Hummingbird Series

This hummer is really feeding from a feeder. The leaves in the foreground were strategically placed to mask out the feeder.

An image from my summer hummingbird series. Shot with a Nikon D3, 70-200mm 2.8 lens. I am still desperately seeking to shoot a male ruby throated but I have yet to see one in my garden. I guess sometimes the challenge isn't operating the equipment but patience waiting for the right opportunity.

Automobile

My favorite car a 1996 Chrysler LHS with low milage. I chose to use a R-72 red filter to lighten the foliage on the trees to highlight the black car and give me some separation from the background.

This tree had bent over permanently and looked like it was just to darn tired to stand anymore.

I made an interesting discovery today. I took the three images below and stacked them and merged them in Photoshop CC and got the image above. I didn't realize I could do this with images of different focal lengths. This could open up a lot of new possibilities for my images. I will need to explore this further.

Hummingbird in Flight

Making Progress

Hummer Season

I took some time to try my hand at shooting a few hummingbirds. I found that I need a long lens of 200mm or better to compress the background.

United States Marine Memorial at Fisherman's Park in North Tonawanda.

Always bring your Camera

I have my bicycle modified with a tripod head mounted on the handle bars and a small detachable camera case so I can do photography while out riding. On this particular ride across Grand Island I was passing through Buckhorn State Park when the skies turned ominous. I stopped and made this four shot pano.

On the Turf

Shooting from the stands gives the viewer an over all picture of the action. This particular shot shows the beautiful grounds of the Fort Erie Race Track.

Once you get your exposures correct, your backgrounds clear and your panning down, it takes a bit of luck to get a group of riders in the right positions for a good photo. This image captures the action of the races.

Bald Eagle

Timing is Everything

Shooting horses running at 30 mph isn't easy. It takes a good camera and good panning technique. If you do it right you get a great image.

First Day

Opening day for the 2016 racing season at Fort Erie Race Track. We had a great day at the track, with my boys and my grandson. I got some great images of the races and track people, they are hilarious.

Clinton's Big Ditch

Rode my bike from Niagara Falls to Tonawanda today. I shot four images and made this panorama of the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal divides the twin cities before it empties in to the Niagara river. I liked the reflections in this image.

This is my daughter Christina. She is my stand in model so I can adjust my lights for an upcoming portrait session.

On my way home from a bike ride today I made this image. This is shot from the Lindberg Ave. bridge looking south over Cayuga creek. I focus stacked three images at different focal lengths and merged them with Photoshop CC. I used a R-72 infrared filter on a Canon Powershot sx50 hs.

Lockport falls wasn't much of a falls, more like a cascading stream and that's being kind. I really like this place when the water is flowing so I think I will wait for some rains then make another attempt at this one.

Part of the Spring Waterfall Workshop of 2016. Clarendon falls.

Erie Canal

I found this old building along the Erie canal. I liked the reflections in the water. It almost looks painted. The early morning sun gave this scene a beautiful warming effect. It reminds me of possibly what the canal looked like in the 1800's. I had to crop the image to a 1:1 ratio because the surrounding scene had too many modern structures and wouldn't give this image the same look.

Medina falls - B&W

Akron Falls

Waterfall Workshop 2016.

Holley Waterfall

The key to a successful waterfall image is getting the water blur just right. On this shot the water was half blown out highlights from the sun and half in shadow. I used f-11 in aperture priority on seven bracketed exposures. I then added 4x neutral density filter and exposure compensated the the camera with a -2. This allowed me to composite the images in HDR and save all the highlight and shadow details. The blur in the water will automatically happen with this technique.

While in Medina I made this photo along the Erie Canal. I focus stacked four images to get the railing sharp from front to back. Waterfall workshop 2016.

Same waterfall as below but a different angle. I used a 10x neutral density filter to blur the water and knock down the light.

Spring Waterfall Workshop 2016

Today was a big success for our annual springtime waterfall workshop. Six waterfalls and decent weather. All the waterfalls had good flow except Lockport was a little weak. Here is a shot of Akron falls. I will be posting many images from this set. I took 589 pics and did some experimental things that I will explain as I show them.

Bald Eagles

Saw this on Dpreview today and thought I'd give it a try. It's called the Orton layers effect and you can read about the process here. Dpreview.com An interesting process, not sure how much I'll ever use it, but it's another tool in my arsenal of post processing works.

American Bison.

The King of Beasts

Another shot of Tiberius the lion from yesterdays trip to the zoo. He seems to be quite the poser. I love the way I can bring out all the details in his face with Aurora HDR Pro.

Wilson

A small country store in Wilson, Maryland takes you back in time.

A simple two image panorama of Martin's Mill covered bridge. I used a Canon Powershot SX50hs with R-79 deep red infrared filter.

Martin's Mill

Martin's Mill Covered Bridge in Greencastle, PA. Built in 1849, Martin's Mill Covered Bridge is Pennsylvania's second longest covered bridge.

Different view of McGees Mills covered bridge using deep red R-79 filter to get the infrared effect. Five separate images merged in Photoshop CC to make this pano.

McGees Mills in May

I walked down the banks of the Susquehanna river to get this shot of the McGees Mills covered bridge. I used a R-79 red filter to get the infrared effect.

Seven image pano of McGees Mills covered bridge ( circa 1873 ) over the Susquehanna river, Clearfield County, Pa. The image is pretty much as I saw it except I removed the telephone pole that obstructed my view of the bridge.

Niagara Falls State Park

View of the upper Niagara rapids. I used a 10X neutral density to slow down my shutter to 2 sec. to blur the water. I also made a two exposure panorama of the scene and merged the images together in Photoshop CC.

On a recent trip to the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts I took a few indoor pics. The lighting can be challenging because the room is a lower ambient color temperature ( 3400K ) than the skylight color temperature (5250K ). The trick is to balance the two light sources to make an image close to what the scene really looked like. You could take two separate images at each color temperature and blend them together in Photoshop. I didn't have a tripod with me so I only took one picture and blended my image with Aurora HDR Pro to get the same effect.

High Key Portraits

Proud grandparents with their three grandchildren portrait. I used the Nikon CLS feature for this shot. I have one SB600 on a David Zeiser shoot thru umbrella on camera right at +1 power. One SB600 bouncing off the white wall behind the camera at -1 power and one SB800 bounced off white ceiling over head for hair light at 0 power. All three flashes are triggered with a SB900 on camera used as a master to the other remote set flashes. With this system I can control the light output of each light to get the rounded modeling on my subjects and still maintain good light on my subjects faces. Nikon D3, iso 400, 1/160th at f-11.