Wordless Wednesday
Squared – SQ84
Cacti
Nikon D7100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8, 1/500s, 70mm, f/8, ISO 200
Cacti
Category Archives: monochrome
Winter Campus
SUNY Polytechnic Institute
I am pretty sure these images were influenced by my reading of Our National Parks this week. It might seem cliché for me to admire Ansel Adams, being the iconic landscape photographer, but I truly enjoy his images and have learned quite a lot about photographing light by studying his images. The one big take away for me every time I look at his images is that shadows are just as important as the highlights.
On Thursday my daughter usually gets out of class early and I rush over right around 4pm to pick her up from campus. One of her friends has another class at 6pm and she usually spends the in-between time with her. Me getting to campus too quick just doesn’t work for them, so this Thursday with the warmer temps and beautiful blue sky I spent an hour roaming the campus with my camera. It was a win-win… 🙂
Student Center
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/1000s, 17mm, f/8, ISO 200
Cayan Library
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/160s, 12mm, f/8, ISO 200
Wildcat Field House
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/400s, 25mm, f/8, ISO 200
On The River
Silent Sunday
On The River
Nikon D7100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/640s, 42mm, f/8, ISO 400
Photo Fix Friday
Photo Fix Friday
I have been posting quite a lot of my Disney images lately as a stop gap to my current trend of not capturing anything new with the camera. That trend I plan on remedying this weekend! So as not to get everyone to hate Disney I thought I would try something different – Photo Fix Friday.
I was looking over my older images (from 2012/2013) to see where I started and try to understand if I have improved any over the years. The improvement can come in many forms – image composition, style, post-processing, etc. I think it is good to review your older work. It definitely lets me appreciate my current work even more.
So on to the “fix”…
This image was captured at the beginning of my journey. I had just spent 9 months learning about photography and using my Sony point -n- shoot for all it could give me. I had just purchased my first DSLR, a Nikon D5100 and a pair of lenses to get me on the next leg of my photography trip. This is also during the phase of constant Google+ theme participation. This image being part of my Grass series of images.
As you can see from the original I was experimenting heavily with post-processing. This particular image getting the old sepia treatment. I hadn’t learned of the word subtle yet… 🙂
Three Sisters – Original
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/640s, 42mm, f/4, ISO 400
I liked the composition for Three Sister. I was also fascinated with shallow depth of focus as you can see. If I was to capture this image again I would definitely increase the DoF to get more of the foreground grass in focus. This second image is practically what came out of the camera. A few minor tweaks in Lightroom but my starting image none the less.
Three Sisters – Start
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/640s, 42mm, f/4, ISO 400
For this Photo Fix I chose to go with a less cramped crop on the grass. I know now that I cropped the image to remove the lump of blurry, green grass on the left of the image which I felt was a little distraction. Today, I used Photoshop to blend it away. The larger crop allows for more of the background to be visible and provide some breathing room for the subject.
I also stayed away from the sepia tone and went with my more preferred silver tone for the black & white processing. You will also notice a little less contrast in the new image which gives a more natural look to the details in focus and not so much a processed look. I can now look at this image without cringing… LOL.
Three Sisters – New
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/640s, 42mm, f/4, ISO 400
Light & Shadow
Spaceship Earth, Future World, Epcot
Light & Shadow
Olympus OM-D E-M10, M. Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R, 1/1250s, 41mm, f/8, ISO 200
Wordless Wednesday: Chained
In the Shop – ITS17
Squared – SQ82
Chained
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 60mm f/2.8, 1/125s, f/8, ISO 200
Interrupted
West Canada Creek
Frequent readers of my posts know how much I love playing in a creek. When I was young it was about building dams and diverting water to watch it flow over different areas of the creek bed. I use to spend hours with my hands in the water adding stones here and there to create a bigger wall for the water.
Now I am fascinated by flowing water. I love that I can capture a different pattern in the same area of a creek just by adjusting the time on my shutter. A second faster or a second slower and the entire scene changes. These water images all about that control over the capture just like my dam building was about controlling the direction the water was taking. I hope I never get tired of playing…
Interrupted
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/3s, 40mm, f/16, ISO 200
Big Rocks
West Canada Creek
Although the last day of the year was an overcast day I took the opportunity with the recent rains to go play in the West Canada Creek. The area just below Trenton Falls is a favorite spot of mine and always provides me with great views for images. I was also trying out my adapter ring to allow me to use my old 77mm circular polarizer with my 12-40mm lens. I can’t use the lens hood with the filter but on a day like yesterday, a hood wasn’t needed.
There was a light coat of snow on the rocks around the overflow area which made for some slippery footing. My biggest fear was ending up in the water! Luckily I avoided that concern with some good balancing maneuvers.
I’ve mentioned before that capturing the water flow is a balancing act in itself. I don’t want too long of an exposure and completely smooth out the water, but I also do not want to freeze the motion with a quick shutter either. For this image an almost 1 second exposure produced the water flow I was looking for. The polarizer did not help a great deal with the shine on the rocks but I think the shine adds a nice contrast to the water.
These water images always look better in black & white. I also do not do as much sharpening on these water images as I like the look of the water with the long exposure. After all processing is done, I add just a slight silver tone to the image which is really just a personal preference.
Staring at the image I can still hear the water rushing past… it is very hypnotic.
Big Rocks
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 0.8s, 25mm, f/16, ISO 200
MLCreations Photography 