Category Archives: photography

Indifference

Posted by Mike on

Patas Monkey, Rosamond Gifford Zoo

This is not one of the images I picked to process from my trip to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo last week. I thought because I did not capture the face or focus on the eyes (as I have read is the right thing to do) I passed this one in my selection process.

As I sat down to work on my images this one kept speaking to me. Every time I saw this monkey I felt something for him. Maybe it is the feeling of solitude or loneliness. Thinking back to my time in front of the exhibit I realized it was his indifference to the activity from the other monkeys and even for those of us looking through the glass. Maybe I’m attributing too much, maybe not…

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Indifference

Restored

Posted by Mike on

Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World

One week! For the second time since I purchased this PC I had to re-install the operating system and all my applications. As I mentioned in a post early last week the boot drive of my photography laptop crashed last Sunday. I played with it until late Monday night in a desperate attempt to make a miracle happen… I couldn’t.

I decided I was not going to completely tear the PC apart in order to reach the small SSD drive embedded in the heart of this beast. Considering the non-existent use of the CD drive I chose to replace the drive with a HD drive tray and install a second 1 TB, 7200 RPM hard disk. Yes, I will lose a little startup speed and the applications might not pop open as quickly as they did from the SSD but the extra storage space would be great and ease of any future repairs would be increased. Besides, it was not like I was playing online games with this baby!

 

MLCreations Photography: Magic Kingdom &emdash; Castle Color Reflection

 

All the pieces arrived Thursday and about an hour after getting home from work the system was performing the first of the OS installs to bring everything back to normal. As I had learned from the last system crash I needed to first restore Windows 8.1 before I could upgrade to Windows 10. The Win 8.1 restore was not a problem. I attempted the upgrade to Win 10 but the system was hanging on the process. That issue took me another day to resolve (FYI – Win 8.1 Windows Update programs needed to be updated manually via a few downloads before the system would work properly – OMG!).

By Saturday morning I had my basic system working. The rest of Saturday was all about reinstalling my photography software and getting the system back to its fully protected, fully backed up operating condition. About half way through the process I found a directory with a lot of my stuff that I must have setup last crash. I wish I had written that down somewhere. It would have saved me an hour or two! 🙂

 

MLCreations Photography: Magic Kingdom &emdash; Era Mixing

 

I have started working through my images from last Sunday’s trip to the zoo. I’ll get a post online soon. I chose to add a few Cinderella Castle images to this post instead. To revive the post-processing muscles after a short hiatus I went with pics from my happy place. I also ventured to those directories first as I have been trying to plan a Spring trip back down and coordinating my work schedule with price shifts at Disney has been challenging. As much as I love going, I am unwilling to pay the prices during the ‘Peak’ seasons. I get supply and demand, but really, does the hotel room’s cost to operate increase by 50-100% during specific weeks of the year? Crazy!

Anyway… Make sure your files are backed up! The crash didn’t upset me too much other than the fact I would need to do all the work to restore the applications. I knew my data and those files important to me where safe.

Desperate

Posted by Mike on

Disney Vero Beach

I am still waiting for parts for my PC. They are expected Thursday afternoon but I will have to reinstall the OS and all my apps before I am back to my photography haven. Itching to work on an image I scanned through the memory card on my backup camera (Olympus OM-D E-M10). I found this image of a tree I captured while on vacation in October. I transferred the pic to my tablet and processed the file with Snapseed.

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash;

 

Not satisfied my normal processing routine as I was looking for something a little different. There is a great app called Prisma which I have on my phone so I loaded it on my tablet and stared to play. This one below felt right for my mood last night…

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash;

 

Zoo Day

Posted by Mike on

Rosamond Gifford 

Sunday turned out to be a great day.  I had checked the weather on Friday and planned to make a trip out to the zoo in Syracuse.  As frequent readers may recall each January the zoo holds a photo contest and I have been attempting to capture a winning image for a few years.  Typically, I forget about the contest and end up making a trip out at the last possible opportunity.  Usually I end up with crappy weather. Not this year!  I have enough time to make a couple more trips if I want.

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash;

 

I plan on having a larger post showcasing the images I was able to capture. My problem at the moment is my PC died. I believe the SSD drive which is my boot drive failed. I’m looking at options now so I ended up working on my tablet. Not my full compliment of tools but the original file was not half bad to start with.

I’ll update as I work out a solution…

Technical

Posted by Mike on

52 Week Photography Challenge
Week 2 – Technical: SOOC

Woo hoo! Look at me! I made it to week two of my 2017 challenge.

I know that might not seem like much but the way the weather and work have been going I seriously doubt my ability to go exploring to grab images. And not only for this goal I placed in front of myself but for my sanity. Getting out and capturing images is my escape. It is definitely my me time. Not to mention the cruel trick Mother Nature is playing on me… I mean, come on, right after I buy the snowshoes we have a streak of 50 degree weather and rain. That is downright mean! LOL

But I digress. The challenge this week is to capture a compelling image and post it straight out of the camera. No processing. No helping yourself improve an ‘almost image’ by tweaking it. Plan your shot. Nail your composition. Set your exposure and click!

 

MLCreations Photography: 52 Week Project &emdash; Arches - SOOC

 

On Wednesday this week there was a big meeting with a customer starting after lunch. It was a post award conference with lots of customer representatives. To calm any jitters I typically get I jumped out during lunch and escaped to the Old Erie Canal Park nearby. Even if I didn’t capture any compelling images, the act of crawling around the canal puts me in a better place. I had a good time! And, I was able to capture a cool view of the aqueduct over Butternut Creek.

I really liked the play of light in this image. The light on the inside of the arches contrasting with the dark walls and water. The pattern (only two) of the shape for the arches with the line of each bringing your attention down to the creek and the white, frothy ‘rapids’. Definitely not an award winner but there is potential, and for this challenge I think I ended up fairly well with an image right out of the camera.

 

MLCreations Photography: Monochrome &emdash; Arches

 

Technically (pun intended!) we are suppose to save the original for processing later in the challenge but I couldn’t let this one sit. I knew how I was going to process this image as I was capturing it. This was always going to be a monochrome image. I needed to crop slightly to remove the one strand of errant grass in the lower left corner. I also thought the balance would be better with the image ratio changed to 4×5. Although I liked the pattern in the image changing the ratio removed the perfectly same sized arches and added a little visual tension. After that it was a few minor adjustments in Lightroom and a trip into my black & white plugin from Topaz Labs.

Let me know how I did for this week’s challenge. I always welcome your thoughts and comments.

Bellamy Lights

Posted by Mike on

Bellamy Harbor Park, Rome, NY

Wednesday morning as I started my journey to work I was nudged out of my routine by the moon breaking through the clouds. It was a day before the full moon and about forty-five minutes before moon set. For a few miles I was having that old debate in my head…

You should stop and capture some pics of the moon!

But, that will make me late for work.

Late! You are usually forty-five minutes early every day.

But it will feel late to me!

But look at that moon!

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Bellamy Lights

 

I drove past the on-ramp to the highway and headed toward Bellamy Harbor Park at the southern end of Rome. I was hoping to catch the moon reflected off the water of the barge canal and depending on its position in the sky some of the park lights as well.

It almost worked. Tuesday night was the night of the freezing rain. The snow covered ground was one giant ice rink! I also forgot how fast the moon moves through the sky when it is near the horizon. By the time I was able to ‘skate’ my way from the car to a location near the water the moon was almost out of view.

See that one whiter, less star flared light near the left end of the walkway bridge. That is the moon. Yeah, by driving to the park I lowered my elevation so much the moon appeared even lower in the sky. As I continued my drive to work after capturing a few images I thought I could try again on Thursday. No such luck, cloudy and rainy. Maybe on Friday… 😉

Coming Home

Posted by Mike on

Melbourne Beach, Florida

The weather hasn’t truly been bad. Listening to the reports I am happy I do not leave off the Eastern shore of Lake Ontario. They have been hit hard this past week. We did experience some unpleasant weather on Tuesday. There is a warm front coming through my area. Around 3pm the sleet and freezing rain started. I opted to leave work early in hopes of out running the weather East. The ride home had its moments but in the end I only traveled an extra 5 minutes due to the weather.

The drive did have me thinking about the beautiful weather I left in Florida back in December. In particular, the last day where I was at the beach for the sunrise. I had an opportunity to switch out my lens to the telephoto and capture the sandpipers and seagulls. On the way home I kept thinking of this particular image I was able to capture of three gulls heading back toward the beach. I had to finish processing and then post it.

  

MLCreations Photography: Florida &emdash; Coming Home

  

I used quite a few of my compositional tricks to help improve the chances you will like this image. 🙂 I’ll tell on myself and explain what I did…

In my post about the new 52 week challenge I joined I talked about the rule of thirds. That rule is in full force in this image. Can you spot them all?

First, the horizon is on the bottom third horizontal line. Next I placed the three seagulls on the left vertical line. As luck would have it the gulls are also on one of the intersection points. Now, the highlight on the right where the sun will eventually break above the clouds is on the right vertical line. See what I mean by the rule of thirds is in full force.

Now there are few other eye-catching tricks employed in this image. There are three separate layers to the image. The water/waves are in the bottom third of the image and become the foreground. The clouds on the horizon are in the middle third while the gulls and bright yellow/orange sky are the top third. The clouds effectively become the background and the gulls and the hint of the sun are the subtle subject.

One last trick is the odd number of seagulls. This is often referred to as the rule of odds. The brain does not try to ‘pair’ off the odd number and bring a dullness or ‘sameness’ to an image. You can read more about this photographic ‘rule’ at another Digital Photography School article here.

So, did I succeed? Did my tricks influence you at all?