Posts in Category: river
10/18/2010: Mousam fire
There is a little park around what used to be a skating pond on the banks of the Mousam River in Kennebunk Maine. It is mostly now a picnic and dog walking area, but it also provides access to the rapids for fly fishermen…and photographers. This little foliage tapestry is from the bank of the Mousam looking upstream.
Canon SD4000IS zoomed into its max 106mm equivalent for framing, f5.3 @ 1/250th @ ISO 125. Foliage program (yep. Canon puts a foliage program on all its P&Ss, and it works!, tweaking the sensor response and internal processing to retain all the richness of the fall color).
I shot with the SD4000IS because this was taken on a grocery run and it is what I grabbed on the way out the door.
Processed in Lightroom with some Fill Light, Blackpoint right, added Clarity and smidge of Vibrance, and Sharpen narrow edges preset.
10/15/2010: autumn silver river
With the forecast for heavy rain and winds gusting to 40 mph overnight, it seemed wise to get out for an hour at lunch time yesterday to catch a bit of foliage. By some reckonings we are just at peak. Some were holding out for an even better show in a a week…but the storm may change that! The sky, running in ahead of the front, was an unexpected bonus, and no one could have predicted the way the light interacted with the tide pushing up into the mouth of the Mousam River. Taken from the bridge on Route 9 in Kennebunk Maine. (The line in the water, by the way, is the shadow of a telephone pole 🙂
This is a three shot HDR from the Canon SX20IS at full wide angle (28mm equivalent), auto bracketed around a center shifted down –2/3 EV with Exposure Compensation. Exposures blended and tonemapped in Photomatix Light.
Medium Recovery in Lightroom to tame the reflections on the water somewhat. A touch of Fill Light for the foliage, Blackpoint right for intensity, added Clarity and just a smidge of Vibrance. Sharpen narrow edges preset. Some distortion control for a more natural perspective.
10/11/2010: color on the Mousam
Happy Columbus Day! In New England, Columbus day weekend is celebrated primarily by motel and restaurant owners, as the height of the short, but profitable, leaf peeping season. I am, of course, still in Georgia, though I am headed home today.
This is a week ago, right across the road from Old Falls Pond of yesterday’s post. This is the Mousam River above Old Falls, framed at the medium-tel end of the zoom on the Canon to catch a pocket of color and the reflections in the surface of the moving water. Sometimes less is more…or at least as much.
Here is the full scene.
Both shots are three exposure HDRs using autobracket shifted –2/3 EV on the Canon SX20IS. Exposures were blended and tone-mapped in Photomatix, and processed in Lightroom for using Fill Light, Blackpoint, Clarity and touch of Vibrance, and, of course, Sharpen narrow edges. One advantage of the HDR method, if you like the effect, is the automatic blurring of moving water, even at higher shutter speeds. The three different exposures catch the water, as in the falls here, in three slightly different positions and Photomatix, though it does a really good job of blending exposures, does produce some blur for the overlapping motion. A rapidly moving surf line, for instance, or foreground vegetation moving in a strong wind, is death to HDR. Here it actually, I think, adds to effectiveness of the image.
So I am looking forward to seeing what the foliage is like in Maine the day after Columbus Day…
9/24/2010: Back Creek iPhone HDR
Early morning light along Back Creek where it meets the Mousam River. This is an iPhone 4 HDR. With the 4.1 upgrade to iOS, HDR is now built into the iPhone camera, but, though very fast, it is pretty mild compared to the effects that you can get with the dedicated ProHDR app. The built in variety is great for opening shadows in difficult lighting, but for dramatic landscapes ProHDR is the app you want.
I am learning where HDR is appropriate and where it is not. This shot, for instance, did not benefit all that much from the HRD treatment, and I probably could have achieved the same results with a standard exposure and post processing…and there are a growing number of excellent post processing apps for the iPhone.
In this case, I straightened the horizon, sharpened the image, tweaked the color temperture, and adjusted shadows and highlights in PhotoWizard. The tools (filters) in PhotoWizard will be familiar to anyone who has worked with any variety of PhotoShop or most other dedicated image processing applications.
This version, with a bit more sky, made more of the HDR treatment.
9/12/2010: Self Portrait in the Shadow of Earl
Happy Sunday!
The morning after Hurricane Earl passed by Southern Maine was still showery and very windy, with lots of moisture hanging in the air and some high clouds building where a cold front pushed the storm further out to sea. I was out early to see what could be seen. The whole marsh behind Parson’s Beach, where Back Creek, here still full with the flood tide, flows to the Mousam, looked, in the early morning light, like it had been tousled by the retreating waves (see 9/9/2010)…producing interesting textures and patterns in the wet grasses. Here I attempted to set off the marsh patterns with a touch of vivid color from the rose-hips.
In doing so, I inadvertently created a self portrait. I try to keep my shadow out of landscapes, but for this shot I intentionally left it in. Can you see me in the rose bush? I will give you a clue…I am wearing a Tilley hat with a wide brim.
And, of course, every image I capture and publish is a self-portrait, whether I caught my shadow or not. I can not avoid intruding on the landscape I photograph…and there you go: “avoid” and “intrude” are already casting the matter in the wrong light.
Myself, the way I see and respond, is what I bring to the image…my gift…my contribution to creation…to the creation. All any photograph says is “I saw this and it moved me…I wanted to show it to you too.” And the only honest response to any photograph is “I see it. I see what you were looking at, and why it moved you.” When the photograph is truly great, we can also say “It moved me too!”
Of course, what is moved in us is not shadow, but light…which is, I guess, why I try to keep my shadow off the landscape.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent @ f4.0 @ 1/640th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
Recovery in Lightroom for the sky and clouds, Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance, Sharpen narrow edges, and slight crop from the bottom for composition.
8/27/2010: The Dom and the Bridge
It got later and later on my rainy evening walk through old town Wetzlar, but the evening light lasts a long time in Germany. I was headed back to the hotel when I made a last stop for this classic shot of the Dom above the stone bridge over the Lahn. Once more a shot I have taken many times, but never in this light, and never with HDR in mind. The drama of the cloud cap, the last light, the moisture in the air softening color and prespective, and elegant arches of the bridge set in rustic stone, the pastel gables of the old houses, and above it all the tower of the Dom (and that anachronistic blue polyester tarping). Quite a shot, even without the fairy light of the fountain on the trees at the right. 
Two radically different exposures allowed me to capture the light of the foreground and the gray of the sky, and Photomatix Lite put them together for a pretty remarkable effect (if I do say so myself).
A little help from my usual Lightroom routines (Blackpoint, Clarity, Vibrance, and Sharpen), and some perspective and distortion correction, and there it is.
Canon SX20 IS.
From Germany and England 2010.
8/21/2010
Lahn Bridge: Wetzlar
An very old coble stone bridge provides access to the lower part of the old town section of Wetzlar. Here we see it in another late evening shot (after 8PM) on a rainy day in August. The concrete sluice way replaces falls and rapids that contributed to flooding in the past, and keeps the water through the commercial section of the new town at manageable levels. The river is managed, in part, for tourism as it is one of the most popular canoeing trails in Europe.
This is a sudo HDR using the tone mapping functions in Photomatix, applied to a single image, plus some tweaking of Blackpoint, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpening in Lightroom.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent @ f2.8 @ 1/60 @ ISO 200. Landscape mode.
From Germany and England 2010.
8/2/2010
No Name Creek: iPhone HDR
So I admit to still being slightly amazed and muchly delighted that the iPhone can do this! Such a great toy. Of course it is actually rapidly becoming a tool…just another piece of equipment with its set of inherent possibilities that I can bring to bear on photo opportunities. It is still all about the eye. That is not to diminish the simulative effect of a new toy. Having the HDR program and a decent camera on my iPhone certainly stimulates my eye to look for possible HDR-worthy scenes, and leads me to compositions I might not have attempted with my standard gear. This shot, for instance would have required considerable manipulation in post processing to pull off. The iPhone just makes it easy.
Lots to like here (imho), beginning with the range of tones in the foreground water…the way the camera has captured the play of light across the surface and even where it penetrates the water to bring up the creek bottom. That, to my eye, is way cool! Then we roll back over the various textures and green tones of the marsh grass, lead by the curve of the creek, to the horizon and the little bit of beach balanced between the dark mass of houses on the left and the few trees on the right, and then we shoot out over the ocean under a ceiling of clouds that recedes to infinity, with the blue of the sky pinning us to the top of the frame.
Of course, I did not think or see any of this when taking the picture. I did not get much beyond “I like that. Wonder what it would look like as an iPhone HDR?”
Captured and processed on the iPhone 4. Two exposures in ProHDR, one metered and focused on a bright cloud at the top, one metered and focused on the shadow under the bank of the stream in the left foreground. Levels and sharpen in PhotoGene, and the red channel pulled back a bit. Uploaded direct to Wide Eyed In Wonder in SmugShot.
From iPhone 4 HDR and Pano.
7/21/2010
On a Lazy River’s Evening Light
The Mousam, in Kennebunk Maine, at high tide, about 7:30PM on a summer evening after a hot damp day. View this larger on the Wide Eyed In Wonder site by clicking the image above. It has much more impact at larger sizes.
Canon SX20IS at 300mm equivalent field of view, f5 @ 1/160th @ ISO 200. Landscape program.
Cropped for composition in Lightroom. Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and some Vibrance. Sharpen narrow edges preset.
From Around Home 2010.
5/26/2010
Brim-full of Sky
I have posted two other shots from this same spot on this same day…when the tide had pushed the Little River to its brink, and the sky was caught in the smooth surface. I have to remind myself to take vertical shots. I am such a landscape guy 🙂
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/640th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
In Lightoom, Recovery for the sky, Fill Light to open the shadows, Blackpoint right for intensity, added Clarity and just a little Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.