Seeing how today I am now in Glen Helen in the middle of the Australia outback I thought an Australian photo would be in order. This image I loved when I saw it. A simple gum tree with its bright white bark set against the red cliffs in Ormiston Gorge.
I have set my blog to automatically post for the next few days as I will be out of touch bu phone and internet. It’s good to get away. You can also follow the workshop I am leading at THE PODAS BLOG.
Sometimes we forget the beauty of Black & White photography. This photograph was shot digitally and the converted to Black & White. I used several steps in Photoshop to give it this etherial look. Hope you enjoy it. It was photographed in a harbor in Seattle. It was a small sailboat at a maritime museum.
For the next several days the blog will be on Auto Pilot as I head into the Australia Outback. I should re-surface with internet connection next week on Monday. So until then enjoy the posting I have prepared.
Australia is one very long flight from Indianapolis. Never the less I made it here. Usually this is Australian summer but today and yesterday it is mid-sixties with rain. So, I hoped to bring you photos from Sydney. That may have to wait. Today’s image is from the Queen’s Shopping Mall. One of the most elegant malls I have ever seen. They serve coffee in glass cups. Where do you see that in America. The place is decked out in Christams decor and looks great. I have a lot to do to prep for the upcoming workshop I am doing here so stay tuned. Maybe tomorrow I will actually have images of Sydney to show you. Don’t forget you can follow the workshop at www.podas.info
Many people go to Las Vegas for the games and a chance win millions. Me, I enjoy the scenery. No matter where you point your camera there is something to take a photo of. So, you will see a lot of Las Vegas photos appearing in this blog. Todays photo is of the roller coaster at New York, NY Hotel. This was a series of three images blended together using HDR. The three exposures consisting of over, normal and under are blended together. While the camera was still the roller coaster was moving, giving a ghostly look. Just a fun shot.
Every year in the spring I set out on a photo trip with around 8 of my very closest photographer friends. It’s quite an ecliptic group and we have a lot of laughs drink a lot of wine eat well and more than anything else photograph a lot. Every year one of the guys is responsible for where we go. It’s not an easy job as this can be a very tough group to please. It was my responsibility this past year and we visited Olympic National Park in the state of Washington. We stayed at three different locations and we had one heck of a good time. Today’s photo was taken off the side of a dirt road someplace near the Hoh Rain Forrest. If you are interested in learning to photograph waterfalls better please read this article by Mark Dubovoy.
Having been to Antarctica three times I have managed to accumulate a massive amount of photos. This region is one of the most beautiful places to visit on the planet. While the voyage there can be quite rough the images are quite beautiful. Today I present you an iceberg. And, I have a ton of beautiful icebergs so this won’t be the last you see of these. I made a decision to work this one in black and white. There is just something about the way this piece of ice just pokes into the sky. Add the amazing sky behind it and you get this image. If you want to visit more of my Antarctica images you can CLICK HERE to be taken to my Antarctica web gallery. Have a great Black Friday.
Happy Thanksgiving Day . . . .
Getting in touch with nature and its natural wonders can be a very enlightening and relaxing experience. And there is probably nothing in nature more breathtaking than a waterfall. One such natural wonder is the Svartifoss (can you say it) waterfall, also known as the black fall. The water falls from a height of about 20 meters (60 feet) and is located in a horseshoe shaped gorge filled with dark basalt columns. Svartifoss waterfall is located in Skaftafell National Park, in the South of Iceland. This waterfall is famous for the dark columns shaped like a hexagon; these basalt columns are what give the fall its name. They were formed from lava that slowly cooled down and crystallized in the process. The bottom of the fall is full of sharp rocks resulting from falling column sections from the back of the fall. The rate that these sections break off is faster than water can wear down the sharp edges that is why the sharp rocks seem to never disappear. The place is also surrounded by blooming wildflowers which gives it a very serene quality.
Look for more Iceland Waterfalls and landscapes as well as a soon to be published gallery on my website.
This is a different image. I really enjoy abandoned and decaying places. Not to far from where I live are a number of train cars set out on a siding just decaying away. This picture was shot inside one of these train cars. The unusual look comes from a technique called HDR – High Dynamic Range imaging. This technique allows the combining of several images of various exposures into one image. It is good to show detail in highlights and shadows in a contrasty scene. A lot of photographers over use this technique and I try to avoid it, but in this case it was perfect. In addition I did an image flip and gave it a whole different look. The geometry of the image and grungy color just make it work. Hope you enjoy it.
As photographers we are all attracted to flowers. And, why not? They are colorful, beautiful and smell good. Part of the attraction for many shooters I believe is the challenge of doing a close up and then seeing the detail in the images. As time goes on you’ll see some more flower photos here. Today though I present a tulip photographed in Holland, Michigan. Every spring Holland opens up the town for the annual tulip festival. There are fields of tulips blooming and hundreds of varieties. This shot was made with a Canon 5dII and a macro lens. I then took it into my iPhone and messed with it using an app called Picture Show. I exported it did a bit more work in PhotoShop and here you have it. Simple and nice.
For some really great images of flowers and nature embodying the human form please visit my friends website Barbara Ventura. Her work is gorgeous.
Iceland is amazing. It’s a small country and island with stunning beauty. It is an island that where the land itself lives and breaths. There are geo-thermal areas, volcanos, glaciers, waterfalls and overwhelming vistas. This past summer I was leader for a Phase One PODAS workshop there and returned from the trip a ton of great images. I’ll be sharing them here as time goes on. Today’s image was shot at Jökulsárlón a Glacier Lagoon formed when the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier began to recede. Icebergs calf off of the glacier and float in this lagoon eventually being washed out to sea. Many of those end up on a black sand beach. More on that in another post. This shot just happened in one of those amazing moments. I love the beam of sunlight and the blue of the icebergs. Hope you enjoy it too. Photographed with a Phase One P65+ and 150mm lens.