med ed

The Medical Education building, where I had class the past two years.

I don't know how people do promo photography for big buildings and the like--I admit that my favorite device for picture-taking is adding interest with a lot of background bokeh.  I can't do much with a big building.  You see it from all sides anyway, as you're walking toward it, so you can't present it in a new and interesting perspective.  Maybe it all boils down to lighting, and a wide angle lens. 

Speaking of lighting, the clouds were ridiculous in real life, all yellow and grey and low-lying sunlight (it was fixing to storm).  And as I dashed to get my camera and document it...the sky cleared, and I was left with all this puffy white boring stuff.  Maybe it would have been better during the golden hour?

(Everything is better during the golden hour.)

rock and recline

A lawnie had left his chair in the middle of the lawn, so I commandeered it for a few quick shots, fully intending to return it after five minutes or so.  But you know how it goes--you shoot, you check, it all looks okay, you zoom in, you realize nothing is in focus and your background is extremely distracting.  So I moved the chair around to various positions, tried shooting on my stomach, moved the leaves that I didn't want in the photo out of the way (anal), until--the poor resident asked me if I was done with his chair.  Oops.

If I'd had more time I think I would have taken it further up the lawn--those big, dark tree trunks in the background aren't as blurry as I'd like, so the dark of the chair doesn't pop nearly as much as I wanted it to.  I do like the colors though; easy golden hour shooting and no tweaking needs to be done.

Partly Cloudy

Late afternoon sun on the Rotunda.  Taken with a friend's Canon Rebel this past weekend.

Things I like: Dappled light, black and blue palette.

Things I don't:  That little edge of tree branch in the lower left corner--could have cropped it out, but then the balance was off.

med ed building

The medical school building, in all its new, glassy glory.

sunrise

My old lifestyle meant that I rarely rose before the sun had been up for at least three hours, but what with med classes starting at 8 am and the start of Daylight Savings time, I get to see two golden hours a day.  Here, the sunrise on Kerchof Hall outside my kitchen window.  This one was particularly beautiful due to the dark low-hanging clouds setting off the brilliant dawn.

scenes of fall

One of the columns on the Lawn against the brilliance of sugar maple leaves.

Sunset through the columns.

Experimenting with my portrait lens.

football

The jumbro-tron at the stadium during our college football game this past Saturday.

nearest and dearest

My best girlfriends from college.  Miss you all.

comeback kid

A rather long absence mediated by my laptop breaking, me losing all of my photographs, and the start of med school.  Here are some photos I've taken since then.

 

Watching teammates compete at a medschool class field day competition.

teej

Like most UVa students, I have a half-joking, half-serious reverence for Thomas Jefferson, the founder of our school.  This picture was taken on graduation morning, as my last look at TJ as an undergrad.

candlelight vigil

Students light each others' candles at a vigil I attended for a classmate who recently passed away.

tug for the town

A few candids taken at a tug-of-war tournament I participated (and made it to 2nd place!) in.

lamppost

 Pictures taken at dusk always have such a delicious, dreamy look.  Actually, dusk in general rocks, from a lighting standpoint and just as a time of day.

Also, random biology fact--the term for organisms active at dawn and dusk, these in-betweeny times: crepuscular (think deer, or rabbits).  Yeah, I hadn't heard it either.

unkempt

One of the graveyards at UVa.  This shot is so melodramatically literal, but hey, I didn't stage the shot. 

This is the less well-kept cemetery at UVa, and you almost wonder if it was meant to look mysterious and tangled.  Of course it would have headstones hidden in wild thorny rosebushes, and faded bouquets surviving in the melted snow.  Or maybe I shouldn't be so cynical about these things.  Faked or not, the cemetery is a charming place, full of dead University presidents and names that we have on our classroom buildings today.

of rods and cones

One of my favorite things about night photography is that the camera can capture colors that often go unseen by the eye.  This orange sky is no exception--I remember the sky being a muddy brownish purple and was surprised to see this blaze against the low-lying clouds that night.

Based on what I've learned about the human eye and its light-sensing cells (and I really don't know whether this is true or not, but it makes sense), our cones, which sense color, aren't as sensitive to light as our rods.  Cones aren't adapted for helping us see at night, and rods take over, meaning the color (wavelength) sensitivity of our scotopic (dark or night) vision is different than that of our photopic (light) vision.  I'm learning more about the human visual system in my Sensory Neuro class, so I'll update if I'm horribly wrong, but basically our color vision just doesn't work as well at night, and we miss images like this--unless you're like me and carry a camera to random places (even out to bars for the night).

Speaking of carrying cameras: My point-and-shoot (Sony WSC-120) broke the other day after a year of hard use and good service--not its fault, but gravity's. I'd definitely recommend this camera--most of the photos on this blog were taken with it until I got the Nikon d40. It's a great multipurpose camera for everyday use and more. Honestly, what I said earlier about bars was slightly untrue--I don't routinely carry a dSLR out at night with me (and obsessively guarded the camera in its case on my lap when I was actually out), and had only brought it specifically for night pictures of the snow. Without my wonderful little point-and-shoot, though, which fit so beautifully in a clutch or a pocket, I feel like I'm missing all these opportunities to document my life! I'm searching for a replacement now (although I might just get one of the same model).

double take

Photos of UVa's rotunda reflecting in the flood on the Lawn, taken with a friend's Canon Rebel XSi. Truly ghostly with the light coming off the low clouds--I was walking home from a friend's and had to stop and stare at the reflection for a while.

Click to enlarge.

reflecting pool

The Lawn (UVa's quad) flooded after a long bout or rain, and the puddle was a perfect reflecting pool for the Rotunda, our main historical fixture on the "Academical Village" (what we call the Lawn at times). Taken with my Sony point-and-shoot, but better photos coming soon that were taken with a dSLR.

portal

An old arch on the UVa grounds, across the "Dell Pond".

DU by night

fringes

Looks creepy--it's just rainwater.