I can handle the cold when it’s nice and sunny (because you get nice pictures like these at sunrise):
Canon EOS 7D, EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro
ISO 100
f/3.2
1/400 sec
I can handle the cold when it’s nice and sunny (because you get nice pictures like these at sunrise):
Canon EOS 7D, EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro
ISO 100
f/3.2
1/400 sec
I love how the clouds disperse the sun’s rays late in the afternoon on overcast days:
Canon Powershot G12
ISO 100
f/8
Caught in Salt Lake City airport bar. Where true cowboys still roam (Utah, that is, NOT the airport).
After so many posts of frozen flowers, icy ponds, snowy trees and wind-swept beaches, I decided I HAD to post something sunny and warm. Here’s our beach in the summer – a far cry from the empty and icy beach it is now. Can’t wait for summer!
iphone
ISO 64
f/2.4
1/200 sec
Tomorrow ends my last winter visit to Stowe, VT. Haven’t taken too many pictures lately because I feel like I’ve exhausted the possibilities, and because skiing has taken precedence. But here are a few that I liked from this week:
I wanted to give these boulders the glamour treatment, using HDR and some filters. I shot these on an overcast day on Hammonasset Beach in Connecticut. (Maybe I should call them ‘Boulder Stars’…)
Canon Powershot G12, multiple exposures processed with Nik HDR Efex Pro and Color Efex Pro.
Took this double exposure of my son and a parking meter in Missoula, MT:
Shot with iphone Hipstamatic, lens: John S, film: Ina’s 1969
Hammonasset Beach in Connecticut is covered in these shells. Finding a spot where they take up the entire viewfinder wasn’t difficult. Deciding whether I like the color or b&w version better was tough.
Canon PowerShot G12
ISO 100
f.8
1/100 sec
A quick drive-through of Butte, MT nevertheless yielded some good photo opportunities. This is the historic downtown district, dating back to the late 1800’s when Butte supplied most of the copper produced in the US:
Fresh snow, a setting sun, plus some fiddling with various filters, and voila: a different take on the typical sunset.
These were taken along the Pintler Veterans Memorial Scenic Highway in Montana, connecting Anaconda and Phillipsburg:
Canon Powershot G12
On the way from Bozeman to Missoula, near Phillipsburg, I came across a junk yard full of cars and old mining machinery.
Canon PowerShot G12
Shot these during a quick one-day visit to Bozeman yesterday and today:
This is obviously not a neon sign, but it was such a clear beautiful day that I HAD to include a picture of the panoramic view.
Canon PowerShot G12
I’m off to Montana, and thus took a look again at pictures that I took 2 years ago in Elkhorn, Montana, an abandoned mining town. I finally have the software (Nik Color Efex) to turn somewhat bland snapshots into much more interesting photographs.
I shot these pictures as a storm was developing near Devils Tower in Wyoming. I had to rush to get into a position where the storm clouds and the sunset converged, and made it just in the nick of time:
This is what you see when you approach the National Monument from the south:
Canon EOS 7D
Top: ISO 200, f/11, 1/125 sec, 21mm
Bottom: ISO 200, f/11, 1/80 sec, 90mm
These windmills look pretty indestructible to me, and are about 20 times bigger than an old-fashioned windmill.
I’ve started using Nik Color Efex to enhance some of my photos. This is a good example what that software can do for a mediocre picture (original below):
Canon EOS 7D, EF-S 15-85mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/800 sec
I pass this gazebo every time I walk our dog through the woods of Vermont. Finally I’ve taken a picture of it that I like:
Canon EOS 7D, EF 24-70mm
ISO 100
f/8
1/100 sec
Another shot from the pow wow I attended in Montana, near Little Bighorn Battleground:
Canon EOS 7D, EF 70-200mm
ISO 100
f/9
1/400 sec
B&W adjustment in Nik Silver Efex
We didn’t get as much as snow as CT (32 inches/80cm!), but still got nice fluffy snow that blanketed everything:
I photographed this gentleman at an Indian pow wow near Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana:
Canon EOS 7D, EF 70-200mm
ISO 100
165mm
f/9
1/25 sec
B&W conversion in Nik Silver Efex
Mt. Zion Cemetery in Long Island, New York, overlooked by an industrial plant and flanked by a highway overpass:
Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, shaded by giant chestnut trees:
This color is ubiquitous in Vermont and really stands out, especially in the snow.
iphone Hipstamatic
Summer storm, shot from above during a flight across the New Mexico desert.
iphone
ISO 64
f/2.4
1/24 sec
At -20 degrees at night in Vermont, the windows get nicely frosted. Brrrr! Ice flowers are less common these days, since everyone now has double-paned windows, where these formations rarely show up. These were on a single-paned garage window.
Canon EOS 7D, 100mm f/2.8 Macro Lens
ISO 200
f/2.8
1/125
It’s now so cold that the saltwater is freezing, leaving interesting ice formations on the beach at low tide.
Canon EOS 7D, 28-70mm
HDR
With very little to see in winter, my attention turns to the really small things on the beach:
iphone Hipstamatic
lens: Americana
film: Pistil
Caught while walking through New York, where nobody walks slow enough to get a shot that’s sharply focused. That’s New York: you blink and you miss it.
iphone Hipstamatic
lens: John S.
film: Ina’s 1969
Visions of Vermont snow are always on my mind these days:
iphone Hipstamatic
lens: Tinto 1884
film: Claunch 72 Monochrome
Caught this next to St. John’s Cathedral in New York.
iphone Hipstamatic
lens: John S
film: Ina’s 1969
Vermont forest in winter – even now there are lots of colors in the forest.
This one was a double exposure experiment:
iphone Hipstamatic
lens: Helga Viking
film: Kodot XGrizzled
I didn’t taste it, but it looked exquisite to me:
Canon EOS 7D, EF 24-70mm
ISO 100
50mm
f/2.8
1/800 sec
Spotted this lovely barn on a walk through the snowy forest in Vermont:
Canon EOS 7D
ISO 200
f/7.1
HDR
These geese were making a few passes over the field behind our house during sunrise, and then they disappeared beyond the horizon. Hope they found a warm place to set down.
iphone Hipstamatic, Jane lens, Ina’s 1969
From an earlier vacation to Vermont – Glen Moss Falls near Stowe.
Canon Powershot G12
ISO 100
f/8
1.0 sec
Today my blog crossed the threshold of 10,000 all-time views. Thanks to everyone for your comments, visits, and encouragement over the last 2 years!
Now on with the regular post: A visit to the local antique store is always a source for great macro photography, even when I just have my iphone with me. Here’s what I found when strolled through there last week:
All Shots taken with iPhone Hipstamatic
This was caught one late afternoon from my window in Manhattan – looking towards New Jersey, just across the Hudson River. The moon is setting over Columbia Terraces in Weehawken, NJ.
Canon EOS 7D, EF70-200mm f/2.8L
ISO 100
f/11
2 sec
The frosted forests of Vermont would have made the perfect setting for the ice princess in the Chronicles of Narnia.
All photos taken with iPhone Hipstamatic
…otherwise he would have dropped his universe right on top of me (I know, bad pun. And I haven’t even read the book). This is a sculpture in front of Rockefeller Center in New York City.
Canon EOS 7D, 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5
ISO 400
f/4.5
.3 sec
I think that cropping some pictures of large vistas focuses the eye on the essential part of the picture – too much sky and things tend to get lost. Here are some recent pictures where I tried that approach: