Silent Sunday
Old Erie Canal Park, DeWitt
End of the Line
Tag Archives: landscape
Bellamy Lights
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!
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
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.
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?
Surf Dreamin’
Cocoa Beach Pier, Florida
Not only should you be looking at your ‘keepers’ but the less than perfect images are learning experiences as well. And sometimes the oops or ah, crap images are avenues for creative outlets. I never throw away an image until after a long consideration and inspection.
This image is the result of me not paying attention! I was focused on getting the shot and neglected to watch as the surf was coming further up the beach. This five second exposure was almost done when a big wave came crashing towards me. I grabbed the tripod and tried to out run the water. One soaked foot later and an image interrupted I learned to keep one eye out on the water.
But the same principal applies to this image as does an image with car lights. The main exposure was almost set (a little underexposed) and the only points tracked during my grab and go are the intense lights. To me it looks as if I tried to do light painting around the pier area. The surf is smooth light I wanted. The clouds are exposed to my liking and the pier stands out as it should.
Because of the movement in the last 20% of the exposure there was a natural softness to the image. I was able to recover most of the detail in the pier but in the end I went with a soft and dreamy look to enhance how I felt about the image. And yes, I am dreaming about my next trip to Florida! LOL
Delta Day
Delta Lake State Park
The new year started out fairly routine. Heck, if I am being honest it was boring from the very start. I’m not much for parties so I believe I was asleep by 11:15pm on New Year’s Eve.
Hey, no comments from you in the back!
I enjoyed my night. I watched a good portion of the second season for The Man in the High Castle. The book was interesting but the series on Amazon Prime is very good. I could have watched all ten episodes and then I would have surely been up past midnight, but I promised myself I would at least make an attempt to make the show last a few days. It worked a little… 😉
Anyway, back to the first day of the new year. Grocery day! I was up close to my normal time. Shoveled the driveway. Got my cup of coffee and sat down at the computer to post my Year in Review blog article. I had spent most of the previous day writing it. I didn’t make any official resolutions for the new year, they never work out so why set myself up for the guilt. But I did have a few things on my mind concerning my photography journey and used the time before grocery shopping to investigate.
I wasn’t too hopeful for how the day would turn out with the weather, it was a rather blah morning. By early afternoon I realized it was turning into a day I should be outside enjoying. Although it was tough dragging myself off the couch, where I was enjoying a good book in the warmth of the sun coming though the window, I put on my coat and headed outside. Wow, it was a gorgeous day!
First up, shovel the dusting of new snow off the driveway. With the sun beating down and the temps slightly over freezing any of the packed snow would begin to melt if I cleared away the covering. I then took a trip over to town in search of snowshoes. I’m thinking snowshoes would give me more chances to explore this winter and I know I could use the exercise! The one sporting goods store was closed, but a return is on my agenda for today. If you do not hear from me again it is because I fell over while exploring with my snowshoes and couldn’t get up!
I walked up and down my road grabbing a few pics with my phone. I had upgraded a few months ago to the new Google Pixel phone. Although I am reading of issues other users have been having I am quite happy with the phone. The camera is better than any of the previous phones I have owned and it is always fun for me to capture an image, process it with my phone apps and immediately post online. Here is one of the images I managed to find yesterday:
As sunset approached I packed up my camera gear and headed to Delta Lake State Park. I wasn’t sure what I would find but I knew there would be other people out enjoying the day and I thought they could add some interest to any images I capture. The park did not disappoint. We had ice fishermen, cross-country skiers, snowshoers and some people out to enjoy the coming sunset. I had a good hour to explore and enjoy the ending of the day. I came home with a plethora of images to share. And rather then drip feed them to everyone, which only encourages me to not go look for more images, I am bringing them all to you in this post.
This collection highlights what is possible to capture if you look around and are not afraid to experiment. All these images were captured within an hour time frame, yet there are so many different looks and feels. Each image changes the environment I was in. Use a faster shutter speed and you can darken a bright day. Convert an image to monochrome and you can highlight the shadows that play across the snow. Point your camera into the sun and create sun flare to enhance an image.
I will attempt to create posts that include more thought. Last year I took the easy way out most of the time and only posted an image. I think that cheapens your experience of what I created. I can enjoy a beautiful picture but I connect with the image more when I know some of the story behind it. Maybe my stories will connect with you… 🙂
Pier Lights – Three Ways
Riverside Park, Indialantic, FL
I mentioned in a previous post that my daughter and I went out before sunrise on our last day in Florida. She had wanted to go to the beach and I, of course, wanted more pictures. Our first stop was at Riverside Park. I love going to this park, especially around sunrise or sunset time. The park has a great pier jutting out into the Indian River. I can see the 192 Causeway into Melbourne. And there are a lot of places for me to setup my tripod. 🙂
This particular image I was trying to use the lights along the causeway to mimic the outline of the pier. It also has quite a few of the elements I enjoy photographing. It was before sunrise so I would need a long exposure (20 seconds). There are light reflections as well as a silhouette of the pier. I can easily say this is one of my go to places whenever I am in the Melbourne/Palm Bay area.
My indecision comes in with the processing I wanted to apply to this image. I like the color image. I have the contrasting yellow lights with the blue tinted water and sky. There are a few other splashes of color from various light reflections. And there is a soft blending of the magentas with the blues and yellows in the sky and water. While processing this image there is a step where I adjust the sharpness which is done in B&W. The program automatically switches to allow me to see the detail better. I thought that image looked nice as well.
So I applied my normal B&W processing using Topaz Lab’s B&W Effects. This is the second image which I used a cool tone treatment. And I guess I was in an exploring mood I also processed the image using Nik Collections Silver Efex Pro. I was going to a bluer look for the image and this software had better options for me. This would be the third image.
I like them all. I know I am suppose to have a clear idea in my head of the image I want to make but sometimes playing with an image is fun too. Experimentation is what keeps me interested. I want to see what other types of images I can create. I want to push myself into different areas. Granted, I didn’t push to far, but I played and I learned.
Pier Lights
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 20s, 28mm, f/11, ISO 800
Pier Lights – Cool
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 20s, 28mm, f/11, ISO 800
Pier Lights – Blue
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 20s, 28mm, f/11, ISO 800
Life at the Pier
Melbourne Beach Pier
Life at the Pier
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/250s, 31mm, f/16, ISO 200
Out for the View
Melbourne Beach, Indialantic, FL
On the last morning of our vacation I headed out toward the beach with my daughter in tow to grab some early morning and sunrise images. She had wanted to go to the beach but we had been so busy getting ready for Christmas and running around we never made it over previously. My first stop was at Riverside Park which is on the Indian River side of Indialantic. I love grabbing images of the pier at the park with the 192 Causeway in the background. That image is coming so I’ll warn everyone now… LOL.
With 30 minutes to go before the official sunrise we headed over to the beach to grab some of the pre-dawn colors. I was not disappointed! People were starting to gather on the beach to watch the morning show and I also found there were a lot of birds on the shore waiting as well. Before I ventured to far on to the beach I grabbed this silhouetted image of people waiting. There is something interesting about the silhouettes against the morning colors that has me shutter happy!
Out for the View
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 0.6s, 35mm, f/11, ISO 200
MLCreations Photography 