Chirrrrrp

For a change of scenery, check out what I found in my house last night.

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Pick Your Poison

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Poll results

Phoenix Photography - 1
Carrigan Photography - 2
BRD Photography - 2
AKSC Photography - 2
Other: JAC-AKSC Photography - 1

As I said last week, this isn't the definite name of my future business. It's possible that I won't ever start a business. But I do need to protect my images. So after some thought, I decided to go with the fun-yet-not-wacky name. Introducing Big Red Dog Photography, aka BRD Photography.

Look in the lower-right corner for the watermark. For the time being, until I have the time/energy to try customize it, this'll be what it looks like. I know it's a little large, but I wanted to be sure it was visible in the thumbnail.

On a side note - I'm totally bummed the seahorse is blurry. The composition would've been beautiful.

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National Aquarium II

Few more pictures.

??
This fish looked plain and gray, but when I took a picture with my flash, his spots popped.

Loggerhead Sea Turtle
I don't know how old this guy is, but I did a brief read-up on them and judging by the size, this one is a young'un. Adult turtles can be as long as six feet - this one was about a foot.

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National Harbor

I initially planned to go to National Cathedral today, but because we had flat, gray clouds today, I didn't think I'd have good photos of the exterior. A friend convinced me to go check the National Aquarium, which just recently went under renovations. I was not impressed. But I've been spoiled by the Aquarium in Baltimore. The aquarium here was tiny - and in a basement under the Dept. of Commerce building. Yes, you read that right. The National Aquarium in a basement.

Crawdad?

Lion Fish

Anemone

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Annapolis

Playing with photoshop settings again.

"Dramatic"

This isn't horrible. If you click on the picture for the larger version, it's actually kinda striking. Especially when you view the doors itself. I could've framed this better - been more dead-center...Right now, because of the perspective, the picture seems a little askew. I think if I cropped it a little to each side, and brought the focus more on the doors, it might help improve this picture.

Vintage

I like this one. I get an old west or Victorian kinda feel from this picture. But the lights spoil it for me. Because the lighting and hues are different in this picture, I don't think cropping would help, in this case. Maybe adding some details to make this picture look even more distressed would be good. Hmm.

Lomo

I tried framing the window exactly center, but wasn't happy with the perspective because it was slightly overhead - as a result, it just didn't seem that interesting. In this particular case, it was more effective for me to move a couple feet to my left. I was really interested in the crackled paint and the worn shutters.

I forget which process I used for this one. Either Dramatic or Lomo.

Just love. The original picture wasn't bad, but the photoshop process really helped bring out all the details in this door and knob. The lumpy paint, the knob - and speaking of, doesn't this remind you of the doorknob in the Alice in Wonderland cartoon movie?

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Headed into DC today...

Variations of a picture from yesterday:

Vintage

Sepia

Fake Polaroid

Another vintage

Which do ya'all like?

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Annapolis was a bust...

It turns out there's a boat show starting tomorrow, and they closed the docks to public today. I wasn't familiar enough with the area to feel comfortable just driving around looking for another site. So Apollo and I wandered around for 2 hours waiting for the parking meter to lapse, and took a few pictures. We found the Navy Academy - turns out it was much closer than I thought - and got kicked off. No dog allowed. Booo.


Then I headed up to St. John's College to check out the Ptolemy Stone. The rent-a-cop there tried to kick us off (no pets allowed again), but after I explained I was only going to be on campus for 10 minutes, he just shrugged and waved us on. Not paid enough to waste energy kicking people off campus, apparently.

It took much wandering around - far more than the promised 10 minutes - before I finally found the stone.


Why was it so tough? There were no label, no signs saying, "Look, here's a piece of ancient history!" On a whim, before I left to hustle back to my now-rapidly-expiring parking meter, I asked a few students if they knew what this was. Responses ranged from dimwitted: "Ummm" to the brilliant: "Some kind of steering wheel?"
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Don't forget to vote or make a suggestion for a photo-related business name!

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Watermarking help

Some of you know I'm toying with the idea of starting a photography business in a year or so. In the meanwhile, I do need to start watermarking the pictures I put online to protect my property. Readers, if you would, vote for your favorite business name to use in watermarks. It might not necessarily be the one I use when I officially open doors, but it's something I'll use temporarily.

Check out the poll in the left margin and vote!

P.S. Floridians - please be sure to choose the correct chad.

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Treats?

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