Monthly Archives: February 2016

Waiting on the Arrival

Posted by Mike on

Union Station, Utica, New York

Saturday morning was a mad dash around the county for me. I wanted to get out early and find a nice sunrise image. I then was going to move some furniture I no longer needed and maybe find some time to go out for the sunset. The dashing part came in mostly in the morning.

I headed down to Lock 20 of the Barge Canal since I knew there would be open water in the canal below the lock. I could use that water to ‘catch’ the morning colors. That was successful and I am happy with what I captured. Next, I hopped over to North Utica for some gas.

As I was coming into Utica on my way to pick up the van I was borrowing, the sun just started to break the city skyline. It was a spontaneous decision to swing down to the train station and grab some images along the tracks. That worked out well for me!

I picked up the van, moved the furniture, had a great burger for lunch and went home to relax before the sunset. Just as my daughter headed to work I gathered up the camera and headed to Delta Lake for the sunset. Another good decision as the sun was reflecting off the clear portions of ice that had formed on top of the frozen lake. The recent warm weather created nice conditions for sunsets at the beach.

Selecting the image for today was tough with so many good choices. I went with the train station as it is a little different from my normal landscapes. I also really liked how it turned out with the sunburst at the end of the tracks and all the sight lines leading right to it.  I wasn’t going to complain about that sky either!

 

MLCreations Photography: Landscapes &emdash; Waiting on the Arrival

Waiting on the Arrival
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 200

 

There was another reason for me to choose this image. I successfully used a technique I learned about from Jimmy McIntyre from Shutter Evolve. This technique can be used when capturing images that have strong light sources in the view. Typically the lens will reflect the light internally and create spots in the image. Previously I had to decide if I wanted to move my camera position to minimize or remove those spots. Sometimes that would change the composition to something less desirable.

The technique I learned, which really could be called a hack, is to capture your image then capture a second image using your thumb to cover up the light source. This will remove the spots from the image and then you can use an image editor to paint out the spots using the second image.

Here are my original two images…

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Waiting-One

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Waiting-Two

Morning on Route 66

Posted by Mike on

Radiator Springs Area, Art of Animation Resort,
Walt Disney World

When I was on vacation in December we spent two days over at Walt Disney World (shocker, I know!). Rather than drive back to the east coast of Florida it was better to get a room on property which would also allow us easier entry into another park. As luck would have it an Annual Passholder discount was available so I quickly booked a room at the Pop Century Resort.

I personally enjoy staying at Pop Century when I can not use my DVC points. Not only is the resort full of photographic opportunities it is just a walk across a bridge to the Art of Animation Resort. One of my favorite areas at this resort is the Radiator Springs area. You can walk Route 66 and see all the characters from the Cars movie.

On the morning of our second day I woke early to capture some sunrise images. I didn’t bring my tripod on this trip to Disney (planned attempt at traveling light). So I knew I would be pushing my ISO rather high to capture the early morning light. For this image I was at ISO 1600 which will leave a little image noise even with the best noise reduction software.

I really liked the sky over the Cozy Cone Motel and the meandering path of Route 66 into the image. I got low to the ground (OK, sitting on it) to enhance the effect of the road leading in.  The Motel sign actually spins so I had to time the capture just right.  Also, due to the rotation I wanted to minimize any motion blur which prompted me to lower the aperture to f/2 in order to get a 1/500s shutter speed.  Overall, I like how this one turned out.

MLCreations Photography: Around WDW &emdash; Morning on Route 66

Morning on Route 66
Olympus OM-D E-M1
M. Zuiko 25mm f/1.8, 1/500s, f/2, ISO 1600

Photo Fix Friday

Posted by Mike on

Photo Fix Friday

The second edition of Photo Fix Friday is here. I don’t believe I can call it a regular feature of my blog yet, but I am working on it. Surprisingly there are quite a few opportunities in my early images.

This Morning Trail image was captured on my way to work back in April 2012. The town had cleared off some land designated for a new town park and offices. It was a cold morning and the frost hung heavy on the ground. I spotted the sun breaking the horizon through the trees.  It was creating some great shadows in the path toward the woods. I pulled the car around and returned to the small entrance. I grabbed the camera with its tripod and quickly captured the scene.

What I remember most about the view was the frost on the grass along with the light and shadows. As you can see in the first image I over-processed the scene by increasing the colors. I’m sure I ran the image through my Topaz Labs Adjust program to create a pseudo HDR effect and in the process destroyed what it was about the scene that made me stop.  If you look in the tops of the trees on the right of the image you can spot the halo effect of using the HDR function too much in Adjust.  Another sure sign for me is the loss of blue in the sky.  The sun was not that over powering, that is all in my post-processing.

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Morning Trail

Morning Trail – Original
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/50s, 32mm, f/18, ISO 100

 

The second image is basically straight out of the camera. This is what I initially captured. The horizon is tilted and the image is a little underexposed.  You can also see the true color of the sky as well as the frost on the grass.

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; MorningTrail-SooC

Morning Trail – SooC
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/50s, 32mm, f/18, ISO 100

 

Now for the fix. I changed the crop that I used. I know I went with the 16×9 crop in the original because I had to place the horizon using the rule of thirds. I was still working on understanding everything I had been reading and was not focusing on the feel of the image. For this new image I stayed with the original 3×2 image ratio but brought the top right corner in and down.

My tweaks in Lightroom were done to lighten up the shadows and tone down the highlights.  I did not want to over saturate the image again so I only did minor adjusts to the color.  The frost needed to stay visible to me.  You can still see the effects of the sun but it is not overpowering the image.  I also wanted to keep as much of the shadows as possible but did bring back some of the detail hidden in the darker portions of the image.

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Morning Trail - New

Morning Trail – New
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/50s, 32mm, f/18, ISO 100

 

My fix on this image is truer to what I remember about the scene. It is not necessarily the way every image needs to be processed. Some images I process with a look in mind and proceed to change the image to achieve that look. For me this image needed to be brought back to what is in my memory.

Patterns

Posted by Mike on

In the Shop – ITS18

Another rough morning/day at work yesterday. Sitting eating my salad for lunch I thought I really needed to get away from the place to recharge. Then I remembered what I always do to recharge, so I grabbed the camera, put on the 25mm lens and went out into the shop.

After the first couple of blah captures it hit me. Look for patterns. There are patterns everywhere if you look for them. I was in the zone and the worries/frustrations from the morning melted away. I changed it up a little and included broken patterns. Don’t look too close at the images, I work in a forge and machine shop so there is a little bit of dirt and grime… 🙂

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Routers

Routers
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 25mm f/1.8, 1/40s, f/5, ISO 800

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Corregated

Corregated
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 25mm f/1.8, 1/30s, f/5, ISO 800

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Grating

Grating
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 25mm f/1.8, 1/25s, f/2.8, ISO 800

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Peg Board

Peg Board
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 25mm f/1.8, 1/25s, f/2.8, ISO 800

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Handle

Handle
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 25mm f/1.8, 1/50s, f/2.8, ISO 800

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Mat

Mat
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 25mm f/1.8, 1/13s, f/2.8, ISO 800

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Rollers

Rollers
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 25mm f/1.8, 1/100s, f/2.8, ISO 800

 

Zoo Underbelly

Posted by Mike on

Wordless Wednesday
Rosamond Gifford Zoo

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Zoo Underbelly

Zoo Underbelly
Madagascar Hissing Cockroach
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/15s, 29mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600

Star Wars Reflection

Posted by Mike on

Monorail Monday
Future World, Epcot, Walt Disney World

I’m back to another Disney image but it is for a specific reason. Monday’s are known as Monorail Mondays to a lot of us Disney photographers. Since standing around waiting for a monorail to pass by my chosen location is actually one of those activities I enjoy while at WDW, I thought it appropriate to post another contribution.

I really love the area of Future World in Epcot over near The Land and The Living Seas (I know, I should be calling it The Seas with Nemo & Friends but I like the previous name) pavilions. There are always beautiful flowers growing in the planters and the abundance of water allows for great monorail reflections. Plus, due to the taller trees I can also find a spot in the shade to wait for the next monorail.

This image is utilizing one of those pools to grab a reflection of the monorail as it heads toward the Epcot station. Spaceship Earth can be seen in the background and in my opinion that is always a plus for my monorail images. The cool part of any monorail image is due to the configuration there is a ‘front’ on both ends so unless you know the route even a receding monorail looks like it is coming into view. 🙂

MLCreations Photography: Epcot &emdash; Star Wars Reflection

Star Wars Reflection
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/320s, 17mm, f/9.1, ISO 400