Red, Yellow, Blue

Awakened by our friendly local traffic police this morning at the stroke of seven - the sound of their whistles caved in my slumber like a Vegas casino implosion. Outrageous. Three of them blasting away to an audience comprising five very unhappy-looking bus commuters standing across from, some pigeons that promptly sought sanctuary elsewhere, and a grand total of six actual vehicles. Six. At 7am. With three police. Each with whistles, florescent green caps, and a desperate desire to look - and worse, sound - busy. Welcome to Hell. So, up and staggering around early - I was about to lock myself in the storage room, where the tottering towers of packing boxes and bubble wrap muffle most noise - when I spied flowers from the weekend. I suddenly became determined that the rattle of rowdy rebels (thank you, Life of Brian) would not crash my karma. And so, a red backdrop, yellow flower, blue vase and a 36mm Extension Tube on a 100mm macro lens later and we have some bright pics to improve the mood.

Vegas Faces

Martini time at the Wynn in Vegas. The much-coveted seats at the outside bar by the fountain afford more than an opportunity to drop wodges of cash on cocktails and nibblies. The hotel also puts on a light show through the evening, with a range of projections onto a screen that towers over the reflecting pool, accompanied by some thumping dance and trance music. It's quite colorful, very creative and, remarkably, free (if you don't include the arm and a leg you drop on the drinks). I thought the most eye-catching performance comprised a series of projections onto a huge blank head that surfaces from below the water, outlined by deep reds and blues or tinted whites on the screen behind it. I thought it would be fun to try to capture some of the displays with the 5D Mk II, and they seemed to turn out remarkably well given no tripod or bracing was involved. Shot with a 50mm, at 1/50 sec and f/3.2 with an ISO of 3200.

Late Night Playa del Carmen

Sylvie and I were dining at the Tides hotel in Playa del Carmen Friday night when the combination of the dim lighting favored by this enviro-friendly resort and a Riedel wine decanter had me reaching for the 5D Mk II. I had seen this kind of decanter before and wondered how to get a nice shot given the usual challenge of shooting glass or crystal but the large candle on our table provided the perfect combination of backdrop and diffused light to bring out shadows in the graceful curves. So I set the ISO to 2500 (one of the things I love about the Mark II is its low-light capability) and shot a few frames at f/2.5 and 1/40 sec using a 50mm f/1.8. I'm quite chuffed with the resulting warmth and simple lines of the shot.