Winter Fence

Seems like the worst of weather provides the most interesting photo opportunities.  This is the neighbor's fence along our back yard.  Two days after the storm - and some snow - the clouds cleared and we had lots of great sunlight.  The temps remained (way) below freezing and there was no wind, so this came together very nicely.  I used some over sharpening here to bring out the reflected light in the snow and ice crystals.

1/500, 1/2000, 1/125

F/25

Aperture Priority

Focal Length 50 mm

35 mm Focal Length 75 mm

Write your own caption.....

 No electrical outage here.  The recent ice storm cause a lot of damage, some more obvious than others.  but of all the damage I saw today, this one was one I could laugh at.  This is at the Richland Park Disc Golf Course.  I was trying to get some good ice photos in the Richland park complex, but most of it was closed.  This one area was open and when I saw this, just couldn't help it.  There are no dead bodies in the crushed stall.

1/200, 1/800, 1/50

f/8

Aperture Priority

ISO 400

Focal Length 22 mm

(35 mm) Focal Length 33 mm

Bird House in Ice

We had ice storm last night - about half an inch on everything.  This is the home made birdhouse in the front of the house, just outside the office window.  I took a few photos of the trees and the chain link fence.

This is a three photo merge with On One post processing.  I have move from three photo merges to create HDR because the software has improved so much, but with Lightroom Plugin to Photomatix it makes the process a lot easier and quicker.  As to the On One (Perfect Suite 8) plug in to Lightroom - I have a bit more to learn.  It was much easier to get out of LR and then add the finishing touches with PS8.

1/60, 1/250, 1/1000
f/5.0
Aperture Priority
ISO 400
Focal length 70 mm

I'm Back!

Suffice to say I've been away for some time.  Writers would call it writers block, students would call it eternal spring break and I would call it a combination of the two.

Think I'm back.  Made some improvements on the hardware side.  Move to 64 bit platform - added some memory.  Moved to Lightroom 5 and On One for post processing - away from Adobe Elements and Topaz.

I'm really PO'd at Adobe Elements because their lack of customer appreciation.  To upgrade is to buy a new version for full price.  I'm on 4th upgrade - having to pay full each time.  Enough of that stuff.  Topaz was collateral damage there as well, but my On One package was roughly half the cost of the Topaz package.

I've upgraded to Photomatix 5.  I'm still a big fan of HDR but there are now better ways to get the effect without the halo.  The HDR soft folks are really good - great upgrade plans and are not trying to pry you from your last cent.  I've found their upgrade policies very friendly.

It's good to be back.....