A few from D.C.

During graduate school, I did a photo essay of Washington, D.C. I look back on most of the pictures that I took and cringe, but some of them aren't half bad. These were all taken with Ilford black and white film and developed by me in my old darkroom. I scanned the negatives in on my Canon scanner. They were altered slightly and cropped in Photoshop.

I took this picture in mid-afternoon in front of the Supreme Court. I zoomed all the way back to 17mm, so there is some distortion at the edges, but again, I don't usually mind the effect. The spot atop the Supreme Court building is the moon, not a negative blemish or noise.

Canon EOS Elan 7E, Sigma 17-35mm f/2.8-4 lens, Ilford Pan-F 50 film, exposure unrecorded.

I took this at the National Museum of American History when the museum had an enormous exhibition devoted to 9-11. It's the most moving display I've ever seen, anywhere. One of the highlights was this enormous flag that hung over the Pentagon following the 9-11 attack. It's pretty spectacular, and absolutely enormous. I just stood in awe of the flag for about five minutes before I began taking pictures. I took this with one of my favorite films ever - 3200 speed Ilford.

Canon EOS Elan 7E, Sigma 17-35mm f/2.8-4 lens, Ilford Delta Pro 3200 High Speed film, exposure unrecorded.

The Big Apple

In the past few years, we've made two trips to New York City - one for a weekend to hit the major tourist attractions in August 2005, and last winter a few weeks before Christmas we went up to see Rockefeller Center and to skate in Central Park. I didn't get nearly as many decent shots as I would have liked; I was just getting to know my EOS 20D, and digital photography, for that matter, in '05 when we went. My shots from atop the Empire State Building a few summers ago were the most disappointing of all. I did the best I could, but the day was impossibly soupy, with horrific humidity and a dull haze that enveloped the entire city. So, I won't be sharing those shots. This fall, when the heat dies off a little, I want to go back to hit some of the major attractions again. Now, I have much better lenses and a better camera, so with better tools, I should have no excuses.

This photo obviously needs no introduction. I took this in early afternoon in impossible heat. The statue itself is now closed - the closest you can get are her toes. But, I got some pretty good shots walking around her, and this is one of the best. I used a Tiffen circular polarizing filter to deepen the sky, but the light was still not ideal.

Canon EOS 5D, Sigma 24-70 f2.8, ISO 100, exposure unrecorded.

Besides the tree at Rock Plaza, skating in Central Park was the highlight of our trip last December for me. However, the lighting conditions were less than ideal, even with a 2.8 lens wide open. And I just didn't want to go to higher than ISO 1600 because of image quality. (I have to confess, I have not shot my EOS 5D at ISO 3200 yet, but I will this weekend or next week.)

So, the best shots from Central Park were when I decided to improvise to cover up camera shake from slow shutter speeds. I decided to do some panning, one of my favorite things to do in low light.

Canon EOS 5D, Sigma 24-70 f2.8, ISO 1600, exposure unrecorded.

I like how this turned out - zooming out (or in) just as the shutter clicks. It's very easy to do, but it took me a shot or two in order to get the hang of it with my current camera. Chalk it up as one more great thing about digital - if you don't like how it looks, trash it and click on.

Canon EOS 5D, Sigma 24-70 f2.8, ISO 1600, exposure unrecorded.

The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza is simply gorgeous - there's no other way to say it. I couldn't stop clicking - I must have taken 40 or 50 shots. Lighting was a bit better than I expected, so I managed to get decent shots by hand holding the very heavy Sigma 24-70 f 2.8 lens. I mention this not to brag, but because it's typically a rarity for me. I have always had a problem with camera shake, probably more than most people. Image Stabilization lenses were made for someone like me.

Canon EOS 5D, Sigma 24-70 f2.8 (at 24 mm), ISO 800, exposure unrecorded.

This is a shot of Sak's Fifth Avenue at the other end of Rockefeller Plaza. I brought my lens back to 24 mm and tried for about 15 minutes to get the shot I wanted.

Canon EOS 5D, Sigma 24-70 f2.8 (at 24 mm), ISO 800, exposure unrecorded.

This is the view from our room at the Marriott on Times Square. Talk about a room with a view! The hotel and the staff there are incredible. We love hotel points. This shot was obviously taken at 24 mm, as you can see some distortion at the edges. Some photographers have beefs with that distortion, but more often than not, I love the effect.

Canon EOS 5D, Sigma 24-70 f2.8, exposure unrecorded.

I nearly killed myself to get this shot of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Well, that's overstating it a bit, but not by much. I just haad to be the show-off photographer ~ across the street, there's a pretty large statue of a man holding a huge ball over his head (the name escapes me). A few people hopped up on the bottom shelf to get better shots. Not to be outdone, I had to climb up to the top of it. When I got to the top, I quickly realized the hazards - lots of "potholes" for spotlights, etc. I'm not afraid of heights, but as soon as I got to the top, I realized this was not a good idea. But, I figured, while I'm up here, I might as well get the shot. I no sooner snapped the one above and another one that was composed horribly, and I lost my balance. Thank God I managed to stay upright - I jumped down to the next ledge, and, still off balance, on top of a bunch of street barriers bunched together, and then to the street - EOS unharmed. That last point is the most important one - broken arm be damned - had I dropped my camera... Well, you can just imagine the pain THAT would have caused.

About this image - I snapped this at 800 ISO, wide open at f2.8. I like it, except for that annoying street light, but obviously there's nothing that can be done about that. I touched this up in Photoshop CS3 to eliminate unwanted background objects.

Canon EOS 5D, Sigma 24-70 f2.8, ISO 800, exposure unrecorded.

Puerto Vallarta Sunset

I snapped this sitting in a pool in Puerto Vallarta while we were on our honeymoon. I like the picture for the memories and emotions it brings out in me every bit as much as I like it for how it turned out.

I shot this with my wife Vandra's digital, a Kodak Easyshare LS743, 4.0 Megapixel camera. Before I met her, I hadn't used a Kodak digital since college in the late 1990s, but I have to say, the durability of this particular model is superb. It has, quite literally, taken a beating. Vandra is the first to say that she's dropped this thing more than a football, and it's got as many nicks, scratches and dents as any pro's camera. Yet, it steadily keeps taking great pictures, so kudos to Kodak.

It was actually the only camera of any sort we had on our honeymoon - my EOS 20D got jacked in Cabo San Lucas at our wedding. (That's a story I don't feel like retelling, so I'll move on.)

Picture taken at Best setting, ISO 400.

Vegas, Grand Canyon & Hoover Dam

In February, we took a trip to Las Vegas for an academic conference, and we crammed as much fun and sights as we could into a few days. Vandra has been to Vegas many times, but it was my first, so we did the usual tourist-ey stuff - the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and the big casinos.

This is my favorite shot from the whole trip, even more than my Grand Canyon pictures. It's The Bellagio Casino's Fountains of Bellagio, and it's the highlight of the Vegas strip at night.

The longer I take pictures, the more I know that sometimes getting a great shot is luck. You do your best with the settings, compose, and mentally cross your fingers. That's what I did for this shot. I was kicking myself for leaving my Canon EOS 5D in our hotel room when I saw the Bellagio lit up at night. All I had was my HP Photosmart R967 slipped into my pocket.

So, I set the camera on a ledge, turned off the flash, and used the Night Scenery option. This is the result.

I know that sometimes I over think photos. Who knows? If I had my 5D with me, I may have muffed the shot (but I'd like to think not!), or over thought some settings. I almost always shoot in manual mode - I like telling the camera what to do, not the other way around. After this shot, I began to trust my HP a little more, and I wasn't sure if that was going to happen. I don't like using those preset modes on point-and-shoots, but the HP came through beautifully with this shot.

HP Photosmart R967, Night Landscape Mode, ISO Speed 400.

We were walking around Hoover Dam taking pictures, and I took this one at the monument to the workers who built the dam. On the ground at the monument are the states the dam provides with water from the dam's reservoir, Lake Mead.

As we looked down at the states, Vandra realized this was a perfect photo op - she was born in Colorado, and she moved to California when she was eight or nine (I might be in trouble for not remembering!). This is one of my favorite candids of her.

The picture above and the two below were taken with my EOS 5D, a wonky Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 lens that gave me fits the whole trip, and a Tiffen circular polarizer lens, all at 100 ISO. Otherwise, I didn't record the exposure information (if you haven't been able to tell already, I need to get better at that).

The photo above of Lake Mead was taken from the top of Hoover Dam at about 3:30, so the sun was just right.

The white "bathtub ring" that's visible on the rocks surrounding the lake is the high water mark from 1983, when excessive snow melt flooded the Colorado River Canyon.

This is the view from the other side of the dam, looking down on the power station. The pictures don't do the view justice - from 726 feet up, it really is an amazing site.

This was the biggest treat of all - seeing the Grand Canyon. I'd always dreamed of seeing it in person. Like the Hoover Dam, only more so, the pictures don't begin to illustrate what a wonder the canyon really is.

We got up at 5:30 in the morning to take the sunrise bus tour of the south rim of the canyon, and I'll always be glad that we did. Besides the magnificent view, I'll always remember two things about our bus tour - it was very cold (about 15 degrees Fahrenheit), and we were the only two people on the bus. The driver and his trainee were great guys who chatted with us the whole time. We really did feel like we got a personal tour.

We arrived at the look-out point along the south rim about 20 minutes before the sun came over the horizon, so I had a chance to snap the canyon in all its glory, from just before sun up to about half an hour after the sun rose. Just amazing.

I took these shots on my EOS 5D on top of a Bogen-Manfrotto 3021B Pro tripod with a 322RC2 Horizontal Grip Action Ball Head. I mention that mouthful because it was my first time really testing out the tripod and head, and it is an excellent set-up. Once you have a ball-head and a quick release plate for your tripod, you'll never go back. What's more, Manfrottos are made to last - I'm quite certain I'll have mine for decades.

It's becoming a running gag that I take an Oilers jersey with me wherever we go, so I can get my picture taken wearing it in all sorts of places. So far, I've done the Grand Canyon, and with our wedding party in Mexico. I hope to have dozens and dozens more when we travel to all of the different places we want to see over our lifetimes.

Next stop for the Oilers jersey - Seattle and Vancouver. We leave in 31 days.

Roof-top deck

Last summer, I was messin' around with my camera on our deck shortly before we left for our wedding in Mexico, and I snapped this self-portrait when I noticed a beautiful sky early one evening. For something a little different, I took this while looking into our white-trash gazing ball. (Apologies to anyone I've offended who has a gazing ball. Hey, we have one, so I guess that makes us white trash, too.)

We've had endless fun with it, though, so we don't care. Last summer, I had friends pose with the ball at all of our parties for pictures last summer. I'll have to dig those pictures up and post some of the funnier ones.

Canon EOS 20D, Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8-4 lens. Exposure unrecorded.

Believe it or not, I took this picture with a hand-held point and shoot camera during Philly's July 4 fireworks display at the Philadelphia Art Museum in 2005. It's not a terrific shot, but I was pleased with how it came out considering the camera I used and the light available, which was next to none, save the fireworks.

Photo taken with a Canon Sure Shot 115u, film and exposure unrecorded. Print scanned in on a Canon 9950F Scanner, altered slightly in Photoshop CS3 to eliminate background elements.

A few cat photos

Anyone who is even an acquaintance of mine knows how fascinated I am with our cat, Butter (He used to be named Jaws, but his coat is yellowing with age, so we changed his name. That's the beauty of having a cat - names don't mean anything to them, anyway.)

I try and try to get good pictures of him, but he rarely cooperates. One night while he was huddled in the corner of our spare bedroom, I leaned over and snapped a quick one. His eyes typically beat the flash, especially when I have the red-eye reduction on because it flashes twice, but this time technology beat the cat.

I took this with equipment I no longer have - a Canon EOS 20D with a 50 mm F1.4 lens and pop-up flash. Exposure unrecorded.

We tried to get him to come along with our enthusiasm during Edmonton's Stanley Cup run last year, but as you can see from his smirk, he's not happy with the attention, the hat, my taking his picture, or just about anything at that moment.

I love this shot - it's so indicative of his moodiness.

As you can see, this was taken in ambient light - on this occasion, I didn't have the patience to take dozens of shots in order to get one with his eyes open. (Plus, he was more impatient than I was.) When I had my EOS 20D, I'd even turn off the camera's beeps, because he became trained to blink his eyes when he heard that. But, unless I wanted a picture of a demon cat with red eyes, he's still beat the camera.

So, my only solution was to pump up the film-speed equivalent and shoot with a fast lens in ambient light.

Photo taken with a Canon EOS 20D, Canon 50mm F1.4 lens, exposure unrecorded.

Print ordering information

If you're interested in purchasing a print, please e-mail me at rjphoto71@gmail.com and I will respond to you promptly with options and pricing.

Prints are available in 5 x 7, 8 x 10, 11 x 14, 11 x 17, 13 x 19 or 16 x 20 sizes. When e-mailing, please indicate which print you are interested in.

Thanks very much for your interest.

-RJ

Last year's Stanley Cup Finals pictures

I thought I'd share some pictures from the best few weeks of my life as a sports fan - my two trips to the Stanley Cup Finals last June.

It was always a dream of mine to see in person my favorite hockey team, the Edmonton Oilers, in the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been a while - before last June, it had been 16 years since they made it all the way to hockey's biggest series.

Anyway, they did it, and so did I. Not one trip, but two, to see them play the Carolina Hurricanes for all the marbles in the hockey world - the Stanley Cup.

But, it got better - I got to see my Oilers play in a Game 7 - the winner was walking away with the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, the boys came up short, but it was wild ride - lightning in a bottle.

Whenever I talk about last year's Game 7, this is my refrain: I was there. The Oilers didn't win it, but they could have, and I was there to see it.

Someday, God willing, I will see my Oilers in the Stanley Cup Finals, and maybe I'll even see the game where they win it all. (These pictures are all from Game 7 - maybe I'll post some pictures from Game 2 soon - I took some very good tailgating photos.)

[Click on all pictures for larger images]

I left Philadelphia at about 1 a.m. to get to RBC Center in time to see the morning skate, which was free and open to the public. I missed this opportunity when I went down for game two, so I wasn't going to miss it again. I got there about an hour before the practice session - just enough time to get my camera ready, drink some Red Bull, and splash some cold water on my face. The image above is of Edmonton Oiler Head Coach Craig MacTavish - looking over the troops and pondering Game 7.

This is Oiler Center Shawn Horcoff practicing deflections vs. Goalie Jussi Markkanen.

This is one of my favorite pictures from well over 100 I took at both games of last year's Stanley Cup Finals. At left, with stick cocked, is Oilers Defenseman Steve Staios, practicing slapshots, as Oiler Assistant Coach Charlie Huddy (without helmet) feeds him perfect saucers from center ice. Huddy, a five-time Stanley Cup champ with the Oilers, knows a thing or two about winning.

Outside the arena before game-time, if I had just stepped off a rocket ship, I could have thought the game was being played in Canada. I found many, many Canadians (not even all of them Oilers fans) outside to drink beer and swap stories with. I was right at home in my Oiler sweater. The picture above is one of the better candids - a woman wrapped around a banner bragging about Edmonton's five Stanley Cups.

I loved these guys - another group among probably hundreds who drove a lot longer than my 12 hours to see their Oilers hopefully bring home the Cup. How can you not love these costumes and enthusiasm?

It's all over, and the Oilers came up short. I have to confess, the excitement inside the Hurricanes' barn was most definitely contagious. You would have to be comatose for it not to be. It's impossible for me to describe just how loud it was. The Hockey News reported that a decibel meter registered an unofficial reading of 134 decibels during the game, which makes that the loudest reading ever at an American sporting event. By the way, 134 decibels is the measurement generally accepted as the threshold of pain.

This is the greatest post-game tradition in all professional sports. The teams line up and shake hands. When is the last time you saw that at the Super Bowl, World Series or NBA Championship? You don't see it. I just missed the captains shaking hands, but they are clearly visible in this picture: Oilers Captain Jason Smith (with the "C" on his jersey) has just shaken hands with Hurricanes Captain Rod Brind'Amour.

These shots weren't easy to get for a number of reasons. I was sitting in the upper level, and I was shooting with a not-so-great lens - a Tamron 100-300 mm F4-5.6 hand held at ISO speed equivalents of 800 and 1600 on my Canon EOS 5D. Even at those settings, the quality of these pictures is marginal; good for a 4x6 print, maybe even a 5x7, but beyond that, the degradation would be too noticeable for a quality print that would be within my comfort zone. Holding the camera still enough in these conditions with the equipment I had was a challenge. Even though they aren't crisp, I'm still proud of these shots. Like the Oilers, I gave it my best shot. What I would have given for a 300 mm F2.8 Canon "L" series lens with image stabilization, though!

Not only does hockey have the coolest championship trophy, but it also has the coolest MVP trophy, too; here Hurricane Goalie Cam Ward lifts the Conn Smythe Trophy up high for all to see.

NHL handlers bring out Stanley for all to see. Sweet. At this point, I stopped being a disappointed Oilers fan, and I turned into a rabid hockey fan, and even more than that, an excited photographer trying to hold his camera still enough to get decent shots.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman with the mic and the prize.

Bettman congratulates Hurricane Captain Rod Brind'Amour before handing over the hard-earned trophy. The noise at this point was almost unbearable - I was waiting for the roof to blow off.

As captain, Brind'Amour received the honor of skating around the ice with the trophy first. Some hockey players wait 10-15 years to get the chance to do this - some never get the chance.

I snapped this shot outside the arena. It wasn't a whole lot of fun walking through throngs of jubilant Hurricanes fans in an Oilers jersey, but Edmonton put up one helluva fight. To their credit, Hurricanes fans were pretty cool after the game, many shaking hands and saying "good series." Of course, it's easy to be that nice when your team just won it all. I wonder how kind they would have been had the Oilers prevailed. Actually, based on my two trips there, they would have been pretty cool had Edmonton won - the friendly Canes fans there appreciate the game and what a Stanley Cup Championship means.

Print Pricing

For purchasing & pricing of fine art prints and/or commercial projects in/around the Philadelphia area, please e-mail me rjphoto71@gmail.com & I will respond to your inquiry promptly.

Photo Gallery

Welcome to my new photo gallery. I've added this so you can take a quick look at some of my better shots without having to wade through the site. I'll keep them categorized, and new additions will always be on top. If you'd like to know more about a particular picture, you can go to the archives, which are down the right side of the blog in a drop-down menu. EOS Mío is also searchable by topic - the search box is in the upper-left hand corner of the blog; all of my posts are labeled by topic, so you shouldn't have any problem finding more information on any of the photographs you see here in the gallery. This is the next step before I have rjcorby.com up - hopefully by sometime early next year. Please check back often - I will be adding photos to the gallery often.

If you would like information on obtaining a print, please feel free to e-mail me at: rjphoto71@gmail.com.

As always, click on any image to see a larger view.

Thanks for visiting!

Kids soccer pictures


Wedding Pictures


Seattle and Olympic National Forest


New York City


2006 Stanley Cup Finals - Raleigh, North Carolina


Philadelphia Cityscapes and Candids


Mexico


Las Vegas and Grand Canyon



Other Work