Cairnwood

We went to Cairnwood with Denise Ippolito. If you ever have a chance to see her present a program or go on one of her photo workshops or photo tours I definitely recommend her! She has a lot of energy, creativity, insight, talent and knowledge and is willing to share it with you!

Immediately upon entering the estate I was entranced by the stairs, others rushed off to photograph the rooms upstairs, but I stayed with the stairs for a long while.

This photograph was taken during the holidays with five exposures, perhaps I could have taken seven to get more detail in the highlights, but I do not mind my HDRs with some shadows blocked or some highlights blown out. I just love the way the light reflects off the ceilings and walls. Imagine living here!

Do you like the B&W or color version better? 

Such a different mood between the two...

  

               

Old Bus

Another HDR photograph using Photomatix for processing three exposures. I also applied the vignette using a Lightroom preset.

Linley HDR at the Graffiti bus

This was an awesome shoot with some fantastic models! Roman set up a HDR photo session at the CT trolley museum and I asked if we could bring along some models (love the juxtaposition of the beauty of the models against the gritty HDR trains and such!). HDR with people can be difficult, sometimes you have to adjust the color of the face to avoid that "oopma loompa" look and sometimes the person moves slightly (I was on a tripod, but she moved slightly) so I masked her face back in and viola! Her outfit was perfect, almost like she bought it special for this shoot! Linley was one awesome to work with too!

Old Truck

Photographing old subjects makes for interesting detail. With the recent popularity  of HDR (high dynamic range) photography has made subjects like this even more appealing. Three images taken in camera, +2, 0, -2 and then merged and tone mapped with Photomatix and finished with Topaz.

I tried two versions of this truck, one color and one black and white...

Night Sky

This was my first attempt at the night sky. I took an awesome nighttime workshop with Mark Bowie thru the Adirondack Photography Institute and he led us to a pond and we photographed from 9-12 midnight.

I got lucky and had my camera pointed towards the north star and got the beginnings of some star trails in this 10 minute exposure.

Blue hour before sunrise

This image was taken in the hours before sunrise, the blue hour. The water was so still, the warm colors of the boat house contrasting against the cool colors of the water, the fog and the dock leading to the boat house just seemed perfect to me. I am not a morning person, but finding and capturing scenes like this makes getting up early worthwhile. This was taken on Mirror Lake in Lake Placid.

Nighttime store front

Lake Placid, Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream shop, long exposure, zoomed lens when exposing.

Deer

Fractalius (PC only) is an awesome program! I first heard about it from Denise Ippolito's Blog

This deer picture was very simple, and I cut the feet off, so I decided to create something artistic from it...to me it looks like a deer from a Disney movie, you know where the birds are signing around its head...

Insect, Holding on!

I was supposed to be taking landscape photographs but the sunrise was a bust and the sky was white -- then I happened along this little fellow and loved the way his legs were wrapped around the plant!

Abandoned Barn in the Adirondacks

I have been taking photographs of this Abandoned Barn in the Adirondacks for decades. Everuy time it is different -- it changes all the time: the barn, the field, the lighting, me.

Candles

Fractal Candles. Tripod. Long exposure, post-processed using Fractalius

Lupine and Trees, zoom blur

I zoomed the lens when taking this photograph very early in the morning at Acadia National Park. I especially like the effect on the grass below and the tree on the left.

Oyster catchers

Oyster catchers are very comical and entertaining to watch. Their coloration, their calls and their behaviors make for a wonderful morning. I love the foot up and the small plant in the top photo and the beack open in the second. Gotta get up early for these birds...

Plover

We were asked to judge at the Long Island Photographic Federation. They enticed us with being able to couple the trip with some bird photography! This was taken early in the morning, just waiting by the surf for the birds to venture down. We love all kinds of photographic subjects, but birds are definitely at the top of the list!