I have captured this bridge a few times over the past year and a half but I never ventured out at night. There were a few scenes I wanted to explore last night and although not all of them panned out for me, this image of the walkway bridge over the end of the Black River as it enters the barge canal turned out as I had hoped. There is something about reflected lights on water that just fascinates me.
Water Lights
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 50s, 26mm, f/20, ISO 100
The Monochrome Winter series continues with another image from my snow falling walk along the barge canal. I had the bridge this fence is associated with as the destination when I started the walk. I ended up liking these snow topped fence posts over the actual view of the bridge. Sometimes the details are more interesting than the grand view.
White Hats
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/400s, 180mm, f/8, ISO 800
The latest image in my Monochrome Winter series. I’m glad I decided to try something like this. It has me looking around quite differently. Not only am I looking for a scene or object but now I am looking for tone and contrast, light and shadow. Obviously qualities that should be present in any image but not something I focused on previously.
Cattail Snow Caps
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/200s, 160mm, f/8, ISO 800
I received some good news today via email. One of my pictures entered in the photo contest for the Mohawk Valley 2013 calendar was selected by the readers. The picture below will be for the month of February. The calendar comes out on January 1st in the Observer-Dispatch paper.
This particular image was taken during lunch back on March 1st for an event on Google+. I ended up not using this image for the event and tried some not normal processing on it. I was very happy with the result because I felt it had a post card feel to it and I was able to keep the falling snow visible.
It is not my most favorite image but I thought it represented the Mohawk Valley which is what I thought the intent of the contest was. Based on the other images in the competition it was more for photographers from the Mohawk Valley. Anyway, I was happy to have two images selected for the competition and I’m thrilled to have one actually be in the calendar.
Canal Lock 20
Some more images from my early morning walk on Sunday. I usually find something interesting when I walk the trails along the barge canal. This barge and tug were docked just beyond a gate into an access area for Utica, NY. I have noticed quite a lot of activity the past few weeks along the canal. I think there is an effort to dredge our section of the canal and keep it accessible.
Both of these images are three exposure brackets combined using Photomatix. I generally start with a simple tone mapped default and tweak the settings to achieve the image I want. I tend to keep the color saturation to a minimum and hopefully create a more realistic, natural image rather than an ‘over the top’ HDR image. Finally adjustments to the exposure and a slight gradient added in Lightroom.
Barge at Sunrise
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1/3, 1.3, 5s bracket), 19mm, f/16, ISO 100
Tug and Barge
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (0.8, 3, 15s bracket), 70mm, f/16, ISO 100
Hanging Out
Nikon D5100, Sigm 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/4000s, 70mm, f/4, ISO 400
I bought a book on Lightroom 3 yesterday at a discount store. I’ve been using version 4 for quite some time now but I thought the concepts are the same and most of the controls remain or have been improved. It wasn’t very expensive so I took a shot on it.
The plans for my day off fell through so I spent the day reading. Wow! I feel like I have just been playing with the software. So much functionality I didn’t know about. I learned better ways to accomplish my processing at every step, from organization/importing, developing and even exporting. I’m thinking now I need to get the Lightroom 4 book so I don’t miss any of the new features!
This is the first image processed with some of what I learned. You might not see a difference but trust me, it was a much better workflow…
Autumn Swan Song
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/3200s, 70mm, f/4, ISO 400
Front Row at the Show
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/125s, 200mm, f/8, ISO 800
MLCreations Photography 