Night photography

Here are some night photography shots I took the other evening from the rear parking lot of NFHS. The first is a composite of two images merged together in photo shop to bring back the detail in the window areas which other wise would have blown out. The second image didn't have the high contrast problems as the first so I used the car roof as a tripod and did a long exposure the achieve the great clarity. It had just stopped raining and the foreground reflections were an added bonus.

Lighting Lesson 02

Studio quality lighting is easily achieved with the Nikon CLS ( creative lighting system ). The diagram shows you the technical specs. of the image. A black bed sheet was draped behind the subject for a quick background. Click on images to enlarge.

Cave tour

Saturday Wendy and I went to the Lockport Cave, Lockport, NY. The cave is a hydro conduit built in the 1800's to power 3 industries of that era. The men who dug this cave worked 12 hours a day were paid 17 cents a day and given a shot of whiskey every 2 hours until the job was completed. They averaged digging out 2 feet a day. Our guide takes us on this tour which is part walk and part boat ride and explains the history and geological aspects of the cave. It is a very interesting tour and worth the trip. Here are some images I took inside the cave. Click to enlarge.

Simply Amazing

The Nikon D3 has outstanding resolution and cropping abilities. I was about 30 yds away when this shot was taken. I used Nikon 70-200mm AF-S VR 2.8 lens at 200mm. The original was then cropped 100% and post processed in NX2. Click on image to enlarge. The detail and facial expressions are extraordinary.

Work Shop Series... Creating Amazing Circles

Here is an interesting and easy technique I learned using Photoshop. I have no idea what practical purpose these have but they are fun to make and have interesting designs and shapes and no two are identical. I suppose one could use these for backgrounds. I use simple exercises like this to sharpen my Photoshop skills and sometimes come up with great ideas for future works. Start your project by opening Photoshop. Any of the newer versions should do. On the tool bar go to file and open your image to the desktop. Any image will do. Experiment with different types of pictures to see how many different types of designs you can achieve. Today I have chosen a flower image with vivid color and texture.

You now need to make a selection that is squared. Choose the crop tool and set your width and height to the same number. Five and five works fine here .

Now select the area you want and crop.

Now apply filter polar coordinates.

Be sure to check the polar to rectangle button.

Now you should have an interesting image, but it is not finished yet.

Now rotate the image 180 degrees and filter polar coordinates again only this time toggle the rectangular to polar button.

Now you have a way cool image.

You can use this image like this or elaborate on this with some of your own Photoshop techniques. You will be amazed at what your imagination can come up with. Here are a few examples of some images I have made.

Niagara Celtic Heritage Festival

To see our gallery of images from the Niagara Celtic Heritage Festival click on this link:
http://www.pbase.com/g_muth/celtic_game_faces

Celtic Festival

We went to the Celtic Festival in Olcott, NY on Saturday. Turned out to be a rainy day. Admission was $15 for 2 people. They did have a very organized program of events for the 2 day festival. We watched the Scottish Highland Games tournaments and didn't understand much but it was exciting. We watched Celtic dancers and listened to Scottish music. We even partook in some Scottish foods. All in all it was a very nice festival. Here are some shots from the day.