Monthly Archives: September 2009
9/20/2009
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Happy Sunday!
Lakeside Ohio sustains three amazing populations. The most abundant are the Fox Squirrels. Big as the largest Gray, and fox red. Impressive animals. The second population is feral cats. They are everywhere. And finally there are more spiders in Likeside than I have seen in a long time. Their webs drape street signs and fill any open architectural gap. This one adorns a trellis gate. Late afternoon light picked it out against the shadowed wing of the house behind and the shapes of the trellis made for an interesting composition. It is cropped slightly from the left to eliminate the whiter portion of the support post.
Sony DSC H50 at about 410mm equivalent. F4.5 @ 1/125 @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery in Lightroom for the white highlights. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Lakeside OH.
9/19/2009
Sailing at Lakeside
The season is over at Lakeside, and the little boats idle, the dock empty, under a big Lake Erie sky. This is about shape and color: one of several attempts at this row of boats, with the clouds massed on the horizon as background.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, some Recovery for the sky, added Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel, Sharpen landscapes preset. I might, if in the mood someday, go in with Photoshop and clone out the bare branches at the top, leaving only the leafy ones.
From Lakeside OH.
9/18/2009
View from Marblehead Light
Lake Erie was showing a good chop on my visit to Marblehead. Truly grey water. Massive clouds. Stick a little bit of tree in one corner for scale, and you have an interesting (imho) lakescape.
Sony DCS H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery in Lightroom to pull back the clouds and sky. Added Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel. Blackpoint just to the right. A touch Fill Light for the tree.
From Lakeside OH.
9/17/2009
Marblehead Light, OH
Sometimes there is no choice but the straight on tourist shot of the famous landmark. Time is limited. The vantage points are limited by the park management. Essentially you “stand here and take your shot.” The weather and the light are what they are. So you make the most of it. And maybe plan to come back for better light and weather…if you life allows.
This is Marblehead Light, in Marblehead OH, out on the peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie above Sandusky.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/800 @ ISO 100. Programed auto. -.7EV exposure compensation.
A bit of Recovery in Lightroom for the sky. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence Panel. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Lakeside OH.
9/16/2009
Portland Head Light: the other view
Shooting against the light, the problem is always balancing the exposure and using post-processing to bring up the whites of the Lighthouse to some semblance of reality. They eye, of course, has no difficulty seeing the brightness of the foreground and the brilliant white of the white-washed stone, but no photographic medium, be it film or digital sensor, can do that trick. So I exposed for the scene and trusted I could “pull it out” in Lightroom. And of course in this shot, the sky behind the light house is just as much the subject as the light house itself.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1600 @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Heavy Fill Light in Lightroom for the light house, as mentioned above, and some Recovery for the sky. Added Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel. Sharpen landscapes preset.
From Portland Head Light.
9/15/2009
Window Work
The Goddard mansion, which overlooks Ft. William Park and the back of the hill Portland Head Light is under, still stands as a ruin. It was a private home when built, but the army turned it into quarters before it was abandoned. It has some of the most impressive stone-work I have seen in a long time. Apparently it was built of local native stone, which seems to have been hand quarried and shaped for building. Interesting. The parapets actually seem to be rubble with a flat stone cap.
Windows always catch my eye, and when, like this one, they frame interesting shapes and textures and light…they are all the more interesting. I zoomed out to medium zoom range to frame.
Sony DSC H50 at about 180mm equivalent. F5.0 @ 1/500 @ ISO 100. Programed auto. -.7EV exposure compensation.
In Lightroom this shot needed a good deal of fill light for the interior shaded areas within the window. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Sharpen landscape preset.
This is the full facade for comparison.
Goddard Mansion
9/14/2009
Up the Light
I always take several of these up the Light shots, mostly because there is no medium distance vantage for a good shot of the Light. You are either across the inlet or right under the light. Nothing in between. When you have some interest in the sky, this kind of shot can be satisfying. Here the wispy clouds draw a pattern on the sky that somehow complements the solid shapes of the light and tender shed, while the white-washed stone and the red brick offer a contrast of textures. The angles catch the eye, and the massive black and faceted glass of the light-housing itself sits bold and high. Altogether on of the more successful up the light shots I have taken.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 100. Programed auto with -.7 EV exposure compensation.
Recovery in Lightroom for the sky and white stone of the tower. Blackpoint slightly right. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Portland Head Light.
9/13/2009
Portland Head Light and Rose
Another view of Portland Head Light from our Labor Day visit. Generally I use the flip-out LCD on the H50 for low angle shots. Here, however, the rose is actually just below my eye-level, and including it in the composition from a normal height makes the greenery obscure most of the Lighthouse building. So I flipped out the LCD, tilted it down instead of up, and held the camera at arms length above my head to capture the relationship between foreground and background that I was after. Score one more for the articulated LCD.
Sony DSC H50 at about 55mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 100. Programed auto with -.7EV exposure compensation for the whites of the Lighthouse.
Recovery in Lightroom for the sky and Lighthouse whites. Blackpoint just to the right. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Sharpen landscape preset. This image, like most of my over-the-head shots, required some straightening of the horizon as well.
From Portland Head Light.
9/12/2009
Portland Head Light
It seems to be somewhat of a tradition in our family these past years to visit Portland Head Light on Labor Day, at least on Labor Days when the summer is going out in the best Maine Style: Windy, clear, with just enough clouds to add interest to the sky.
And this is a classic Portland Head shot from what is perhaps the classic spot. Nothing out of the ordinary, but, as I say, enough interest in the sky to make it a memorable portrait of the Light.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 100. Programed auto. -.7EV Exposure compensation to help hold the white of the lighthouse within limits.
Recovery for the sky and lighthouse whites in Lightroom. Blackpoint slightly to the right. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Portland Head Light.
9/11/2009
Flags a Flying
These tall marsh grasses are in full fruit here in Southern Maine these days, and, on a windy day like this one, they fly like flags at the edges of every marsh. I shot from waist level up, to catch the seed head against the sky, and had to apply some Fill Light in Lightroom to bring out the color in the silhouette.
Sony DSC H50 at about 300mm equivalent. F6.3 @ 1/2000 @ ISO 100. Programed auto. -1EV exposure compensation (for the sky).
As I said, Fill Light in Lightroom for the colors of head. Slight Recovery for the sky. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Around Home.
And the video version.