Posts in Category: reflections
10/28/2009
Pond, Swan, Fall
We seem to be getting a lot of these moody fall days. I manage at least two falls each year. One in Maine, one in New Jersey, and one in New Mexico: mid-October, late-October, and mid-November. This year I will be in Germany in mid-November. I am not sure if that is fall there or not. We shall see.
This is a little pond on the back side of Lighthouse State Park in Cape May, New Jersey. I have never seen as may Mute Swans as there are this year. They are everywhere there is fresh water. A touch of fall in the foliage on the far side and the cat-tails in the foreground give the image some depth.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programmed Auto.
Recovery in Lightroom for the sky. A touch of Fill Light for the foliage. Blackpoint slightly right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen Landscapes preset.
From Cape May 10/09.
10/20/2009
Back to the Fall in Maine
From my photo-jaunt out to my favorite fall spot, along the Mousam River in West Kennebunk, a few miles from home. Still that same moody day. Trying for extreme depth on this one.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm apparent. F8.0 @ 1/100th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
Some Recovery in Lightroom for the sky and reflections. Blackpoint slightly right. Added Vibrance and Clarity. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Fall 09 Maine.
10/18/2009
Alligator Among the Coulds and Duckweed
Happy Sunday!
So, we are walking the boardwalk at Green Cay Wetlands last Monday, focused on the birds, and this lady says as we pass, “There’s an Alligator right here.” We look down over the rail, and…she’s right. Right there, obviously hoping one of those Moorehens is a lot stupider than it looks. Oh yes. We are in Florida now. I take pictures. Of the Alligator.
Only when reviewing the pictures for processing do I see the amazing cloud reflections, the patterns of duckweed on the water, the way the reeds and mud frame the shot and turn it into a graphic mirror. I forget, until I enlarge the image for development, that there is an Alligator there at all. I think maybe I just took it for the patterns. Now, when I look at it, I see the Alligator floating in the clouds and duckweed, kind of a metaphor for beauty. And I like it.
Sony DCS H50 at about 35mm equivalent. F4.5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Cropped in Lightroom to remove some distracting vegetation along one edge. Blackpoint to the right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. A touch of Recovery to emphasize the cloud reflections. Sharpen landscape preset.
And here is the alternative view, at 60mm equivalent, where the the Alligator is more prominent…though the floating in clouds effect is still there.
More Alligator, Less Clouds
From Green Cay, FL.
10/14/2009
Fall Mood
Okay…we all need a break from birds! As you can tell, most of my photography over the past few weeks has been PhotoScoping and I still have a whole set of birds from Green Cay Wetlands in FL from Monday to share…but enough birds already. Lets look at a scenic. Fall. Heavy weather. Mood. (Which seems the norm for fall in Maine this year.) Actually, of course, by the time I get home tomorrow the leaves will probably be gone. This was taken a few weeks ago, just at the start of the turn. I could not resist the sky and the reflections in the water, and that small band of color in the trees.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F4 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky and clouds and reflections. Blackpoint just slightly right. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Sharpen landscape preset.
10/9/2009
Autumn Angler
I was down at the river looking for a view, when I turned to see this fisherman in the stream. I had only time for one shot before he became aware of me. To me it captures a moment and a feeling. Just enough autumn color to give you the when, and yet a king of timeless quality in the activity. The reflected colors in the water, the little fall behind the fisherman…I could not have posed it better…and yet it just happened. To me those are the best shots!
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F2.7 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Cropped slightly in Lightroom for composition and to eliminate a light sky expanse. Recovery for the highlights in the falls. Some Fill Light to open shadows. Blackpoint to the right very slightly. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel and Sharpen landscape preset.
From Fall 09 Maine.
10/8/2009
Mousam Pond: Moody Fall
Just down river from the falls (yesterday) there is a dam that backs up this pond (by Maine standards…perhaps a lake elsewhere). I also have many, many images taken from this spot. This is by far the moodiest. The light makes the foreground almost as prominent as the foliage. I like the subtly of the reflected clouds and the few floating leaves.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery in Lightroom for the sky and reflections. Blackpoint just barely to the right. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Sharpen landscapes preset.
From Fall 09 Maine.
9/28/2009
China Beach in China Cove: Point Lobos
Okay…so yesterday I spent 4 hours back at Point Lobos. I stopped on the way down for some wildlife shots with the new PhotoScope, so it was 10:30 by the time I got there and the fog was already rolling across the point. Still, there is no such thing as a bad day at Point Lobos. It is just too scenic…too photogenic. The fog offshore and showing at any distance, certainly closing the horizons, was off set by the bright sun where it got through, lighting the foreground of shots and creating a somewhat more intimate feeling.
And, as a bonus, they have repaired the stairway down into China Cove to China Beach. This area was closed last year when I visited, so, of course, I climbed down. I have several keepers from beach level. This one, with the variety of shades and colors in the water, the fog visible against the blue sky, the stark cliffs, and the red and green vegetation, captures at least one essence, new to me, of China Cove.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/400 @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery in Lightroom to bring up detail in the fog blanket and darken the sky. A bit of Fill Light for the cliff shadows. Added Clarity and Vibrance brought up the texture, and especially the colors in the water. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Monterey Bay 09.
9/8/2009
Curve of Living Water
I have photographed this curve of the Little River hundreds of times. There is a little observation deck there built out over the edge of the marsh at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. Of course it is never the same twice. The light, the sky and clouds, the exact colors of the marsh grasses day to day, the reflective quality of the river water…not to mention the state of the tide…it all changes constantly. So every image is different.
What does not change is the classic “s” curve of the river through the marsh.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F5.6 @ 1/800th @ ISO 100. Programed auto. -1EV exposure compensation.
Recovery for the sky in Lightroom. Added Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel. Blackpoint slightly to the right. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Rachel Carson Seasons.
8/28/2009
Grasmere from a Turner Overlook
The Lake District Painters and Turner in particular are everywhere you go in the Lake District. You have seen these views on museum walls and in art books, and it is constant deja vue all over again. There are plaques. “Turner painted this.”
And little wonder. This view of Grasmere might have been better if the day had allowed a view deeper into the mountains behind the lake. There are higher peaks under the clouds. But it is still atmospheric and all too typical of a summer’s day in England. We actually made it all the way around the lakes without getting wet that day, but it was a close run thing.
Minolta A1 at 28mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Punch and Sharpen landscape presets in Lightroom. Blackpoint to the right just slightly. Recovery for the sky.
From England 2005.
8/25/2009
Foot of Rydal Water
We hiked the circuit of Grasmere and Rydal Water, starting from Grasmere and going across the ridge above Rydal past two Wordsworth dwellings and then back on the other side, catching views made famous in hundreds of paintings, Turner’s among them. Totally amazing! One of the best days of my life despite doddgy weather that closed the more distant views of the mountains behind Grasmere, and very tired feet.
This is a shot from the very foot of Rydal Water where the bridge crosses the the stream looking north up the lake.
Minolta A1 at 28mm equivalent. F7.1 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery in Lightroom for the sky. Punch and Landscape sharpen presets. Blackpoint to the right.
From England 2005.