Friday, December 31, 2010

Feeling blue at Arlington National Cemetery

Cardgrrl and I spent a couple of hours this afternoon at Arlington National Cemetery, yet another in the virtually endless list of tourist sites around D.C. that I've never been to before.

I took a bunch of photos, and had hopes that a few of them would be gems. However, when I got home and started looking at them on the computer, I quickly noticed that both the white gravestones and the green grass were blue. I realized pretty fast what had happened. When at the museum the other day, the automatic white balance on my camera was not compensating well for the dim, yellowish light, and pictures were looking yellow, so I manually set it to "incandescent light." I never changed the setting back. Today, under the late afternoon sun, the stupid camera thought we were still indoors with 100-watt bulbs around us. As a result, the pictures are all quite thoroughly saturated in blue that doesn't really belong there.

I'm disappointed, but there's not much to be done about it now. I suppose I might be able to apply some sort of digital correction, but I think it would be more work than it's worth. So I'm just going to chalk it up as a learning experience--the modern equivalent of shooting a roll of film with the lens cap on. And even with no photos that I can proudly show off, the touching experience of the cemetery remains undiminished.

You can see the blue-washed photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/rakewell1/ArlingtonCemetery?feat=directlink

Tomorrow, we hope to see lion cubs at the zoo, then a nice dinner and show (The Capitol Steps) with good friends.

Happy New Year, everyone.

7 comments:

Crash said...

You say the CAMERA is stupid?

Crash said...

Happy New Year to you guys, too!

Josie said...

I like the pics of the cemetery with the bluish tinge. Best ideas start by accident!

Missingflops said...

I kind of like the bluish tinge on some of those photos as well. I agree with Josie, you may have accidentally stumbled on to something good.

And Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Arlington can be a surprisingly powerful experience.

One of my favorite DC tourist destinations is the Botanical Gardens Conservatory on the Mall, though I haven't been since the renovations.

Happy New Year!

-Chuck

Memphis MOJO said...

the stupid camera thought we were still indoors with 100-watt bulbs around us.

Been there, done that. They need to invent a camera that does what we want, not what we tell it!

Karl said...

I used a free program called paint.net. Just opened one of the images and selected Adjustments>Auto levels.

It didn't make a perfect image, but got rid of the bluish tinge.

http://img6.imageshack.us/i/dscn2069fixed.jpg/