Drummond Island Sunset

This is a photo taken from Drummond Island looking toward Detour Village.  

This is a good example that defines what HDR will do for an image.  In the original RAW image, the direct sunlight fools the camera optics.  Much of the photo is darker, especially the visible side of the cabin overhang and support on the right.

1/160 f/11
Aperture Priority
ISO 400
Focal Length 27mm
Focal Length (35mm) 40 mm

Software Updates

I upgraded my Elements from 10 to 13 and Perfect Photo Suite from 8 to 9.

I do like the PPS software.  Problem is I grew up on the Elements and it is a fall back when all else fails.  And Elements still will not process 16 bit.

St. Joseph Light from Pier

In the summer, I've been out to the light.  All the way out.  In the winter?  Probably not.  But I could get out about half way from the shore.  It was very icy - but walkable.  (Note to self, get the cleats you can put on your shoes and keep them in the truck.)  There were some brave souls who made the walk - I just saw a lot of cold water at the end of the slide.

But I could get out close enough to the ice that had formed on the walkway structure.  The ice is certainly fun to photograph.

1/640 f/6.3

ISO 200

Focal Length 150mm

Focal Length (35mm) 225 mm

St. Joseph Light - January 2015

On all my previous trips to St. Joseph (all 2 of them), both lights were either iced or ice free.  This time - I really lucked out with half and half.  My favorite features are the definitions in the ice - and the structure colors of the rear light.  I'd like a bit more red in the building but much more than this really begins to look over saturated.  One of the interesting quirks of shooting around snow, is the camera gets fooled by the extra light - and the image comes out a bit darker.  And for me, that's OK.

1/640 f/6.3

ISO 200

Focal Length 150mm

Focal Length (35mm) 225 mm

St. Joseph South Light in Winter

I had to spend a week in Chicago for work this month.  As I'm not liking flying much anymore, driving to Chicago is very doable being around four hours to make the trip.  Driving to Chicago takes me past some of the lower Lake Michigan lighthouses.  One of my favorite locations is the St. Joseph lights.  This light is very distinctive and in winter can have a whole new personality.

This is a picture of the south navigation aid to the St. Joseph channel.  I really like the ice formations.  This photo was taken around noon.  And it wasn't that dark.  I like the final contrast change between the sky and the snow/ice.  One of the other nice features is the broken ice in the channel.  To me - screen saver quality!

1/640 f/6.3
ISO 200
Focal Length 170mm

Focal Length (35mm) 255 mm

Belle Isle Fishing Pier - Revisited

This has been an interesting journey.  In December of 2013 I was contacted by a local author who found my image of the Belle Isle Fishing pier interesting and wanted to use it on the over of his next book.  The page he found is: Here

The author who contacted me was Kevin Garrity from HammerHandle Press.  The book he was working on was titled Unclaimed Persons.  The book was centered in Detroit but had some connection to Belle Isle.  He went looking - and found my image.

We had some conversations for usage of the photo.  No monies were exchanged - but jacket cred was a must!  Everyone got what they wanted!

The book signing was on November 22, 2014.  Here is me with the Author.

Fun Experience.

Checking Out the Summer Shack

I has been very cold this winter.  These two seem to be checking on the spring accommodations and making sure the shack is intact.  Happens a lot in Michigan.  It was below zero outside when I shot this.  Amazing to me that flight conditions were not grounded.

I'm still looking for a solid workflow with LR5 and PS8.  In this shot I used LR5 first.  I dulled out the front of the house - as the sun was shining directly on it.  I also touched up the two birds a bit with a little bit of fill light and some contrast.  I finished up with a little overall HD from PS8.  I did the final re-sizing with PS8 - and I like what it did.

Some folks are lucky enough to shoot birds out of the neighborhood - I'll take what I can get.

1/250 f/5.30

Aperture Priority

ISO 400

Focal Length 112mm

Focal Length (35mm) 168 mm

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.....

Algoma (Essar) Steel II

This is the Algoma Steel area on the Canadian side of the Soo.  This is one of my favorite subjects to shoot when I'm in the area.  Lots going on in these photos.  And it always reminds me of the Pittsburgh days when I was a kid.  The original shot isn't nearly this dark, but I think any shot I do of a steel environment will be dark - because that is just the way I remember the J&L buildings.

I've been looking for a way to return the 'crispness' to my shots.  During the HDR processing, the shots will soften a bit.  Any attempts to reduce the halo will soften it even more.  I still like the processing, but I've always thought it could be better.

I've found a way to return some of the crispness without reintroducing the halo.

1/100 f/9
Aperture Priority
ISO 400
Focal length 38 mm (57 mm for 35mm film)

Lake Huron Rocks

Between St. Ignace and Detour Village there are a number of roadside parks where you can walk to the beach.  At one of the areas these rocks were just off shore.  The water is so clear - no polarizer needed to get at the rocks just under the surface.  The surface is so calm, but with definition.  The sky has some character as well.

1/500 f/14
Aperture Priority
ISO 400
Focal length 35 mm (52 mm for 35mm film)

Lake Reflection

As I look at Black and White variations of some photos, I am beginning to see many possibilities.  The colorized version of this photo is good, but this one is - well - really good.  and the print is even better!  This is sunset behind a small dammed lake on Drummond Island.  I took a number of 'real' HDR photos - and this is one of them.  Depending on the map used, this is either at the end of DAM or DAMIT road.  (I've noticed that most maps differ on the road naming conventions on the island.) 

1/30, 1/125, 1/8   f/8
Aperture Priority
ISO 400
Focal length 20 mm (30 mm for 35mm film)

Rock at the Mac

Going to the UP for the weekend.  And always have to stop in Mackinaw City.  And always have to take a shot or five of the MAC.  On our way up, the weather was just great.  And for a Michigan spring this is a real bonus!  I was walking along the shore to the bridge and saw this larger rock.  This was fairly easy to picture in my head.  When the light is there - it is easy.

1/640 f/14
Aperture Priority
ISO 400
Focal length 18 mm (24 mm for 35mm film)

Bottle Rocket

This is one of my fireworks photos from last summer of a bottle rocket taking to flight.  I like the silhouette of the (IC Lite Beer) bottle.  This was a fun project.  For fun, I did a B&W version.  That turned out really well.

Rt 381

Route 381 - through Rolling Rock Farms.  In fall, no place other place I'd rather be.  So I don't live there, but every fall it is worth the trip back.  This is a very neat piece of road - lots of line here.  The road, road paint, fence lines and trees are all very interesting.  When I first posted this shot, I liked with with more saturated colors.  I'm starting to dial back a bit of the saturation.  I'm still against a 'true' photo shot and lean more toward an 'enhanced' shot - but I'm moving a bit.  The one characteristic of this shot that isn't where I'd like it to be is the sky.  It is so flat, it is washing out part of the tree line.  Some time I will get back when it all falls (get it - fall) together.

1/60 f/5.6
Auto
ISO 200
Focal length 32 mm (48 mm for 35mm film)

Crisp Point Lighthouse - 2009

This is one of my favorites of Crisp Point.  The whole area is a great place to take photos, not only of the lighthouse but of all the natural landscape.  The area is not littered with lots of traffic - you just don't come across this place.  It is a destination.  And even with the best of directions, good luck.  A GPS helps.

In the foreground are the remains of a pier.  What stories this pier could tell! 

Now to the photo stuff.  This is one of the first photos I really had to THINK about what the final image would look like.  Depth of field is everything here - as well as the angle of the shot.  To say I was grounded would not be stretch of the imagination.  To a certain extent I was very lucky.  It was a mostly cloudy day and for about 30 minutes the sky cleared a bit to what is shown here.

1/400 f/10
Auto
ISO 200
Focal length 18 mm (27 mm for 35mm film)

Sailboat Row

This is another photo lost during the blog changes.  This one hangs over the home fireplace - I like it that much.  In the final days of February last year, we took a trip to the UP.  I wanted to see ICE.  And I was not disappointed.  We stopped in Mackinaw City on the way to the Soo.  It was snowing - so as with a lot of my winter shots there is no sky.  When we got up there all the worker's cars were gone from this area and this sight just got to me.  In one of the rare moments of thought process, I had enough focal length to keep the masts straight.  This time around, it was not a mistake.  A year ago - I took this with an AUTO setting.  These days, the set up would be much different.  And then again, maybe the numbers would be the same.  Great depth of field - that could have been a disaster as well.  All in all - a good AUTO shot.

1/250 f/8
AUTO
ISO 100
Focal length 35 mm (52 mm for 35mm film)

CSX Car

Way back when - before I started this the third blog - I had published this photo.  This photo was taken in August of 2008 while on the Somerset County Covered Bridge tour.  Between the Pack Saddle Bridge and the Baronville Bridge is an area where trains have to stop while waiting for another engine to arrive to help them up the next series of grades.  (I know this because I talked with the engineer of this train.)  In 2008 I wasn't sure of my photos - or what I was trying to tell with them.  Lucky I got this one!

This photo means a lot to me for a few reasons.  I am not a train person - but being that close to that much metal is pretty amazing.  I have a few train friends who are borderline fanatical about the subject and have turned their basements into shrines to prove it.  I can see why they are who they are.

One of the reasons I like this shot is the opening door on the front of the engine car.  It is very dark in there, yet I can pull out the interior well enough to read the stenciled message.  This is the first photo I worked with where I could get the trees along the track to look the way I liked them.  With this photo, I started to see photos differently.

The other reason I liked this shot is it taught me one of the first lessons about the subject of a photo setting.  I entered this shot as an after-thought in one of my club competitions and it scored well.  I was amazed - partially because the other shots I entered that I liked didn't do so well and this one did.  When were were talking about the shots after the judging, I found it it did well because there is no guessing what the subject is and the environment around it is nice, but not threatening.  I practice this when I can - but.........

This shot was taken with the camera on full auto - from settings to focus.  The most exciting science to this shot was I probably used a polarizer filter.  Now, I shoot most new shots with Aperture priority to control the depth of field and auto-focus off to better 'see' what I'm doing.  (All the other times, just point and shoot!)

1/200 f/5.6
Auto
ISO 125
Focal length 75 mm (112 mm for 35mm film)