And now the latest Top 200 Photo

photo #11 is:

This is the last time these photos appear in the Top 200. I had no idea they were so highly rated. I think they look so awesome if you look at them at “original size”. They lose a lot of impact at the size at which they’re displayed here or flickr. I’m definitely going to zoom in or crop the photo next time I do something like this.

Cornell yet again in today’s Top 200 Photo

photo #12 is:

Another example of the beauty of Ithaca, NY in the summer. Cayuga Lake is in the distance. Again, it’s just a shame that almost the entire school year takes place during the part of the year with horrible, horrible weather.

A return to DC for this Top 200 Photo

photo #13 is:

This is another photo that’s featured in the blog’s header. In case you don’t know, this is The White House, the mansion where the President of the United States of America lives. As I was thinking about what to write for this photo, I noticed the title, “My first daylight pictures of the Whitehouse 2". I meant it was the second photo I’d taken of The White House in daylight. But the alternative reading, that this is the sequel is also correct. The original White House was set on first by the British in the War of 1812, a side conflict of an early World War.

Another Top 200 Photo

photo #14 is:

I was looking for stuff around the house to photograph (something you have to do if you don’t live in a big city) and decided to use my wife’s wedding ring and a wedding anniversary gift I’d given her. I thought it was a pretty neat arrangement and so have a lot of others because it has, as of this writing, 1669 views. Unfortunately, I learned after this that she’s not into Precious Moments or any kinds of collectibles.

Another explosive Top 200 Photo

photo #15 is:

It’s pretty funny to have this photo of firecrackers appear right above the photo of fireworks. After all, it’s just a mini-version of the same thing. While I’ve been to a ton of Vietnamese weddings and this is the only one that had firecrackers - I was told that they’re traditionally set off during weddings.

Back to Brooklyn for today’s Top 200 Photo

photo #16 is:

This photo is also featured on the Pixel-Peeper site for the Sigma 10-20mm (B&H link). I’d taken photos of fireworks before, but they seemed to be missing something compared to other photos I’d seen. Then I learned that many times (although not always) these photos were really long exposures. What you do is use something dark to cover the lens between fireworks explosions to keep the shot from getting over-exposed. Then you can get a sky full of fireworks. Both methods produce pretty different exposures so it’s worth experimenting.

Back to London for this Top 200 Photo

photo #17 is:

When I went to England in 2006 the Iraq War was in the middle of the worst period for American and allied deaths. This bunch of protest signs was sitting across from Parliament. The interesting thing is that no one was there guarding them, yet no pro-war people were defacing or removing them.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the 13th most viewed photo in the Top 200 Photos

photo #18 is: triscadecaphobia (also spelt Triskaidekaphobia) is the fear of the number 13. I don’t have triskaidekaphobia - I am not paralyzed on Friday the 13th. However, I do get bad vibes from the number whenever I see it. On the other hand, 2, for me, is a conforting number. But I like it in script better than printed.

A rainbow in today’s Top 200 Photo

photo #19 is:

Until I went to the Grand Canyon and saw an awesome rainbow there, this was the only photograph I had of a rainbow. I was going to a work breakfast when I was working at P&G and when I got out of my car it was there. I decided to photograph it before going inside. It languished mostly unseen until I posted it to a photography related forum. Then it shot up to 200 views in one day (from <50). Now it has 1239 views.

I feature in today’s Top 200 Photo

photo #20 is:

When I was first learning about stroboscopic images, I wanted to do something with humans, not just bouncing balls and scissors. It would be a while before I could get Dave doing martial arts. So I tried a few things, but it was hard to keep from interfering with myself and ending up with an indistinguishable mess. So I figured I could extend my arm out so each pulse would have my arm in a non-overlapping position. As you can tell, I started off fast and then realized I was going too quickly so the last few pulses are closer to each other.