This winter seems more unbearably cold than I can remember recent winters being, but every now and then you get a glimmer of hope and the temperature doesn't start with a 0, 1, 2, or 3 and it hits the 40s! We had one of those days recently in Boston. It may have even hit 50 at one point in the day. Needless to say, I was excited and got to wander the city with my camera and my incredibly patient girlfriend, Angie. She knows I like to look around and see how the light is playing off of a building, or through a tree, or (her favorite ... right?) shining on her face. On this particular day we were walking midday through dusk and I was really enjoying how the harsh sun was beaming down on the city. I've included three photos below; all very different from each other. Angie proved her high level patience once again while we caused a detour on the sidewalk of Boylston Street. The sun was shining directly through the street blinding everyone walking westward and creating a silhouette of everything. Typically, one wouldn't want to be photographing a whole lot in this situation, but with using Angie's pretty head as a light shield, I was able to create a nice, heavenly, warm glow around her with the wind blowing and have a "sun star" emerge from her head. We had a lot of fun and laughs creating the shot.
The other two shots were all about shutter speed. If anybody has seen much of my work, you know I'm a bit obsessed with trees, particularly those that are dead or have lost their leaves for the winter. The sun was a bit higher (midday sun) for the second photo and shining directly through the branches of this hibernating tree. On these days, I like to experiment and even though I didn't necessarily have to be at a shallow depth of field for this shot, I wanted to be in order to shoot at very high shutter speed that I wouldn't normally have the option of shooting at. 1/6400 of a second was the resulting number and created a nice little flair from the sun and a natural framing from the branches. The final shot also came from a very fast shutter speed (1/3200 of a second). This time the shallow depth of field was important for my finished product and I wanted to create a shot to look as close to night as I could even though there was still about an hour and half of daylight remaining. Hopefully you like the result as much I did creating it. Enjoy the day! - Josh
song of the moment: "Love Like A Sunset" by Phoenix