Donna was always good to us. Darlene has always been good to us too. So when Darlene mentioned that she receiving an award this spring, I offered to take her portrait for the brochure. This time, when she needed a new photo of the now-renovated diner to put on her menu, she felt comfortable asking; I was interested in exploring what I could do. Yesterday morning, Austin and I went to the diner a little earlier than usual, so that I could setup the tripod. I already knew what composition I was going to use. As a stand-alone photo, I preferred a wide-angle composition from the nearest sidewalk, but it required a landscape orientation. The menu required a square or portrait orientation, so this was the best that the scene could offer. I captured my base exposure and immediately realized that I probably should have tried to arrive even earlier, […]
The forecast looked promising – Light winds up to 10 mph with light clouds … I was going to the eastern side of the conservancy to see if I could capture images of wildlife (or slow to wake insects with my macro-lens). Or so I thought. When I arrived, the clouds were a bit thicker than I expected, and the light was very, very flat. Undeterred, I proceeded toward the trails, but for only a brief time. The mosquitoes were horrific. They were as bad as I have ever experienced: 8-10 of them swarming around me as a I walked; usually they are only a problem when standing still for a bit of time, not when I am moving. So I went back to the car, donned my mosquito net, sprayed my neck and the tops of hands with bug spray, and forayed back into the swamp. I was now […]
I know the limits of my equipment, but I was going to do it anyway. The milky way on a weekday night in CNY with a 35mm equivalent lens on a micro 4/3 sensor … I wasn’t sure if it was too big an ask. I can’t get find ultra dark skies; there is light pollution anywhere within a 30 minute drive from my home (and I had to work the next morning), 35mm is kinda narrow for night skies and requires a shorter exposure to keep the stars sharp while while the sensor size is already limiting the amount of light available to create my images. But still … the skies were going to be clear and I had scouted a location with an unobstructed view; I could find something with foreground on in the future, when I was confident that I could figure out how to capture and […]
To be fair, it wasn’t raining and I wasn’t really expecting good light. I just wanted to get out with the camera. I know that the opportunities do present as frequently as I’d like them to and (after separating from my previous employer this month) I won’t have as many chances to get out with my camera during the summer months by virtue of needing to dedicate a few months to orientation and showing my new employer that they made a good hire. So I went for a walk at Green Lakes, walking around each, slowly looking for shapes and contrast that might lend itself to purposeful blurs or intentional camera movement. I was only experimenting while trying to avoid having to use filters (not that I didn’t have them, I just didn’t want to deal with the inconvenience), so many of the images I captured were at f22, and […]
I brought my camera with me, but left the tripod at home. My intentions were to go up and down the steps five times, for exercise. The camera would give me a chance to do something I’ve done dozens of times before: capture an image of Chittenango Falls. The hope was that bringing it with me would make the stairs a little more tolerable and less boring. This time I decided to zoom in a bit and frame the falls in the trees: https://www.flickr.com/photos/65688322@N03/48280321067 It isn’t my favorite image ever; I still prefer this black and white from a couple of years ago: I got bored of the hike after the 4th time walking up the stairs and calling it quits. I was the only person there, it was peaceful, and the sound of the water was a welcome reprieve … but if I stayed for that 5th time up/down […]
I knew that there wouldn’t be a sunrise this morning – it wasn’t in the forecast. But there would be good morning light, so I awoke at 0400 to get to Highland Forest by 0445, approx 35 minutes before sunrise. I figured that would give me adequate time to hike a couple of miles to the east rim of the park, where the best light should be. The sun climbed above the horizon as expected, without much fanfare. I bracketed an image, just to practice, but it was quite breezy, so the images (especially after a merge) will not be sharp. This image is a desaturated not to contrasty HDR, but I’ll do another in photoshop with luminosity masks as well (eventually … again, just for practice. The rest of the morning was spent looking for dappled light and subjects of interest, which was mostly a bust, but I didn’t […]
Christine asked me for a favor, which – when it is such a favor coming from one’s wife – means that you are being kindly told to do something. You see, Christine is a triathlon enthusiast and has a loyal coach who was hosting a local event recently. Her coach was in a bind: the local photographer who usually photographed he events had to drop out unexpectedly. Having seen my images of Christine in the past, the coach asked Christine if I would consider filling in for her, and Christine said that she would ask me. This all translates to me being volun-told, I think. This was not in my comfort zone at all. I needed to get a ‘hit’ with nearly every shot; people wanted to be able to see themselves getting out of the water and crossing the finish line. There could be no second takes. And these […]
Austin approached me last week while I was working in the office and said, “Hey, Dad … do you think you could take me out photographing sometime soon?” Absolutely. Tonight, Victoria had Tae Kwon Do, so I took Austin with me to try to photograph the herons in a nearby conservatory. Our hike started simple enough, but we quickly discovered that the trail was going to be slow-going. Most of the trail was sopping wet – and once we arrived to the trail that would offer a glimpse of the herons, it was closed. I tried to emphasize how nice it was to be out. How neat it was to see the herons flying in the distance, even if we weren’t taking pictures of them from up close. How it helps to get practice with the camera now to that it is easier to use in the future. I don’t […]
I went out for an afternoon hike with Christine today – we went out to Pratt’s Falls County Park. I’ve photographed the falls on a few occasions, and there was nothing that I saw that inspired me to photograph them again. Actually, there wasn’t much of anything that was inspiring. The snow has melted, but there is only the faintest hint of green anywhere, mostly just the areas of mowed grass. Otherwise, everything was brown. On the way to pick up the kids from my parent’s house, we briefly stopped at the Lorenzo mansion in Cazenovia to walk the grounds. While I had been complaining about mid-day light while walking near the falls, the light was to my advantage here. As I was walking behind the house, I saw this scene: I wasn’t sure if it was too tall or not, but I was going to try to frame that […]