Pentax K10D, SMC Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, ISO 100,  f/1.4, 1/125 sec, +/-0 EV, IS on

Shot this through the iron gate of a closed nightclub in downtown Auburn while I was on my way to lunch. I really like the way the skylights illuminate the dance floor in the background. The space heaters hanging from the ceiling seem almost alien. I opened the 50 f/1.4 all the way up, focused on the nearest table and let the lens do the rest (including the green halos).

Post processing in Lightroom required a little tweaking of the white balance (I used the eyedropper tool on the top of the table to get the best feel). I also backed all the way off of the black slider and then darkened the shadows back up by increasing the contrast. This revealed more shadow detail but still gives plenty of richness to the shot. I could have acheived the same effect with the Tone Curve tool but this worked well so I left it at that. Finally, I upped the Recovery a little to recover a little highlight detail in the rafters and bumped the Vibrance up a touch to make the image pop in a browser a bit more.

Pentax K10D, Pentax SMC-A 50mm f/1.7 (manual focus), ISO 1000, f/1.7, 1/25 sec, +0.7 EV, IS on

Lots of rain here tonight. Good thing my Pentax K10D is weather sealed ;-) Nice video to set the mood: Rain Song

UPDATE: Apparently this photo was just the beginning. This morning the Auburn area was hit by a series of tornadoes. Fortunately, we escaped without damage as two tornadoes passed just to the north and south of us. There was some damage to houses and businesses but so far we are hearing that there have been no injuries. There was lots of lighting and wind and a crazy amount of rain. Our entire back patio and yard was flooded and the alley turned into a white water river. I took a second to venture out of our bathroom closet to take this picture during the height of the storm:

Here’s the view out front. What the heck are these folks thinking?

Now they are forcasting snow tonight after this front moves through. Got to love Alabama weather!

I’ve driven past this place a number of times and often thought I should come back with my camera. This morning it was foggy and rainy and I thought “Ah ha! Perfect conditions for the trailer park!” ;-)

The picture above was heavily processed in grayscale mode in Lightroom. I tweaked just about every slider to get this image. I was going for maximum texture, grime and dynamic range. Here’s the original color version with only minor adjustments applied:

All these images were shot had-held with my Pentax K10D and kit lens at ISO 400 at between 1/13 second to 1/60 second with the IS on. I stopped the lens down to f/5.6-f/8 when I could for optimum sharpness. Here’s a close up of the interior of the trailer above. I did not venture inside as the floor was rotten to the point I was afraid of falling through.

Here’s a wide shot of one of the trailers. The aluminum exterior skin had long been stripped and sold as scrap (I assume):

A detail of the trailer in the previous shot:

These trailers were surprisingly full of left behind personal possessions: