To me it seemed like everything in The US Capitol was special and had some unique thought behind it. Everywhere there is art. Even the tunnels leading from the office buildings to the Capitol have art from high school seniors across America. There are huge painting and many sculptures. Even some of the doors are artistic displays like this one outside the Speaker’s Balcony.
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A Capitol Door
I can think of many political things to say today but in the spirit of this blog I will say none. Instead here is a lovely picture of a symbol of freedom. That’s it. Carry on.
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Storm Clouds over D.C.
The Supreme Court of The United Sates has had its own building in Washington D.C. since 1935. Before that the court met inside the US Capitol in a chamber designed and built by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. It was an unusual architectural achievement. It was known to be the first small structure to use a vaulted, semicircular ceiling in the United States.
John Marshall was the first Chief Justice and the room was used until 1860 for the court. The court then moved into the old senate chamber and the beautiful room was used as a law library. After the court moved into its current location the room was abandoned until its restoration in the 1970’s. You can feel the history when you stand it this chamber.
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The Original Supreme Court
I have been experimenting a lot with Google’s NIK Collection photo editing tools. Previously I have created HDR images by using auto bracketing on my camera and combining the images with Adobe Lightroom. However, The Nik Collection offers editing tools that are pretty effective.
The advantage of HDR is the increase of detail and color adjustment in the image. I still feel that auto bracketing offers more detail because it actually changes the size of the image. The Adobe Lightroom auto combine also has a powerful de-ghosting procedure that allows you to take HDR images without the use of a tripod. However as you can see from the two images below, the NIK tool also increases detail without a dramatic increase in image size.
Not all images are improved by the HDR process and I am not sure if this image actually benefits although the change is dramatic. What’s your opinion? Comments are truly appreciated.
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From The Speakers Balcony
HDR Redux
I learned a lot of interesting things during our tour of the US Capitol. I did not know that each state was allowed to have two sculptures inside the Capitol. There is one area that is full of sculptues and others are scattered through the magnificent building. I partuclary liked this one that stands guard in the Capitol Visitor Center.
This is Jack Swigert who was a native of Colorado. He was an American test pilot, mechanical and aerospace engineer, United States Air Force pilot, and NASA astronaut. He is one of the 24 people who have flown to the Moon. I like the reflection of the visitor center in his visor.
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Captain Jack Swigert
Some of the most wonderful “art” in the world is stuff you just find walking around. There is no artist signature, no gallery lighting or people walking around going “hmm” while they touch their chin. This is an ornamental design integrated into a wrought iron gate found near Cancún in the Mexican province of Quintana Roo.
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Found Art
Treasure Island and adjacent to St. Petersburg. Sunset beach is a little dead end barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico and primarily made up of houses and small condos. There is little traffic, only two restaurants and a magnificent beach and small boardwalk along Boca Ciega Bay. Although we did most of our walking on the beach, we also walked through the community and noticed that many people had really special mailboxes. Here are a few of the better ones.
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For the last 5 weeks we have been in Florida and spending much of our time on Sunset Beach which is a residential beach community with the city of Treasure Island and adjacent to St. Petersburg. Sunset beach is a little dead end barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico and primarily made up of houses and small condos. There is little traffic, only two restaurants and a magnificent beach and small boardwalk along Boca Ciega Bay. Although we did most of our walking on the beach, we also walked through the community and noticed that many people had really special mailboxes. Here are a few of the better ones.
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The Funky Mailboxes of Sunset Beach
The way I create posts for this blog is to first find an image and then write something about it. It is after all an image blog first and foremost. So I went searching for a suitable image for Martin Luther King. When he was assassinated I was living in Los Angeles and the murder occurred four days before my 23rd birthday. Three months later on June 5th, I went to a hotel in L.A. to stand with thousands of others in shock over the murder of Robert F. Kennedy. So I began to look for images that would represent Dr. King’s day.
Of course I have pictures of flags but I have used those for other holidays and although Dr. King was a true American hero, he was much more than the flag. I have other images of African Americans and although Dr. King was an African American he was also more than that. As I thought about it, I thought this was a great image to celebrate his day. He is like an eternal flame of hope. He reminds us that as long as you have hope and show respect for humanity that your life is worth living. He is a symbol of working together and doing the right thing. Thanks Dr. King for your sacrifice.
When we moved off the mountain last year we had to leave our Christmas Cactus behind. So we had to acquire a new one which rewarded us with a single but beautiful bloom.
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Christmas Cactus
Imagery Photography 