wet window one

One of five windows in a water sculpture outside a building I frequent a LOT that shall remain nameless. It was shot less than 30 minutes ago in the nasty cold December wind of Sacramento, California. I really worked on this sculpture series using the fullest capabilities of the D80 as I currently understand them. This shot was part of the set using slow shutter speeds to give that “melty water” effect.

The only really trouble with the shoot was once I got the camera nailed for the black and white shots, the sun kept poking in and out of the clouds. It nukes at least 10 shots before I remembered The Photographer’s Credo: You are shooting the LIGHT, not the SUBJECT. As soon as you forget that, everything you do goes south faster than a hummingbird avoiding a blizzard. Of course, once you remember about the lighting, you are at the mercy of it if you’re outdoors and using nothing more than your camera and your eyes.

Necessary details:
The entire series was shot with a Nikon D80 using an 18-55mm Vikkor VR lens.
f/16
1/15 sec
-6 exposure offset
Focal length of 55mm
Metering mode: Center weighted average
Contrast was normal and I used the full manual mode
I was in the VIVID preset since this was a colour shot with fall leaves
White balance was at automatic.
No tripod was used, even for the slowest shots. I was way too cold to shake.

Editing program was Corel PaintShop Pro XI used for slight touch-ups, resizing, and some perspective correction (since I didn’t want to sit in the fountain today)