Category Archives: photography

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

Leftovers

Posted by Mike on

Here are the leftover images from my sculpture hunt last week. 🙂

Contemplating Sisyphus Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/400s, 32mm, f/8, ISO 200

Contemplating Sisyphus
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/400s, 32mm, f/8, ISO 200

Lookout Landing Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/800s, 70mm, f/8, ISO 200

Lookout Landing
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/800s, 70mm, f/8, ISO 200

Amber Light Column & Pagoda Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/1000s, 35mm, f/5.6, ISO 200

Amber Light Column & Pagoda
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/1000s, 35mm, f/5.6, ISO 200

Pagoda Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/1000s, 50mm, f/8, ISO 200

Pagoda
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/1000s, 50mm, f/8, ISO 200

Sculptures

Posted by Mike on

This week we are exploring sculptures. It was probably a bit of a cheat for me as there is a sculpture garden on the old Griffiss Air Force base (Griffiss Sculpture Garden). Although I will say the wind was brutal for a beautiful Saturday afternoon and was cutting right through my jacket. I also was unable to narrow my images down to just three, so hopefully my cohorts won’t mind. 😉

This first image is of a fairly new addition to the sculpture park and is titled ‘Freya’. I took many close-up images of this sculpture, filling the whole frame and trying to capture different angles of the light. As I was walking along the path to the next sculpture this view seemed more appropriate. It places the sculpture in the context of the park.

Freya Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/1250s, 46mm, f/8, ISO 200

Freya
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/1250s, 46mm, f/8, ISO 200

This second image is of a sculpture that I knew was going to be included in my images. It is one of three light columns in the park and a more fitting image would be when it is lit up at night. Since I didn’t think I would make it back for an evening walk, I settled on back light from the sun. I also pushed the processing a little more toward the heavy-handed side to accentuate the illumination.

Blue Light Column Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/2500s, 17mm, f/8, ISO 200

Blue Light Column
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/2500s, 17mm, f/8, ISO 200

This sculpture is titled ‘Chimney’ and I just love the way the polished metal catches the sunlight. This is another sculpture I walked around numerous times trying different angles. In the end, a low point-of-view with the trees and the clouds in the background to help enhance the size of the sculpture was the way to go.

Chimney Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/320s, 17mm, f/16, ISO 200

Chimney
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/320s, 17mm, f/16, ISO 200

This last image was another I had panned on capturing when we decided on sculptures. It is titled ‘Argonaut’ but I just know it as the snail. The background around the snail is not the greatest so I chose to capture this one almost in silhouette and show off the intricate wire work in the shell portion of the sculpture.

Argonaut Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/1000s, 21mm, f/8, ISO 200

Argonaut
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/1000s, 21mm, f/8, ISO 200

Looking over these images as I write this post I do notice I was not very imaginative with my captures. Most have the same low angle POV. Next week I’ll have to experiment more…

MHWA 1670

Posted by Mike on

On Saturday before the snow started falling I was over on the old air force base capturing some images for this week’s theme – sculptures. I also have been wanting to capture this old train parked on the tracks. It is an old GE 80-ton switcher that is now part of the Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern Railroad, but was at one time used by the Air Force for work on the old Griffiss Air Base.

MHWA 1670 Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/640s, 19mm, f/8, ISO 200

MHWA 1670
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/640s, 19mm, f/8, ISO 200