Red Alert
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.0, 1/30s, 24mm, f8, ISO 400
Red Alert
Category Archives: clouds
A Day (or Evening) at the Beach
Last night after dinner I headed over to Delta Lake State Park just north of Rome, NY. This park is around the corner from my house (in the country around the corner is less than 10 miles) and although we visited more when the kids were younger it had been quite a few years since I was inside the park. I can contribute my renewed fascination to my new obsession in photography. This spring I went to the park to explore with my camera and and old friend has become new again.
I watched the afternoon clear skies become ripe for pictures as the clouds rolled in and I just knew the sunset was going to be worth photographing. Everything worked out as I was able to get dinner cooked, gobbled down and my hiking boots on to make it to the park with a little over an hour until sunset.
As I topped the knoll between the parking area and the beach this scene stopped me in my tracks. I quickly made my adjustments to the camera settings before clicking away. I needed to get a little closer to remove some unwanted elements in the picture but luckily the wide angle lens still allowed for a nice picture.
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| Delta Lake State Park, beach area Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.0, 1/50sec, 32mm f/8, ISO 200 |
I think I have fallen into a routine every time I visit the park but it has given me some really nice pictures in the past. There is a path that starts to the right of the beach area and mostly follows the lake’s shoreline. This next picture is right at the start of this path and the view is looking toward the dam which created the lake. I think on my next visit I’ll use the telephoto to show the dam more clearly.
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| Delta Lake State Park, view toward the dam Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.0, 1/40sec, 17mm f/8, ISO 200 |
My normal route through the path didn’t yield as many photo opportunities as I had hoped and with a limited time frame before sunset I stopped short to circle back toward the beach. The advantage of living close and being able to get to the park so late is I generally have it to myself. The few families or groups left are just finishing up their stay so I’m able to setup practically anywhere.
During the summer you are only allowed to swim during scheduled hours when there are life guards on duty. They even rope off different sections of the beach for the varying abilities (or heights) of the swimmers. I really liked how the buoyed line appears to go on toward the horizon.
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| Delta Lake State Park, beach looking west Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.0, 1/100sec, 19mm f/16, ISO 200 |
In the first picture of this post, the tree filled area is a small overlook which you can get to in numerous ways but over the years small paths from the beach up the hill have been made despite the best efforts of the park to created stair paths. I always like following the man made paths as you generally find better picture spots along the way. Once you get to the top there is a area looking west which allows for a nice view of the lake and the setting sun.
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| Delta Lake State Park, east overlook looking west Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.0, 1/8sec, 19mm f/22, ISO 100 |
The last two pictures are back down on the beach and are my attempt at capturing the sunset using three exposure brackets. I used Lightroom 4 to correct for lens distortion and exported the pictures to Photomatix. I used the normal exposure image for the water to remove any effects of ghosting and then tone mapped the three exposures with detail enhancing plus a few adjustments. I brought the finished image back into Lightroom for a crop and some minor tweaks.
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| Delta Lake State Park, beach looking west Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.0, 1/15s, 1/60s, 1/4s, 24mm f/22, ISO 100 |
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| Delta Lake State Park, beach looking west Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.0, 1/4s, 1/15s, 1s, 17mm f/22, ISO 100 |
I ended up not staying until the full sunset. I had neglected to bring bug spray with me and was starting to get eaten alive. I had captured enough pictures to keep me processing for a few hours. I’m not sure the sunset and the time just after would have provided any better views of the lake. But then, considering how close I am, there will always be another day.
Day 91
Working from home today afforded me some extra time at the end of my day. I didn’t have the drive home eating into my fading sunlight, although by the time I went outside the sporadic sun was behind a sky full of clouds. I hadn’t planned any great adventure so I decided to go for another walk through the fields across the road from me. There usually is something of interest to be found.
I realize it is only the top of goldenrod but today it was out shining the sun. I have numerous pictures with the hazy sun in different positions in relation to my subject but I liked this one the best. With the sun only providing weak ambient light I didn’t have to worry about hard shadows on the flower of the goldenrod and allowed me to still show the detail in the flower.
Day 85
I was determined not to miss the morning sun today. We ended up getting a dusting of snow last night after the freezing rain stopped. There really wasn’t enough to worry about but I view it as exercise so I shoveled the driveway. Actually I pushed the snow from one side to the other with my 4 foot pusher shovel. Hey, I was out at 7am walking back and forth which is exercise, right?
The sky was full of clouds when I started but as I finished up you could see the sun start to work its way through. My plan was working. I grabbed the camera and went for a short walk. I managed to get quite a few nice pictures and even captured a bracketed set to show off the colors in the sky. The picture I liked for my project was a macro of the property marker on the corner of our yard. It is just a rusted piece of rebar but I like the texture and color against the sky.
We are heading down to my wife’s family farm today to visit with her sister and meet her brother to exchange a few things for our nephew. I usually have a good time down there with my camera so I’m looking forward to a nice day. I just hope the weather holds.
Day 84
Wow, I have been home for over four hours and just worked my way to my project picture. To be honest I grabbed a few pictures of the birch tree at work because of the sunlight illuminating it against some great clouds but was anticipating going for a walk when I got home. As I’m pulling in the driveway the freezing rain was just beginning. The birch tree was going to have to be the picture.
My 4 hour distraction started when I spotted the ‘Hack This Photo’ post with a picture of the Portland Head Lighthouse. This is a lighthouse I have visited a few times and photographed myself. I haven’t participated in this photo editing challenge before but couldn’t resist the subject. I worked the picture through processing a couple of different ways and ended up learning quite a bit more about Photoshop Elements and processing possibilities. I have included the two pictures at the end of the post.
The birch tree picture I used for my project is very simple but has great detail within the tree and nice colors provided by the blue sky showing through the white/grey clouds. The processing on the birch tree was done completely within Lightroom and kept fairly simple. I think I managed to get quite a lot of it right in camera.
For comparison, here is the SOOC picture:
The first of my distractions for the ‘Hack This Photo’ page was processed very normally for me. I minor adjustment of the levels, a pass through DeNoise 5 and then a final pass through Adjust 5. I selected the Dynamic Brightness preset from the HDR Collection to get me started. I needed to tweak a few of the settings to achieve the look I wanted. I like what I ended with, but as I mentioned earlier, very normal for me.
I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. I decided to edit the picture again this time learning how to apply a texture and create a picture that looked more vintage and aged. I had just read a post from Melina Ilieva on how to add a texture and create a vintage look for the picture. This is the article I followed: How to make a photo look like an old photograph.
I am really happy with the way this second picture turned out and I was able to learn a few new things about Photoshop Elements. This gives me more options when I’m out exploring with the camera. I have a new trick in my bag…
MLCreations Photography 