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!
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 