Campus Center

SUNYIT Campus Center

Thursday night was the perfect night to be at the campus playing with my camera. There was just enough wind in the upper layers to give good movement to the clouds but not enough at ground level to cause me any issues with my long exposures. Right after sunset the sky was changing toward black going through all the deep blues with the right amount of clouds for interest.

I have tried to capture the Campus Center building on numerous occasions but was never happy with the results. There are quite a few annoying lights in the courtyard at the front of the building which general get in my view. On this night though I stuck with the fish-eye lens which allowed me to get right next to the building, blocking out most of the lights, and still capture this interesting corner. Due to the large amount dynamic range in the scene I needed five separate exposures to capture it all. I blended all five using Photomatix and made a few more adjustments in Photoshop.

Campus Center Nikon D5100, Rokinon 8mm f/3.5, {0.8, 1.6, 3, 6 & 13s bracket}, f/11, ISO 800

Campus Center
Nikon D5100, Rokinon 8mm f/3.5, {0.8, 1.6, 3, 6 & 13s bracket}, f/11, ISO 800

Wildcat Field House

Wildcat Field House Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {1.6, 6 & 25s bracket}, 21mm, f/11, ISO 100

Wildcat Field House
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {1.6, 6 & 25s bracket}, 21mm, f/11, ISO 100

What was I thinking?

I am not exactly sure what my frame of mind was yesterday when I posted the image of Little Pixley Falls. Although I am happy with the composition I would have normally processed the image as monochrome. So, as an immediate redo, here is the image that was in my head when I clicked the shutter…

Little Pixley Falls Nikon D5100, Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5, 2.5s, 26mm, f/6, ISO 100

Little Pixley Falls
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5, 2.5s, 26mm, f/6, ISO 100

I’m going to blame the oops moment on me signing up for the Adobe Photographer Create Cloud program which allows me to use Lightroom (which I have since I started this journey) and Photoshop. I have been using Photoshop Elements but the cost difference between upgrading Elements and buying into this program just made sense for me. Luckily most of the basic functionality is the same so I was able to jump right in but I am looking forward to learning what the big brother Photoshop can do. 🙂