Camden Station

Camden Station is where the Light Rail drops me every morning and where I pick it up every night. Not a bad thing to look at while one is waiting for a homeward-bound train to arrive in the evening.

Just make sure you don't look in the wrong direction and catch a glimpse of the Baltimore Hilton. It's so ugly that it may, Medusa-like, turn you to stone.

National Aquarium at Twilight

The Australia Wing of the National Aquarium in Baltimore is a nightime gem on the Inner Harbor waterfront.

As usual with "night" photography of buildings and skylines, it's often best to take a photo like this before the sky gets completely black. During the winter in Baltimore, I find that about one-half hour after sundown works out best. Check sunset time in your area and be ready about 15 minutes after sunset - then start shooting and keep shooting for the next half-hour or so - you'll be able to pick a favorite from somewhere in that time frame.

Superman!

I stopped by Geppi's Enertainment Museum in downtown Baltimore yesterday to scope it out for a photo assignment this weekend - I'll be shooting the bar-mitzvah dinner and party there Saturday evening. It was the first time I'd been there, and I was gobsmacked by the amazing display of popular culture. Geppi's displays and artifacts go back to colonial times and continue through the era of radio, the early days of TV (Howdy Doody anyone?) and up to the present.

The thing that attracted me the most yesterday was this slightly larger-than-life statue of Superman. I grew up with the old Superman TV series. Superman, airing for a half-hour about 4pm, was the only thing I was allowed to watch on TV when I got home prior to getting my homework done.

I was nine when George Reeves killed himself, ending the old TV series. In 1978, I heard about a new Superman movie, starring Christopher Reeve. The screenwriting was pretty awful, but Reeve was just right as Superman. For me, at age 28 and still a kid at heart, he became Superman, and remained so until his death at age 52 in 2004.

Background to the Fore

Here's a trick that I often find useful - find some scene that I like - then using it as a background or backdrop, wait for someone to walk into the scene. You need something photogenic to use for the backdrop... a handsome or unusual building, as in this case, a colorful, graffiti-covered wall, or a path in a park during autumn.

This kind of thing is an example of the whole being more than the sum of the parts. The building, wall, or whatever may be attractive, but by itself, will seem too static. On the other hand, a person walking by an uninteresting, distracting, or ugly background probably won't be an image worth a second look. But combine an engaging background with passerby, and you often get something compelling.

Actual Size

Situations like these are why we must have a camera with us at all times.

We hope to meet the driver in order to complement him on his sense of humor.

Silver Lining?...

Or is it?

Today's post is a photo-econometric one. OK, not really, because I don't pretend to know anything about economics other than "law of supply and demand." Sometimes, even a photography nerd takes pictures purely for documentary purposes, and the falling gasoline prices of the past few months promted me to take these.

But I can't resist a small comment about all this. Remember a few months ago, when gas prices were passing four dollars a gallon? Remember all the screaming in Congress and the media about "speculators" driving up the price of gas. Well guess who has been driving it down lately. Do you think any of the firebomb-throwers in Congress will do an Emily Latella over this?

As I filled my tank today at $1.649/gallon, I realized that this was about the price of gas in September 1990. It may not be unadulterated good news, however; this low price reflects the futures market - that is, the "speculators" are betting that oil demand will stay low for a while as the economy declines worldwide.

Meanwhile, let's not go back to our old gas-guzzling habits, but let's enjoy these prices while we can.