"Cloud Skyscraper" Photo of the Day: November 4, 2015

"Cloud Skyscraper."

"Under 35W" Photo of the Day: September 19, 2015

Sunset under the 35W bridge...

"Rainy Spirits" Photo of the Day: August 16, 2015

I hope everyone is having a good weekend! Here is a photo that I took a couple of weeks ago right after a fairly intense rainstorm here in Minneapolis. I honestly would love to go back and reshoot this sometime as I feel like I did not do enough to draw attention to the cloud-shrouded skyline in the distance.

Photo of the Day: August 7, 2015 "Washington Avenue, Minneapolis"

I shot this late at night on top of a parking garage overlooking a section of Washington Avenue near the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis. The usually busy street is much quieter at night, as seen here where not a single person inhabits the sidewalks and the streets are nearly devoid of automobiles and trains.

Photo of the Day: August 3, 2015 "Heights"

Reaching towards the sky...at varying heights! This photograph was shot in Chicago within Millennium Park. Finding unique perspectives to shoot common subjects at can be a challenge in photography, however it is always rewarding to capture something unique!

Photo of the Day: July 31, 2015 "Nighttime Street"

I love shooting at night, it is one of my favorite things to do! There is something very rewarding about capturing nice photographs in low light situations and seeing how light interacts with an environment. This particular photo was shot this past Spring from the top of a parking garage late at night in Minneapolis. Overlooking a neighborhood with large student housing looming in the background, it was a challenge to get the exposures that I wanted to properly show how the illumination from the streetlights affected the street and buildings. 

Photo of the Day: July 25, 2015 "The Little Free Library"

Sometimes photography is about finding the little wonders rather than shooting the obvious subjects or compositions. In a small southern Minnesota city I came across this homemade "little free library". I decided to shoot it in black and white to add to the feeling that I was trying to evoke from this interactive sculpture.

Photo of the Day: July 22, 2015 "The Barbershop"

This is a photo that I took while wandering about Sydney, Australia late at night during my recent trip. I was without a tripod and it was incredibly dark so I had to push my ISO number higher to get an appropriate exposure without any blur, resulting in quite a bit of noise (or grain). I am not one to extensively edit my photographs, as I only  like to use post-processing as a way to get my photos to appear as they did to my naked eye while shooting. However, I played around with this photo a bit more than I normally would have. Rather than fighting the noise I decided to strengthen it, giving the image a unique old-fashioned appearance. What do you think of the final product?

Vivid Sydney 2015!

Sydney Opera House with its world-famous sails being projected upon during Vivid Sydney 2015.

I was lucky enough to arrive near the beginning of arguably Australia's most popular festival: Vivid Sydney. It is a multi-week festival celebrating light, music, and ideas. This alone speaks volumes to me about why this city is so wonderful to me. The fact that a city would hold a festival like this says a lot to me personally.

A shot from the laser/firework show at Darling Harbor several times each night.

Vivid Sydney is absolutely beautiful; when the sun goes down images and video designed by artists are beautifully projected onto the facades of buildings and structures throughout the city. The showcase in Circular Quay remains my personal favorite, seeing the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge illuminated is absolutely stunning. There is also extensive interactive exhibits around the harbor for all ages to explore. The best way to experience the visuals is via ferry, gliding through the water. Seeing the reflections of such saturated colors on the water gives the experience a film noir feel. To top it all off, all of the ferrys have colorful lights on them to, so the busy harbor is illuminated with color from the movement of hundreds of boats.

Another shot from one of Darling Harbor's laser shows.

Sydney - Part 1

Hi everyone! In case you did not read the title of this post, I am excited to announce that  I am currently in Sydney, Australia! The end of the semester was chaotic with finals back at the U of MN, then I was packing and preparing for my summer of interning here in Sydney. I am quite blessed to be interning at an architecture firm here and am meeting all sorts of wonderful people and am learning so much along the way. I return to the States in July and have been here since May.

In the grand scheme of things my visit here is not very long so I am doing everything in my power to cherish every second that I have. With that said, I am going to starting blogging about my time here, particularly all things photography related (duh!). I will do a couple of post in rapid succession to catch you all up on my time here so far, then I will begin blogging in stride with the present time.

I apologize for the absence of posts over the past two months. To be honest, I was not certain of what I wanted to do with this blog upon the completion and unveiling of my website. I no longer want this to be strictly a place where I display my work - I have my website for that. Rather, I will use this blog to track my photography adventures along with a place to share some thoughts and tips along the way. Thank you for looking!

Cheers,

-Wyatt

Lights and Reflections

My obsession with HDR shooting at night has continued to preoccupy my photographic endeavors recently. Overall I am very pleased with the way that this specific set of images turned out after capture and post-processing. I believe that there is a way to do HDR right and a way to do it utterly wrong. Because of the incredible detail of not only the subjects themselves but of the color range in an image possible with HDR, too frequently people abuse this by creating photos of immense color and tonal detail to the point where it looks so unreal that it is ridiculous. That is just a personal opinion though...

Anyway, comment and let me know which of these images you like the best and what your thoughts on HDR photography are (if you are unsure of what HDR is, don't worry I'll be doing a post just on the ins and outs of the craft). Thanks for looking everyone!

Nightfall Above Chicago

Sunset Over Chicago

Throwback Monday? I guess that is what I am doing with this post about an experience that I had while visiting Chicago this past summer. As a college kid studying architecture, exploring downtown Chicago for the first time was an absolute blast for me. One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting the Willis (Sears) Tower observation deck. The 1,454 foot tall building is the second tallest in the United States and watching the sun set over Lake Michigan and Chicago from such a high perch was truly a breathtaking experience.

Yes, we do look extremely tired. We had several very busy days!

The gridiron urban layout of Chicago.

The lights were captivating. 

P.S. I just did a post dealing with me photographing the sun set while atop an observation deck in downtown Minneapolis the other day. I thought that it would be interesting to post this "throwback" close to that one to compare the two series. Let me know your thoughts!

Sunset over Minneapolis

The At&t Tower (left) and the Target Tower (right)

Earlier this week I spent a portion of my evening in the observation deck atop the Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis. As the sun began to drop closer and closer to the horizon line, I managed to capture some of the effects that it had on the surrounding buildings. 

The IDS Center rises into the sky, reflecting the sunset in its deep-blue glass.

A view from within the observation deck. The tallest building on the right is the Capella Tower. 

The setting sun casts the shadow of an American flag on the glass facade of the IDS Center.

The Interwoven Art of Human Emotions and Light

Most know that possibly the single most important aspect of quality photography is a powerful use of light. Add in human emotion that plays off of the present light and it can create bold imagery. Here are some brief examples of work that I have done with my girlfriend Alyssa.