Splish Splash

A few refinements like thickening the liquid helped a lot. Happy with this result and will continue to modify.

Water Splash

First attempt today with water splash art. I used a zip lock bag with a knife stab to drop water into a glass. The background was a manila envelope. My plan is to make some water drop collision images without spending hundreds of dollars for high tech gadgets. I will continue to develop a strategy to accomplish this task on a budget. This shot is nice but it isn't a collision. I see I will need a better drop making method, maybe something with a valve and a stabilized way to hold it also.

What a Cutie

Light painting with small pen streamlight.

Raisin Hell

Not a rock, not an asteroid, and not a turd. It's a raisin. Who would of thought a raisin would have so much detail and texture. Canon Powershot sx50 hs zoomed to 200mm with raynor 250 magnification filter On a focusing rail. ISO 80, 1/1000 sec. at f-7.1. Twenty eight exposures, focus stacked in Zerene Stacker, finished in Aurora HDR Pro and Photoshop CC.

Dried up Liatris

For lack of a better subject today I made this image of a dried out liatris seed pod from my garden. I readjusted my macro set up to get a softer illumination of the subject. I intend to shoot more insects this summer and I want to be prepared. I took 33 images and merged them in Zerene Stacker to get maximum depth of field and sharpness of the fuzzy seed pod. I then finished up the image in Aurora 2017 and Photoshop CC. I will be showing behind the scenes photos of my set up in future installments.

The Big Picture

I used a 1/2.3 sensor point n shoot camera with 12 megapixels to make this 30 image picture of my backyard. The thirty images merged in Photoshop CC yielded a super high resolution image worthy of any full frame DSLR camera. Something to think about before you buy your next $6500 camera.

100% crop from the image above.

No Re-Egrets

A redo of white egret image from past Florida trip.

High Key Waterfall

I shot this in color but changed it to high key black and white. I used Nik Silver Effects Pro 2 for the conversion to black and white. I like the mystical wintery look of this picture.

The Tunnel

Clear winter day in Central Park.

Cleveland Airshow

Welcome to 2017. It's going to be a good year especially in photography. I hope you stick around and we'll see if we can up our game. Here's to taking it to new heights with this picture made in Aurora 2017, Cheers!

The Rat Race

Busy New York city intersection.

Gettysburg Cemetery

Winter Scene with Great Light

Peaceful winter scene of the Youngstown lighthouse as viewed from across the river from Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all a joyous and safe holiday season.

A Gaggle of Geese

A gaggle of Canadian geese on the Niagara River.

Maryland Covered Bridges

Loy's Station covered bridge. Three bracketed images -1,0,+1. Processed thru Adobe Camera Raw, Aurora 2017 and finished in Photoshop CC.

Palms

Black and White Palm, Florida. Three bracketed images in Aurora 2017, converted to B&W in Photoshop CC. Nikon D3, iso 500, f-8 @ 1/320th sec.

Portrait Lighting with Flash

Portrait lighting with off camera flashes is simple and inexpensive. I used Nikon speedlights triggered with a remote wireless cowboy trigger I purchased on eBay for $32. I could have also used the Nikon CSL system built in to the speedlights. The diagram below details the layout used. The umbreela on the left was about 4ft high, the shoot thru umbrella on the right was ground level pointing up and the back light was bare suspended from the ceiling pointing down to highlight her hair.

Shooting Stock Photography

My most popular image this month. My iStock sales are up 300% for 2016. This year has been promising and I plan to continue in 2017. The micro stock market gets more competitive every year but it's well worth the effort. I opted to be an exclusive contributor with iStock and in return they give me higher royalties on my images. I prefer this instead of submitting my pictures to many micro stock agencies and getting the minimum return on any royalties I may receive.

Yosemite Revisited

A redo of a Yosemite image from the past. I wanted to see if the new Aurora 2017 software would make a difference in some of my older images. I was totally blown away to see how well this software brings out the colors and details. Shot with Canon Powershot SX50 HS. ISO 80, f-8 at 1/15th sec.

Snowman

This black ceramic snowman image was a composite of three images. I used colored gels on a pen light to paint light into various areas on the snowman for two exposures then zoomed the lens to infinity and painted the blue background. All three images were then merged in Photoshop CC. Nikon D3, 24-70mm lens at 70mm. Iso 200, WB 3030, f-16, 25 sec. each.

Our Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree is up and decorated for the upcoming holiday. Now I just need Santa to drop off that Nikon D5 I've been wishing for and make my day.

Razor Sharp Cutting Tool

Light painting of a ulu on cutting board. A gift from my brother this razor sharp cutting blade is a great kitchen tool. I made 3 exposures at 3 sec. with red, blue and amber colored stream lights and merged the layers in Photoshop CC.

Taking Stock

It's been a month since my last post and now I'm back. I haven't been out much lately to do many landscapes so I decided to maybe get back to work on my stock images. I used Dave Black's light painting technique for this image. A 6 second exposure lit with led streamlight.

Red Rock

There is an interesting phenomena with digital cameras I have noticed. Old school film cameras taught us to keep the sun over your left or right shoulder for good exposures. With digital cameras if you can get your sun at exactly 22.5 degree angle over your shoulder you can achieve a terrific 3D effect with super depth in your image like the one above.

Trump Tower

Portrait Lighting with Speedlights

A quick portrait of my daughter. I used the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) to make this portrait lighting look natural. My SB 900 is mounted on camera and used as a master to trigger and regulate the others. The other SB's are used as remotes. I placed them on tables around the room and pointed to the ceiling to achieve a smooth wrap around lighting look. The white ceiling diffuses the light perfectly so I do not need any other light modifiers.

Lighting diagram for the portrait above.

Headless ?

Composition is important to conveying your message or telling a story with your photographs. If your images aren't saying something to the viewer then they are probably just snapshots. I didn't care about the statues head in this photo because I wanted to show the pigeons resting and drinking from the water in the foutain and that promentant stain as my main statement for this photo. I do not need the whole statue to do this so I cropped off his head.

NYC Blues

The new Aurora 2017 software from Macphun is an incredible editing tool. If you're running a Mac you need to try this out, ( soon to be coming in PC format ).

Reflecting Waters

Colorful reflections in Central Park.

Blazing Colors

Autumn scene in Central Park, New York City.

Spearmint Plant

Spearmint plant with little tiny flower blossoms.

The Bandana Brothers

Nittany & Oscar wear their birthday bandanas to finish their photo shoot. Disclaimer...All dachshunds were captive an no dachshunds were hurt or harmed ( except their pride and dignity maybe ) at anytime during this photo shoot. Their owners accept full responsibility for any embarrassment they may have caused the dachshund community. If you try this at home be prepared to have plenty of patience.

Nittany and Oscar dressed as the Scarecrow and the Tin Man. I added a yellow brick road to the city of Oz and the text.

This is another version of the Wizard of Oz theme for Halloween. Below, I thought it would be fun to go back through the years and see previous Nittany and Oscar Halloween costumes and themes.

2015 Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles.

2014 Ghostbuster and Stay Puff Marshmallow man.

2013 Batman and Superman.

2012 Chef and Lobster.

2011 Devil Dog.

Tin Dawg

Here is Oscar in his Halloween costume. He is wearing a tin man costume to match his brother Nittany's scarecrow costume in their Wizard of Oz theme.

Dachshund Portrait Session ( cont. )

This is Oscar, Nittany's brother. He is the least co operative of the two dachshunds. Oscar won't listen to his owner or stand still for more than a split second. That is one reason I went with broad flat lighting. I needed to be able to light these guys up no matter where they stood. Lighting set up explained below.

The Set Up

Because the dachshunds were so energetic I suspended the speedlights from the ceiling and triggered them with remotes with the tabletop set up I mentioned in earlier posts. This set up allows my assistants to move around the tabletop without worry of tripping on wires. The five lights give me plenty of light to light the dogs.

Nittany B&W

Another shot of Nittany the dachshund. This type of wiener dog is very active. To get him to stay in a central location I set up a 6'x3' table and dropped the back drop down the wall and over the table. His owner then attempted to ask him to sit and rewarded him with doggie treats for being good. If you attempt this at home the key word is " patience ".

Dachshund Costume

Here is Nittany with a sneak peak of his Halloween costume. If you guessed he is a clown, witch or beggar you'd be wrong. He is the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz.

Gone to the Dogs

Dachshund portrait.