I received an Ansel Adams 2013 desk calendar for Christmas and have not been able to put it down since I opened it. It has increased my interest in monochrome images, so I thought I would try exploring this year’s winter in monochrome. This is the first image from the creek in the backyard.
Layers and Ice
Nikon D5100, Sigam 17=70mm f/2.8-4, 1/8s, 35mm, f/16, ISO 100
We always spend the Christmas holiday at my mother-in-law’s house. My wife’s family (she is one of six kids) all get together and we have a great time. I was able to sneak out on the day before Christmas Eve to have some fun with the camera. I generally go for the big landscapes but on this day I left the telephoto lens on the camera and focused on details.
Colors and Lines
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/250s, 100mm, f/11, ISO 200
The Fence Electric
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/250s, 120mm, f/11, ISO 200
Caught in the Limbs
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/160s, 200mm, f/5.6, ISO 200
Seasons Collide
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/400s, 200mm, f/5.6, ISO 200
Snow!
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/320s, 200mm, f/5.6, ISO 200
Snow Limit
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/640s, 200mm, f/5.6, ISO 200
Where I live in Upstate NY I’m very close to the old Griffiss Air Force base. Actually, I’m only a few miles from the airstrip and I can still see large cargo planes performing practice take off and landings from my yard. It’s great to see a big C-5 fly over heard at a very low altitude while it makes multiple passes at the runway. The base was decommissioned in 1995 and is now home to a technology park, an aircraft refurbishment center and the Air Force’s Rome Air Labs.
There is another abandoned site not far from the air base that I have been passing on my way to and from work for the last 22 years. I believe it was an old army station but I have not really investigated its history. What this small site does have is a plethora of old buildings I would love to explore. I just haven’t gone as far as to jump the fence and fight my way through the overgrowth.
Yesterday afternoon the sun was fighting its way through the clouds so I decided to head over to this site and grab a few images with my telephoto lens. There is a group of white birch (I believe) growing up around a cement tower and I can also spot the top of another structure from one of the corn fields next to the fence. I’m thinking once the snow starts accumulating it would be a good time to revisit these buildings and maybe get a little adventurous.
Installation Decay
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/60s, 55mm, f/16, ISO 200
The Tower
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/60s, 98mm, EV -0.7, f/16, ISO 200
In The Round
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/80s, 200mm, EV -0.7, f/16, ISO 200
I had a few days of vacation to use or lose before the end of the year so I decided to have a mini vacation in the middle of the week. Yesterday didn’t work out for me because of the rain but today has been fantastic. This is a four image panorama of the morning clouds rolling in over the Mohawk Valley.
Blue Morning
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/5s, 90mm, f/16, ISO 200 (4 image panorama)
Outlined Beauty
Nikon D5100, Sigam 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/2s, 21mm, f/20, ISO 100
I thought maybe today I would try something a little different. Well, at least a little different for me. I’m finding it more difficult each day to get out and explore with the camera. The hope for cooperating weekends don’t always work out so today I’m posting some information about image processing.
When I started this journey into photography I was as green as could be. My extent of photographic ability amounted to transferring the pictures from the camera to my computer and throwing away the ones that didn’t make the cut. I used Google Picasa to organize the images and do minor adjustments like cropping or rotating. The first piece of software I trialed was Lightroom. I eventually purchased a full version and have been using it as my main processing tool for over a year
The second piece of software I started using was Photoshop Elements. My daughter had a copy with the tablet she received for Christmas one year and after struggling with version 7 I decided to buy myself the latest version which was 10. I’m getting better at using Elements and find I use it for an image that needs more than a basic manipulation.
And then the most exciting thing happened just about a year ago…
I entered my name in a contest offered by one of the photographers on Google+ for a copy of Topaz Labs plugins for Lightroom/Photoshop. Now, I have the most terrible of luck and actually forgot all about the contest until I received an email stating I won a copy of the whole plugin bundle. It really changed the way I work on my images. Of course, at first I went overboard and was doing too much processing. Eventually I learned when and how to use all the tools to create the images I wanted. Sometimes I want a natural looking image and sometimes I want to create something more than just a picture.
I recently downloaded onOne Software’s Perfect Effects 4 Free. Which is a completely free fully functioning version of their software but with only a handful of the presets used to manipulate an image. I’m always curious about other options. I am very impressed with this software! With just a few clicks I was able to manipulate an otherwise blah image and pump it up.
The image below is straight out of the camera other than my normal import processing and cropping.
Going to the Birds… (SOOC)
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1s, 70mm, f/16, ISO 100
Going to the Birds…
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1s, 70mm, f/16, ISO 100
I received some good news today via email. One of my pictures entered in the photo contest for the Mohawk Valley 2013 calendar was selected by the readers. The picture below will be for the month of February. The calendar comes out on January 1st in the Observer-Dispatch paper.
This particular image was taken during lunch back on March 1st for an event on Google+. I ended up not using this image for the event and tried some not normal processing on it. I was very happy with the result because I felt it had a post card feel to it and I was able to keep the falling snow visible.
It is not my most favorite image but I thought it represented the Mohawk Valley which is what I thought the intent of the contest was. Based on the other images in the competition it was more for photographers from the Mohawk Valley. Anyway, I was happy to have two images selected for the competition and I’m thrilled to have one actually be in the calendar.
Canal Lock 20
MLCreations Photography 