Bridges

Posted by Mike on November 14, 2013

This is the first week on a new adventure! When I was on vacation, running around Disney with my camera like a mad man, I met a lot of photographers. I know, no surprise there since it was a photography event, but I guess what I really should say is I connected with a lot of photographers. There was one couple in particular that every time we ran into each other we would stand and talk like old friends. I wish we had spent more time exploring together but we have stayed in touch since returning to our respective communities.

It is with these new (old) friends of mine that I will be adventuring. We are going to work on our photography together. Selecting a theme each week, getting out with our cameras, posting the results and discussing each image. The main goal is to get ourselves out with the cameras with a subject in mind. Explore some themes outside each of our own comfort zones and basically have a lot of fun showing off our communities. The first theme is bridges!

The weekend weather didn’t understand that with the shorter days I needed to use Saturday and Sunday for my exploring. I did manage to get out around sunrise on Sunday for about an hour before the rain eventually forced me back inside. I had a few bridges in my head that I wanted to explore, one I had even captured before but I was going to go for something different this time. I also found a covered bridge about an hour away but those plans fell through. It made my list of places to visit in the future…

Both of these bridges are in South Rome next to the barge canal. I have typically used the second bridge in a supporting roll for the images I capture of the canal. This time is was the main player. The first image was something I wanted to capture while trying to bring out all the detail. I liked the fact that this railroad bridge also had asymmetric tunnels for the cars. Both images required multiple exposures to capture all the detail. I did push the HDR look of the first a little farther than I normally do but one of my goals for this adventure was to try different things. So it is what it is.

Bridge for One, Tunnel for Two
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (0.6, 1.3, 2, 3, 4 & 6s bracket), 28mm, f/16, ISO 100

Support
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1, 2 & 4s bracket), 17mm, f/16, ISO 100

RGB Details

Posted by Mike on November 8, 2013

I decided it was better for me to go playing around the bone yard at work during lunch than go out and spend money. Yesterday was not the greatest of days but during lunch the rain had stopped and the overcast skies produced some nice soft light. Here is some of the interesting stuff I found…

Details – Red
Olympus E-P3, Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R, 1/100s, 17mm, f/4, ISO 400

Details – Green
Olympus E-P3, Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R, 1/400s, 14mm, f/5.6, ISO 400

Details – Blue
Olympus E-P3, Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R, 1/80s, 17mm, f/4, ISO 400

Wordless Wednesday – Two Movies

Posted by Mike on November 6, 2013

Two Movies
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, 1/1600s, f/8, ISO 400

Wheel Well Motel

Posted by Mike on October 31, 2013

I so enjoyed my trip to Disney but the work it takes to get back into the groove almost feels counter-relaxing. This week has been very busy and my opportunities to get out exploring with the camera have been zero. This leaves me with filling my posts with more images of Disney. Not something I get tired of seeing but I promise to move past this phase soon… 😉

Disney, to me, is all about the details. I enjoy looking for things most people walk past and hardly notice. This image is from the Cars section of the Art of Animation resort. I rode the bus to this resort one night since the line for the bus to my resort was ridiculously long. Disney never completed the second phase of the Pop Century resort and a few years ago converted the building shells into the Art of Animation resort. Luckily for me the two resorts are connected by a walking bridge and after ‘peeking’ at the details on my walk back to my room I grabbed the camera to do some exploring. It didn’t matter that it was almost midnight that night, the details were calling me…

Wheel Well Motel
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17070mm f/2.8-4, (1/5, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6, 3 & 6s bracket), 17mm, f/11, ISO 400

Disney and Photo Magic 2013

Posted by Mike on October 21, 2013

I am so far outside my comfort zone with this Photo Magic 2013 event at Walt Disney World. I’m having a great time and meeting a lot of great people. Here are a few of my favorites so far…

Tomorrowland
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, (10, 25, 30s bracket), f/16, ISO 400

Chim Chim Cheree
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, 1/200s, f/1.8, ISO 1600

Oscar’s
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/1600s, 17mm, f/8, ISO 400

More Details

Posted by Mike on October 18, 2013

Last Sunday after I had to stop into work I made my way to the barge canal and walked the trail in the early morning light. I had another great time exploring a section of the barge canal west of Lock 20. There is a maintenance facility at the start of the trail and I found this NYS Barge Canal boat just begging me to explore all of its details. The full, wide image just didn’t do it for me but as I walked all around the boat I found dozens of interesting images.

Dry Dock?
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/250s, 24mm, f/8, ISO 400

Character
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/250s, 50mm, f/8, ISO 400

Throw Me a Line
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/400s, 42mm, f/8, ISO 400

153
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/400s, 24mm, f/5.6, ISO 400

Layers of History
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/320s, 35mm, f/5.6, ISO 400

Opportunity Details

Posted by Mike on October 15, 2013

Over the weekend there were issues at work that I had to deal with. It doesn’t happen often so I don’t mind having to spend some of the weekend on unplanned activities. The difficult part is when the weekend was as nice as last weekend was. The price you have to pay I guess. Plus, I rationalized it even further by remembering that my vacation starts this coming weekend and working must have been the down payment… 🙂

While I was waiting for an electrician to arrive I grabbed the Olympus camera and played around in the equipment scrap heap out behind the building. I could have spent all day out there! So many details to capture. Every step revealed more images to capture. These are a few of my favorites.

Chained Perspective
Olympus E-P3, Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6, 1/200s, 42mm, f/5.6, ISO 200

Two Turns to the Right
Olympus E-P3, Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6, 1/400s, 34mm, f/5.6, ISO 200

Almost Three
Olympus E-P3, Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6, 1/80s, 18mm, f/8, ISO 200

Worldwide Photowalk 2013

Posted by Mike on October 7, 2013

I broke away from my normal tendency and signed up to participate in this year’s Worldwide Photowalk. I believe this was the sixth year Scott Kelby has held his photowalk and I was lucky enough to find a walk close to home. I would normally shy away from something like this but since I will be going to Disney in a few weeks to participate in a Photographer’s event there I thought this would be a good warm up for me (normally I don’t play well with others… 🙂 ).

I had such a good time! I met really great people. We had a fun time walking around Clinton, NY and I even managed to capture a few images. This was more an architectural detail style of walk and I tried to expand my vision but I found myself falling back on my normal type of images. I still need to learn to see more broadly.

The best part of the day was after lunch we sat around a few computers and viewed what everyone captured. I was amazed at the images everyone found. I walked right next to these people but didn’t ‘see’ what they saw. I’m looking but not seeing. Will work on that in Disney too!

Here are a few of images I did see…