Mother & Son

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Day Lily, Water Lens- Today's Flowers

Daylily through a drop of water, Worthington Ohio, July 20th, 2009.

This is my contribution to "Today's Flowers" #50.

Tom

The "North" Woods- Sky Watch Friday

My first attempt at any type of serious digital astrophotography. The RAW file had a ton of noise, which I removed using Canon Digital Photo Professional. This is a manually focused, twenty-two minute exposure. When we go back to Maine in less than a week, I hope to perfect my technique- The clouds on the right were lit by the neighbor's home, about one-half mile down the road.

Tom

My first SkyWatch Friday post in quite some time.

Megan's Headshot- Strobist Boot Camp

I've been following the strobist blog for quite some time now. And late last winter, I purchased a lightstand, umbrella, flash swivel mount, and some Cactus V2 triggers to get my camera off flash. I really hadn't done much with the setup, and I had really wanted to start shooting people. Strobist's recent boot camp series got me off my duff. The assignment was to do a head shot of someone you know, and have them take a picture of you using the same setup. Not enough time for a picture of me, but I'm really happy how this image of Megan turned out.

Vivitar 285hv, camera left, shoot through umbrella, fill bounced off wall. Background darkened in photoshop, area around Megan left light for emphasis.

Tom

Catawba Nights

Looking out towards Catawba Island, the cars poor inland.

Compositionally speaking, I may have tried to put a little too much in the frame here, but boy are these fun photographs to take. This is a thirty second time exposure using only available light.

The non-native invasive grass, Phragmites australis subspecies australis is present in the foreground.

Tom

Two Fishers, One Great Lake

Dawn at the Marblehead Peninsula, Lake Erie, Ohio. I talked to these two men- they were casting with heavy floats far out into the water, catching freshwater drum, or sheepshead, and also yellow perch. They reeled in a few fish while I was here, but they said that, in the past, they have caught fish with every cast.

Sunset at the Dock

When I use HDR, I try not to give everything away. Having some blacks, some shadowy areas, make the image more realistic. I am doing an HDR, though, and I went all out on this sky. I'm hoping one day, camera sensors themselves will be able to handle this much dynamic range.