[Daily Photo] Rhein riverside

My friends and I were on a boat tour on the Rhein River in Germany, from Baharach to Boppard. There are many castles built along the riverside. The castle in this photo is a hotel (You can see the word "HOTEL" on the rock below the castle if you look closely). I hope one day I can stay in a castle hotel like this one.

[Daily Photo] Skeleton Man walking Skeleton Dinosaur

We were on Highway I-90 westbound in Murdo, South Dakota on our way to Yellowstone. I was sitting in the back seat of the car with my camera in my hand, ready to take a picture of something interesting on the roadside. And I saw this strange artwork. I didn't know if it was an advertisement or just someone's artwork. We didn't want to park our car on the roadside to take this picture, so I had to shoot inside the car which was moving at 80+ MPH. I'd like to talk about how to take a photo in this situation. The most important parameter is the shutter speed, if it is too slow, there will be motion blur all over the photo. I suggest using a shutter speed faster than 1/1000 sec. There are two ways to achieve this, using a larger aperture or boosting the ISO. Because I wanted to keep everything in focus, I boosted the ISO to 1000 and kept  the aperture of F9.0. By these settings, I had the shutter speed of 1/3200 sec. I also suggest using the lens with vibration reduction (VR) function to prevent blur caused by hand-holding.

[Daily Photo] Gimbal sculpture in the Montrose Park

I took this photo in Montrose Park in Georgetown, Washington DC. I was in Georgetown searching for somewhere to take a picture. Then I was attracted to this gimbal sculpture at the entrance of Montrose Park. This is really a quiet and beautiful place, and you can find birds and squirrels everywhere in this park.

[Daily Photo] Beautiful sunset in Michigan

We had a BIG snow in Ann Arbor, Michigan last night. My first snow experience was in October, but the snow only lasted about 3 hours. The snow yesterday was really big (like a snow storm). Our car was covered by a thick layer of snow this morning. The keyhole of the car was frozen with ice, and it took a lot of effort to get into the car. To celebrate my fist big snow experience, I decided to take some pictures. This photo was taken in Northfield, Michigan. Taking photo in this weather was really difficult, because I had to expose my fingers to cold air to operate the camera (I wore gloves with holes on the fingertips). I hope I can  get used to the cold weather soon.

[Daily Photo] St. Bartholomä Church

This is St. Bartholomä Church in  Germany,  located on the western shore of King's Lake (Königssee in German). We took a ferry across the lake to get here. It was in mid-September. We were supposed to have cool weather, so we left our heavy jackets in the hotel. Nevertheless, it was very cold in this area. The wind was chilly, and we only had cold sandwiches for lunch. Although we were cold and hungry, we really had a good time here.

[Daily Photo] Arlington Cemetery

I took this photo at Arlington Cemetery across the river from Washington DC. I arrived an hour before they closed, so I didn't have time to visit thoroughly. The cemetery is surprisingly beautiful.  Look at this photo. The tombstones present triangular formations.

[Daily Photo] The Smithsonian Castle in Washington DC

This is the Smithsonian Castle, the headquarter of the Smithsonian Institute. The Smithsonian is the world's largest museum and research complex. If you have seen the movie "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (博物館驚魂夜2)", this area is where the story was happened.