. The windows have stained glass and it is very colorful, and you can use a telephoto like 200 mm lens to get close up pictures of the beauty of the glass structures. One thing I learned is that, a cloudy or rainy day is better to get good images of the window glass, the harsh highlight of Sun light will destroy the colors, so a cloudy day is the best. You will need the widest lens available to get the interior  of the church in one image. I just had a 20mm prime, so I did not get the widest image I could possibly get. Creating a panorama is not that feasible in this kind of an environment, because the natural distortion inside the architecture will make it almost impossible to stich the images together. I used a shallow aperture in the image above to get the star effect on the light. When you have a bright light source in the frame (example :  a lamp), proper use of shallow aperture can produce star effects. The quality of the star effect depends on the lens and also the light source.  There are couple more  interesting photographic ideas regarding photographing interiors,  that is for next week.  

Exposure : 20 mm, ISO 100,  25 sec, Exposure bias +0.3, F22, Camera on tripod, wired remote to release shutter. 

Link to the picture gallery : http://www.muraleephotos.com/p1036303551

Star effect, Windows, highlights on a rainy day