Category Archives: HDR

Holiday Bed-n-Breakfast

Posted by Mike on

I should probably label this a test as I hope to return on a not so snowy night to get a clearer image of my neighbor’s bed-n-breakfast. I was walking down to the corner to get an image of the historic church’s front door for the latest theme but I couldn’t pass up this view. I forget how nice my neighbor decorates his house for the holidays. Too bad there was some flurries in the air but I’m sure I’ll be able to get a better night to improve this image.

Holiday Bed-n-Breakfast Nikon D5100, Rokinon 8mm f/3.5, {20 & 30s bracket}, f/11, ISO 100

Holiday Bed-n-Breakfast
Nikon D5100, Rokinon 8mm f/3.5, {20 & 30s bracket}, f/11, ISO 100

Churches

Posted by Mike on

This week’s theme is churches. At first I thought I had this one in the bag. There is a historical church a few hundred yards down the road from me. I have tried to capture it before and assumed this would be the year since I am so good with the camera now. lol I should have known better.

But the story doesn’t begin there…

This first church is in the town of Russia just north of where I live. A friend from work suggested I drive up to capture this church and from his description, how could I refuse. Tuesday after work I set out on my adventure. The church was not difficult to find. Parking was another issue and then there was the outside lights. I was hoping for the illumination spot lights to be on but by 5pm they had not kicked in and I didn’t want to wait to see when it would happen. It also looks like I caught this church in the middle of some renovations. I angled my view to minimize the construction work.

Russia Union Church Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {2.5, 6, 15s bracket}, 17mm, f/16, ISO 100

Russia Union Church
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {2.5, 6, 15s bracket}, 17mm, f/16, ISO 100

Thursday night was my last chance to capture some additional images and there was no better place than downtown Rome, NY. There are quite a few churches within walking distance of each other so it was one stop shopping for me. This is St. Peter’s Church. Being in a busy section of town I decided not to fight the cars and include the light trails in the image. It is the environment the church lives in…

St. Peter's Church Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {3, 13, 30s bracket}, 19mm, f/16, ISO 200

St. Peter’s Church
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {3, 13, 30s bracket}, 19mm, f/16, ISO 200

The third church is the Zion Episcopal Church. It is a few blocks from St. Peter’s. This church is a favorite of mine because of the bell tower. I love that the bells are visible from the street. Again, due to the traffic I was going to be content with some light trails for this image as well. Luckily I caught a break in the flow and captured this 13 second long exposure without interruption.

Zion Episcopal Church Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 13s, 17mm, f/8, ISO 200

Zion Episcopal Church
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 13s, 17mm, f/8, ISO 200

I had hoped to try out some different looks for these church images. I thought using the fish eye lens on the doors would be unique or possibly try unusually angled views but my time was limited last night. There was a storm pushing into the area and I was already fighting the rain. It did give me an idea for a new project though, so maybe you will see some church doors in the future…

Cruisin’ the Barge Canal

Posted by Mike on

This is the second time I have seen this boat on the barge canal. Looking up the website I find there are some very interesting tours available. Next stop would be the bank to see how best to rob it so I could afford one. lol

Grande Mariner Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {0.6, 1.3, 2s bracket}, 46mm, f/16, ISO 100

Grande Mariner
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {0.6, 1.3, 2s bracket}, 46mm, f/16, ISO 100

Bridges

Posted by Mike on

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

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

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

Dead Men Tell No Tales

Posted by Mike on

My first night in Disney was a flurry of running around the Magic Kingdom. The park was open until 1am and I walked through the gates around 10pm. There were a lot of night images I had in my head that I wanted to capture. This image out in front of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction was near the top of the list. I had tried to capture this on previous trips but the process to do it properly had eluded me. With the new techniques I had learned in the year since my previous visit and some added patience I was hopeful I would be able to do it justice.

Dead Men Tell No Tales Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, (10, 25, & 30s bracket), f/8, ISO 200

Dead Men Tell No Tales
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, (10, 25, & 30s bracket), f/8, ISO 200

Wheel Well Motel

Posted by Mike on

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

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