Snowy Reflection - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

May 26, 2015

Elk Ranch, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Today, I am headed to the Pacific Northwest to check off one of my bucket list locations, namely, The Palouse. I probably won't be posting for a couple of days as I will have no internet or cell service until Friday. I had a week to rest from my trip to the Grant Tetons last week and am raring to go. After this trip, I will be relaxing and resting up at home for most of the summer.

In my absence, I will be posting some of my Grand Teton photos. The Teton trip was a bit challenging from a weather standpoint. Rain, snow, low hanging clouds and cold made for an interesting week. Despite the lack of classic sunrises and sunsets, there were plenty of good shots to be had. This photo is from an abandoned dude ranch named Elk Ranch. We were hoping to get a decent sunrise, but as we travelled the park, clouds were the norm and the overnight had left us with a thin blanket of snow. The snow really made the trees at the ranch stand out.

Memorial - American Cemetery, Normandy, France

May 25, 2015

Today is a special day to remember those who gave their lives so that we can live free. I can think of no other place than Normandy, France, that symbolizes the ultimate sacrifice. This photo is from the American Cemetery that overlooks the beaches where D-Day occurred. Looking at all of the grave markers is a sobering sight and gives real meaning to this day.

Houseboats - Wahweap Marina, Lake Powell, Arizona

May 22, 2015

Being from New England, the American southwest is such a different place than I am used to. Over the past ten years, I have begun to explore the southwest and have fallen in love with its colors and landscapes. My list of places to visit seems to expand, even though I frequent there much more often than in the past. One of the places that was very high on my list was Page, Arizona. There are so many things to visit and shoot there, I could probably live there for a year and still have unexplored destinations.

We had just checked into the hotel and I was excited for the next morning's outing. We were going to catch an early boat to Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Since the boat was leaving quite early (it is a two hour ride to the monument), I decided to take a drive to the Marina to make sure I knew where I was going.

The light was great and the marina had quite a number of houseboats waiting to be used. I had heard that a lot of people vacation at Lake Powell by renting them for a week or two. Some of them are quite big and it must be really cool to move about the lake and take a swim wherever you want. I wanted to put these houseboats in the foreground of the photo to show the scale to the towering rock formations that line Lake Powell.

Life and Death - Spring City, Pennsylvania

May 21, 2015

Lightroom 6 New HDR Process

Pennhurst Asylum,  Spring City, Pennsylvania — Pennhurst Asylum, Spring City, Pennsylvania

Last week I posted a photo using Lightroom 6's panorama merge function which worked quite well for me. Today, I am posting a photo using the other big feature of the new release of Lightroom, namely HDR Merge. I picked this photo to process because what better subject to pick than an Urbex shot of an abandoned building? This particular location is Pennhurst Asylum, a very eerie place to visit, with stories of mistreatment during its tenure.

When I first started with processing HDR, I used Photomatix Pro, which is probably the premier HDR editing software. It has been used to create some of the best and worst high dynamic range images over the past five years or so. I think most photographers go through a HDR phase as I did. Over the past few years, I have toned down my use of HDR, and, while I still occasionally use Photomatix, I started creating a 32-bit file in Photoshop and brought it back into Lightroom to edit (no editing was completed in Photoshop) instead. This worked well for me, as the 32 bit file had some very serious depth when using Lightroom's slider. For example, on a regular file, the Exposure Slider might let me change exposure in a +5 to -5 range. With the 32 bit file, the range was +10 to -10.

So what does the new HDR process in Lightroom do? It creates basically a similar file without having to go through Photoshop and does so much quicker than round-tripping the file. The file created by Lightroom is only 16 bit, but Lightroom's sliders still have the expanded range to it. In fact, I could tell little, if any, difference on how the edited the new file. Even better, the 16 bit file is a RAW (DNG) file that is significantly smaller that the 32 bit file created in Photoshop.

Does Lightroom's HDR process replace Photomatix? Depends on what you are trying to create. My more recent use of HDR is to bring out the dynamic range and have it appear natural, so for me, I will primarily use Lightroom. For others who want the more artistic use of HDR, I don't believe that Lightroom has the capabilities to do it well, and Photomatix would be where I would go for that type of result.

Strata - Badlands National Park, South Dakota

May 20, 2015

As one travels through the Badlands, the rock formations are almost extraterrestrial looking. The formations themselves look very different from one another as you move throughout the park. Some are extremely jagged while others form mounds. The one common characteristic is the layers of sedimentary rock that is commonly known as strata. Each layer has a distinct color that usually means that that particular layer is made of a different substance than the others (e.g. sand, lava, etc.). The cool thing is that each layer often looks perfectly parallel to the next one. I don't know the exact reason for this and it is nature's mystery (at least to me).

Grand Canal - Venice, Italy

May 19, 2015

One of my most favorite cities that I have ever visited is Venice, Italy. I have been there only once, back in 2008 at the end of a Mediterranean cruise. Italy was my grandparents' homeland and they emigrated to the US before my mother was born. Maybe that is why it holds a special place in my heart.

To say that Venice is a magical place would be an understatement. It is very hard to describe it to someone who hasn't been there. There is a feel to the "city" that is unlike anywhere else I have been. Venice actually lies in a lagoon that is protected from the sea by thin strips of land that have three small inlets. Rather than an island, Venice is actually made up of 124 small islands connected by small bridges.

There is nothing that I would rather do than to walk the along the canals and watch the boats and gondolas manuevering through the city. Add to the scene the great old architecture and you get transported to a different time. This view was taken from one of the more famous bridges in Venice, namely Rialto Bridge.

Prince of Wales Hotel - Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta

May 18, 2015

Upper Waterton Lake, Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta

My process when choosing photos to edit is probably a bit different from other photographers/bloggers. I don't typically edit all of my keeper shots right after I shoot them. My process is to review a trip's photos a few weeks after I return home, eliminating the rejects (obvious bad shots or redundant ones) and identifying any keepers that I flag. I may edit a couple of the keepers right away. After a few months, I go through them again and often add a few more to the keeper pile. I typically will wait a while to edit them after this second review.

Why don't I edit them all right away? The easy answer is that if I edit them all at the same time, the likelihood that they may "look" the same is high. That is because a photographer's look and style typically changes over time. If you look at photos that I edited years ago, they look much different that photos I edit today. That is the result of my editing skills getting better, as well as the editing software improving over time.

So how do I select photos to edit and post? I often think about a location that is calling to me and that maybe I haven't posted in a while. I simply look at my keepers that I identified on my reviews and select the one that speaks to me. It doesn't matter when it was shot. This photo of the Canadian Rockies was taken in 2006 and depicts the Prince of Wales hotel against a great backdrop that hopefully communicates the scale of the mountains.

Snow Melt-Off - Jordan Stream, Acadia National Park, Maine

May 15, 2015

On my scouting trip to Maine a couple of weeks ago, I was looking forward to getting some long exposure shots of the melting snow. Sometimes confusion works out in a good way. We parked in Acadia's Jordan Pond parking lot, and I was surprised that the trail was almost all snow covered. Thanks to my poor reading skills. I made a wrong turn and went down the trail in the wrong direction. This mistake led me to this great spot of Jordan Stream flowing under a small wooden crossing. I thought the light and shadows were just about perfect for a long exposure, and it turned out to be as good as I though it would.

Stare Down - Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

May 14, 2015

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I am in Wyoming shooting with a great group of photographers on Jeff Clow's Spring Photo Tour in Grand Teton National Park. This is the earliest that Jeff has ever had a tour there, and he did so for the express reason that the animals in the park will be emerging from their winter hibernation and hopefully will do so with their babies. While I am not normally a wildlife shooter, I certainly couldn't pass up the opportunity to see this in person and hopefully get some decent photos. Perhaps I will even get a shot like this one that I took in Rocky Mountain National Park last October. It was late in the day, light was failing and I spotted this magnificent animal seemingly daring me to photograph him. It felt like a stare down for a few minutes before he decided I wasn't worth it. I hope that I am lucky enough to get a few shots like this one, especially if they have their young with them.

Shadow Mountain View - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

May 13, 2015

Lightroom 6 New Panorama Process

Today, as you read this blog post, I am headed to Wyoming to join my great friend Jeff Clow on his spring Grand Teton National Park photo tour. It has been a couple of years since I have been there, and I am looking forward to shooting the park again, as well as meeting up with some old friends and making new ones.

I thought that I would kill two birds with one stone and post this panorama of the Tetons. By this I mean that in addition to posting a photo of my destination, I would give a quick review of the new panorama process in the recent update to Lightroom. I have previously used Photoshop to merge panoramas, and, while not overly difficult, it still was extra steps in my editing process. What I found with Lightroom's new process was that it performed admirably. I wanted to push Lightroom to the max, so I picked an 18 shot pano to work on (yes, the image above is made up of 18 photos). Not only was it really easy to process, it was very quick to do so, faster than I would have ever expected. The additional bonus was that the resulting file was saved as a RAW file (DNG to be exact). While one example does not mean that every pano will work as seamlessly, the result is quite promising.

Classic New England - Rockport, Massachusetts

May 12, 2015

One of my favorite stops in New England is the small town of Rockport, MA, located at the tip of Cape Ann, about 40 miles northeast of Boston. It has a quaint harbor and is home to one of the most recognizable fishing shacks in the world. It got its fame by being one of the most often-painted (and probably photographed) buildings in America. Legend has it that the shack got its name by illustrator Lester Hornby. He responded to a student who submitted a drawing of the shack for review with the words, "What-Motif No 1 again?"

Motif No 1 was originally built in 1840 and was destroyed in the Blizzard of 1978. It was rebuilt later that year and is still a popular subject for artists and photographers alike.

Spring Thaw - Jordan Pond, Acadia National Park, Maine

May 11, 2015

I am sure that you half expected to see a lighthouse on the blog today, but I thought a week of lighthouses was enough for now. Believe it or not, I actually took photos of other subjects while in Maine on a scouting trip a couple of weeks ago. We headed to Acadia, and I was a little surprised that there was quite a bit of snow and ice still in the park. New England got hit pretty bad this winter, and I guess the fact that Connecticut was snow-free led me to think the snow had also melted in Maine.

I was actually quite glad that the snow was still there as it provided me with different looks throughout the park. I have been to Maine quite a bit in the past but never in winter. This photo of the Bubbles reflected on Jordan Pond in Acadia is quite different than the autumnal shot that I took in October with the fall foliage. Regardless of season, this is a great spot to set up and shoot.

Portland Protector - Portland, Maine

May 8, 2015

Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse, Portland, Maine

So this week on the blog and part of next week is going to be "Lighthouse Week". Why? Because I am quite excited about being co-host of a new photo tour that my great friend, Jeff Clow, will be hosting in October. For those of you who don't know Jeff and his wonderful images, he has been running tours out west for quite a number of years. Once you have been on one of his tours, you can't wait to go on another one, as he has a wonderful way with people. In fact, many of his tour guests are repeat customers (I have been on four of his tours in the past two years). I have been telling Jeff that he needs to add an eastern location to his tours, and convinced him that, if he scouted Maine Lighthouses, he would see how "target rich" Maine was. It would be a perfect place to meet his motto of "Stand in front of better things". Suffice to say, he was hooked after a couple of days and we made arrangements for an October tour.

The information about his tour can be found at here at this link. If you have any questions about the main tour or the optional post tour in Acadia National Park, you can contact Jeff or me and we will be happy to help.