Running... Again?

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  If you know me you know there was a time about 10 years ago or so where I was running. A lot. At least 5 days a week and at least 5 miles a run. I wasn’t training, I wasn’t preparing for a race or a marathon. I just found myself enjoying the time spent running. I wasn’t obsessed with numbers, but I kept track of them all and liked seeing improvements in time and distances. It was good physical health and mental health. Then I tweaked my knee. Not bad enough that I couldn’t walk on it, just a tweak that told me I needed to back off of running for a little bit. So I decided on 2 weeks. At the end of 2 weeks I aborted a run very early as the pain was still there. 2 weeks became 3, became a month, became 5 years. 

Fave 5 from 2011 Part 4: The End

I'm still having difficulty believing it's December already, and 2011 is now measured in days. With the end of another year you'll be assailed by all kinds of "Top (Fill in the blank) of 2011". I thought I'd look back at the over 1400 photos I took in 2011 and pick my top 5 to be revealed over the final weeks of 2011.

So I decided to count these two as one, mainly because they are of the same subject. This was one of my most fortuitous shots as everything worked out, the stillness of the water, the interesting clouds in the sky and a camera in the car. Nine times out of ten I'll have the first two but won't have a camera, or when I bring the camera all the other elements don't work out. This was an unplanned shot, which I think have been turning out better for me. Or I have lower expectations of these unplanned shots so i'm happily surprised after I see them.

I'm especially proud of these shots because I was able to shoot for my two favorite styles; dynamic black and white and HDR. The black and white is a one shot, single exposure with a little tweaking in Aperture before being converted in Silver Effex Pro 2. I really enjoy using Silver Effex and am constantly impressed with the quality of photo I get when using that program for my black and whites. The HDR is a three exposure handheld shot. I wanted to frame the end of the bridge but still showcase the graffiti. Photomatix Pro handled the HDR processing and I finished it up in Topaz Labs' Adjust. Currently these are the wallpapers on my computer screen.

Black and white reflections
Convergence Bridge in B&W


Color reflections
Convergence Bridge

The black and white version was featured earlier here. The color HDR shot was featured here, and a final shot from the set can be found here.

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