Martins Mill Bridge

I love to photograph covered bridges. It just makes good sense to find as many interesting angles of the bridge as you can. I walk the banks up and down the creek on both sides until I find the right place to plant a tripod. This Greencastle bridge was made in 1849. It is no longer in use and closed off to traffic. The early morning fog gives these images added appeal.

Sach's Bridge, Gettysburg

When I got to this bridge it was raining and getting dark quickly. I used my Nikon D3 with a 24-85mm at f-8, iso 200. I mounted the camera on a tripod so I could drag the shutter to pull in all the ambient light I could catch. I then used a micro fiber clothe to cover the lens and camera and also used it to clean rain water from the lens. I bracketed five exposures and merged them in Aurora HDR Pro and finished off the image in Photoshop CC.

Chambersburg Christmas Tree

Evening shot of the town square in Chambersburg, Pa. I used three -1 stop exposure bracket and merged them with Aurora HDR Pro.

Always Protect Your Gear

The falls attract many gulls because the food is plentiful. Occasionally you can spot a peregrine falcon in the gorge. Niagara Falls always has something interesting to offer. This image was taken from the Maid of the Mist. You will get very wet on that boat so make sure your equipment is well protected. I used large zip lock clear bag to cover my camera. Snipped a corner off just big enough to squeeze the lens through then capped the lens with a clear UV filter. Make sure to bring a micro fiber clothe to wipe the lens of water droplets frequently because the mist is fierce down there.

American Falls

Dramatic image of Niagara Falls. I prefer to shoot my falls images from low angles to show power and impact in my images. This image was taken from the Maid of the Mist boat passing by the American falls in the lower gorge. I converted it to black and white for more impact.

Central Park in New York City

I used a R79 filter on my camera to get the wintery effect while on a recent trip to New York. The R79 filter is a very deep red piece of glass and you will need to use a tripod and longer shutter speeds to get correct exposure. Your image will be red and white if your in color mode on camera so you either change the camera mode to black and white or convert to black and white in post processing later. These images benefit greatly with a boost in contrast.

Panorama of NYC

Panorama view of New York City from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building.

Waterfalls and Photography

Waterfalls and photography go together like peanut butter and jelly. The falls come in all shapes and sizes and each one presents a different challenge. Large waterfalls like Niagara photograph better with shutter speeds around 1/4 sec or faster while smaller waterfalls have less volume of water photograph better at speeds of 1/4 sec or longer.

Aurora HDR Pro First Impressions

I have been using Aurora HDR Pro since it became available. You can purchase it at https://store.stuckincustoms.com/aurora-hdr-pro-holiday-bundle . Trey Ratcliff and the McPhun team have a winner here. This software is easy to use, has some awesome presets and with Trey's tutorials you can do your own style with ease. I like HDR but I am not a fan of the extreme HDR where photogs do the sky to dark and there are halos along the tree lines and way too much noise in their images. I am more of a perfectionist, I hate noise and I hate when images look too fake. This is all subjective and really just a matter of taste in what you prefer, so this is just my prefererences. This program converts RAW images seamlessly to the point I really don't need to convert with Adobe Camera Raw first. The bottom line is I may never use my old trusty standby, Photomatix to make an HDR image again. This new software is that good, buy it now and never look back. The only draw back is it's only for Mac users. One really cool feature is you can add a glow to highlights in your images without making the whole image ghostly looking. Here's a sample below of the glow look.

More of Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Here are a few more pictures I took of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York, New York. As we maneuvered around the tree through the crowds of people I looked for flat areas to set my gorilla pod on or clap it to. There was no way anyone would want to try to get a tripod through this mob of people. Settings were ISO 80 f 5.6 at 1/8 sec. And just for fun I added snow to an animated GIF. on the last image.

The Most Famous Christmas Tree in the World

New York City, Rockefeller Center, Giant Christmas Tree...its doesn't get any better than this. I fought my way through thousands of people to get this shot. Anyone wanting to shoot this famous tree will need to travel light and quick. I used my trusty Canon powershot SX50 hs because it's a great travel camera. I mounted the camera on a gorilla pod and shot this at ISO 80, f-5.6 at 1/8 sec using the self timer to get a sharp picture. The image was then finished in Aurora HDR pro and Photoshop CC.

Holiday Season

It's been awhile since I posted here. I have been dealing with some issues, but I think I am over the hump now and I can begin to blog on a regular bases. Thanks to all for your patience and support during this brief period. To kick off the holiday season I thought I'd post a picture of our Christmas tree. I used a Canon powershot SX50hs on a tripod for this shot. With the tree lights on, I took 3 shots and highlighted the top, bottom and background with a Nikon 910 speedlight. I merged the 3 images with Aurora HDR pro. I then added falling snow with Photoshop CC and made the image in to an animated GIF.