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. 
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July 4th Sunset

Sunset over the bay
The Pre Fireworks Show
I shot fireworks for the first time this past July 4th. My results were pretty hit and miss, with the majority falling in the miss category, though it's not all my fault. I was told my tripod wouldn't be allowed in the viewing area, so I was forced to leave it in the car. I had gotten there early enough to get a good spot right up front and was able to make use of the rail with a 45 degree angle to rest the camera on, but my shots were pretty much click and pray shots. I started off using a small aperture with shutter priority set to about 4 seconds, but found this to be clumsy. Switching to bulb mode, which allows me to open and close the shutter based on how long I hold down the shutter button, worked out slightly better. Again, though, my camera was at my hip pointing up, so it wasn't really ideal. I will say that having a screen that flips and tilts out made this much easier to shoot.

Though the goal for me was the shoot fireworks, this came away as my favorite and best shot of the day. This is a single exposure (not HDR) taken with the help of the aforementioned railing, since my shutter speed was 1/60, which is technically in the safe area for handheld at 28mm, but I like to be safe. I was happy to get some cloud movement and tried to accentuate that through my +Topaz Labs plugin work, primarily in Clarity and Detail.

You can view my other photos, including my not so great first fireworks shots here


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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. 
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