Fireworks on the 4th

Posted on July 5, 2010 by admin

Fireworks in Albany

What else to do on July 4th except have a BBQ (great food from Alan & Sharon) and go to a fireworks display. The “big one” here is in downtown Albany on the Empire State Plaza. But is not so big anymore (woohoo).

We got a spot far away atop the “McCarty Ave Parking Lot Hill”. Too far away for good pics and with plenty of urban debris between me and the lights. Nevertheless, I did come away with a few usable images. This one is the best of the bunch and I had to use the fantastic Photoshop content aware fill feature to eliminate some of the light polls, electric wires, etc. The dark background helps, too.

This image was taken with the Canon 300 f4 L IS atop a tripod. Manual focusing and exposure – about f8 at 1/4 sec; remote trigger control.

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The Web (the micro version)

Posted on June 29, 2010 by admin

Spider and Web

This is a nice example of a macro shot of a spider in her (his?) web with the late afternoon sun capturing the orb and owner. Shot with the terrific Canon 100 2.8 F Macro on a tripod (of course).

This was a particularly difficult shot because a mild wind was blowing the web back and forth just enough to upset my careful focusing. Used the burst mode to taken a number of rapid-fire shots. This one and another were the best.

Notice the very shallow depth of field – the spider and the web in the same plane (right and left) are sharp while the rest of the web is not. Probably no more than a few millimeters of sharp focus in this shot.

BTW, I originally composed this photo as a color one but later thought it would look better in black and white. Taken on the Normans Kill East preserve trail (Delmar).

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B&W Landscape Technique

Posted on June 28, 2010 by admin

Bridge in the Woods

This image was made on a walk in the Normanskill preserve. The bridge provides an interesting feature in an otherwise cluttered terrain.

When I saw the bridge, I immediately knew I would convert the image into black and white – not as easy as it sounds. I used Adobe Lightroom 3 to do the conversion balancing the highlights and shadow detail.

I made sure that the bridge was the focal point of the image by both composition and manipulation of the black, white and gray tones. I added a vignette to keep the focus on the bridge.  The overall effect captured the late afternoon feel. Click on the photo to see a larger version.

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Urban Color

Posted on June 27, 2010 by admin

Freedom

Went to Stockbridge, MA and Great Barrington, MA on Father’s Day  (great time with Nicole, Brad and Helene)!

The area has lots of interesting “urban color” and this was an example. A brick wall with a chalk drawing. Note the interesting “the gifted child” in the window. Check out the Urban gallery for two others.

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Five Rivers Environmental Preserve

Posted on June 25, 2010 by admin

Took a walk on two of the trails at the Five Rivers Preserve in Delmar today. Great resource here locally with some nice places to take photos of local wildlife and flora.

Two different species of turtles are represented here – have not had a chance to id them (although I think the one at left is a “chicken turtle”.

I did take photos of a Cabbage White butterfly and an as yet unidentified dragonfly, plus a few nice wildflowers. I did spy a red-winged blackbird but the image was not good.

There are some good landscape opportunities here as well, but I will  have to come back when the light is “golden”.

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Glass Blowing

Posted on June 22, 2010 by admin

Glass Blower at the Corning Glass Museum

While in Binghamton, we went to the Corning Glass Museum. The last time I was there was in 1971 just before the big flood that wiped out the museum. This new one is beautiful and built up higher to avoid another catastrophe.

The glass blower is making a bowel. First he heats the glass in an oven (to the right and not shown) and then forms the item by blowing through the pipe.

This contrast and colors of this photo were enhanced by using the Photoshop plug-in called Topaz Adjust 4. Then in Photoshop I added a bit more color to the glass because it was washed out in the original. This an other images are not yet in the gallery – but check back because I intend to put them in there soon.

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Insects in Binghamton

Posted on June 20, 2010 by admin

We were in Binghamton, NY visiting the Felds this past week. While on walk I spied this critter feeding on some nectar. Taken with the Canon 300 f4 L IS handheld.

This is a Cabbage White – very common in the US. You can see another photo of him on my SmugMug gallery. Click on the image to see a larger version. This one is a female – there are two black spots on the wings (the male only has one).

Another note: I am now using Lightroom 3 to post-process. Aperture 3 is soo slow and buggy that I can not face using it until I try re-installing. However, now that I have been learning LR3, I may just switch over. Major likes: it is fast (to import images and to edit), great lens correction, noise reduction and CA correction, prints just as good as PS CS5, actually works with Topaz, good RAW develop engine (same as CS5). Aperture 3 is better at organization and the brush feature is implemented way better than LR.

So, will I change? That is the question now. I am using the trial version of LR3 so I have a couple of weeks to make up my mind. Stay tuned.

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Street Photography

Posted on June 13, 2010 by admin

No posts for a while. But here is a photo to illustrate some of my recent experiments with black and white interpretations for my street photos. This one was taken in the SoHo area of lower Manhattan. It is a grab shot of a women walking in front of a window display of two manikins. I like the position of the two models in the background with the women in the foreground.

Street grab shots taken with the Tamron 17-50 f2.8 – wide angle at waist level. Concept here is to catch subject in a very candid way – unlikely to know that a photo is being taken. Other shots in this group were taken with the same lens but at eye level.

The image was post-processed using Aperture 3. I converted it to black and white using the built-in pre-sets and fine tuning. A strong vignette was applied and I lightened the foreground subject using the filter brushes. A cool effect.

Go to the photo gallery at http://digitalkarl.smugmug.com/Black-and-White

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Back North w/the Canon 300 f4 L IS

Posted on May 24, 2010 by admin

Backyard Wildflower

Well I am back in Delmar two days and I couldn’t resist going out in the sunshine. Found a pot in the backyard that had sprouted a nice batch of wildflowers lit from the side by the late afternoon sun.

So, I set up the tripod with the Canon 40D and the Canon 300 f4 L IS lens and had some fun shooting these interesting flowers. As always, in RAW and post-processed by Aperture 3.

This is one example. The lens works great – sharp and puts a creamy background (bokeh) up which complements the flowers. Pretty isn’t it? Now if someone could let me know what flower it actually is, I would appreciate it 🙂

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Me vs Birds as Art

Posted on May 20, 2010 by admin

OK, I am in Florence, NC on the way north. But I couldn’t help posting about the Osprey photos on Art Morris’ blog, Birds as Art. His are great but most of mine are just as good IMHO. Go to http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/ and scroll down to “Osprey Heaven” Both our photos were taken at the same place – Middleton’s Fish Camp – probably the same birds! Compare with mine on my photo gallery, Ospreys: http://digitalkarl.smugmug.com/Birds/Ospreys-at-Blue-Cypress-Lake/12185018_cRzJr#867265806_d66QM

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