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Life from a couple different angles
By Silver Blue
Always be on the lookout for shape, colour, form, and angle. Photos can come from some of the most unexpected areas
Two such options came to be while waiting for the Grand Illumination in downtown Norfolk, VA:
It’s all in how you “see”. If you open your eyes, what does the world around you look like?
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/sbem.mp3]Silver Blue, who keeps looking for that elusive “Eden”….
My morning is bound to appear.
By Silver Blue | 1 comment
1
Ocean View Beach, Norfolk, VA.
“If I can endure for this minute
whatever is happening to me
No matter how heavy my heart is
or how dark the moment might be…
If I can but keep on believing
what I know in my heart to be true,
That darkness will fade with the morning
and that this will pass away, too –
Then nothing can ever disturb me
or will me with uncertain fear,
For as sure as night brings the dawning,
my morning is bound to appear.”
(“Comes The Dawn” by Helen Steiner Rice)
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/andhc.mp3]Silver Blue, who has his mind scattered all over…and it shouldn’t be this way.
Where the HDR fascination started…
By Silver Blue
I was in Ghent, Norfolk, VA, and had shot a good number of photos of the Naro Theater and … back in those days, the only option I knew of was the somewhat primitive Photoshop option.
A different look (not necessarily better, but different) is now available by clicking three buttons.
The lower is garish, while the top appears lost in a fog. The difference is that the top photo took (when I rendered it, back in 2007) about 15 minutes of heavy computing power. The lower one took about 8 seconds.
Sometimes, however, just a proper exposure for neon can make all the difference. This one has no HDR effects applied at all, and it’s the one I prefer most:
Silver Blue…. who tries to capture what lights up his world.
Colley Avenue, Ghent, Norfolk, VA
By Silver Blue
February 2007. Looks mostly the same, only the San Antonio Sam’s has been replaced with a Chipotle restaurant.
The Red Dog Saloon (previously The Maxx, and before that, Elliott’s). Home to one of the biggest hot dogs I’ve ever seen (I think it was a 16 oz dog!). Haven’t eaten there in a number of years.
Across the street is Bella Pizzaria in Ghent. Love that the neon sign, this night, was malfunctioning, to tell you to:
“Be A Ghent”. LOL. This place has the best garlic knots, and deluxe stromboli I’ve ever put in my face. 🙂
Finally, just a shot up the street:
The neighbourhood pharmacy (one that’s not a chain!), The Red Dog, (now defunct) San Antonio Sam’s, and the Naro Expanded Cinema.
Silver Blue, who’s finds that it’s a lot easier to lose weight when you do the cooking yourself, but the scenery never changes. LOL.
Mood Food.
By Silver Blue
From 1988. Taken via a Polaroid Land Camera, Norfolk, VA.
I weighed all of 135 lbs in this photo. I never wish to be that skinny again, though I do believe, as a moody photo of me, this works.
Silver Blue, who knows these days, I must be happy with myself, or no one else can be.
We’d hear the bells of St. Paul’s…
By Silver Blue
…not just a song by Linda Eder, but a Church in Norfolk.
Rush hour, one night, about five years ago.
Lit up in splendour.
There’s something special about being about to grab a quick shot out of an open window while you’re waiting for the traffic to move. Just another example of how moments are “made” and not necessarily happen “by chance”.
“We never talked about forever….we were in love and through it all…our hearts would sing every time they’d ring…the ancient bells of St. Paul’s…”
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/tbosp.mp3]Silver Blue, who is feeling far too much the audiophile for the evening.
Things that catch my eye
By Silver Blue | 2 comments
2Survived a very stressful event today at a local hotel. Probably the largest public relations for my College — the event of the year (and this is my 13th one — they don’t get any easier). Involved a morning session for 400 and lunch for 300+, and two lectures. So, in order to keep my wits, sanity, and sense of humour, I did what I do best.
I look… up.
The “X” doesn’t appear in the hotel’s name, so I don’t quite know why they’re on the light fixtures. Still, I liked it, so it made its way to the memory card.
Then…
Ahh. Curves. Curves are soothing. A break from the harshness of right angles and points. The other side of this shot would be…
Something that looked like this. One thing I’ve learned, however, from my online photography classes. When set in automatic mode, your camera will meter for the available light, and attempt to give you a scene where the highlights are exposed correctly. Only one problem with that.
By doing so, you’ve lost all the details in the shadows. Fortunately, by using a fill flash, I was able to capture a greater range.
I wouldn’t have thought of using a flash in such a bright situation, normally. Of course, now I think differently.
Silver Blue, who attempts to find ways of flushing stress from himself that causes no harm to others, but also helps bring me back to centre.
It all began the day I found…
By Silver Blue
….that from my window I could only see a piece of sky…
Again, something about the angles, the reflections. I’ll admit it. I like deco design. Of course this was before Wachovia built their own office building, and then became Wells Fargo. Bah. The more things change…
Silver Blue, who thinks that things really do stay the same. Only the names change.
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/pcyhm.mp3]One day my ship will come in.
By Silver Blue
The USS Wisconsin, before the Navy deeded her back to the City of Norfolk, berthed beside Nauticus. I love the angles, the lighting, the colours…the way the camera captured the mood as the sun slipped below the horizon.
Silver Blue, who still gets misty eyed when he sees the harbour lights.
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/hl.mp3]You’re no bunny, till some bunny loves you…
By Silver Blue
Taken in the Ghent Section of Norfolk in February 2007, the Ghent Pharmacy revs up for Easter. Something about a drug store that still closes at 6pm, even in 2011, makes me nostalgic for a simpler time. Don’t get me wrong. If I’m away at 2 a.m. and need something from CVS, Walgreens, or Wal-Mart, I like the convenience. But is almost as if some of our innocence has disappeared… because it has.
Silver Blue, who thinks that sometimes the past and the present do collide.
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/mncsg.mp3]
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