My Travels

Philly Skyline at Night

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:41:25 -0400

On Saturday, I had to pick up my daughter at the Philly Airport around 10:45 pm so I used to opportunity to shoot the Philly Skyline at night from the Camden side of the river. I have a shot of the skyline taken from the Ben Franklin bridge walkway early in the morning and have been wanting to get the night image as well.

This image is a 3-shot HDR image with shutter speeds ranging from 6 to 20 seconds using my Nikor 24-70mm lens at f/8 and 48mm. The image was processed with NIK Software’s new HDR Efex Pro plug-in soon to be released. I used one of the presets and added control points on the orange part of the sky to boost the saturation and structure slightly. No further post-processing was required. HDR Efex Pro should be shipping in October. Should you be interested, there is a link and discount code on the right side of my main blog page. So far, I really like what I have seen. The plug-in will give Photomatix a lot of competition for HDR processing.

I will be showcasing and demonstrating HDR Efex Pro in my HDR classes starting in late September at the Chester County Art Association and the Chester County Night School.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Watkins Glen, NY

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:22:13 -0400

On Thursday of last week, Ed Heaton and I drove to Watkins Glen, NY for 3 days of camping and photography. We shot waterfalls in Watkins Glen and all points between Watkins Glen and Ithaca, NY about 25 miles away. Watkins Glen and Ithaca are both located on the southern end of Seneca and Cayuga lakes, 2 of the larger finger lakes south of Lake Ontario. Watkins Glen State Park includes a gorge about 1.5 miles long near the center of the town. There are some 15 waterfalls of various size located along the gorge. The blog image is a 5-shot HDR of Lucifer falls, located along the Enfield gorge in Robert H Treman State Park, just south of Ithaca. This image was captured on Saturday morning with nice sunny weather. Our initial venture into this park on Thursday morning in the rain got us a little wet and we turned back before getting to this falls. Overall, the weather was warmer and more humid than forecast, but we survived and had a really good time. Click here for a gallery of images from the trip.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Longwood Gardens

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:31:50 -0400

On Thursday, a small group from Chester County Camera Club met at Longwood Gardens abourt 5:30 pm to photograph the water lilies. The lighting was not very good and I was totally uninspired until later in the evening. However, the socalizing was good. After sunset the lighting on the buildings and ponds became more of a factor. The blog image is an HDR image captured around 8:45 pm. Post-processing was done with Aperture. Click here for a small gallery from the evening, most captured after 7:30 pm. These images are quite different from those captured on Tuesday morning in the rain.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Longwood Gardens

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:49:18 -0400

On Tuesday, I sent to Longwood Gardens with the intent to shoot the water lilies under an overcast sky. Instead, it started raining lightly, so I pulled out my umbrella and shot in the rain. As you can see from the blog image, the flowers were drenched with rain drops. This image was processed using Aperture and Viveza. Click here for a small gallery from the morning.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Kenilworth Gardens

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:17:53 -0400

Yesterday and today I was back in Washington helping my oldest daughter and planned an early Saturday morning shoot at Kenilworth Gardens, not realizing that rain was in the forecast. When I got up about 5:30 am, it was raining but I decided to drive to the gardens in hopes that the rain would stop. Although it let up somewhat for a little while, I wound up shooting with an umbrella for about 2 hours. As you can see from the blog image, the lotus had rain drops all over them. With the overcast skies the light was rather diffuse and it was quite easy to get good exposures. Click here for a small gallery. All of these images were processed using Aperture and Viveza 2.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

July 4 Fireworks

Mon, 5 Jul 2010 16:58:20 -0400

This weekend, my wife and I celebrated our Nation’s Birthday in Washington with our oldest daughter. On Sunday evening I travelled to the Iowa Jima Memorial, which provides a great viewing location for the July 4 fireworks. As you can see from the blog image, this position lines up the Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument and Capital, providing a great sense of place the the fireworks photos. I was shooting with a Sigma 70-200 mm lens with 2x converter at 210mm and shutter speed of 1/6 second. I found that leaving the shutter open any longer over exposed too much. I experimented with leaving the shutter open and covering the lens with my hat, but that too overexposed the images.

In april, I posted a similar photo from this position, but without the fireworks.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Valley Forge Naional Historic Park

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:34:01 -0400

On Sunday morning, a group from the Chester County Camera Club (Ed Heaton, Betsy Barron, Mary Brooks Brown, Wayne Kressley, Beth Christman and I) met at Valley Forge park for sunrise shooting. Unfortunately, the slightly overcast skies covered much of the sunrise. Discussions at breakfast afterward were the highlight of the morning. The blog image is an HDR Pano (3 shots at each of 5 positions) created in front of the Chappel. Click here for a small gallery of photos from Valley Forge.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Acadia National Park

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 17:19:46 -0400

I spent the nights of May 27 thru May 31 tent camping in Acadia National Park and getting up early every morning to catch the early light. The weather was really nice with rain one night (really great sleeping) and the following morning. Otherwise, it was sunny or slightly overcast the rest of the time. I was a little disappointed that there was no fog, since I was looking forward to shooting on some of the bays in the fog.

The blog image is an HDR pano shot from the dock in Bar Harbor. While it is not a really great compositiion, I wanted to give a plug for “content-aware” fill in Photoshop CS5. If you have shot panoramas, you normally have to crop the image to square it up or spend an inordinate amount of time trying to fill in the corners. The blog image has not been cropped at all. I used the content-aware fill to fill in the corners of the image and, as you can see, was to do an excellent job with it.

I had intended to spend another day in the park, but rain was forecast for much of the day and I did not like the idea of putting up a wet tent. On the morning of June 1, it started to rain about 5 minutes after I packed up my tent. On the drive home I encountered some pretty hard rain at times. I did stop along the way way in Port Elizabeth and York Beach to photograph 2 additional lighthouses. Click here for a small gallery of photos from the trip.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Photography Name Project - JustBob Heptycht

Mon, 24 May 2010 09:41:04 -0400

Mary Brooks Brown, one of our Chester County Camera Club members, proposed a fun project aimed at photographing objects from street scenes, etc. that spell out our name. Several members, including JustBob, agreed to participate. On Saturday, Mary along with Pat Shorten and Anita Bowers got me off my rear to get this project done. We met in West Chester for some street photography aimed at completing our image capture. We spent about 3 hours, including waiting for rain to stop and coffee at Starbucks afterwards.

I learned more about Photoshop while producing the blog image and thought it might be appropriate to share a little about how I created it.

Each of the 7 images in the above heptycht was processed with Photoshop and Topaz ReMask to create a mask of the letter, allowing for blurring and/or curves adjustment on the letter and/or background. A long, black background layer was created for placement of all the images. The images were brought onto background layer by holding the “shift” key down when dragging to place the image on the background. A free transform was then applied to each image to adjust to the same vertical dimensions. Guides were added to the background to facilitate uniform image placement. Finally, the background size was adjusted to get the appropriate length.

Apple iPad and Photography

Fri, 14 May 2010 17:58:53 -0400

About 2 weeks ago I purchased an Apple 3G iPad. I waited for the 3G so that I could use it for wireless access on photo outings such as my upcoming camping trip to Acadia National Park. I have been having some trouble syncing it with my Portfolio albums in Aperture and have not blogged about it until today. The iPad uses iTunes to sync information from a MacIntosh. I assume with iTunes on a PC, it will sync similar information. On the Mac it will sync contacts, email, calendar entries & Safari bookmarks under the General Tab. Other tabs allow syncing data files for apps such as pdf files for a pdf reader, etc. as well as music, movies, etc. When syncing photos, you can choose, iPhoto, Aperture or file folders. One of my specific desires was to have my Portfolio on my iPad for marketing use. When I sync with Aperture, I see my entire project structure and have the ability to select which albums (portfolio in my case) to sync to the iPad. I was able to successfully use the iPad for that purpose today and the client was “wowed” with the image size and quality.

A word of warning! Syncing with Aperture requires that you have “correct” previews associated with images. It seems that all previews are not created equal. The previews generated when round-trip editing with Photoshop and various plug-ins was causing my syncing problem, discovered only after several discussions with iPad and Aperture support people within Apple. My selected albums were syncing only partially in some cases. Deleting and re-generating the previews within Aperture has essentially eliminated the problem.

To date, I have only used the Wi Fi capability through my wireless router and a couple of restaurants. I expect the enable the 3G when I go to Acadia near the end of May. There is no contract required for the 3G and it can be turned on and off as desired in 30-day increments at $15 for up to 250mb and $30 for unlimited.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

ESP - Red Barber Chair Re-visit

Tue, 4 May 2010 09:08:20 -0400

On Saturday, a group from the Chester County Camera Club held a club shoot at Eastern State Penitentiary. As coordinator for the group, I spent more time socializing and coaching than shooting. The blog image was my first attempt at using my new Lensbaby Composer. I have had the lens several days, but have not had a chance to use, other than some photos in my office.

Sometimes you capture an image and cannot improve on it no matter how hard you try. The barber chair converted to b&w except for the chair is such an image. However, the Lensbaby allowed a different look at the image as you can see on the right above. After getting more familiar with the Lensbaby Composer, I am going to take this shot again, trying to get a little more of the chair in focus.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Annapolis, Md

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:21:42 -0400

This is an additional followup to my post from Washington, DC during a shoot with Terri Lou Dantzler and Facebook friends. On our second day of shooting, we stated with sunrise on the city dock in Annapolis, Md and then shot street scenes on our way to the Naval Academy. The blog image is an HDR image taken at sunrise from the city dock. Click here for a small gallery.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

U.S. National Arboretum

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:13:26 -0400

This is an additional followup to my post from Washington, DC during a shoot with Terri Lou Dantzler and Facebook friends. After our morning shoot at the Franciscian Monastery we went to the U.S. National Arboretum. The blog image is of columns from the Nation’s Capital moved to the Arboretum site for tuture use. Click here for a small gallery.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Glen Echo Park

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:32:46 -0400

This is an additional followup to my post from Washington, DC during a shoot with Terri Lou Dantzler and Facebook friends. After our morning shoots at the Franciscian Monastery and U.S. National Arboretum, we went to Glen Echo Park, which is an old amusement park converted into an artist colonty. The blog image was taken on the merry go around, which has been fully restored. Click here for a small gallery.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Franciscian Monastery

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 08:41:02 -0400

This is a followup to my post from Washington, DC during a shoot with Terri Lou Dantzler and Facebook friends. On our first morning we visited the Franciscian Monastery in the northern part of DC. One could easily spend a full day photographing the gorgeous grounds and beautiful interior of the Monastery. The blog image was taken on the side of the Monastery framed in all of the beautiful blooms. Click here for a small gallery.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Washington, DC

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:58:22 -0400

I spent the day in Washington, DC shooting with faceBook friend Terri Lou Dantzler who had invited her facebook friends in the area to shoot with her during the week. John Barkley, Doreen Losasso, Nadia McIlhaney, Dan Sans and several others participated. We started at Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land then shot the U.S. National Arboretum before lunch at the Irish Inn at Glen Echo. After lunch we shot Echo Park. We had planned to shoot at Scott’s Run Nature Preserve, finishing up at the Iwo Jima memorial for sundown. After Echo park some were departing and the rest “pooped out” and decided to call it a day. I had been really looking forward to learning about the Iwo Jima location for a July 4th firewooks shoot, so I went anyway. The blog image was captured after sundown using my 70-200 mm Sigma lens with 2x converter attached. I used mirror-up as well as live view to refine the focus. I will update this entry to include a small gallery later, but wanted those “bailing out” today to see what they missed.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

DC Cherry Blossoms

Sun, 4 Apr 2010 22:52:33 -0400

This weekend, my wife and I drove to Washington to spend Easter with our oldest Daughter, who lives in Old Town. Naturally, I took my camera gear with hopes of shooting the cherry blossoms. I managed to spend a couple of hours at the tidal basin before church on Sunday morning. The blog image is a 5 shot HDR image captured a few minutes after sunrise. Some nice clouds helped to make the sky more interesting. Click here for a small gallery.

Beyond the great weather and sky, another highlight of the morning was a t-shirt worn by an elderly gentleman dressed in blue jeans. It read “I’m retired and this is the most dressed-up I get”. My sentiments, exactly.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Topaz Remask 2

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:37:30 -0400

I chose to highlight one of the images from my last trip to Longwood Gardens to discuss the capabilities of Topaz Labs Remask 2 plug-in, which I use from Photoshop CS4. Remask 2 provides a really easy way to create a mask to help facilitate elimination of background clutter from floral and other images. Obviously, you would like to shoot in a way that blurs the background, but that is not always possible in a location like Longwood where you cannot move the flowers, etc. The original image is shown below for comparison, followed by some further discussion.

I will not go into the details of creating the mask, since they are outlined in various tutorials on the Topaz Labs website. Once the mask was created, I then created a curves layer and applied the mask to it. A contrast adjustment in the curves layer applied only to the flower and stem, which were defined by the mask. I then created a 2nd curves layer, applied this same mask to it, and then inverted the mask so that it applied to all of the image except the flower and stem. For this 2nd curves layer I changed the blend mode from normal to multiply, which had the effect of darkening the background for the entire image. I then moved the right end of the curve down and the left end to the right to further darken the background. I also used control points in NIKs Viveza plug-in to brighten the yellow portion of the flower and to further darken the red flowers to the left side of the image. The final result is the final image shown at the top. Time spend on creating the final image was only 5 to 10 minutes.

Don’t forget to use the discount code on my main blog page for 15% off all Topaz and NIK products.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Longwood Gardens One More Time

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:36:11 -0400

On Monday, I went to Longwood Gardens to shoot the Blue Poppies again before they are gone. The blog image was captured usng a Sigma 70-200mm lens with 12mm extension tube to allow closer focusing. Post-processing was done with Aperture 3.0 and NIK’s Viveza 2 plug-in. Click here for a small gallery of additional images. Many of the gallery images were post-processed using Topaz Remask 2 and Photoshop curves to eliminate background clutter.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Longwood Gardens

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:32:39 -0500

On Wednesday of this week I went to Longwood Gardens with the specific intent of capturing some unusual floral images for display and sale in the vendor portion of a Newcomers Fashion Show, “Coming into Bloom”, in April. Not long after arriving, Tony Sweet and Sue came in. A little later Brenda Tharp came in with Steve Orr from Baltimore. Brenda was in the area for a presentation (which I missed) to the Baltimore Camera Club inroute to a shoot in Morocco. It was great meeting Brenda and Steve. I also got an opportunity to meet DVD producer Greg McKean, who was at Longwood to discuss an upcoming Flower Photography DVD that Tony is planning to shoot at Longwood. We shot until around 2:00 p.m., spent some talking further over lunch and then departed.

The blog image is a 2-exposure image captured in-camera with the 2nd exposure being slightly out of focus to provide a softer, more glowing look. Further work was done in photoshop to eliminate some of the distracting background. Click here for a small gallery of additional images captured, including some blue poppies.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Fonthill Museum - Revisit

Mon, 1 Mar 2010 16:35:53 -0500

On reviewing my images from Fonthill Museum shot with John Barclay, Tony Sweet, et al, I realized that I had not included the above image (left) in my post. Since that time, I have converted the image to b&w and thought I would post a comparison. The color image is a 9-shot HDR image post-processed with NIK’s tonal contrast filter and CS4. The b&w image on the right was converted using NIK’s Silver EFX Pro plug-in. I think I like the b&w best. What do you think?

As a reminder, there is a 15% discount code on my blog page for both Topaz and NIK plug-ins. Topaz has also just released Adjust 4.0 which is a free upgrade for existing users.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Hopewell Furnace

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:33:28 -0500

Last weekend, I participated in a Chester County Camera Club shoot at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. Ed Heaton and I actually arrived before the site opened in order to capture the really early light. The blog image is a 5-shot HDR image post-processed in Aperture 3. Click here for a small gallery, all HDR images post-processed in Aperture 3.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

February Snow

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:13:26 -0500

Dan Creighton, a member of our camera club, challenged some of us to capture am image from inside our house, looking out. The inclement weather we are currently having makes this a worthwhile challenge. The blog images are essentially the same scene, one captured on Sunday and the other captures this afternoon. From Sunday’s image you can see mine and my wife’s footprints from the evening before when we trudged through knee-deep snow to have dinner with our neighbors. Today’s image shows the almost white-out conditions from the wind blown snow. I tried to avoid the reflections, but a polarizer only made things worse shooting through the glass at such an angle. For these images I was looking out our living room window toward the neighbor’s house. The neighbors will have an even tougher time when they trudge through the snow for dinner with us this evening.

On a side note, all of the processing for these images was done using the new Aperture 3.0 which just started shipping.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Fonthill Museum

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 17:31:57 -0500

Last weekend I got together with friends John Barclay, Doug Dinkle, Tony Sweet, Don Rosenberger, Stan Silverman, Sara Howell, and Karen Messick to shoot Fonthill Castle in Doylestown, PA. Some of the participants drove up on Saturday during the snow and had a very long trip. John Barclay, who lives in the Doylestown area, has a special relationship with the museum staff and had arranged this trip. Interior photography is not allowed on the normal tours to Fonthill. This was my second trip to Fonthill and there are still things that I missed. Click here for a small gallery.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Philly at Night

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:21:54 -0500

Last Thursday evening I attended the ASMP photography exhibit, Focus Philadelphia, in support of photo buddy Ed Heaton. I really enjoyed the show and saw some really great photography. After the show several photo buddies from the Chester County Camera Club ventured out into the city for some night photography around Love Park and the South Street bridge near the Art Museum. The blog image is a 5-shot HDR image captured from a low position looking up at the Love sign. Post processing consisted mostly of contrast adjustment.

Click here for a small gallery of night images.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Hay Bales

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 09:37:46 -0500

When I started to the gym on Wednesday afternoon I saw all these wonderful clouds and went back home to get my camera. The blog image is a 5-shot HDR image taken in a hay field very near my home. The image was taken with a 14-24mm lens from a relatively low position to include more of the sky. Post-processing was done with NIKs Color EFX Pro and Viveza 2 filters. I have previously posted images from this same hay field under different sky and lighting conditions resulting in very different images. Click here for a fall post and here for a winter image with snow.

I eventually did go on to the gym, just a little later than planned.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2010

Happy New Year

Fri, 1 Jan 2010 09:17:28 -0500

I would like to start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year and to especially thank all of my photo buddies and those offering words of encouragement on my photography during the year. As I reflect on this past year, there have been several key events in my photographic journey, not the least of which was my retirement on June 1 after 43+ years with DuPont. Some of these events are:

• Posted 80 blog images and 56 blog galleries during the year. Click here for a gallery of blog images from 2009
• Continued my volunteer photography for the Delmarva Red Cross Chapter; Bibles, Books & Shovels Charity; and Rocky Run YMCA
• Participated in several area art shows
• My ‘Graffiti Underground’ image was the featured image at Oxford Art Alliance show in March and has become my ‘signature’ image
• Conducted an HDR workshop and lectured on HDR at both Chester County and Lansdale camera clubs
• Participated in an interview with Philly Creative Guide, featuring my HDR photography
• Taught HDR in Chester County Night School
• Lost my footing and drowned a Nikon D300 & lens, leading to a D700 full-frame upgrade as well as new, fast glass. Fortunately, I was not hurt.
• Sold several images
• Went on camping/photography trips to 3 state/national parks, 2 of these by myself
• Successfully juried for Immaculata Art Show to be held in May of 2010
• Purchased an Epson 3880 printer and have started printing my own images

Several key events already scheduled for 2010 can be seen at this link.

December 19 saw a record snow fall and we had snow again on December 31. I hope this is not reflective of what we might expect for early 2010, but it might make for some interesting photography. The blog image of Smith Bridge was captured after the record snow fall on Dec 19.

Holiday Greetings

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:46:56 -0500

I could not think of a better way to convey Season’s Greetings than including images from Longwood Gardens at Christmas. The blog image is the center of a Poinsettia with depth of field increased by capturing multiple images (9 in this case) and blending using Photoshop CS4’s “autoblend layers” command. Click here for a small gallery of additional images.

To all of those visiting my photo blog and offering words of encouragement, all of my photo buddies at Chester County Camera Club, and others I have met in various photographic activities during this year I hope you have a Happy Holiday Season.

JustBob

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Viveza 2.0

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:16:16 -0500

On Tuesday evening I received word from Nik Software that Viveza 2.0 was shipping. I immediately proceeded to download an upgraded version. The blog image (published previously in September when the grass was green) is a 5-shot HDR image captured Monday in a hay field very near my home. Post processing of the HDR image from Photomatix was all done in Viveza 2.0. New features of 2.0 include global adjustments, a structure adjustment, and the addition of curves as well os other refinements. And, of course the control point technology is still there and improved. You have to see it and work with it to believe how intuitive it is. Click here for a very small gallery of additional images processed with Viveza 2.0.

If you have wanted to purchase NIK filters, now is the time to buy. NIK is offering heavy discounts on the bundled package through midnight on December 31. You can obtain an additional 15% discount on individual filters or the bundle using the discount code on my main blog page.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Record December Snow

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:14:59 -0500

On Sunday the snow had stopped and it was time to dig out. The official snow fall in Philadelphia was ~ 23 inches. I am not sure if it was quite that much in Chadds Ford, but you can see from the blog image that it was quite a lot. The blog image of our house was captured from the driveway near the street. I used the metering on my D700 without any adjustments. The contrast of the image was the primary post processing provided. The path you see was to the top of our driveway where I had parked my wife’s car. Getting up our driveway when it snows is very tough with even light snow. Later in the day the driveway was plowed, but my Miata will likely be marooned to the garage for a few days. Click here for a small gallery of additional images in the neighborhood as well as the Brandywine river about 1 mile away.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

St. Michaels

Sun, 6 Dec 2009 11:21:25 -0500

During my recent visit to St. Michaels, MD to shoot the Concours d’Elegance fund raiser for the Red Cross, I spent some time on my own capturing images in the St. Michaels area. The blog image, a 3-shot HDR image, was captured on the riverfront in St. Michaels and further processed with Topaz Simplify. Click here for a small gallery of additional images. Several of the gallery images have also been further processed with both Topaz and NIK filters.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Smoky Mounty Mountain National Park - Waterfals

Sat, 5 Dec 2009 11:34:44 -0500

During my recent camping trip to the Smoky Mountains I captured images of several waterfalls. The blog image is of Rainbow Falls. As I was capturing images of the falls, fog was rolling in and within 10-15 minutes the falls were almost hidden. Needless to say, I did not see an rainbow. Click here for a small gallery of waterfall images captured. This gallery by no neans captures all the falls in the Smokies.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Smoky Mountain National Park - Fall Colors

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 09:21:03 -0500

During my recent camping trip to the Smoky Mountains the fall colors were at their peak. The blog image is an HDR Pano taken from Web Overlook. The pano is made up of 9 sections shot vertically with 3 HDR images for each section -- a total of 27 images. Further processing of the final pano was limited to contrast adjustment. Click here for a small gallery representative of the fall colors.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Smoky Mountain National Park - Tremont Area

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:19:07 -0500

It rained all night on my 4th night in the Smokies, but was the sleeping really good as the rain pelted my tent. The next day I went to the Tremont area with an overcast sky and occasional rain. The blog image is an HDR image captured on the stream in Tremont. The blog image as well as most of the images in this small gallery were captured while holding an umbrella to protect my gear. About mid-afternoon the rain was too much and I retreated to a dry spot in Gatlinburg and worked on photos.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

St. Michaels Concours d’elegance Photo Regognition

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 11:55:18 -0500

Sixteen of my photos from the Red Cross fund-raiser at St. Michaels Concours d’Elegance are featured in the photogallery on the St Michaels Concours d’Elegance web site along with appropriate credits and a link to additional photos on my web site.

Smoky Mountain National Park - Impressionist Reflections

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 15:21:07 -0500

During my 6 days in the Smoky Mountains I was constantly on the lookout for good stream reflections. It was raining or frequently overcast late in the day and I did not find any good reflections until my last afternoon in the park. The blog image was captured right in the stream running through Elkmont campground where I was camped. The image was further processed with NIK Filters.

Click here for a small gallery. The 1st five images were captured on the Roaring Fork Trail and the remainder were captured in the Elkmont Campground.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

2010 Immaculata Art Show Acceptance

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 15:15:25 -0500

On checking my mail after returning from the Smokies, I found a letter from Immaculata University inviting me to participate in the 2010 Art Show being held from May 8 through the 16th. The Immaculata show is one of the more prestigious in the area and I feel honored to have been accepted. The blog image of the Philly Skyline as seen from the Ben Franklin Bridge is but one of several that I used in the jurying process which was held in early October.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Smoky Mountain National Park

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:40:54 -0400

I have been camping in the Smokies since Friday and will be leaving around noon on Thursday. The colors here are at their peak. The blog image is a 5-shot HDR image captured on the road to Tremont. It was cold a couple of nights, but I was prepared. Last night it rained off and on all night. With the rain falling on my tent, sleeping was awesome. This morning was overcast and occasionally raining, but the photography was really great. Colors were popping as evidenced by the blog image. This afternoon the rain was just too heavy and I stopped shooting around 2:00 pm and retired to the lobby of the Gatlinburg Hilton to work on images. I will be posting additional images in the coming weeks.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Concours d'Elegance - Details

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:33:24 -0400

In preparing photos for our Chester County Camera Club monthly competition, I re-visited my images from the Red Cross Concours d’Elegance at St. Michaels, converting some of them to Black and White. The blog image is the hood ornament from a 1938 Delahaye roadster. The image was converted to B&W using NIK’s Silver Efx Pro and highlighted using NIK’s Color Efx Pro ‘Darken/Lighten Center’ filter. To put the hood ornament in perspective, the rest of the roadster is shown below:

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Concours d’Elegance in St. Michaels

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 22:13:41 -0400

During September 25 thru 27, I had the opportunity to shoot the Concours d’Elegance car show in St. Michaels, Md, a fund raising function for the Delmarva Chapter of the American Red Cross. This is the second year I have shot this event, which I have enjoyed very much. The show featured grand classic motor cars from 1909 - 1941. The blog image is a 1909 Maxwell , Model A, 30 HP, Runabout, owned by Peter Stifel in Easton, MD. The triptych below the blog image shows 3 close-up views of the Maxwell.

Click here for a gallery of images from the Friday night reception.
Click here for a gallery of images from the tour on Saturday.
Click here for a gallery of cars competing in the show on Sunday.
Click here for a gallery of images from the awards presentation on Sunday.
Click here for a gallery of general images captured on Sunday.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

CCCC Show at Chester County Art Association’s Exton Square Mall Studio

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:44:03 -0400

I am one of 14 photographers from the Chester County Camera Club who will be showing photography collections at the Exton Square Studio of the Chester County Art Association during October 3 through 14. The studio is open on Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday from 11am to 7pm.

Come join us for a Meet and Greet Reception on Saturday, October 3rd from 1 to 5 pm.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Hay Bales

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:00:47 -0400

Returning home late Monday afternoon I discovered this field of hay bales about 1/4 mile from my house. The sky was beginning to look interesting so I hurried home, got my camera and returned to the hay field. There was no particular order of the hay bales, so it was difficult to get a good pattern shot. Of the several images captured, the blog image represented the best combination of lighting on the hay bale and the lines generated by the clouds and the rows in the hay field. This image is a 5-shot HDR image captured with my Nikor 14-24 mm lens at 14mm and f/22 with shutter speeds ranging from 1/250 to 1/15 sec.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Bibles, Books & Shovels Golf Charity

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:09:04 -0400

On Wednesday, for the second year in a row, I had the privilege shooting a golf fund-raiser for Bibles, Books & Shovels, a missionary ministry which helps to provide funding for school children in Kenya. The outing was held at Newark, DE Country Club. Images from the fund-raiser will be used to help promote the charity. This year the ladies in one of the foursomes insisted that I take a swing or two while they took my picture. Although I no longer actively play golf, you can see from the blog image that much of my golf form is still there.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Sullivan Run, State Game Lands

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:21:04 -0400

On Monday, my wife and I visited our younger daughter in Shavertown, PA, not far from Wilkes-Barre, for a cookout. On Tuesday before returning home, I drove to Sullivan Run, which is just west of Ricketts’ Glen. Sullivan Run is accessed via a narrow dirt road about half a mile north of the entrance to Ricketts’ Glen -- you have to know where you are going to find it. I found info on Sullivan Run in the book, Pennsylvania Waterfalls. The blog image, Sullivan Falls, is a 5-shot HDR image using my Nikor 24-70 lens at 62mm with shutter speeds from 1.5 to 20 sec at f/16. With limited time I was not able to hike to the top of Sullivan Run to shoot more of the falls, which I would have liked.

Click here for a small gallery.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

French Creek - Unexpected Subject

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:54:09 -0400

Before going to Longwood Gardens on Sunday morning, I went to French Creek for sunrise and found an unexpected subject. The blog image is a white swan that has recently moved into the park. The image was taken at a low angle to include the color from the early morning sky and has been enhanced using Photoshop and NIK’s Silver Efex Pro. I used my Nikor 24-70mm lens at ISO800 to allow a shutter speed of 1/750 sec for this hand-held image.

Click here for a small gallery from French Creek.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Longwood Gardens - Harvest Design Competition

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 00:54:57 -0400

On Sunday morning I went to Longwood Gardens and found one of the main conservatory rooms filled with Harvest Design Competition displays. Photographs of the displays included so much detail that I found them not very interesting so I took some creative license. The blog image is a 5-shot HDR image of one of the displays which was processed in Topaz Simplify to give it the water color look you see. I believe this choice for post-processing provides a more appealing image.

Click here for a small gallery of other displays.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Shooting with Friends at ESP - B&W Revisit

Thu, 3 Sep 2009 12:46:12 -0400

When I posted this image last Thursday, I said that I would re-post in B&W as time permits. The blog image was converted from the original color image using one of the standard templates in NIK’s Silver Efex Pro and further processed using the Darken/Lighten Center filter in NIK’s Color Efex Pro. The original color version is shown below for easy comparison. The B&W version provides real drama.

If you are doing any B&W conversions, you should consider Silver Efex Pro. It really makes the conversion quite effortless. In fact, I use all the NIK filters quite a bit. My primary Blog page contains a discount code for 15% off any NIK software ordered through their web site referencing this code.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Urban Decay - ESP Revisit

Wed, 2 Sep 2009 19:36:57 -0400

The blog image is a black & white version of the triptych from Sunday’s post. The conversion was done with NIK’s Silver Efex Pro using one of their standard templates. The color on all three of the chairs was painted in using a layer mask. The before image is posted below for easy comparison. While I like both of the images, I think the black & white version above provides a little more drama.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Urban Decay - ESP

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:00:34 -0400

The above triptych is made up of images from both Eastern State Penitentiary and Forest Haven Asylum. The left and right images are barbers chairs at ESP and the middle image is a dentist chair at Forest Haven. All three reflect the general state of these facilities. I thought the contrast between the sites was interesting and the reason for adding the Forest Haven image.

Click here for a gallery of additional images from ESP.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009

Shooting with Friends at Eastern State Penitentiary

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:49:48 -0400

Tony Sweet invited me to shoot with a bunch of his friends (John Barclay, Mark Mindetto, Michael Leventhal, Don Rosenberger, Doug Dinkle & Sarah Howell) at ESP in some areas that the general public is not allow to go. The blog image is one of my favorites from the day. I like the contrast in color and texture. This is a 2-image HDR (5 shots each) which was processed using NIK’s Tonal Contrast filter. When I have a little more time, I want to convert this image to B&W as well.

I will post a gallery from ESP later.

Click here for Cumulative Blog Image Gallery for 2009