photography

Winter Walk at Gully Brook Park

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When I turned in Saturday night there was a light rain with temperatures hovering just above freezing. When I woke up, everything was covered in a beautiful fluffy white blanket of snow. The sky was overcast, but there was no wind, not even a breeze. After breakfast I headed over to one of my favorite parks to get some pictures of the snow covered trees, before the snow melted or blew off the branches. 

I've been experimenting with black and white images, and I really like the way they turn out in the snowy scenes. Three photos in this set were converted to black and white. 

DIY Studio

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After watching Andrew Scrivani on Creative Live, teach Tabletop Photography, I decided to work on my little "studio" in the basement. Andrew talked about ways to use inexpensive items to create lighting setups for tabletop and still life photography. Although I didn't follow the instructions exactly, I did start piecing together a setup. My first shoot was a small still life with a dashboard hula girl. 

The setup

The setup

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Fire

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The fire was beautiful and warm. Playing around in Lightroom, I worked the image for a realistic version, then tried a second version in black & white the gives it a very abstract look.

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abstract

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Snowflakes

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Walking into the house last night I noticed a lot of sparkle coming from the snow on the shrubs by the door. I was able to make out some small snowflakes on top of the snow that has turned into blobs. I pulled out my macro lens and tripod and began shooting. Here's the best result of the shots. 

I've been waiting for the weather to cooperate to shoot the large intricate snowflakes with the macro lens. Conditions haven't been right yet for that. 

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Winter Walk

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New Year's Day I woke up to a heavy snowfall. After fussing around the house and snowblowing the driveway, I grabbed me gear and headed over to the Lake Metro Parks Chair Factory Falls. There had only been a couple people there throughout the day (based on the footprints in the snow). The snow that collected on fences and trees had remained undisturbed. The hike down the hill to the falls was a little slick, but manageable.  The falls were partially frozen.

With all the white snow, and lack of color, aside from some evergreens, I decided to convert the files to black and white. Earlier in the week my friend, Andrea, posted a fun art related project for her friends on Facebook. Anyone who wanted to participate was assigned an artist to research and find an interesting photograph of there work. I was assigned Ansel Adams who is known for his iconic black and white landscape photographs. I would say this definitely inspired me to look for or create an opportunity to shoot in black and white. 

 

Lake Erie Bluffs

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Last week I visited Lake Metroparks Lake Erie Bluffs park. I was treated to the most beautiful sunset I have seen on Lake Erie. The weather was not the most pleasant - it was windy, rained, and hailed. At one point the waves crashed over my feet. In another incident, my camera fell over and fortunately was unharmed. 

I took several photos of the sunset which I cleaned up in post-processing. I also processed a few "artistic" images. Two of the photos utilize long-exposure panning. The other uses Lightroom plug-ins to oversaturate.  

Sweet Suite

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Last post from the SMPS Conference in Orlando. The final night of the conference, the national president hosted a small party in his suite at the hotel. This was the presidential suite, provided by the hotel to those hosting a conference. It was a wonderful, fun evening filled with friendly and talented people. Several of the musically inclined begin to sing and I was able to capture a few shots with my iPhone. This photoset was post-processed in Lightroom. 

Epcot Center Fireworks

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Playing catch-up. These shots were taken a couple weeks ago at Epcot Center. We were located in Italy with a great view. This is my second attempt at Fireworks this year.  

Epcot Center

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This year's Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) Build Business national conference was held at the Swan and Dolphin Resort at Disney World. The resort backed up on Epcot Center and Friday night was a social event with a private reception for us in Italy.  

I had a couple hours before to the reception, so I did a short photowalk with my friend, Ted. I got a few shots in before Ted arrived. Once Ted got there, we started walking and spent some time in Morocco. With the park open, there were too many people to get nice expansive shots, so we focused on details. Epcot is amazing in the construction details - Morocco in particular had fantastic tile work and sculptural qualities in the buildings and decorations.

After Morocco, we moved on to Japan, which didn't have the same amount of interesting sites. We had to cut our time short in Japan to move over to Italy for the reception and the fireworks show (next post) 

Fairport Harbor Triathlon

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Today was the annual sprint triathlon in Fairport Harbor, organized by the Lake Metroparks.  It was a beautiful day for the race - sunshine, 70 degrees, and slight breeze.  Over 400 people participated in the race.  I gave up racing a few years back, but several of my friends still compete, so I go to support and take pictures.

This year I tried some techniques that I have not used previously. Before things got busy I took a few shots of the staging areas using my wide-angle lens. For the race, I switched to my telephoto lens. I wanted to give it a try. The telephoto would allow me to get back far enough and provide some interesting depth of field.  

For processing I wanted to get away from my standards. I used Matt Kloskowski's desaturated sports photos presets for Lightroom. I photographed several of my friends while they were racing, but the photos of my friend and neighbor, Brent, turned out the best. 

I did learn a few things from looking at my photos. I don't spend enough time or make the effort to find the best angle for a shot. For example, the third picture of the kayaks with the pennants should have been turned slightly to get the sun positioned better between the flags. The tight shot of the kayak is not one I would normally publish, but for learning purposes, I could have shot a more interesting part of the kayak. And in the running and cycling pictures, I didn't have the best angle, which caused some feet to be cut off or distracting objects in the shot. Overall I'm happy with my first attempt, but it takes a lot of practice to get through all the little details. 

Old Building

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Here's a post I missed a few weeks back.  I was at a hardware store that I don't usually go to and there was this cool old building next door. It's not the perfect time of day for this shot, but it was a scouting exercise.  

This photo was shot on the iPhone and followed with some post-processing in Lightroom. 

Pickle Bills

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Pickle Bills is a local restaurant on the Grand River in Northeast Ohio.   It's known as a lobster house, but has a menu with quite a variety of choices. The decor is very eclectic, with a heavy influence from the sea.  I had dinner there on Thursday, and used the camera I had with me, my iPhone and the Camera+ app. I was really happy with the results.

 

 

Ship in the Grand River

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I was headed out to Headland Beach State Park this evening to hike out to the lighthouse. On the way I drove by the river and noticed a large cargo ship on the river. There happened to be a parking lot on the Fairport side of the river.  It was too early to photograph the ship, so I decided to stop on my way back from the beach.  

When I returned the sky was changing colors, just a bit, but gave a nice backdrop for the ship.  

This shot is a 3 exposure HDR using Lightroom and Photomatix. 

 

Cargo Ship on the Grand River

Lighthouse from a New Location

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The Fairport Harbor Lighthouse at Headlands Beach sits on jetty along the west side of the Grand River. From Fairport Beach the lighthouse is only accessible by boat. From Headlands Beach, you can hike to it.  This photo was taken from the walkway south of the lighthouse along the jetty. Using a neutral density filter I was able to smooth the water. The sky didn't have much happening, but after post-processing it looks a bit like a water color.

What's most exciting for me is this location provides a nice composition that isn't shown much. This photo was taken in a scouting hike, looking for new locations. I know what to do now, so I can be better prepared the next time the sky cooperates. 

Headlands Lighthouse