Flower Time

Monday I took a day off work and traveled to Longwood Gardens with friends Sara Howell and Karen Rexrode. Longwood is a favorite location for shooting flowers this time of year. I hate to admit it, but I’m seriously out of practice in regard to shooting flowers. I’m planning 1 or 2 more trips to Longwood before spring arrives here in Virginia. Hopefully I can find my groove by then and I’ll post a flower gallery after my final trip.

The shot about is a 6 shot vertical panorama taken with a 15mm lens.

Big Devils Stairs and Big Duke

That is my hiking buddy pictured above. Yesterday we spent a few hours in Shenandoah National Park hiking and doing some location scouting. When I was a Boy Scout we used to hike Big Devils Stairs. Back then we would enter the park from the base of the mountain and hike up the canyon. It was pretty much a rock scramble and hiking up alongside a stream and waterfall.

Entering from the base of the mountain is no longer permitted, it’s rumored that hikers were not respectful of the private property at the base of the mountain and access was denied. I also read somewhere that the trail was damaged a few times due to flooding during heavy rain and it was decided that the trail would be rerouted.

So Duke and I started at the top of the mountain and hiked down to the overlook shown above. The trail stays in the forest until you arrive at the top of the canyon pictured above. Not many photo ops along the way, but we had great time and I grabbed the abstract below on the way out of the park.

Fort Washington

This past weekend friends Alan, Greg, and budding photographer Christopher (he’s 6) went to Fort Washington on the bank of the Potomac River. I had not been there for 20 plus years and was thinking it might make for a good outing. I think we were all pleasantly surprised with the photo opportunities and agreed it was a venue we were willing to revisit.


Click here for a small image gallery

Panoramas

Something changed in the last year. My first thought is that I stopped shooting panoramas. That is not quite true, but it feels that way. I really like shooting panos but not every subject lends itself to this interpretation. I have shot a few panos this year; some worked out while others did not. I have decided that I miss doing panos and need to find a way to do more of them. One of the issues is that I am shooting a lot of HDR (High Dynamic Range) this year. Shooting panos in HDR and assembling the resulting photograph is more complex than shooting straight panos and I have had to overcome some technical issues.

Last weekend I was shooting old cars with friends Tony, Alan, Greg and Ed. Tony was showing us a pano on his iPhone he had shot the previous day. Besides being a really cool shot, I noticed it was in HDR. A few technical questions later and I decided I have give HDR another try.

The Blog photo above was shot about this time last year. It is the interior of an old dairy barn. The shot consists of 12 vertical shots, with 9 exposures for each vertical shot. I shot the scene with a 28mm f2.8 lens. While shot and processed in color, I think the black and white treatment is a better fit. I also use a Really Right Stuff Nodal Plate and Pano Clamp when shooting panos. I know there is some debate about the need for a nodal plate these days. While CS3 and other software packages have become very good at stitching panos, I have found that using a nodal plate gives me consistent results and is worth the time and trouble.

Winter Wonder Land

Last Saturday started out cold, zero degrees to be exact.

Friends Greg Daily, Joyce Harmon, and I hiked White Oak Canyon in Shenandoah National Park. We were in search of ice. Considering that it has been below freezing for the better part of a week, it looked a little doubtful at the start. The creek next to the parking lot showed no sign of freezing, but as we started up the mountain the amount of ice increased with every few feet of elevation. By the time we reached the lower falls the water was about 90 percent frozen and a sight to see. We also lucked out because the cloud cover arrived when we hit the lower falls. We had nice diffused light for the rest of the day.

We worked the lower falls and then slowly started down the mountain. We spent about 5 hours in the great freezing outdoors.

Hopefully the lower temperatures will continue so I can get out and shoot ice again.

Click here for a small image gallery

First Photo of 2009

My friend Greg and I were out doing some scouting near Charles Town, WV on January 1st. Most of the spots did not pan out and we headed for this location in late afternoon. I have previously shot at what I call “Kabletown Ruins” and figured it was worth a revisit since the other locations were not working out.

We drove home along a section of the Shenandoah River at Harpers Ferry and noticed that the edges of the river bank were starting to freeze. Unfortunately, warmer temperatures this past weekend and some pressing personal issues prevented a revisit.