Autumn Workshop

I will be offering a new October waterfall workshop. Registration fee is $99.00 per person. Experience five upstate NY waterfalls on October 17th. This workshop includes personal hands on training and lunch. If you are interested contact me for more details. gary@theportraitgalleryniagara.com

Monticello

We took a mini trip to Virginia last week and stopped at the home of Thomas Jefferson, Monticello. Mr. Jefferson was not only our third president and the author of the Declaration of Independence. He also founded the University of Virginia. He was well traveled and a highly educated man. We got a chance to take a few pictures of the outside and surrounding gardens. Photography was strictly prohibited inside his home.

Birds of Prey

Last week I went on a workshop with my brother. We took Raymond Barlow's Bird of Prey workshop at the Mountsberg Raptor Conservatory in Canada. The birds presented were incredible and great fun to photograph. If I wasn't already a wedding photographer I could really get in to shooting wild birds for a living. The four hour workshop went by too fast. I got some of the best images I have ever taken. Here are a few of my favorite shots and I have more in a gallery in our pbase site.

Day trip

We took a ride out to Canandaigua, New York to see Sonnenberg Gardens. A very nice place to visit and a great place for photos. Brides must be lined up for years waiting to have their wedding and reception there. The grounds are beautiful and I found it virtually very easy to find a picture around every corner. I posted five pics here but I have the entire set I shot at our main site. The Portrait Gallery Niagara. Just click on the portfolio section then click on the Sonnenberg Gardens Gallery.

It just keeps getting better and better!

I am working on some new post processing techniques using the new CS6 photoshop program and Photomatix Pro 4.2. Both programs utilize 64 bit which basically means faster processing times. Each of these images are five exposure bracketed raw images shoot on Nikon D3 processed in Adobe Camera Raw then merged together in Photomatix then finished in CS6.

Niagara Falls welcomes Wallenda

Nik Wallenda will attempt to walk a wire from USA to Canada on June 15th, 2012. The event will be nationally televised and should give our city a major boost in tourism. Mr Wallenda has set up a pratice wire at the Seneca Niagara Casino. Open to the public, people can watch his daily practices in front of the casino. I took a few captures today. He makes it look so easy but in no way is it. He usually makes several trips on the inclined wire , sometimes walking forward and backwards.Afterwards, he talks with the media and answers questions to the public. Today he had his good friend Bello Nock, who is also an accomplished wire artist, and New York State Senator George Maziarz with him.

Niagara Falls Bike Path

I've been getting depressed lately because I don't feel our city does enough to make it appealing to our citizens and visitors. Today they changed my mind a bit when I decided to take a bike ride along the the Robert Moses. They now have bird houses set up along the river for tree swallows. These tiny metalic blue and white birds dart back and forth chasing bugs to eat along the river. It's quite fasinating to watch and quite difficult to photograph the little guys while they are flying so fast. Fortunately the winds sweep off the river and if you time it right you can catch them in a head wind and get that great shot. Today I got one.