Hoover Dam Bypass Milestone (Phoenix, Kingman: how much, home, purchase)

[LordBalfor]

Kdog -

Have to add a comment my wife made about the shots (and she was dead on) - she said they looked like scenes from a sci-fi movie (like it was some super-secret high-tech project rather than a bridge being built). They have that surreal "special-effects" look to them - as if they were a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind or some such movie. Someone earlier had commented how your shots are so much better than others posted on this board. I have to generally agree. They certainly are much better than anything I've ever posted. I've taken some nice pictures - but in my case the photos were nice simply because the scenes I took the photos of were so beautiful - not because of any great skill on my part. In the case of YOUR shots - well, the difference is that YOUR shots are quite simply: "art". You are very talented and your photos most definitely show that.

Keep up the terrific work.

Ken

[KarmaPhx]

Originally Posted by kdog

Yes, I used a tripod and no it wasn't a dumb question at all. They were pretty long exposures. A tripod is a must for shooting at night.

Yup. I used to do lightning shots a lot, without a tripod it's impossible.

[kdog]

Originally Posted by LordBalfor

Kdog -

Have to add a comment my wife made about the shots (and she was dead on) - she said they looked like scenes from a sci-fi movie (like it was some super-secret high-tech project rather than a bridge being built). They have that surreal "special-effects" look to them - as if they were a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind or some such movie. Someone earlier had commented how your shots are so much better than others posted on this board. I have to generally agree. They certainly are much better than anything I've ever posted. I've taken some nice pictures - but in my case the photos were nice simply because the scenes I took the photos of were so beautiful - not because of any great skill on my part. In the case of YOUR shots - well, the difference is that YOUR shots are quite simply: "art". You are very talented and your photos most definitely show that.

Keep up the terrific work.

Ken

Hi Ken,

Others have commented on the sci-fi feel to the shots, and I agree. I've lived in this area for three years, and the Hoover Dam construction area has always seemed like some sort of science fiction world to me, especially at night. It's always just so dazzling, I never actually tried to capture it in the camera before. In fact, this was the first time I ever stopped to take a picture on the dam. But this particular time the scene was just so compelling with the arch being completed, and the welding sparks raining down that I had to stop and get some shots.

Your comments about my "art" are very kind and much appreciated. I'm a technocrat by nature, so operating the camera and post-processing make sense to me. However, it's been a struggle for me to learn composition. I hang out with some really talented photographers for which composition comes naturally. They see a parallel universe that sadly doesn't exist for me. We'll go to some amazing location and shoot together, and yet our shots will be totally different. Usually theirs are better because they've caught some geometric pattern or emotion that a clod like me will walk right by without seeing. That's really the key. Photography allows you to see the world through somebody else's eyes, which is pretty cool when you think about it. So I look at their shots and learn to look at the world in a whole new way. I'll never get to where they are because my brain doesn't work like theirs. However, I'm out there shooting anyways, looking for the light and the compositions, and sometimes I get lucky.

I'm glad you and your wife liked the shots, and thanks for your kind words.

--kdog

[rich67]

Yet another outstanding KDOG photo....

[Peggy Anne]

Super shots !! I have shutter envy ! I am an hour from the bridge. That whole place is amazing. It's eerie to see the bridge at night. Surrealistic. Not sure if I want to go over it. Heights give me the willies.

[KarmaPhx]

Kdog, have you tried your hand at HDR?

That's my next project, looks like a challenge, but this shot in HDR would be amazing.

For those unfamiliar, this is a comparison.

http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmed...images/HDR.jpg

[kdog]

Originally Posted by KarmaPhx

Kdog, have you tried your hand at HDR?

Actually I do tons of HDRs. Probably most of the images I post in this forum and in the photography forum are HDRs of one form or another. Sometimes I manually blend areas of one image from an HDR version back with the original for certain occassions. HDR is much more than just for special effects. It's just another tool in your belt basically.

[roosevelt]

Digital cameras are truly amazing. What I wouldn't give to travel back in time and use one to take all the photos I should have taken as I grew up.

The bridge is an incredible event. I had a lot of land at Dolan Springs ever since 1962, it was never worth much, maybe $300 an acre. All of a sudden I was inundated with offers to buy my land for $2,000 an acre and up so I investigated and found out about the bridge. Unfortunately, I had sold off most by then. I guess Las Vegas is surrounded by a lot of federal land so the next place to expand for housing is Mohave County.

[kdog]

Nice comments, Roosevelt. My dad was a film buff and I still have cases of rolls and slides of his that I can't seem to part with.

Hindsight is 20/20, eh? Believe me, my stock portfolio and I know.

Interesting comment about the Fed land locking up expansion in Vegas. Didn't know that.

[Rogarven]

What great pics!! Let me offer my kudos as well!! I am happy that the bridge is really coming along. We went thru there about 2 years ago. This will make it so much more enjoyable and quicker to LV.