More Botanical Gardens

On my recent trip to the Gardens I took this photograph of the reflecting pond.  The floating glass onions were made by Dale Chihuly.  There are many Chihuly items throughout the Garden.  Click on the picture for a larger version.

Technical details:  Canon 5D, 14mm f/2.8 lens at f/16, ISO 100, several exposures combined in Photomatix with further processing in Photoshop.

Botanical Gardens II

Made another trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens yesterday.  Got a late start so I missed a good opportunity as the fog was rising from the lake in the Japanese Gardens.  I was able to get this photograph of the last remnants of the fog. 

Technical details:  Canon 5D, 14mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 100, several exposures combinded in Photomatix with further processing in Photoshop.

Running to Grandma

Visited the Botanical Gardens the other day with my wife and granddaughter.  The photography was on the back burner that day but I did have my Canon with a 50mm lens attached.  Snapped this picture of my granddaugher running to her grandmother.

I know a professional photographer by the name of Craig Tanner who always carries his camera with his 50mm attached when he is out and about.  Moments like this make me understand why!

Technical Details:  Canon 5D, ISO 200, 50mm lens, 1/500 @ f/2.5, processed in Lightroom.

Pemaquid Lighthouse II

As I mentioned in last week's post, my son and I visited Pemaquid Point a few weeks ago.  This is a photo that was taken shortly after  sunrise.  The reflection of the lighthouse in a tidal pool is a photo that has been taken and published many times before but I could not resist doing it myself.  It is such a beautiful place.  I remembered my first visit to this place almost 30 years ago.  At that time I photographed it with my Minolta 35mm camera in the midday sun with terrible results.  I was happy to have another crack at it!  I am much happier with the results this time around.

Technical Details:  Canon 5D, ISO 100, 17-40mm f/4.0 lens @40mm and f/16, 7/10 of a second.  Processed twice in lightroom and the resulting files blended in Photoshop.

Pemaquid Lighthouse

This week's photo also comes from my recent trip to Maine with my son.  Early one morning we went to Pemaquid Point arriving in the predawn hours.  The tide was low and we climbed down on the rocks below the lighthouse.  It was still over one hour before sunrise but there was an almost full moon so we began to shoot.  This is one of the shots taken in those predawn hours.

Techinical details: Canon 5D, ISO 400, 17-40mm lens at 26mm, bulb exposure - did not record the exposure time.  I processed this single file three different times in Lightroom and then blended the resulting files in Photoshop. 

Moonrise over Maine

I recently traveled to Boothbay Harbor Maine.  My son, a budding young photographer,  had  been engaged to photograph his cousin's wedding and he asked me to come along as his assistant.  I am not much of an event photographer, but I jumped at the chance to spend time with Greg and to visit a beautiful place.  The night before the wedding, as we sat on the porch of a waterfront cabin, the moon began to rise.  It was a beautiful sight.  Naturally I grabbed my camera and began to shoot.

 The photo you see here is the result.

Technical Details: Canon 5D, ISO 640, 17-40mm zoom at 17mm, two exposures blended in Photoshop.  One exposed for 10 sec for the moon and its reflection and the other exposed at 30 sec for the remainder of the scene.

By the way, the wedding went very well and I was amazed to see how Greg has grown as a photographer.  He has a talent for wedding photography and hopefully will realize his dream of becoming a full time photographer.  As for me, I found out that event photgraphy is very demanding, with long days.  I think I will stick to landscape photography!

Rocky Mountain Wildflowers

This weeks image was taken in the Cony Creek Drainage area of the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Technical details:  Canon 5D, ISO 100, 14mm f/2.8 lens - multiple exposures blended in Photomatix software.

Dream Lake

This week's photo is of Dream Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park and was taken during my recent visit there. We awoke at 4:00 AM, drove to the trailhead and then hiked a little over one mile to the lake. We were rewarded for our efforts with a beautiful sunrise. This was the 4th or 5th time I have made this hike in the early morning darkness. It was by far the best morning I have experienced there.

This is one of the most picturesque lakes in RMNP. I hope to return one day in the winter snow.

Technical Stuff: Canon 5D; ISO 100; 14mm f/2.8 lens; three bracketed exposures blended in Photoshop.

Welcome to my Blog

I have decided to start a Blog in order to have an outlet for my photography. Too often I find that I complete work on a photo and it just sits on my hard drive. I am starting this Blog in order to share these photos with family and friends. I hope you will stop by occasionally.

I am going to attempt to post once a week. Having a schedule will hopefully push me to photograph and achieve more. .

As always I would welcome constructive criticism from my photography friends out there. One of my goals is to improve my work.

For my first post, I am including a photo from a recent trip to the Rocky Mountains. This is a photograph of St. Catherine Church which is located near Allenspark, Colorado just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. After spending nearly ten days there I was getting ready to leave for Denver and looking for one last opportunity. I had been noticing this church all week and finally went there on the last morning. There was a cloud bank in the east obscuring the sunrise but about 45 minutes after sunrise the sunshine broke through and I was there to capture this photograph.

Technical details. Canon 5D, 17-40mm zoom at 34mm. 100 ISO. A three exposure bracket was composited using Photomatix software. Additional work was done in Photoshop.